3. Neverwinter
The Original: I love RPGs. I love them. Not in the way someone loves their brother, and not in the way you might love to play baseball. No, I love RPGs in a way that is only legal in
Japan or
Germany. I want to marry them. The only question has ever been, "which one". I've never answered that question, but I have brought it down to two options: Fallout 2 or Neverwinter Nights 2. Neverwinter Nights 2 and it's expansions, Mask of the Betrayer and Storm of Zehir, were absolutely and unmistakably masterpieces of videogame fiction and design. Designed by Obsidian as a sequel to the massively successful Neverwinter Nights, NW2 took the Dungeons & Dragons based RPGs out of the sprites, and into the world of 3D. This squad-tactics RPG was praised as being one of the most involved games available on the market, with a story that spanned several continents (and hell), unparalleled voice acting, a soundtrack for the ages, intelligently designed and intuitive strategic combat, a slew of classes to choose from, a base building and resource collection mode, and pretty much everything else that could be asked for in an RPG
. So Why Did They Wait? To put it bluntly, Obsidian has been busy with other projects, and Wizards of the Sword Coast (the owners of the "Dungeons & Dragons" property) haven't been too keen on putting out RPGs in a market that (though once dominated by them) is increasingly difficult to compete in. In fact, the only attempt made by WotSC to put out a D&D based game was the 2011 waste of DVDs known as Dungeons & Dragons: Daggerdale, which was developed by Bedlam Games. you'll notice I didn't add a hyperlink. That's because if you want to look up that piece of trash, you'll have to do it yourself, because I won't get involved in that.
It's Finally Here: Finally, the patience of nerd everywhere will be rewarded. In the 4th quarter of 2012, Cryptic Studios, the company that made one of the only MMOs out there to rival WoW, City of Heroes, plans on releasing Neverwinter the MMORPG. Cryptic Studios and Perfect World, a veteran MMO developer and new owner of Cryptic, have not been quiet about their upcoming game, and the change it means for D&D series from Co-Op to full scale MMO. The studio has released
multiple trailers,
viral marketing campaigns, and if
released gameplay footage is any indicator, we're looking at an experience that will be both unique enough to stand out, and appealing enough to take a large number of MMO fans from their current games. Cryptic isn't being quiet about its intentions, either. They want the whole world to know that no shortcuts have been taken in staying absolutely faithful to an engaging and rich lore that surrounds the D&D universe. And they have been equally as vocal about the fact that Neverwinter is going F2P right out of the gate. Now awkward period of trying to figure out if it's worth the money. No slow trickle of gamers joining. Neverwinter is going to be full the day it drops, because Cryptic and Perfect World are smart enough to know how MMOs that aren't World of Warcraft work.