Opinions--Heroes of Neverwinter FB game

I was lucky enough to get a beta key for the Heroes of Neverwinter FB game, (thanks ENWorld!) and I've been playing for the past few days--long enough to have a few strong opinions about the game. Since I didn't see any threads concerning the game, I thought I'd start one.

If you're also playing the game and would like to share your thoughts, please do! And if you're not currently playing, and want to experience the game with fresh eyes, unaware of other people's opinions of the game, please avoid this thread!

Thanks! I'll post my thoughts below.

I saw this game demo'd at San Diego ComiCon and was super excited for it. It's probably the most excited I've been for a D&D game since Neverwinter Nights. It looked like a solid game, with a good D&D, specifically 4e, feel. You could pick it up whenever, play through a few dungeons with friends and be done.

Now I don't have a beta key, though I have been keeping track of the updates and comments on it. And I am quite saddened and unimpressed by the recent changes. I understand its still in its beta phase, but the inability to fix serious errors really hampers the ability for testers to, y'know, actually test the game. I'm talking about how all attacks will always hit, most of the time critting and dealing max damage. Monsters also always win initiative, meaning the party is hit for tons of damage before they can even act.

Another issue that hasn't been addressed is that fighters are near useless. With the "Always hit" bug, their high AC is voided, and there are no mechanics for OAs or Marking in the game, making their entire role useless.

There's also the problem that hiring recruits to go into dungeons often costs more gold than the dungeon rewards, meaning you're forced to use friends' characters for partying, bringing up the #1 problem...

... There are 6-hour cooldowns on using friends to do a dungeon. This limits people to playing MAYBE once per day if they're casual players who don't want to add a bunch of strangers on facebook to play a game. For a computer game version of a social RPG, built on a social networking site, the devs are REALLY doing a lot to make this game absolutely not social at all (that doesn't even include the energy limits on adventuring).

Again, just my opinions as an outside observer. I originally had high hopes and thought it would be an awesome game. I'm reserving final judgement for when its released, but I'm wary.

I got into the beta a little bit ago. Up until last Friday's update, I was really digging the game.

It uses simplied 4E rules, and you basically make a character, recruit three additional party members and go on dungeon crawls. They are simple, straightforward, but pretty fun for a little flash game.

There are four races, Human, Dragonborn, halfling, and Eladrin. Four classes, Fighter, Rogue, Wizard, and Cleric.

It's a fun little game, and I think it's pretty neat. When you get to level 10 with one character, you can build your own dungeons and have other people run through them.

Now, for the problems. Last Friday's update basically ruined the game (for the most part). When you build your four person party to go on a dungeon run, you either, bring your facebook friend's characters, or you pay gold to recruit random people's characters from the inn. In Friday's update, they added a HOURS LONG cooldown timer on bringing your friend's characters. You now have to wait, 4 to 12 hours before you can use that recruited character again. Also, paying gold for random people, is REALLY expensive. At level 7, it costs about 30 gold to recruit a random stranger. So, it's 90 gold to run a dungeon with all randoms. In the dungeon, if you do well, you might make, 40-50 gold, IF LUCKY.

So now you either need a boatload of friends all playing, or you are really limited in how long you can play.

The second problem is a bugged, but it's really ruining the game. Since Friday, every attack is ALWAYS hitting, or max damage. If you lose initiative, your party will get slaughtered. Especially the Corruption Corpses which blow up on death and hit everyone in the room for 30 damage. Ouch.

However, the light. There has been a MASSIVE outpouring of negative feedback on the game's forums. The developers have acknowledged that feedback, and are promising that changes/fixes/updates are in the works right now, and we should be seeing them shortly.

I think we'll see the game switch back to being fun again before the beta is up.

Also, keep in mind, this is a facebook game. There are some attempts to monetize the game. You can use astral diamonds to buy things. Not enough gold, just use a few astral diamonds and you can buy it. Now, astral diamonds are pretty rare and hard to come buy. You start with 10, and you can pick up new ones in some treasure chests, by completing achievements, etc. However, you can also use real money to buy them.

So, there is that. You can also replenish energy with astral diamonds, remove cooldowns, buy gear, buy magic runes, and buy monster packs in the dungeon builder with astral diamonds. So, there is always the threat that the free game ends up costing a bunch of money through micro payments.

