Neverwinter is now live on PS4, free to play! I've been really enjoying my time with it, I think it handles really well on a controller and the performance on the PS4 has been more then acceptable.

We have a PS4 community for the game active. If you would like to join, search for "V-Bomb Smash".

You can also add me on PSN, username Takayamasama, if you'd like!

Update: V-Bomb Smash the guild is now active! We now have our very own guild Stronghold!! Let's work together to build it up and make it a castle worthy of our Barbarian Deity.

For anyone wishing to join the guild, just search for V-Bomb Smash under the guild search option, and it should show a list of everyone online. Everyone has invite privileges, so just send a tell to one of us and we will get you and anyone else who might wanna join in!

I'll check it out tomorrow and let you know. I've never played an MMORPG before, so this might be a good place to start. I definitely enjoy co-op and loot games (Borderlands 2 is probably my favorite game of the last generation), so this could end up being a lot of fun.

It's quite easy to start a PS4 community though, so if there's enough interest, you absolutely should do that.

For anyone that's been playing this over the years on PC, did they ever fix PvE after everything got broken with Module 6? I remember they raised the level cap while simultaneously nerfing many of the classes making soloing incredibly difficult if you weren't geared to the teeth already. I immediately bounced off after that mess since the devs seemed like they didn't really care if they pushed away solo and casual players but I'd be interested in jumping back in if that's since been sorted out.

Also did they ever re-work any of the boss fights for dungeons or are they mostly still just a ton of AoE spam with constant waves of add spawns?

@takayamasama:

Just a suggestion, but you might want to rename the thread to include the fact that it's available now, and that it's a free-to-play MMORPG. The name of the game might be good too, since the sub-forum titles aren't as noticeable. Still looking forward to trying the game myself--I'm downloading now--but I've read the framerate is much better than the Xbox One version. That's a good thing, as apparently it was pretty bad before.

I was planning on playing a little bit of it, at least, to see what it was like.

@spaceinsomniac: Updated the title a bit to reflect the game being live now.

Still really enjoying it myself. I'm in some random guild in order to do dailies, but I'm keeping all the stronghold turn ins for if we do make a Giant Bomb guild, to help boost that.

I shudder to think what the Xbox one frame rate in towns was like. Though since the official F2P patch and maintenance today, frame rates in towns have been better then during head start.

This guild got a name or just giant bomb?

I haven't played yet but will give it a try once I get time. I'm always all for joining up cause it usually making leveling easier.

Need playstation plus?

In addition to much worse frame-rate drops in the main city, combat areas in the Xbox One version also saw some unfortunate frame rate issues. Here's IGN's review of the Xbox One version, which will give you an idea of how much things have improved:

I don't think it's a guild yet, just checking to see if there's interest. I still have yet to play the game, so I'm personally undecided for now.

Nope. Like most (all?) free-to-play games on PS4, a Plus subscription is not required to play online.

I'll give it a shot since I love dnd.

I'd maybe hold off on dumping a lot into stronghold stuff if you do make a guild. The GB guilds tend to die out very quickly. The elder scrolls one was dead after a few weeks.

If you do make one I'd jump in, but I'm only level 40ish.

So we need 5 people level 15+ and all in the same instance of the main city. If we get that we can form the guild and go from there with anyone who might seem interested. If we can't get 5 people on at the same time then I suppose that answers that!

As far as name goes, I think something relating to both Giant Bomb and DnD is in order.

V-Bomb Smash!

Personally, I think you should start with a community, and then perhaps that can lead to a guild once people have spent more time with the game. I'd definitely join a Neverwinter PS4 community. You should make one. If you do make a community that enough people join, you can set up a scheduled event to create the guild. You'll be able to see who signs up for the event, and how many people are scheduled to join.

As for the game, I'm really enjoying it from what I've played so far. The combat reminds me a lot of Dragon Age: Inquisition. It's not quite up to that level of quality, but DA:I isn't an MMO, either.

How does the game work with a group of players of various levels? If you're level 25, and I'm level 7, are you just killing everything in my game in one hit and getting level 7 loot for your trouble? How good is this game about allowing players of various levels to group together and still benefit in the way of loot?

Oh yeah, and I've never played D&D, so can you explain the reference to V-Bomb Smash?

@spaceinsomniac:

Also, I second doing the community first. I've also never done anything DnD related before this (though I had always wanted to play the NWN games), but I do like what little I've played of this. It would be really nice to play with duders instead of randos.

@spaceinsomniac: I haven't messed with the PS4 community stuff, so this seems like a good enough reason! I'll work on setting one up then reflect that in the original post.

As far as difference in levels, I'm not 100% sure but I think it level syncs you to the zone's level. There have been some areas I have gone back to for daily events and it always throws me down to what that zones level range was while leveling there.

