Dungeons & Dragons: Heroes of Neverwinter Preview

Some of you are likely already spending time with Atari and Liquid Entertainment’s Dungeons & Dragons: Heroes of Neverwinter during its open beta on Facebook, but for those of you who haven’t been, there’s a new preview on Games Catalyst for you to check out.

It’s after the tutorial where things get interesting, from there you can build your own adventuring party. You invite up to four of your friends to go questing with you, picking up loot and killing goblins, orcs and all manner of other fantastical creatures as you progress through the levels, gaining skills and equipment as you do.

The system is going to be instantly recognisable to anyone who’s ever played an RPG, be it tabletop or videogame. It’s not as meaty an experience as you’d find in a more hardcore setting, but that’s sort of the point. Atari is trying to create a base market for its product on the world’s most famous social network. Other games have tried this before, Dragon Age 2, for example, had a companion game on Facebook, but Neverwinter and D&D thrive on their communal aspects, and what better place to find a new community than Facebook?

You can also build your own adventures once you’ve reached level ten, and invite your friends in to experience those. Heroes of Neverwinter is a gateway drug, if you like, an introduction to the world of Neverwinter and D&D, and all of the things you can expect to find there. It’s also something for the already addicted to do in their lunch hours, a chance to get some gaming in where before no gaming was possible.