Undermountain, seen through the eyes of my companion
So far I'm not sure what to make of Undermountain. It has a good opening, as the campaigns usually do, but after that it diverges from the model of late game content that Neverwinter has followed for a long time now, and it feels like a step backward.
Most of this game's post-launch content has followed the same model - a short and punchy introductory sequence leading into daily/weekly content in one or more tightly designed zones. Progression through the campaign was driven by campaign currencies earned in that daily/weekly content, and how exactly it was earned and spent was changed up from one campaign to the next so that each was its own unique experience.
In contrast, Undermountain harkens back to the last time the level cap was increased - Elemental Evil - in that campaign progression requires nothing more than completing the linear questlines that lead through the new zones. It's not bad in itself - the zone design so far is fair to good and there's some fun moments in the story - it just feels overly simplistic, as well as being weirdly slow paced compared to the non-stop action of a daily run in a zone like the Dread Ring.
This is levelling content, of course, rather than an endgame zone. At least it is in theory. I was level 74 by the time I entered Undermountain - and I didn't delay that much - and now, at level 77, I'm 5 levels up on the mobs I'm facing. That level difference isn't as significant in this game as it is in others - at least not here in Undermountain - but I'm still left wondering why Cryptic decided to raise the level cap in the first place.
It's not like they do it often - Elemental Evil was back in 2015 - and XP in this game is gained too fast, and from too many sources, for the new levelling period to have much weight to it. I'll be level 80 within a few hours, likely long before I'm through the new zones, so the levels in between now and then don't feel like they actually matter much, if at all.
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