First impressions of Perfect World’s Neverwinter Closed Beta on Xbox One

Perfect World's Neverwinter will be coming to the Xbox One in the near future, but before the masses can get their hands on this Free-to-Play game, the Closed Beta is well underway, allowing us to get a first look at how the game will play on Microsoft's console.

The Closed Beta didn't seem to lock out any content, as I was able to freely pick and choose any of the available races that aren't locked behind paid content expansions, as well as all the classes, including the three new ones, Hunter Ranger, Oathbound Paladin and Scourge Warlock.

While our time with the game was pretty brief at the time of our impression piece, the first and easily most noticeable difference was in the game's controls.

The HUD actually looks slightly more crowded than it did on the PC version, but after some analysis of it, it made perfect sense. It was laid out to visually represent each button on the Xbox One's controller. Face buttons and directional buttons each had their own assigned controls, while leaving the Triggers on each side as the main attack buttons, the right one for the classes primary attack, and the left one for the secondary attack. In my case, playing as the Control Wizard, my right Trigger shot off magic missiles while my left Trigger shot off an ice beam.

The servers were a bit unstable, though that's to be expected, especially for a game that's making its first transition from PC architecture to a console. Other than that, controlling my character felt natural, and dodging attacks with my teleport spell felt even better thanks to mapping that function to the left thumbstick.

We'll be playing the Neverwinter Closed Beta through its live period which is open now, and last until February 8th, at which point we'll be sure to share our updated impression as we quest through the world of Neverwinter.