No, that's not a new character. This is Neverwinter, not City of Heroes.
There's a sequence early on in Vankrakdoom - the final zone of Undermountain - where our hero is sent to infiltrate an enemy cult. The disguise utilised for this is undoubtedly effective, changing the height, build, race and gender of my character, and the funny thing is that it's not a magical disguise. In a fantasy setting like this it's hardly difficult to explain anything away with magic, but this quest makes a point of emphasising that I just need to collect the clothes of the cultists to get away with the deception. Clearly it's so easy for a female Drow to pass as a male human that it's not even worth mentioning, just so long as she's wearing the right cloak.
Implausible impersonations aside, Vanrakdoom is the best of the Undermountain zones. The infiltration sequence did hint at a retread of Terminus when the cult leader started handing out quests, but it's much better handled here, with an opportunity taken to subvert the orders, and this time my walk on the dark side was over quite quickly.
The zone feels bigger than the others of Undermountain, and the layout is less linear than most of the game's levelling zones. There's a couple of grand architectural flourishes - one of which is also the scene of the final instance - and some nice use of phasing to move the story along. Best of all there's a genuine sense of danger, because with mobs at level 79 and 80 the fights are a challenge for the first time in a long while.
The importance of this can't be understated. Neverwinter doesn't have strong enough storytelling for that to pick up the slack if the moment to moment gameplay isn't up to scratch - unlike Secret World Legends or Star Wars: The Old Republic. Similarly it doesn't have the atmosphere of Lord of the Rings Online or, in a way, Dungeons & Dragons Online. What it does have is a profusion of ways to add incrementally to a character's power, but if that character is already running on godmode most of the time already it does reduce the impetus to do so. This game needs good, challenging combat, and in Vanrakdoom it finally starts to deliver on that again.
Rather a lot of it too. The zone has extremely high mob density, and unlike most zones in the game there are few clear paths from one area to another. The only time I've travelled through Vanrakdoom without constant fighting has been when I've been following in the wake of another player who has already killed everything in their path. That's something that can be tiresome in some other MMOs - SWTOR come to mind - but it works here, in this game. At least it does in this zone.
Comments
Post a Comment