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The headache never did go away.  He woke up with it, and it just got worse. 

Chest heaving, Knute leans heavily on the wall.  Thallistae is breathing just as hard.  She should, as they just spent the last fifteen minutes sprinting away from Assassin Drakes that should have never been there.

Marcellus, however, seems unperturbed.  That really annoys Knute to no end.  Looking away, Knute slides closer to the corner of the passage.  Peering around it, he sees that the passage opens into a large cavern.  Never a good thing.  He soon realizes his premonition has merit. "An Iron golem… very dangerous” he whispers.  He lifts his hand to motion for Thallistae and Marcellus to wait.  His signal is answered by a rush of air.  Marcellus bolts past him, bullrushing the construct. Thallistae joins Knute in peering around the corner.  Their tiefling comrade unconsciously swishes his tail in anticipation of his crushing blow.  The blow does come, but from the spiked fist of the golem.  Marcellus is swatted aside into a crumbling stone arch.  Stone chips litter his dazed face, and he slumps to the floor.

A brief smile curls on the mouth of the stocky guard.  Now the headache is gone.

Dungeon crawling at its finest!  Big monsters, bigger weapons, even bigger spells and explosions.  There is something really satisfying about putting down that bloated Drider with an overhead chop.  It’s fun and it’s called Neverwinter.

Neverwinter™ is a Free-To-Play, MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) based on the venerable Dungeons & Dragons™ role playing game.  For those familiar with that system, and the tons of novels surrounding it, it takes place in the Forgotten Realms campaign setting. For now, sit back and enjoy the ensuing review. 

Where to start… there is so much going on in Neverwinter.  It is currently on its 6th module for the PC, and has recently been released for the Xbox One.  You are in a 3rd person, over the shoulder view of your character as you maneuver through the landscapes and dungeons.  Combat is easy to accomplish, and the interface itself is quick to pick up.There are 8 character classes to play, and 9 free races to choose from.  The character customization is good, but nowhere near as robust as Skyrim, for instance.  You get three character slots free with your account, and of course you can buy more.

As your character gains experience, you customize the powers and feats to your liking.  At level 30, you choose what is called a Paragon Path.  This defines the powers and feats that will be available to you from there on out.  You can progress until level 70, or Epic. A rich aspect of the game is the crafting, or professions.  You can create in-game items that your character can use, or that you can auction off for astral diamonds, which is one of the in-game currencies.

For those so inclined, there is a robust PvP (Player vs Player) element in the game.  That is something I am discovering now, and am truly enjoying it (even though I get splatted most often!).

Neverwinter even has the Foundry, a method for you, the gamer, to create modules that other Neverwinter players can run through.  It scratches that DM itch we all seem to have from time to time.

I won’t go too far down the road describing, the fun is in the discovery!  I will tell you that the game is a ton of fun.  I really like it because you can do so much solo for those times when you just want to sit down for a quick session.  Boss man a jerk today?  Log on and take out some orcs.  It’s OK, they don’t have nerve endings.

While going it alone is fun, it’s so much more fun with a group.  There is content that requires groups of three or five, or you can run your quests with a bunch of your buds.  The game does a decent job at allowing you to share quests, so your friends can level up with you.

Guilds. Like just about every MMO, Neverwinter has a guild (or clan) system. Cryptic (the developers) have released Strongholds, the ability for guilds to obtain, defend, and attack opposing guild strongholds.  This should be really good.