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5 things you need to know about Amazon’s MMO New World
After going hands-on with New World, these are the things you absolutely need to know about Amazon’s forthcoming sandbox MMORPG.
Considering its influence can be felt in practically every other aspect of our lives, it comes as no surprise that Amazon are continuing their move into the world of video games with upcoming MMORPG, New World. If you’ve heard the game mentioned, or have given it a cursory glance but aren’t too sure what it is, though, we’ve got the five most important things you need to know after our recent hands-on session in the closed beta.
1. It’s NOT a survival game
Look through some footage or skim through some description text and you'd be forgiven for assuming that New World is a survival game. You start with nothing! You have to gather materials to craft basic tools! You need to keep your thirst and hunger in check! It must be a survival game, right?
Wolves are the least of your worries in New World
© Amazon Game Studios
Actually, not exactly. Sure, you may recognise many of these iconic elements of the survival genre but rather than being the entire basis of New World they play a small part of a much larger whole. The game starts you off as a 17th-Century explorer venturing to the newly-discovered island in the middle of the Atlantic, so it’s natural that you have to find a way to survive once you arrive on its mysterious and magical shores.
However, once you’ve established that early foothold, your focus in New World switches to exploration, specialisation and domination. You’ll want to discover all of the island’s secrets and find how you can exploit its resources to craft powerful equipment for yourself. Meanwhile, you’ll also want to settle on the land and build your own outpost. There are multiple ways to approach this, as our next point demonstrates.
2. You can make your mark as anything
Whereas most MMORPGs ask you to pick a class right at the beginning of your adventure and master it as you increase in level, New World instead starts you off as a blank slate and allows you to specialise as you see fit.
You can decide if you want to be a crafter, focusing on the likes of blacksmithing, alchemy and masonry. Maybe you’d prefer to be a gatherer, with an emphasis on logging, foraging and mining. Or perhaps combat is your calling, where you can choose to hone your abilities with a bow, battleaxe or sword and shield. What’s important is that no matter which direction you choose to go you’ll always be earning experience for your time. That experience earns you skill points that can then be put into refining your chosen professions even further.
Getting crafty
© Amazon Game Studios
In the alpha version of the game, it’s clear that some players have chosen to become laser-focused on a single specialisation and absolutely master their craft. You can, of course, choose to spread yourself across a number of proficiencies (and completely re-spec for free up to level 10) so there’s lots of freedom to create the type of explorer you wish to be. However you choose to specialise, you’ll find those talents attracting the attention of other players.
3. You’ll want to find a guild
MMORPGs do everything they can to encourage you to join up with other players – the clue is in the ‘massively multiplayer’ part. Nevertheless, in some, the option to play solo is entirely possible, with matchmaking and raid finders jumping in to help you team up with others, should you need them to clear dungeons or a challenging boss fight as a group. What matters, though, is you get to see and experience a huge majority of the game even if you decide to go it alone.
We really wouldn’t recommend that for New World. The game truly thrives when you’re part of a small band of players or a much larger guild.
A place to call home
© Amazon Game Studios
First off, it’ll make the construction of your settlement a whole lot easier as you’ll be able to draw from the resources of multiple players. Not only in terms of raw materials, but also the specialisations they have in different tradeskills. For example, where you may be able to gather some of the rarest materials on the island, your fellow guildmate could craft that high-tier gear for you.
Guilds also offer a lot of potential safety: not only in those regular batches of food and water resources you can utilise to keep yourself in top shape, but also as a way to survive the conflicts that rage in the untamed land of Aeternum.
4. PvP battles are the game’s biggest draw
With all that land up for grabs, it’s no wonder that guilds can descend into all-out war in order to claim it from one another. These huge battles between hundreds of players are a significant part of New World, so if the idea of charging into battle to spread your control over Aeternum or defend what’s rightfully yours sounds like a blast, then there’s a lot to like here.
Fortunately, New World uses a system that gives you time to prepare for these conflicts. Once a guild has declared war on another, a timer will count down until the target is able to be attacked. You can use this window to make any last adjustments to your weapons and armour, build more offensive or defensive tools to assist in the fight such as explosive barrels, or scout out good locations for an early skirmish.
Not the warmest welcome
© Amazon Game Studios
This cycle of claiming, defending and gaining territory is probably the most significant part of New World once you reach the latter stages of the game. With no developers-led story structure to follow, you won’t be off questing in the traditional MMO sense. Instead, the game is about giving you a host of systems to immerse yourself within and letting you play with them to create your own fun. What will be interesting to see is how enthusiastically players respond to this to see if New World does find a way to sustain life.
5. The island has many mysteries to uncover
Even though warring guilds and the battles they fight are a big focus of New World, it doesn’t mean that exploration and adventuring are completely neglected. In fact, Aeternum is full of secrets and hidden surprises for you to uncover should you feel like wandering off the beaten path.
A number of ‘points of interest’ are dotted around the map that could be anything from crumbling ruins, magical anomalies, wrecked ships and old fortifications. There is a lot of evidence that the island of Aeternum had previously been inhabited but now lies still once again. Well, apart from the magically corrupted creatures, wraiths and other sorts of nasties you need to fend off.
Don’t you dare say the ‘z’ word
© Amazon Game Studios
Taking some time away from all the tribalism of New World to group up with some players and explore these locations isn’t just some fun distraction but can also handsomely reward you with loot. For example, some points of interest in the most dangerous parts of the island are also where you can find the rarest crafting materials to make some of the game’s best gear.
For those of you interested in the lore and history of Aeternum, Amazon Games Studios have said that they'll be expanding on these elements through points of interest too. They’ve said they will be treating it like “archaeology” so don’t expect any clear-cut answers, but maybe a few clues you can piece together from what you find.
New World is out on PC, with no confirmed release date just yet.
