An Evening in Neverwinter

     Most of my non-WoW gaming is done late at night after everybody else has gone to bed and things have settled into the quiet that allows me some time just for me. I've gotten very fond of MMO night time as a result. Last night I spent the evening in Neverwinter.
     I'm still not sure how I feel about this game. It's very D&D in some ways. It's got actual drow and I love that. I love it so much that I made one. Of all the characters I have in MMOs Drazek is the only one I've actually made in multiple ones. He was a character I played in my first online MUD. He was my first character in Everquest and later the closest thing I had to a main, though since the First had been on a friend's account he ended up with his name spelled Drazzek instead. He's had an incarnation in DDO as well, and now he's my ranger/hunter in Neverwinter.
     He was level 7 when I started the evening and after a few hours with plenty of afk time for other random things I was doing in the background he was level 10 when I finished the evening. I had fun really, but I still can't decide what I think of this game. And well that's no surprise, level 10 is a little early to really tell.
     The controls are different and aren't very intuitive to me at all. They are interesting, but I don't feel comfortable in them and I can't help disliking the lack of control I have over views for screenshots, even if it is nice that it pops the UI down automatically for them. Then again the characters, though the customization for them is better than WoW (what isn't?) aren't really very much to look at when they're done.(I admit it, I play MMOs for the pretty sometimes and I wish Drazek up there was a little better looking. Or that I could even see him a bit better most of the time to see the customizations I have done.)
     But for all the things that bug me about the controls there are a couple of aspects to their playstyle that are interesting, or that are with the class I've chosen. There are big ground effects that show up as circles for Drazek to dodge out of, and he darts around enemies and tries to keep his distance so the fights do feel very dynamic. The controls for attack are simple so even though I can not master the camera view without thinking about it and keep trying to click my mouse buttons to run I can remember what all of my attack buttons do so far even though it had been weeks since last time I'd played it. So it's got pluses. He's just picked up professions so hopefully I'll be able to develop an opinion on those at some point. So far I can't really figure out what I'm doing, but half the fun for me is trying to figure things out before looking them up.
     I haven't really tried any yet, but I love the idea of player created content through the Foundry so I'm hoping to take him off and try some of it out at some point, and maybe if I get a chance try my hand at making something of my own. I've got a few D&D plots I wouldn't mind translating over.
     I'm not playing any of the other places Drazek has lived any more, but I think for a little while at least, he's at home in Neverwinter.

Bonus screenshot of the original Drazzek that is the only one I have.