Dungeons & Dragons : Heroes of Neverwinter (Facebook)

So I started this review with a great deal of skepticism.

A Facebook browser based D&D game. It couldn't possibly have the depth required right?

Well, I was only partially right.

I've played it a few times over the review period, and I'll admit early on I was not terribly impressed. A few updates later though, and its gotten a lot of polish.

The game itself is a turn based tactical RPG. It is a basic square board layout, with set pieces and map sections to explore. They've added a radial menu for default actions and abilities. A very thorough tutorial process, and some fun areas to explore. When you complete an area you return to the town of Neverwinter to sell items, recruit friends or npc hirelings(up to a max of 3+ yourself for your party), and decorate your home with achievement trophies.

As with all Facebook games, there's collecting, achievements, and bragging rights to post on Facebook walls. They also highly encourage you to recruit your friends to play with online. I found that as a bit of a control freak though I ended up filling my party with npc hirelings. This gave me a feeling of a pretty decent single player RPG experience. One that wouldn't require a true gaming machine, so playing on a laptop while traveling or commuting to work via bus or train would be quite viable.

Facebook games have always been very hit or miss with me, as a more hardcore gamer, something really has to shine out to keep my attention among all the other possible games to play. This game seems to have enough depth and replayability I'll probably be giving it a thorough going over before I'm done with it.

I was going to give it a tentative score of 6/10 for the average RPG game. Some of the early systems turned me off a bit, but they've made some good strides in polish just in the last week or so before it launches that warrants a true second look. If they continue to improve it the game should be quite good as a Facebook time waster.

As compared to other Facebook games I'd now give it an 8/10 and hope they continue to improve it as it gains fans post launch and add more content for the people who will undoubtedly explore everything and look for more challenge.