However, it is a pretty neat game, and really fun for just a casual hack and slash combat only dungeon crawl.

Also, if you have a friend (or random stranger) bring one of your characters on a dungeon run, you can watch. By going into the spectator mode, you can watch your friend play through a dungeon. You also have some buffs that you can grant while watching, as well as chat to them. It's a pretty neat feature.

It looks just like Dragon Age Legends, minus the castle-building stuff in DA:L. Is that accurate?

Whizbang Dustyboots said:

It looks just like Dragon Age Legends, minus the castle-building stuff in DA:L. Is that accurate?

Click to expand...

The battle system in DA:L is standard turn based. HoN plays a lot more like Final Fantasy Tactics, or Fire Emblem. You move individual party members on a grid, attack and whatnot all based (loosely) on the 4e framework.

To be clear, these are initial reactions--its a beta, and I've only played the game for a few days--but here goes:

Pros
- Solid graphics. (Anyone know if Mike Krahulik did the opening splash page?)
- Cool sound effects and music.
- Option to customize you character at generation
- Intelligent AI for both monsters and computer controlled allies, and you have the choice to control allies yourself, if you wish.
- Though I've only seen a few quests (more on that below) there appears to be quite a few of them spread out around Neverwinter and the surrounding area.
- Taking into consideration the type of game it is, there's a pretty good selection of armor, weapons and items to be acquired.
- Traps!

Cons
- Limited selection of powers--basically your lvl 1 powers are picked for you at chargen, and then you can choose one of two as you level up. (Wondering if there's a way to swap powers as you level, as well--if so, I haven't found it yet.)
- Very little treasure awarded.
- Boring combats because every single attack hits. Every time. So if you get outnumbered by the enemy, forget fighting your way out. On a related note, I haven't found a way to flee a combat yet.
- Quests are all exactly the same format, at least at low levels--a series of connected locations with monsters waiting in each location. And maybe a chest. Kill the monsters, take the stuff, go to next location. Rinse, repeat. A couple puzzles here and there would be a welcome addition.
- Speaking of quests--the Energy system is bothersome. Basically, you need a certain amount of energy to attempt a quest--no energy, no fun for you! Once used, energy replenishes over time, so you have to wait between quests, (which maybe makes sense for a game on FB, assuming your typical player will log on, make a few posts, play a little, and then log off for hours). You also have the option to pay 20 bucks for unlimited energy, but I'd prefer if questing was free, but maybe other quests could be unlocked for a price, or cool weapons/armor/items could be purchased, to give the purchaser a bit of an edge in the quests.
- And the thing I like least about the game is probably the thing that makes it a genius idea--The Astral diamond system. I know casual games that are free to play, but have features that can be bought to add complexity, customization and...well...fun, are the next wave in gaming. But with the treasure (items and gold) being so rare, and because it costs a lot of gold (for hirelings, healing, etc) just to go on a quest, the game feels like its designed to be much less fun if you're playing for free, instead of fun for free, and really really fun for cash, if that makes sense. You do get bonus gold each day you log on, so that will pay off over time, but right now, at low levels, not so much, so I'm doing a lot of logging on, getting my daily bonus 8 or 10 gold, and then logging off until I have enough to actually do something. I don't really have to wait to grind out the gold, though, because Astral diamonds can be used to purchase anything in the game. You start the game with 10, and you can find more (a few at a time), or purchase them (100 bucks for 1200), which will keep you swimming in consumables and items for quite some time...but 100 bucks to play a game on FB? Not for me.

So, all that being said, I'm enjoying the game for now, and looking forward to seeing more of the world. It'll be interesting so see, though, if the free features will keep me interested for very long.

I wish they would do a full up turn based dnd video game instead of a Facebook game. I hope this game is popular enough to get some investment in a game like Pool of Radiance. That would be fantastic.

Maybe it's just me, but I get a buttload of lag with it whenever I try to run it.

I'll give it "better than most Facebook games", but that's about it; it certainly doesn't give me anything like a satisfying gaming experience.

I'm still disappointed I didn't get a key. I saw a ton of people who didn't use the right meter scheme for a haiku who were ahead of me and at post #113, I would have expected I would end up w/one w/that many problematic posts ahead of me