A New New World
New Worlds’ now three years old MMO had somewhat of a rocky start originally but has been revamped and expanded with a new name and is now available for the PS5 console and also Xbox Series X and S with full cross-play functionality.
The original release when it was just known as New World saw the game in a strange place. The game had some massive bugs and being the new MMO on the market at the time, it was a hard recommendation. The game did however garner a following and even though it never reached the heights of the two biggest subscription based MMO’s currently out, it still has a healthy amount of players still invested in its world thank to these now fixed issues.
Despite some flaws with Amazons original release of New World some of these flaws are still notably notorious in the games new release, this is mostly in the design of it. New World: Aeternum world is huge, and in the first 10-15 hours you will be running with what seems like forever in the first area of Windsward alone and whilst there is a lot to see it was kind of jarring to see abandoned houses with undead roaming about in them that have the same design as the first house that I managed to purchase, even the fireplaces retained the same placement.
Graphically New World: Aeternum looks decent and there are three modes being Performance, Quality and 4K, Performance certainly performs better but both Quality and 4K mode are equally just as good from a performance perspective.
The games plot is overall fine, it’s a substandard kind of plot you would expect from an MMORPG, granted it is well told and all the little bits of lore which are found throughout the world are added to your journal and grant you additional XP. The characters do have some personality to them however. Grace O’Malley who is a pirate you meet early on is full of character and only cares about riches. She is a clear reference to Grace O’Malley an actual Pirate who was of Irish decent in the year 1530 onwards.
New World: Aeternum focuses on real time action combat with one of the 15 available weapons rather than classes. You can equip 2 of these weapons and switch between them at any time. Each individual weapon has a mastery of Level 20 and by levelling a weapon up you can learn new abilities and traits of that weapon. I have been focusing on both Fire Staff and the Void Gauntlet with the Gauntlet being my personal favourite. As it is a ranged weapon initially you are able to turn it into a void blade where you can get close on your enemy and deal melee light and heavy attacks also. Even though each skill tree within each weapon mastery is quite small there are various unique enhancements which open up new playstyles and with there being 15 weapons to choose from there is always something new you can try out. The combat is fast paced, smooth and very fun.
The economy is New World Aeternum is completely player focused and there are no vendors as such, coins are gained by either killing enemies, opening coffers you find or breaking down gear you don’t need. Other than this, there is a market in which to sell everything you find to other players. You can do this by either fulfilling buy orders of players looking for a particular item or by placing the item for sale at the price you are after in the hopes that players will buy it. It’s a great system as you can unload stacks of Wood and Stone almost instantly and get your money so you can buy any upgrades you need.
The game does have vendors but these are not coin focused. For example you can join a syndicate which are organisations that look for new recruits. By partaking in Syndicate Missions you can earn tokens which can buy you new gear and you can raise your reputation with said faction.
Trade skills are a given in any MMORPG and New World: Aeternum is no different. There are 19 different trade skills all with individual level caps of 250, levelling these alone is a colossal feat, Seeing many players cause the fast deforestation of any given area is common in New World: Aeternum but is a requirement for those bigger trees to even acknowledge your mighty axe. Equally you will see just as many new players back at the Woodcutting table making all that hard labour into Lumber, regardless it’s nice to see new life in an MMORPG that has already been around for a few years. A rerelease of an MMORPG means all new players are on a level field and it is nice to be a part of that community.
After a fair amount of story quests and at around level 20 you will obtain a mount which itself is one of the aforementioned Trade Skills. By raising your mount skill you will earn new charms which will change how your mount acts aswell as the overall speed of your mount. Training your mount is done by Feeding your mount and partaking in races all throughout Aeternum, again just one of the many activities that you can do in New World: Aeternum.
Without the overworld content alone, there are instanced dungeons and raids to get into aswell as a host of PvP content also if that is your thing. The game does have a transmog system which is the process of making your character wear cosmetics you own over the look of the gear you wear. The system itself is fine as you can unlock appearances for good through the use of transmog tokens, while you can earn transmog tokens in game they are also tied to the Cash Shop also.
New World: Aeternum overall is a solid MMORPG with plenty of content and I mean plenty. I haven’t scratched the surface of Everfall which is the second area I have come across and I have put many many hours into New World: Aeternum so far. The Cash Shop and Battle Pass are there but being a buy once game with no subscription it does give you access to everything and the Cash Shop for the most part is fair being mostly Cosmetic with a few XP boosters there.
A PlayStation 5 Review code was provided by Amazon Games