Suggested this game to a friend, and just spent a few hours playing. As I figured, it's a good deal more fun when you're not alone. Also joined the community. Currently a level 12 trickster rogue.

This game is exactly what I was looking for to keep me busy until the Holiday release season, AND I can even play it with a couple of friends of mine who have currently let their PS Plus accounts lapse.

What type of MMO is this? What other MMO would you most compare it to?

I would say it's more a combat-focused MMO, rather than something where you just walk up to an enemy and depend on your stats to win the battle as you mash the attack button. There might be some of that with the weaker enemies and tankier classes, but for the most part, you still need to respond to the action. It's pretty easy so far, but I've only just reached level 15, so I wouldn't want to judge the game's overall difficulty.

No idea what MMO I'd compare it to, as this is the first I've ever played. As far as another RPG goes, however, the combat reminds me of Dragon Age: Inquisition. If you'd like to take a look for yourself, here's a part very early in the game where you first encounter enemies that won't just stand there and let you hit them. Combat was already kind of fun when I was at this point in the game, but got a lot better as I unlocked more powers.

@takayamasama:

So yes, I've joined the PS4 community, and I'm now at least level 15. If we get some more people in the same position, I'll be happy to help you start that guild.

@frodobaggins: Tough question, I've played a lot of MMO's but most of them are very "action bar stat" MMOs.

This one is still your normal mix of gear + stats, but there seems to be a lot more movement during combat and it feels more "action-y" even though I'm sure on a base level it's the same amount of stat + skill + dice rolls. Maybe it's my class type (Chaos Warlock) but It almost feels like it has more in common with Diablo in terms of combat and loot drops.

It definitely feels a bit unique, which right now in the current stale MMO scene, is nice. This plus FF14 are my two MMOs atm and they both cover a lot of nice different areas.

I'm currently soloing a Guardian Fighter at lvl 25, so far the game has been a breeze. I feel like I dish out enough damage to make fights short and my health/regen/lifesteal is high enough to where I more or less never use potions. I have up to this point been waiting for the other (free to play) shoe to drop, but from what I've read the climb up to 60 isn't really difficult and most of the rest of the game opens up past that point and that's where your stats, skills and gear factor in a lot more heavily. Assuming random posts on the internet is to be trusted.

As @takayamasama mentioned, I too get a real Diablo vibe from the whole game between the action feel of the combat to the loot (along with their sockets and upgradable gems, runes, etc.). In some way I feel like my Guardian Fighter is like playing a Barbarian in Diablo with a lot of similar skills.

So far I feel like it might be the most casual friendly MMO I've played. There's depth there to be sure, but general leveling and such is pretty generous. I suppose the one thing the free to play model kills me with is storage space.

I'm in. just got to get to level 15

How viable is this game for someone not willing to spend any money on it? Are you guys buying coins or whatever?

@citizencoffeecake: I usually don't decide if I am gonna put some money in these games until I hit max level and see what end game is like, so nothing spent yet outside the 20 bucks I spent to play during the headstart, and it seems super playable. From what I gather reading end game people talk about stuff, it remains that was if you don't mind some grind. Also right now they are giving away a cool free tiger mount thing in game at the Reward Redeemer NPC so we all get cool looking blue tiger things.

Just hit 40 and haven't seen a single spot where I thought paying money would make anything faster/easier. The biggest hurdles to some will probably be bag/bank space but I don't hold onto much in these games and I have found a few quest chains that give bags, I am assuming there are a few more later.

@takayamasama: Cool, thanks for the info.

Have they announced when they'll be ending the free tiger giveaway promotion?

@spaceinsomniac: Not that I've seen

Just got done with the tutorial portion and I'm having a lot of fun. I was going back and forth between Scourge Warlock and Control Wizard and I'm really glad I ended up going with the first. The abilities I've gotten so far are pretty fun, and the control scheme is easier to use than I would have expected.

Updated initial post to reflect this.

We are attempted to officially form the unofficial guild tonight! A scheduled event is set up at 10 PM EST, hopefully we can get 5 people to form the guild, level 15 or up. We had 3 earlier just on a whim but couldn't seal the final 2 people, so hopefully with a scheduled event and letting it be known here, we can find those last 2 people and get a guild rolling! Then we will be able to recruit people into it and have fun rolling around our Stronghold killing dragons.

So sorry for ghosting. My internet started crippling me and the MOBA thing got weird. Very glad we were able to set up the guild though!

Woo Guild is formed! That was a fun time setting it up, then dying to a Dragon assault on our newly founded land :D

Looking forward to building it up to something worthy of V-Bomb's namesake with everyone. And getting revenge on those damn dragons.

