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If you don’t already know it, New World is the upcoming and long-awaited MMORPG from Amazon Games Studios. And that wait is almost over, given that New World will finally launch to the public next month on August 31. In short, this is an action-oriented MMO that features everything from factional warfare to a rich open world dotted with quests, treasures, and discoverable locations and settlements, and having spent time with it. him now I’m confident in saying it’s going well. Last week I had a whole five hours to run around, leveling my own character from scratch – a process that got me to venture into the very first area, Windsward, which covers the first ten levels of gameplay, then some – and then jump into a session of New World’s PvPvE mode, Outpost Rush. And then, finally, I was shown a tour of one of New World’s endgame dungeons – The Lazarus Instrumentality – which caters to groups of five characters who have reached level 60.
The first part of the preview event made me start from scratch. And that wasn’t a mistake: the debut of a new character in New World gave me the free field to slow down and experience Aeternum Island through the eyes of a new survivor of a shipwreck. And let me tell you, this place is vast. Once you step out of the beach and get closer to the Windsward Colony, you are treated to awe-inspiring views and beautiful, flora-rich valleys where you can pitch your campsite and watch the time go by by the fire if it’s time to go. ‘do you want to. But there’s substance here too – the world itself is filled with hidden nooks and crannies where you might find useful items, bosses, or treasure. There are a bunch of quests to do – they don’t feel insanely deep beyond what you’d expect from any old MMORPG, but they point you to places of interest. It certainly channels other popular open-world games like Skyrim or Genshin Impact, but in an alternate and much more Grimdark take on the 1600s, if that’s okay with you.
There are a lot of discoverable places that appear on your compass when you approach them – I stumbled upon many caves and abandoned farmland, and of course there is the rustic but well-inhabited Windsward Colony, which fits perfectly into the open world. But the world itself is also quite malleable and unpredictable. For one, the landscape is dotted with knots of resources – like trees, bushes, and rocks – that blend right into the background, and you can actually harvest any of those resources you see. . You can temporarily change the topography of the world around you, for example by converting a forest to an open glade. It’s not the first time I’ve seen this concept work in an MMO, but New World definitely goes above and beyond to make it feel like you’re directly exploiting – and changing – its realistic, detailed world.
But like I said earlier, it’s unpredictable. In fact, Windsward and its surroundings are a lot more dangerous than I expected for an area aimed at low level players. As you walk around and find your bearings at a low level, you will also encounter enemies of a much higher level than you as corruption slowly takes hold of the area. This can lead to some really scary encounters, where the sky turns red and hazy, and enemies with question marks by their names will rush you straight for a fairly long distance.
At one point, a group of monsters chased me to the gates of Windsward Settlement. At another point, I watched another player walk past me with a train of enemies chasing them, and managed to push them back in what ended up being a bonding moment. In this sense, New World takes up the kind of danger and interdependence vis-à-vis other players that were present in old MMOs.
And then I was transported to Outpost Rush, the New World’s 20v20 PvPvE battleground. I thought it was fun when I tried it out a few weeks ago and focused on attacking and defending the bases with a bow and ice gauntlet, but this time I built a completely different build and I opted for a fire stick and a large ax – both are useful for melee crowd control – and instead of going up against the opposing team all the time, I spent more time exploring Nauthynos Island. In fact, I eventually made my way to the Corrupted Portal, where I fought one-on-one with Dryads while collecting Azoth and Infused Wood to bring him back to my stronghold. It was a very different experience, showing me that even if you are not a big fan of PVP, there will still be plenty of ways to go and just focus on PVE while still contributing to your team’s success.
The final part of the preview took me to the Lazarus Instrumentality, an endgame dungeon with some really tough bosses that took whole group strategy to pass after several tries. As an avid Elder Scrolls Online player, this sort of thing reminded me of some of ESO’s newer dungeons like Scalecaller Peak, where it’s very easy to clear unless every member of the party does the right thing at the right time – but finally getting through that pesky boss or really difficult puzzle for the first time feels like a well-deserved victory. And my group shared many of those moments together.
I first tried being the party’s designated tank with just an ax and a spear, both of which are good DPS weapons but absolutely pale compared to the regular sword and shield when trying to be the only tank of the party. But thanks to New World’s handy respec system, I was able to quickly change not only my primary weapon skills, but also my entire attribute sheet in the middle of the dungeon. And instead of optimizing for the ax and spear (both of which rely heavily on Dexterity), I refocused my attributes on Constitution – like a real tank.
Just like last time around, I had a weak connection to the Amazon Games test server – which is located on the east coast, and often averaged 200-300 milliseconds of ping. If you don’t know what that means, it basically translates to a one or two bar signal at some point, which is unacceptably low for most online games. And despite that fact, I still managed to have a connection that was smooth enough to play for five hours without too much trouble. Besides a few crashes and a few tough fights when the lag increased, New World still managed to stay consistent overall.
By the end of my preview session, I was especially intrigued by many of these deeper locking systems that make higher and lower level players work together.
For example, the aforementioned corruption system comes to mind here. Each player can collect materials and craft items to contribute to a colony, which levels it up and offers more services and amenities, but it looks like corruption will gradually increase in an area, leading to invasions where, if the forces of corruption are successful, it will actually bring down the level of regulation. It sounds like a powerful combination that could lead to an interesting tussle for open world domination between you, your faction, and the Corruption.
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If you like ARPGs or action-oriented open world games, and you are also an MMORPG fan with a faster feel, then New World will probably be your cup of tea. There’s a bit of everything, but it doesn’t seem like you’ll ever be stuck with just one playstyle if you prefer PVP over PVE or vice versa.
Whether or not these systems come together with so many nuances ultimately depends on the popularity of New World once it launches next month. But right now, especially after what I’ve been shown, my fingers are crossed.
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