New World Review Part 1

Imagine setting out on an expedition to discover a new world. You could be a sailor or scoundrel, an explorer or a buccaneer, eager to find fame and fortune in undiscovered countries. Through whispered tales and rumors, you hear of a magical island of bounty, where legends have it that nobody dies! The only catch is that ships that sail there never return. Sure enough, before reaching land, a mysterious storm dashes your ship into pieces, and after reviving on the beach, you set forth, uncertain of the wonders – and horrors – you will yet encounter!

Technical: New World is an MMO developed by Amazon Game Orange County and Double Helix Games and published by Amazon Game Studios for PC. It features the resource gathering and crafting of an open world survival game, the questing and PvE (Player vs Environment) content of an MMO, and large scale PvP (Player vs Player) battles where factions attempt to conquer each other’s strongholds. From New World’s website:

Explore a thrilling, open-world MMO filled with danger and opportunity where you’ll forge a new destiny for yourself as an adventurer shipwrecked on the supernatural island of Aeternum. Endless opportunities to fight, forage, and forge await you among the island’s wilderness and ruins. Channel supernatural forces or wield deadly weapons in a classless, real-time combat system, and fight alone, with a small team, or in massed armies for PvE and PvP battles—the choices are all yours.

New World

Background: I have been excited and anxious about this game since it was announced in 2016. I hesitated from pre-ordering it because, honestly, I wasn’t sure how well it would turn out, but after early reviews started showering it with praise, I had to experience it for myself. Record breaking server queues (people waiting their turn to be able to log in and play) have slowed down my progress, but I’m excited to report on my adventures in Aeternum so far!

My Experience: Starting my adventures earlier in the morning seems to shorten the wait to log in, and I’ve yet to get so attached to any specific faction or popular server to be concerned with the extremely long queues. So far, I am most impressed with the beginning quests and the onboarding of players how to play New World. The game’s personality masks the feeling of playing through a tutorial, and before long, I knew how to fight, gather resources, refine materials, and craft gear. I’ve also discovered some bread crumbs of larger secrets, as yet unrevealed to me, which leaves me eager for more! Curiously, my experience starting on different servers revealed that although each starting area has the same story content, there are elements that seem randomized, such as the orientation of key landmarks.

The Good: The controls and user interface are intuitive and slick, though I’ve yet to play with all of the available weapons and abilities. Unlike other MMOs, there are no set “classes” in New World; players can swap out any of the weapons (melee or ranged, destructive or healing), and assume their equivalent roles, at any time. Spending time with a specific weapon/role leads to unlocking the advanced abilities that make them even more useful, but players can “respec” or change their skill point allotments at will, too. This enables a lot of experimentation and versatility, though I imagine players will naturally gravitate towards their favored roles. I already see myself spending the most time with the “sword and board” protective skills, though I do appreciate that I can change my mind later. Overall, the user interface – for crafting, questing, and leveling up – is literally the best I have ever seen. Seriously, I could rant about it for hours. It’s as if someone at Amazon read my repeated praises of Elder Scrolls Online and it’s UI, and said “hold my beer!” The graphics of New World are gorgeous, though it’s aesthetic isn’t particularly striking or memorable. Put another way, it’s “grimdark” setting isn’t overly original, though it isn’t very common.

DavPoint: New World was developed with Lumberyard, a customized version of the CryEngine (initially released in 2002), which was licensed from Crytek in 2015. Initially, Amazon announced three games at TwitchCon in 2016: Breakaway, Crucible and New World. In March 2018, Breakaway was cancelled, and in October 2020, so was Crucible, leaving all teams to focus on development of New World.

The Bad: I really can’t see anything I dislike about New World so far, other than the limited choices during character creation. My biggest concern is that other games that feature large scale player versus player mechanics have historically struggled with balance; there is always the danger of one team losing so badly that nobody wants to play on that team, which makes it less fun for everyone, including the dominant team. For all I know, Amazon Game Studios has anticipated this and there could be built-in safe guards like shuffling servers and/or factions, incentives for joining smaller factions, enemy NPC invasions that weaken the strongest factions, or something else. There is also the possibility that the “end game” PvE content, like dungeons and raids, could be such a strong alternative that players could ignore PvP altogether, but the daily activities and expectations of faction support suggest otherwise. The economies of each faction on each server will thrive or fail based on player interactions, which means players could have struggles with questing and progression, regardless of their interest in PvP. We shall see!

Early Conclusion: New World is a very ambitious experiment. There is a lot to be excited about, from the setting and lore to the excellent crafting and combat; from the thrill of solo exploration and solving mysteries to the adrenalin rush of cooperative dungeons and player vs player confrontations. There are very few games that combine survival/crafting/adventure game mechanics with the full suite of MMO features, let alone games that also encourage large scale player vs player combat, AND have such high production values. It remains to be seen if the daily grind to support your chosen player faction will maintain its thrill months from now, but as it is, I am thoroughly enjoying New World!

Check out Part 2 of my Review, and watch me play on the DavPoint!

• Developer: Amazon Games Orange County and Double Helix Games
• Publisher: Amazon Game Studios
• Platforms: PC
• Rating: T for Teen for Blood and Violence
• Release Date: September 28, 2021 for PC