Currently in Closed Beta Stage - A major update recently dropped when this article was being written so some points may have been addressed or changed.
Heros of Neverwinter is an Facebook RPG and the first one to date that has felt like such. It plays like a true RPG mixing both short micro stories/plots and strategic 3D gameplay. Though I may not agree with the direction Wizards of the Coast took pen and paper Dungeons and Dragons with 4th edition, it certainly lends itself well to a game like this and gives me a way to return to the D&D fold.
Many of you may know that, while I am a huge fan of RPGs and strategy games, I am not impressed… okay I downright dislike Wizards of the Coast’s latest edition of Dungeons and Dragons, 4th edition (I have my opinions but this article is not about that). My feelings are so strong that I have shied away from everything WotC since purchasing and reading the first 4e core books. However, this year at Gen Con the true geek in me just could not avoid their booth and I decided I would be willing to hear what they had to offer. One of those offerings was a Facebook game based in their Forgotten Realms campaign world called Heroes of Neverwinter. At the booth I got a short demo of the game and in just a few minutes I was quoted as saying “This will be the game that gets me fired at work”. Needless to say I was excited to get my hands on it and play.
What Heroes of Neverwinter Does Right
Now I have enjoyed many Facebook games since joining the social network several years ago and I will admit that I joined most of them based on flashy artwork and promises of a true RPG or fantasy adventure experience. Unfortunately, while most of them are fun in the first few hours, some, days, they quickly grow to tedium and none of them have truly produced a good RPG or fantasy experience. That experience is one that allows me to generate a customizable character, experience story driven adventures, find loot, and advance my character with each swing of my sword or cast of a spell. Some came close, offering pieces of the experience but most decisions boiled down to which ‘button’ do I click and poof, assuming you had enough (insert random time lapsed point generation system) the adventure was complete.