Awesome! Ill ask for a guild invite when I get home from work tomorrow.

I got really drunk one night and spent a lot of money on this. I should probably remove my card from my PSN account so I can't do that again.

Anyways, here's my thoughts on some of the stuff I bought.

Dragonborn Legends Pack for $75

Maybe don't spend this much money on a F2P game all at once, ever. The Dragonborn race is really cool. I mentioned it in another thread, but on paper, they have what seem like far and away the most beneficial racial traits for just about any build, except for a healer. You get something like 5% higher crit chance, 5% higher power strike chance, and receive more healing from any abilities or spells. Additionally, when you create the character, you get to pick any two stats to give extra points towards.

As for the other stuff this comes with, that is much more hit and miss. The Ring of the Dragon Slayer boosts things like Power and Crit Strike, which works great with what your already probably building up if you are playing a Dragonborn. The Dragon Hoard bag is a 32 slot, and bags are far and few between in this game. Most of them seem to be acquired through the in-game shop. I don't think any of them come close to 32 slots, either. I'm not far enough in to speak to the effectiveness of a lot of the enchantments, but they sound like they might be cool. I'll update when I know.

It has a few pieces of equipment that scale as you level, which are handy. Nothing major, like chest pieces, more minor bits like a cape. I don't know what slot that takes.

The cosmetics look pretty rad, but I opt to wear my adventuring clothes over them. It feels like cheating to have crazy elaborate armor visible already.

The artifact allows you to breathe fire every two minutes. It does shitty damage and if it misses, the cooldown resets immediately. I forget I have it and never really use it.

Overall, I'd suggest spending your diamonds on the Dragonborn race when you get the chance, but that's about it. There's some nice stuff in here, like the ring and bag, but nothing that justifies nearly a hundred bucks.

Heirloom Pack for $20

This is advertised as giving you equipment that scales as you level, from 5 to 50. What it actually does is give you a box, like the adventurer's reward. Every 5 levels, much like that, you open the box, and you get new items. It's not a complete set of gear, so you still get to work for some stuff, but the issue is more that the old heirlooms are unsellable. I wouldn't mind them being worth a single copper. It's a pain in the ass to have to go in and dismantle each and every one of them individually.

The gear isn't bad by any means. It's also not fantastic. I find better stuff while I quest quite often.

I'm fucking stupid and I hope my mistakes benefit you all in some way.

I DLed and really liked this game. Sadly I also just reuped World of Warcraft for the first time in years and playing that with friends. If this came out even a month earlier I'd be all over it.

-Gary-

It's the neck, same as a necklace.

This sounds like a really bad idea in a game where the standard level cap is 60, and the added cap is 70. As I'm sure you know, you find gear constantly in this game that is around your level. And as long as you're not too underleveled for the area where you are, the game isn't really difficult. You don't have to really think too much about gear until you hit the level cap, from what I've heard.

On the bright side, at least this is a game that you can play for hundreds of hours, if you like it enough. There's tons of content here, and even more now that we've successfully started a guild. As far as spending money goes, you could do worse than dropping $95 on a game that you can play for months. And if I'm not mistaken, I think the crazy large inventory bag is account wide, so none of your characters should have issues with inventory. That's also nice to have.

But yeah, the money paid probably wasn't worth it. I'd agree with that. If I do spend money on this game, it'll likely be for character slots, or to respec a character or two. Seems like that would be quite affordable, especially considering the value the game has to offer.

I'm in a similar situation with Warframe. I've been waiting what feels like six months for the developers to update the world map in Warframe, because I hate the current version. Right after they do on PC, and right when the update is about to hit PS4 about a month later, this game comes out of nowhere and has me hooked.

I guess Warframe will have to wait, for now. I'm really happy Neverwinter came out when it did, because it's going to make the wait for the holiday release season so much easier.

ehh, nothing shows up when i search for v-bomb smash in the guild search panel, might need some help here lol

The guild search seems outright bad, unfortunately. I had no luck either.

For those asking about comparisons to other games, one that I've kept coming back to is Guild Wars 2. You move and dodge attacks in real time, enemy attacks sometimes make big red spots on the ground to indicate you gotta get the fuck out, stuff like that.

@spitz1000: @sdoots: If the guild search engine is being a pain feel free to add me on PSN (Takayamasama) and I can add you to the guild via the friends menu.

I'll fiddle with it later and see if I can get it to show the guild.

I was able to turn up the guild name yesterday, but it would only show one name on the list. I don't know if it was because you were the only one online, or if it's because you are the guild founder. Either way, I'll add you sometime today as a friend and try to get in that way. PSN is Aurin13

@alkusanagi: It should show people online that can invite, and since we just started the guild recently it doesn't have many members, so very likely I was the only one online at the time.