New World feels like the first MMO designed without World of Warcraft ’ s DNA as a core feature. It ’ s not concerned with killing Blizzard ’ s goliath, but rather, capacity to be something of its own. early on, the plot manages to capture the best part of embarking on a newfangled gamble. I found my feet, and then looked out at the horizon of a huge earth waiting to be explored .
large parts of New World are polished and competent. I start out as a shipwreck sailor on the shores of Aeternum, a fabulous island full of prize and curses. My captain is consumed by the dark, roiling mists of the island, so I must fight my way through my former crew, immediately corrupted and ghoulish, to the safety of an established village. No one can die on Aeternum, and thus all the survivors of doomed voyages have decided to buckle down and try to build a civilization out here .
:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22891749/ss_84bc9909c2dfc8ec0d4ff84fd072b35785332fdc.jpg "New World impressions: not quite new, not quite a world 1")
combat and flush feels great, and New World throws punchy choices at me without overwhelming me. As my bluejacket advances and turns into a travel mercenary and marauder, I choose to focus on hatchets and sword-and-shield fight. I can besides switch my weapons at any fourth dimension. Tired of being a tank ? I can equip a liveliness staff or internal-combustion engine gauntlet and become a mage. The environments are beautifully designed, and I trek through exuberant wildlands or delve into haunted caves to slay hideous monsters.
It about feels bad to complain about the rest of the game, because the product values are indeed high and there are omnipresent signs of manage in textures, diaries, and monster models. But the character creator, for one, is highly boring. One viral negative Steam review simply reads ‘ no catgirls. ’
The musician character in an MMO lets us create the lens through which we see its global, but there ’ s not a set of variety in the people I see about New World. There are no elves or bunny girls or Twi ’ lek ; it ’ s barely a draw of humans, some of whom have a cool hat or scars, running about in their versatile bits of armor. Some of them have names like Gideon Greyhawk and John Holland ; others are called things like Swaglord420 and Weebscum Uwu .
These punch-drunk names hurt my submergence, and the island of Aeternum is difficult to connect with already. From my time in crippled, it seems that Amazon has scrubbed the lore to address early concerns about colonialism, and then when I arrive in the first colonization, I find that it ’ randomness run by good natured women and people of color. They need me to kill monsters and madden beasts, which is the objectively right thing to do when living on a magic trick island. The game is determined not to be controversial at first bloom, but in the end, it ’ s still a game about exploring and colonizing a new celibate. It feels disjointed to the point of being naive.
:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22891751/ss_c5c9e520c69d217da25769cd3c093c04458a83ac.jpg "New World impressions: not quite new, not quite a world 2")
The game ’ s cabal arrangement, on the other hand, is one of its most compelling offerings. There ’ s the sneaky, scholarly Syndicate, the compulsive and fanatic Covenant, and the brutal, warring Marauders. The cabal international relations and security network ’ t a permanent choice — you can swap, albeit with a 120-day timer — and if you want to join a player company — the equivalent of a club in other MMOs — they have to be under the lapp streamer. In curtly, even if I don ’ metric ton get much interest out of fighting versatile supernatural beings, whether they be my fallen shipmates or gnarled monsters emerging from the obscure, I can at least take rejoice in besting another player or claiming a town .
The settlements in the universe are up for grabs ; factions can fight over them in Wars, which are 50 vs. 50 PvP battles. If a faction claims a settlement, they get to control things like the tax rates and buffs in the local area. Players can opt-in and back out of PvP, so they can leave a colony without getting instaganked.
When these systems work well, it ’ randomness comforting, like the polish triple-A version of a survival game like Conan Exiles or Ark. There ’ south room for rivalries between players and back-and-forth battle, whether that ’ s jumping on an unfortunate solo player under the Syndicate streamer, or fleeing when I see a squad of Covenant with muskets coming over the horizon .
The success or failure of New World is going to rely on the social scenery that ’ s already building around the game, which is driving much of its early gameplay. Players pile into Discords to coordinate which server they want to roll on, and which faction they want to join up with. People ignore the provided lore of the factions, and create their own, choosing who they think would make a glorious victor or satisfying underdog. There ’ mho even a fan-made Zillow for the game ’ mho real estate market. The ingress international relations and security network ’ t the point ; it ’ s a social stadium that only MMOs can by rights offer, and games like New World are few and far between .
Will the early wave of players stick around ? It depends on whether New World can stand up to their machinations. If each server become dominated by a single faction, or the PvP can ’ thyroxine hold people ’ mho attention, the game seems doomed to wither on the vine. The game itself international relations and security network ’ metric ton very the main indicator of New World ’ randomness success — it ’ s the vibrant scenes built up around it in Discords and social media, where players are planning their best approach to claim the island against all takers .
