When I first heard about Neverwinter last year, it was in development to be a action RPG oriented game. However, the game shown off at PAX East 2012 was far different than just an RPG. It was a fully fledged, action MMO that promises a huge, wide open world to explore, and lots and lots of lore. The game takes places in the distant future of  the Neverwinter Nights series and is under development by Cryptic Studios. While the game is not yet in testing, Cryptic promises a late 2012 release date and was busy showing of an early build of the game on the show floor.

In terms of lore, Neverwinter will take place in the Forgotten  Realms campaign setting, set about 100 years after the Spell Plague. You are one of survivors rebuilding a fallen city and reclaiming their heritage from the volcanic eruption that had destroyed their beloved city long ago. Humans, dwarves and elves are all present and actively working together in a large scale effort to create a new Neverwinter and reclaim their former glory.

The neatest concept about Neverwinter is the user-generated content. Apart from the sheer amount of design going into the character customization part of the game, Cryptic is busy at work creating a user-generated content system from the ground up that allows players to view trending player-made content, queue for dungeons, schedule events, and so forth. Players will essentially be able to write and create their own path for what happens in the game’s story, just like you could in the original board game. You’ll even be able to follow your favorite authors, subscribe to certain content feeds, and so on.

But the core emphasis of what Cryptic is really trying to show off is the hectic and extremely fun action combat system. Cryptic is trying to bring that action RPG gameplay into a full MMO world. It’s not a hub or instanced based game, much like Turbine’s MMO adaption of the Dungeons and Dragons universe. It is a vibrant and persistent world where you’ll get to run around with dozens of other players and perform quests, join guilds, craft epic weapons, and battle it out in some hectic PVP action.

But it is a Dungeons and Dragons game. I’d better have the opportunity to go into a crypt and traverse a big ad complex dungeon. Thankfully, Cryptic was eager to talk about how on many occasions, you will find yourself battling it out against your foes in your own, little private instances.

Most of the content in the game is solo friendly, but there will be a ton of exclusive dungeons and quests for parties of up to five players to tackle. For example, at the end of each adventure zone set within the walls of Neverwinter and out in the surrounding areas of the Sword Coast, which is where the big chunk of Neverwinter’s questing content will be found, is a big, 45-90 minute long dungeon delve kind of raid caliber experience.

The class I saw that was shown off was a Rogue, but there are multiple other options to choose from as well, but they all follow  the usual Dungeons & Dragons setup. Meaning you won’t just get to a Wizard, a Rogue, or Ranger; you play a Archery Ranger, a Control Wizard or a Stealth Rogue. Yet how you play each class will be far different any other person who may be playing as that class as well. Your builds are based on common playstyles with classes and won’t share the same abilities as others.

To be more specific, you won’t be overwhelmed with multiple abilities at any one time. Players will have access to a primary and secondary attack assigned to the left and right mouse buttons. These two special attacks will have short cooldowns, and you’ll also receive an ability that has to be charged via Action Points before being used. You also get one Utility ability such as a quick dodge or a shield block. In short, the game plays fast, very fast.

Each and every combat sequence I saw with the Rogue played like a blur in a flurry of movement. It reminded me a lot of how Kingdoms of Amalur’s combat system. So if you weren’t of a fan of that system, you most definitely won’t be a home here. Leveling up will gain new abilities to toss into the various slots available, allowing you to pick and choose what you want to focus in on. If you want to be an offensive Rogue, you’ll have more offensive abilities. Same goes to a defensive kind of build.

Neverwinter should be entering beta sometime this year, with a late 2012 release date in sights. This is one of those games that seemingly came out of nowhere for me, and after seeing it in action, how fun it appears to be and how fluid the combat looks, but more importantly the Dungeons and Dragons setting, it’s shaping up to look like a very good game that is definitely on my watch list for 2012.