Playability:4(2)
If you can look past and get around the steep uphill difficulty curve, you can find an assortment of quests to get into, enough monsters to (literally) break your blade on and they'll still keep coming, a crafting system of sorts, and some active rp. Rounded out about as nicely as one of those nifty shields that has that huge bloody spike sticking out of it for ya to bludgeon someone with, case being it's literally going to be a flood of nastie baddies with sharp pointy teeth and weapons. Got to knock down the subscore, cause, ya-know, running is kinda an important thing? Unless you are promoting that dying is a good thing for some reason of some matter. Hey on the bright side we at least get Spock and Mrs. Doubtfire to entertain us with jokes!
Survivialbility:2
Phshaw, welp if anything at least there isnt much of a debate on doing the score, server is downright brutal and can probably downgrade the rating to be nearly impossible if you are an actual new player to Neverwinter. At least for the standard Farmer John's you got to make your way to the craddle of filth of a haven that is usually humanity while everyone else gets to start in a (relatively) safer area, wait a minute they are plagarising real life! Steep uphill battle right from the start, if you manage to team up with some folks you can do well since there are higher level players that prove it's possible to advance, I definitely suggest classes that aren't equipment dependent. Heavily needing a rework to the combat system, really gonna need some explanation for why you can't transition in combat. Since. Well. Ya know? Running away is usually something you do when you have no health left, no spells or supplies, and something is trying to eat you right? Right? Uhhhhhhhhh. So anyway, doing a 2 since i'm feeling nice and any character ending stuff isn't that easy to hit and someone will bail you out usually.
DM Experiences: 4 (2)
Cool jamming with the pointdexter, or something like that, ain't too much of a presence so that's what up with the lower result score, but when they are around they are good company and can help you out, some free stuff or events to get you started or on track after a good thorough squashing under a dragon's arse. Definitely need running, ya know that thing you do when you're about die an all, usually. Unless you are a middle eastern guy trying to get into that Minecraft audition by dressing up in a green costume to hide all the explosives. Wait maybe onto something there.
Player Experiences:4
Solid ground with the peeps that stuck around to get ya settled in, good softener for those half-dozen kicks to the head you'll take from trying to get adjusted to the combat difficulties, and you know, not being able to run and all. But good people are good people, just need more of em, server could use a handful more in general but hey, A for effort?
Advancement:2
Well leveling and gearing up is an accomplishment in itself, nothing much around that's all sparkley and magicay so good builds are a must it appears. Getting to any measureable level is something worth applause and possibly worship, and if you ever manage to get some of those sparkle filled magic items you can ascend to god hood! Unless it's a belt of gender change, and then if you are a guy originally, you are then quite literally going to have a KingKongZilla introducing some Smokey Cajun Summer Sausage into the Pie Hole That Shouldn't Be Having Pie. The case is most likely the same for those that are gals originally. I rather hope for boots. That are enchanted with that thing ya do with yo legs, you know? It might start with an 'R', anyone dig?
General Experience: 3
If you can look past the combat itself you got some cool digs to fool around with, some sort of destiny system that could possibly make Russian Roulette look enjoyable. Or you can get turned into a lich and audition for the next children's play so you can show them those neat tricks you can do. There's some crafting, lotta monsters to beat on, some mo' monsters to beat on, a pear tree filled with stirges, and a dire need of dwarves since they are the only race capable of crafting weapons or armor. And possibly the need for good running boots for all the good they'll do when you smack into an invisble wall when a rat starts gnawing at your armored boot unable to hurt you or kill you, but however is enough to stop you from running into town for whatever god knows reason while the pack of monsters come by behind it to brutally introduce you to non-germanic sausagefestival.
Zombie Rating: Faiz!
Heyyy! Gheyyy! Wheyyyy! There be zombies in abundance lurking, however the focus isn't on them! But there's plenty to be a-killing and a-killing you, so why don't we a-killa wii? Well just don't expect them to be around every corner but there's plenty of undead lurking in wait for your brains and tonsils! Only here can you enjoy the absolute hardcore mode that you take for granted in every other zombie game: the freedom to run away crying and screaming like the little girly man you are when a dozen or more start to corner you at an exit, since magically that goblin that's sniping you with a **** chance of hitting is making so it you can't run. Since you know, obviously you can't outrun a goblin that's way up on a hill with a bow and can't hit the backside of colossal red dragon, and zombies are just going to catch up to your running while they are shambling and stumbling over everything. Why do I get the sensation of that shouting english armored knight that is charging at a french castle from the other end of a field for a series of a half dozen cut-aways of the camera to show the guards just staring and wondering what shall happen next.
Novella!
Now with less Nutella.
Going to more than likely be much significantly shorter than the last I have meticously written out while adhereing to the fine and well placed standards that society has gifted most of with by cramming fine literature down our throats during a period of the day that most of us would much rather be drinking. Or otherwise known as English class. I do most of my best reading on the royal throne that Elvis passed away on however. So without further adieu or fideu;
Crushing death and grief... Soaked with blood of the-
Wait that's not the right script. So anyway, there'll be plenty of blood and tears from players frustrated with the combat system, and that the scripting system seems to think every single fight is a boss battle in a Final Fantasy game, minus the awesome battle music that usually accompanies them. FUCKYOUKEFKA!
