NodeJS vs Play Framework for large project

The stack you choose should depend upon the needs of your application. Let's look at Play vs. Node for their strengths:

Node

Real-time applications (chat, feeds)
Event-driven architecture
Can perform client-server duties (e.g. serve files), but not well-suited for this
Database management, testing tools, etc, available as additional packages

Play!

Client-server applications (website, services)
Share-nothing architecture
Can perform real-time duties (e.g. Websockets), but not well-suited for this
Database management (including migrations!), testing tools, etc, built into core

If your application more closely matches a traditional web-based model, Play is probably your best choice. If you need immediate feedback and real-time dynamic messaging, Node is the better choice.

For large traditional applications, seriously consider the Play! Framework because of the built-in unit and functional testing along with database migrations. If incorporated into the development process, these go a long way toward an end product that works as expected and is stable and error-free.

There are 10 major categories you should consider when comparing web frameworks:

Learn: getting started, ramp up, overall learning curve.
Develop: routing, templates, i18n, forms, json, xml, data store access, real time web.
Test: unit tests, functional tests, integration tests, test coverage.
Secure: CSRF, XSS, code injection, headers, authentication, security advisories.
Build: compile, run tests, preprocess static content (sass/less/CoffeScript), package.
Deploy: hosting, monitoring, configuration.
Debug: step by step debugger, profilers, logging,
Scale: throughput, latency, concurrency.
Maintain: code reuse, stability, maturity, type safety, IDEs.
Share: open source activity, mailing lists, popularity, plugins, commercial support, jobs.