PC Gamer - UK (2021-12)

looking to take control of Aeternum,
with companies – New World’s guilds

• representing them by fighting wars
  and claiming settlements. When a
  company claims a settlement, it gets
  to tax players using its services, like
  crafting and player housing, as well
  as providing company and faction-
  wide benefits. These settlements are
  the hubs for each territory, so there’s
  plenty of foot traffic,
  and a lot of
  competition.
  Most of what you
  can craft is extremely
  mundane – some new
  gear, some food, some
  furniture for your
  house – and you’ll
  never encounter the
  meaty projects you can usually find in
  a dedicated crafty survival game. But
  I still find the actual act of crafting,
  and the gathering before that, deeply
  compelling. Unlike most MMOs,
  where you’ll find a few gathering
  nodes here and there, Aeternum is
  filled to the brim with stuff to chop
  down, mine, pull out of the ground,
  and skin. Even when things are quiet,
  you’ll still usually hear the telltale
  sign that someone is at work – the
  crack of a pick axe striking iron, or
  the thud of an axe hitting wood.
  All this time you’re helping other
  players, fulfilling orders that will
  develop a town, or filling the trading
  post with your surplus. If you’re
  doing this in a territory controlled by
  your company, or another company
  in your faction, you’ll receive both
  buffs and discounts, giving you more
  reasons to paint the map of Aeternum
  your colour. You’ll also get these for
  just hanging out and doing stuff in
  specific territories, increasing your
  influence with them and getting to
  pick from a set of bonuses.
  There are a few ways to support
  your faction. You can do town
  projects – craft this thing, hunt this
  thing – that contribute towards the
  growth of a settlement, allowing the
  company in charge to level up
  crafting stations and the like, in turn
  changing how the settlement actually
  looks. You can also embark on PvP
  quests that increase your faction’s
  influence in a territory until you can
  declare war and flip it.
  Most of what these quests get you
  to do is rote and repetitive, but the
  reward for this busywork is a real
  sense that you’re involved in
  something big. You’re building up to
  a war, improving a town, and actually

leaving a mark on the world. It’s a

small mark, sure, but combined with

the efforts of your fellow players it

can transform things dramatically.

And the PvP quests, at least, are

elevated whenever other players

flagged for PvP show up. Gathering

100 wood isn’t much of a quest, but

gathering 100 wood while 20 players

try to murder you? That’s exciting.

WORLD WAR

My faction, the

Syndicate, is the

underdog of the server,

with a grudge against

the dominant faction,

the Covenant. Our

conflicts with them

have been so one-sided

that there’s now a conspiracy

suggesting that we’ve got a mole.

There’s intrigue and paranoia, and it’s

the closest New World has come to

feeling like a living world.

It’s a shame, then, that the

culmination of these conflicts, wars,

are only for the privileged few. See,

when your faction has enough

influence in a territory, every

company in the faction has an

opportunity to declare war, with the

winner chosen by a lottery system.

The company that gets to declare war

also gets to take the settlement for

themselves, and gets to choose who

actually gets to fight in the big siege

and when. Since the lottery is

weighted towards companies that

contribute the most, it’s always going

to be the biggest and most active

companies getting to decide who

plays. And if you’re not in that

company, your chances of

participating are greatly diminished.

Even if you are picked, you can be

kicked at any time, all based on the

whims of strangers.

At least the world PvP has almost

no restrictions, and it’s where the

most fun can be had. My most

memorable experience in New World

was a five-hour PvP session that saw

me jumping all over the world trying

to throw territories into conflict,

accompanied by hordes of Syndicate

pals. It’s genuinely a thrill to see a

quiet grove thrown into disarray as a

murderous train of bloodthirsty

players charge into it on a PvP quest.

And you can even get a taste of the

war mode’s sieges. Every territory has

a fort with dense fortifications and

even some defensive structures for

attackers to hide behind as they

exchange musket fire.

While reaching the endgame

rewards you with some new

dungeons and territories to quest in,

I’m so tired of New World’s half-

hearted PvE that I’m only really

interested in continuing the conflict

between the factions. Unfortunately,

even that’s not currently enough to

make me stick around. It’s been fun

to be an underdog for a while, but

that enjoyment starts to wither when

you realise there are so few

opportunities to improve your

faction’s position. With fewer

territories and new players not

wanting to join the losing side, all you

get is a slow decline. There’s just a

sense of hopelessness, with the main

companies now planning on jumping

to another server.

New World’s attempt to tick all the

boxes has left it feeling scattershot

and underbaked. The PvE is the main

victim, which seems to exist purely

out of obligation. But the sandbox,

with its competing factions and

hypnotic crafting loop, kept me

logging back in, at least for a few

hundred hours. There’s still

enjoyment to be had, then, and the

busy servers make this the best time

to experience what New World

actually does well, but now that I’ve

seen all it has to offer, I don’t feel a

compulsiontocontinue.

60

New World’s engaging

crafting and faction

rivalries are held back by

abysmal PvE and a

boring world.

VERDICT

My faction,

the Syndicate,

is the

underdog of

the server

CHOOSE WISELY

What faction should you pick?

THE SYNDICATE

All factions are

functionally the

same, which means

the Syndicate’s

cool-looking gear

makes them the

clear winners.

They’re also the

underdogs on my

server, which made

me gravitate

towards them.

THE COVENANT

Churchy nerds who

love the colour

yellow, this preachy

bunch feel like the

natural villains of the

game, mostly

because they keep

beating up the

Syndicate on my

server. Leave us

alone, you horrible

bunch of zealots.

THE MARAUDERS

The Marauder’s

status as the most

militant faction

doesn’t mean much.

This lot loves a fight,

but we all do. They’re

still better than the

damn yellows,

though, and they

helped the

Syndicate out in a

few wars.

New World

REVIEW