If you’re not already familiar with it, New World is the upcoming and long-awaited MMORPG from Amazon Games Studios. And that wait is almost over, given that New World is finally launching to the public next month on August 31st. As a quick rundown, this is an action-focused MMO that features everything from faction warfare to a rich open world that’s dotted with quests, treasures, and discoverable locations and settlements, and having spent some time with it now, I’m confident in saying that it’s coming together nicely. This last week, I was given a whole five hours to run around, leveling up my own character from scratch – a process which had me venturing through the very first zone, Windsward, which spans the first ten levels of gameplay and then some – and then jumping into a session of New World’s PvPvE mode, Outpost Rush. And then, finally, I was given a tour through one of New World’s endgame dungeons – The Lazarus Instrumentality – which is aimed at parties of five characters who have reached level 60.
The first part of the preview event had me starting from ground zero. And this was no mistake: Beginning a fresh character in New World gave me the free reign to slow down and experience the island of Aeternum through the eyes of a fresh survivor of a shipwreck. And let me tell you, this place is vast. Once you get yourself off of the beach and closer to Windsward settlement proper, you’re treated to grand vistas and gorgeous, flora-rich valleys where you can lay down your campsite and just watch time pass by the fire if that’s what you want. 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 seem incredibly deep beyond what you’d expect out of any old MMORPG, but they do point you to interesting locations. It’s definitely channeling other popular open-world games like Skyrim or Genshin Impact, but in an alternate and far more Grimdark vision of the 1600s, if that suits your fancy.
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There are plenty of discoverable locations that pop up on your compass as you approach them – I casually stumbled upon plenty of caves and abandoned farmlands, and of course there’s the rustic yet thoroughly lived-in Windsward settlement, which seamlessly fits into the open world. But the world itself is also quite malleable and unpredictable. For one, the landscape is dotted with resource nodes – like trees, bushes, and boulders – that blend right into the background, and you can actually harvest any of those resources that you see. You can temporarily alter the topography of the world around you, by, say, converting a forest into an open clearing. 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 tapping into – and changing – its realistic and detailed world.
But like I said earlier, it’s unpredictable. In fact, Windsward and its surrounding locales are much more dangerous than I was expecting for a zone that’s targeted to low-level players. As you wander around and find your bearings at a low level, you will also run into enemies that are far higher level than you as Corruption slowly takes hold of the region. This can lead to some genuinely scary encounters, where the sky turns red and foggy, and enemies with question marks by their names will straight-up bullrush you quite a distance.
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At one point, a group of monsters chased me all the way up to the gates of Windsward settlement. At another point, I watched another player speed past me with a train of enemies on their tail, and I actually managed to help fend them off in what ended up being a bonding moment. In this sense, New World recaptures the sort of danger and inter-reliance on other players that was present in older MMOs.
And then I was ferried off to Outpost Rush, New World’s 20 vs. 20 player PvPvE battleground. I thought it was fun when I tried it out a few weeks ago and focused on attacking and defending bases with a bow and an ice gauntlet, but this time I completely different build and went with a fire staff and a greataxe – both of which are useful for crowd control in melee range – and instead of going head-to-head with the opposite team the whole time, I spent more time exploring Nauthynos Island. In fact, I finally made my way down to the Corrupted Portal, where I did single combat with dryads while collecting Azoth and infused wood to haul back to my fortress. It was a markedly different experience, showing me that even if you’re not big into PVP, there will still be plenty of ways to go off and purely focus on PVE stuff while still contributing to your team’s success.
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The final portion of the preview took me to the Lazarus Instrumentality, an end-game dungeon with some genuinely tough bosses that took strategizing from the entire group to get through after several tries. As an avid Elder Scrolls Online player, this kind of reminded me of some of ESO’s more recent dungeons like Scalecaller Peak, where it’s very easy to wipe unless each party member does the right thing at the right time – but finally getting through that pesky boss or that really challenging puzzle for the first time feels like a well-earned victory. And my party shared several of those moments together.
I initially tried my hand at being the party’s designated tank with just a hatchet and a spear, both of which are fine DPS weapons but absolutely pale in comparison to the classic sword and shield when you’re trying to be the party’s sole tank. But through New World’s convenient respec system, I was able to quickly switch not just my main weapon skills, but also my entire attribute sheet mid-dungeon. And instead of optimizing for the hatchet and spear (both of which rely heavily on Dexterity), I refocused my attributes into Constitution – like a proper tank.
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Much like last time, I had a weak connection to Amazon Games’ test server – which is located on the east coast, and often averaged about 200 to 300 milliseconds of ping. If you don’t know what that means, it basically translates to a one or two-bar signal at any given time, which is unacceptably low for most online games. And despite that fact, I still managed to have a smooth enough connection to play for five hours without too many issues. Besides a few crashes and some sticky combat when the lag spiked, New World still managed to remain coherent overall.
At the end of my preview session, I was left particularly intrigued by many of those deeper interlocking systems that incentivize higher and lower level players working together.
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For example, the aforementioned Corruption system comes to mind here. Every player can collect materials and craft things to contribute to a settlement, which makes it level up and offer more services and amenities, but it sounds like Corruption will gradually progress through a zone, resulting in invasions where, if the forces of Corruption are successful, that’ll actually make the settlement level back down again. This sounds like a potent combination that could lead to an interesting tug-of-war for dominance of the open world between you, your faction, and the Corruption.
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If you’re into ARPGs or action-focused open-world games, and you’re also a fan of MMORPGs with a faster-paced feel to them, then New World is likely to be your cup of tea. It’s got a bit of everything, but it doesn’t sound like you’ll ever be hemmed into one style of play if you prefer PVP over PVE or vice versa.
Whether or not those systems actually come together with just as much nuance, ultimately hinges upon how popular New World ends up being once it launches next month. But right now, especially after what I’ve been shown, my fingers are crossed.