Anyway, after thee random outlandish speech of thine overseas kinsmen, a quite difficult matter to word the matter of yon fleeing. Perhaps the stones in the boots are too sharp, mayhaps the sweat is blinding thee eyes, or some matter of unspeakable horror of chtulutingy is preventing escape from a grimly demise. Maybe the matter could be enlightened on by the parties and mastermind behind such designs, for now however all must be left to wonder the very important question: If the meaning if life is indeed 42, then what is death? Perhaps it is 69 when you have a herpes infested prostitute suffering from acute diaherraitis that you picked up during a wild night on the Strip and they have just eaten the Mole Rat suprise casserole. Ahh, the life styles of the rich and famous.
Aside from the not so obvious problems that arised, the server has some new takes on an apocalypse backround if you read into it, even better is that instead of -just- zombies trying to eat you it's now become nearly everything trying to eat you. Awesome new take on an ole favorite yeah? Read further in and you can maybe find the cause that brought about whatever cataclysm ended the world in this rendition, lots of cool lore and even better that every race has their own take and view on the aforementioned event.
Crafting system is somewhat of a misnomer, or at least seemed that way. Nothing could be outright crafted from scratch as far as I could tell, everything had to be found and then copy-crafted by the appropriate race that has that particular craft skill. Can't say it's horrible outright since it is a different take, however with the system as difficult as it is to get those special magic items, who's going to want to risk them just so someone else can have that one-of-a-kind sword and be 1/2 as special or reduced back into the common herd if the attempt fails. Everything from basic necessities to the jaw-dropping awesomeness of some forgotten and found relic has to be created this way and only by certain races, with elves having the full deck to work with compared to the other lesser races. 'Cause you know, humans and dwarves just can't be as clean as an elven arse.
Questing is an iffy, the difficulty often shoots up through the roof with the bosses having an extremely unfair advantage. How bad? Well you can just memorize all the moves you need to do in a certain order for Dark Souls 2, eventually. In Neverwinter and it's aging system, you are at the mercy of dice rolls, you get really shitty luck you ain't getting anywhere no matter how long you try. So we end up with boss creatures that have absurd amounts of HP, can summon underlings to assist in the fight, and also to top it off most seem to have an at will usable power which can vary. Sometimes it won't be quite so awful, other times you'll get a version that uses Searing Light, Fireball, random death magic, or other problematic spells that can ruin your day. Sure you can think your way around this... Somehow? Lets take a look closer perhaps, so we got a orc boss right? Probably going to be having some magic gear on em, and probably a fighter or barbarian backround. Lets consider that you are probably not going to have any of that magic stuff, and you just had to fight to get to this area so your supplies are more than likely going to be utter ****. Your spells are going to be utter **** unless you somehow saved them all. If you did. So the big nastie also get bonus hp, well with having a good sum of levels that'll give them a healthy AB, vs whatever armor you managed to scrounge up which probably isn't going to be more than chainmail if you saved for a while. So that's maybe a what- 15-18 ac if you have dexterity bonus, then another 1 to 3 for a shield if you are lucky. 21 ac max? If something has a 10 bonus to hit you that monster will be hitting you more than half the time at least, and you're going to have to heal while it gets free attacks, along with it's minions that will be giving it a flanking bonus on ya.
So adding to the picture that the big nastie gets some special power that it can use at will? Maybe just a tad overkill? You can't -dodge- these attacks since it's magic and left to a dice roll unlike Dark Souls where you have a chance, horrendously large hp bank is cool, but when you're left with so little available to actually do? If this boss has barbarian levels or monk levels you can't outrun it, god forbid "Running Away" since that is for some reason outlawed when you start getting your ass handed to you. The best you can hope for is having a group perhaps, but even then if you are a caster you are in the case of having the cleric looking to you and saying "The Lord tells me he can get me out of this mess. But he's pretty sure, you're fucked." Possibly having 4 hp per a level, so maybe around 16-24, and searing light does how much damage? Right.
Loot, somewhat useless in the sense that only garbage shows up until you can survive the further away areas, however to do the further away areas you need better gear, however there is no better gear sold in most stores and must be found, but we must remember that good and magical gear and only be found, so then we must consider- That guy Tex is really a robot, and you're his lover. So that makes you; a gay robot. Aha, problem solved, it was a division by zero subroutine in the flux capacitor!
Despite the shortfalls, the server is rather solidly done and made, there is actually quite a number of things to do, places to explore and treasure to find. The scripts are well put together, and when there is a mistake or hiccup the management is usually on top of it within the next couple of days depending on when the incident is reported and made known to them. A good hardy seeming bunch for the administration, somewhat hard to get in touch with but that's due to real life factors, rather than them pulling an invisibility stunt or outright ignoring the playerbase, which does put them above and beyond at least a number of servers which is where it counts overall. But some work could be done in a few areas for improvement, and I believe if progress is made in some form in those locations that the server would have a much more positive experience.
All in all if you're feeling brave, want an old game style challenge experience similar to doing the Battletoads hover bike level, or have patience to spare, give a jump in onto the server. From what I saw the server would only get better, and also noticeably more easier with the more friends or servermates to watch your back.
And for the love of god and all that is holy- ret me run away screaming rike rittle chinese gurl from monstah!
