Neverwinter Campaign System Doesn’t Excite Me

In previous news pieces about Neverwinter on this very site, I’ve mentioned the coming Neverwinter Campaign System. Not a whole lot had been reveled by Cryptic Studios about this feature that is set to be launched this summer during the Fury of the Feywild module update. We know that it would segregate portions of the Sharandar zone and I even speculated that it sounded like “phasing” and expressed my sadness at that possibility.

Turns out I was wrong on that speculation. The free to play MMORPG will not be implementing a “phasing” mechanic. That doesn’t mean the news is that much better in my opinion though. Let me let Cryptic’s dev announcement speak for itself here though so I don’t get anything mixed up for you:

“The system itself will be a new UI (user interface) window similar to the Queue or Professions window. In it, players will find Projects that they must complete in order to unlock Sharandar’s other neighborhoods, the new Malabog Castle dungeon delve, and new passive powers for their characters. How do players complete Projects and progress? The Sharandar zone itself will have many repeatable quests that give rewards which players will use in the Campaign System window. Also, players can complete solo instances and the five-man Malabog Castle to speed up progression within the Campaign System. Malabog Castle is unlocked via an early (and relatively quick) Campaign System Project before players are able to enter it. For solo instances, players can acquire a one-time use key that they can acquire while doing repeatable quests in the zone or purchase in game with a new currency that comes from the adventure zone.”

Yep! So in the Neverwinter Campaign System you’ll be doing repeatable actions in an effort to gather yet another currency to gather more gear for a character already at max level.

Please don’t label me a “negative Nancy” here. I like Neverwinter, I really do. But in my opinion, the endgame is already a mess of repetition and it seems that a large portion of the first expansion module is literally just adding MORE repetition?

There are about 1 million things I would have wanted to see before this Neverwinter Campaign System. A new class (RANGER!), a widespread fix of existing issues, or even just a level cap increase with a bit of a harder leveling experience would have all been welcome additions in my book. Instead, we’re getting more repeatable actions in a new zone and a new dungeon.