PC Gamer - UK (2021-12)

WAR, WHAT IS ITGOOD FOR?

HowNewWorld’s warswork

Thisis trueoftheearly days, at least,

wheneverythingis new and the

islandofAeternum stretches out

beforeyou,beckoning you to explore

it.Butthisis a game of diminishing

returnsthatobstinately

refusestoevolve,and

withthehoneymoon

periodover,I’mlooking

foranexit.

Withitsbeefy

craftingsystem,open

PvP,player-ledwars,

anddynamiceconomy,

it doessomuchright

onpaper,butthereality is a lot less

scintillating:hourafter hour of

runningthroughforests you’ve long

grownsickofseeing, facing the same

enemiesoverandover for most of its

60 levels,prayingfor any kind of

noveltytoliberatethe experience

fromthedoldrums.

IDENTITYCRISIS

Eventhoughsolittle has changed

afterhundredsofhours of grinding, I

stillcan’tsayI know New World. It is

anMMOindesperate need of an

identity.There’sa colonial aesthetic

and old world pioneers exploring a

magical island that looks like a big

North American forest, but those

themes and ideas aren’t really

explored at all. It’s purely cosmetic.

And the PvE quests

and quest-givers that

normally do the crucial

work of fleshing out an

MMO setting do

nothing of the sort.

New World’s quests

are dire. It’s the same

handful of mindless

objectives and just as

few enemy types repeated ad

nauseam, with a structure that invites

exasperation. Instead of popping into

a settlement and grabbing loads of

quests for a specific area, you’ll grab a

couple, run all the way across the

territory to kill ten bison, and then

run all the way back. As a reward,

you’ll be treated to another quest,

sending you back to that area again.

With no mounts and a fast travel

system that charges you currency

with a fixed cap, you’ll be doing an

absurd amount of running around. If

Aeternum was the kind of place that

inspired exploration, this might be

less of a pain in the arse, but these

journeys are devoid of interesting

diversions. Aeternum is a pretty

place, certainly, and for a long time I

was happy to slowly saunter through

its forests and swamps, admiring the

natural world and the occasional

ruin, but there just isn’t much variety.

Combat is in a similar situation,

where the choice to use an action-

based system instead of rows of

hotbars is initially very welcome, but

quickly runs out of steam. Things do

get a bit more challenging as you

approach the endgame, encouraging

you to engage with the system more,

but for hundreds of hours you’ll see

little growth. When you level up you

get more points to put into your

strength, dexterity and so on, but

each weapon type also has an

experience bar, as well as two

progression trees with three abilities

each. You’ll unlock all your weapon

abilities very quickly, however, and if

you find a pair of weapons you’re

comfortable with – I stuck to rapiers

and muskets for most of the game

• you’re looking at hundreds of hours
  where you’re just getting the odd
  passive bonus and not much else.
  With five players and so many
  monsters, dungeons – called
  ‘expeditions’ in New World – are
  where the fights are their messiest.
  The first trio of dungeons are bland
  trips into underground ruins filled
  with things you’ve already killed so
  many times before, but things do pick
  up, with more distinct settings and
  tricky boss encounters that require a
  bit of planning and communication.
  The majority of the fights still just
  put you in a big pile of players and
  mobs where you can hardly see
  what’s going on, but you can expect a
  few more thoughtful scraps with
  unique enemies.

GRUDGE MATCH

New World’s real appeal, and the

closest it gets to a focal point, is the

faction rivalry. Three factions are

N

ewWorld feels like it’s been algorithmically designed to

ensnare anyone craving a big MMO. It ticks all the boxes

and, as a bonus, smartly takes advantage of the seemingly

inexhaustible desire for new crafting and survival games. It

ensorcells with its many progression systems and has this

impressiveability to make chopping down 100 trees at 2am seem like a

reasonable,evenentertaining, prospect.

WORLD-WEARY

NEW WORLD tries to do a lot of things, but stumbles frequently

By Fraser Brown

Things do get a

bit more

challenging as

you approach

the endgame

NEEDTOKNOW

WHAT IS IT?

Amazon’s attempt at

building an MMO

EXPECT TO PAY

£35

DEVELOPER

Amazon Games

PUBLISHER

In-house

REVIEWED ON

GTX 1080 Ti, Intel

i7-8086K, 16GB RAM

MULTIPLAYER

Yes

LINK

newworld.com/en-gb

1

Oncea territory

hasbeenclaimed

bya faction,it canbe

flippedtoanother

one,butnotwithout

a bitofwork.

2

Completing PvP

quests in the

territory and taking

over forts will

eventually throw the

land into disarray.

3

A single company

gets to take

charge, based on a

lottery that’s

weighted towards the

more dominant ones.

4

The company in

charge gets to

schedule the war and

pick combatants,

which is why it’s hard

to get a shot.

New World

REVIEW