- Publisher: Amazon Game Studios
- Release Date: Sep 28, 2021
- Critic score
- Publication
- By date
- Unscored
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Oct 11, 2021New World brings you into the mysterious world of Aeternum after sailing into a wild storm that leaves you stranded. While there are many things to do in New World, it can often feel tedious to make any progress as the leveling system relies heavily on the player grinding out tasks.
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Oct 26, 2021Amazon's MMO is an ambitious, player-led experience, but that doesn't forgive a lack of narrative or worldbuilding. For every good idea or unique concept, it feels like it's missing the chance to take the next big step and do something more interesting...And yet, I find myself returning to Aeternum's shores just to passively enjoy its community spirit and stick it to rival factions through the community board. I just wish there was something bigger to hold me there for longer.
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Oct 25, 2021I can’t recommend New World to anyone who isn’t already 100% invested in the idea of faction politics and PvP, but there’s a solid foundation here. Give it an expansion or two, and this could turn into something truly special.
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Oct 22, 2021The crowd who’ll be left out in the cold with New World are those looking for a rich narrative adventure akin to your typical MMO. That’s not really here right now, and it's unclear what plans Amazon has in store for it. Maybe in the future, with ongoing updates, New World can evolve into something truly special.
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Oct 21, 2021New World is not a paradise for all comers by any means. It's an escape for those willing to put up with some oddly misbalanced elements to get a taste of some really excellent PvP encounters. If you have a guild ready to grind out results and become kind of the mountain then New World is worth a look.
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Oct 19, 2021There is no other way to explain it other than an all-encompassing “One more iron ore, one more dungeon run.” I’m a sucker for it. I can’t help it. I am continually swept away by the tide of grinding, progression, experience bars, little chats here and there with strangers, battles over iron ore, faction skirmishers, putting a new stove in my house, and finally hitting level 60. I am a sailor slumped on a beach huffing on a bright pink flower. My flatmate says, bleary-eyed, “Go to bed. It’s daytime outside and those trees aren’t real.”
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Oct 16, 2021I was admittedly surprised with how thoroughly I enjoyed my time with New World. From the freeform character and weapon progression to the resource gathering and faction dynamics, there’s a lot to explore and experience. That said, New World very much feels like an MMO in a very early state. There’s not a ton of Expeditions, there’s no mounts, and there’s an obvious need for balancing with features like Siege. Luckily, MMOs often get better as they age, and if Amazon Games can build upon this great foundation, they’ll have a surefire hit on their hands.
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Oct 14, 2021New World is an MMORPG for fans of the genre. Although the work that Amazon Game Studios presents has interesting ideas for its multiplayer section, this experience will not change your opinion regarding this type of games.
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Oct 13, 2021New World is one of the most beginner-friendly MMOs available, but its lacking quests and PvE makes me worried about the future. The PvP, however, is a blast.
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Oct 8, 2021Posh PvP carnage featuring a for the genre exceptional combat system. Plot, PvE and endgame are however more limited.
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Nov 22, 2021New World is an mmo that could be straight out of 2010. It hardly adds any new ideas to the genre and therefore feels dated in content. The faction system offers interesting possibilities for wars between players, but is not yet balanced. New World demands a lot of time from its players, but does not actually give anything in return that we have not seen before. Graphically, everything is fine, and although the game has microtransactions, they are only of a cosmetic nature. There is no subscription: for the entrance fee, the entire base game is open to you.
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Oct 28, 2021Amazon has done a decent job with New World with its exquisite visuals and overall environment. They just need to smooth out those rough edges and implement some mounts!
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Nov 30, 2021An MMORPG with great potential - but there’s so much work to be done. It is, however, already highly addictive for those who are patient and forgiving.
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Nov 12, 2021As it stands a little over a month after launch, New World offers a solid PvP-focused, player-driven MMORPG experience that has long been missing from the genre, albeit one seriously held back by outdated quest design and a lack of interesting endgame content. Whether that changes in the months ahead remains to be seen, but for now, New World will likely only appeal to those who crave PvP and wish to paint the map of Aeternum the color of their chosen faction, repetitive questing and lack of content be damned.
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Nov 11, 2021New World is off to a rocky start, but if Amazon can right the ship and address real player concerns, it has the chance to be something really special. But right now, it’s an okay experience overall that leaves me wanting more in order to stick around.
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Nov 10, 2021New World is a very pretty survival-MMORPG hybrid that saves its best moments for the endgame – but you have to be willing to grind like hell to get to them.
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Oct 29, 2021New World has many of the fundamentals down, but does little to innovate or bring true charm to the experience, making it feel much too generic and boring after just the first few handfull of hours.
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Oct 26, 2021New World has the mechanical foundations of a decent MMO, with passable combat and good visuals, but its hopes are extinguished at the hands of dreadful PvE design. The few distinctive experiences that it does have, locked away behind high levels as if the game knows it has precious little to offer, are not worth the hours of mind numbing grind to get there.
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Oct 23, 2021New World's engaging crafting and faction rivalries are held back by abysmal PvE and a boring world.
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Oct 8, 2021A stellar crafting experience and surprisingly slick combat aren’t enough to compensate for the flaws in New World’s humdrum and frustrating quest design.
| This publication does not provide a score for their reviews. | |
| This publication has not posted a final review score yet. | |
| These unscored reviews do not factor into the Metascore calculation. | |
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Oct 22, 2021One could say New World is basic. And it definitely has some weird design choices scattered around progression, economy and world. There’s the graphics card issue too. And yet, something as simple as existing in Aeternum is fun and amazing: loved the aesthetics, the sounds, the animations, the combat, the progression. An experience too appealing to ignore.
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Oct 24, 2021At the time of writing, I can happily say that Amazon’s new foray into the world of massively multiplayer role-playing is a tentative success. There’s the core of a really phenomenal experience here that with continuous love and attention can blossom into an experience worthy of standing the test of time. What’s next for New World? I’m not sure. But for the foreseeable future I intend to play along and find out.
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Sep 30, 2021While I love the feeling of crafting my own stuff, slowly increasing the areas that I’m strong enough to explore, and fastidiously upping all my gathering and crafting skills, I can see those charms fading rapidly as the activities become somewhat rote. The dynamics involved in faction wars and territory control seem to be the peppy antidote for the never-ending rock farm in various undead shacks and homesteads. As with other games that lean into this kind of emergent gameplay (RIP Shadowbane), some of New World will be what players shape it into. [Early Impressions]
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Nov 4, 2021New World’s ideas come across as very solid, but the more I’ve engaged with it, the more I see problems. Those problems have nothing to do with the foundation of New World, however. There is nothing fundamentally wrong with New World besides the economy and lack of main missions, and only the former can destroy the game. The rest of the issues can be fixed with time and enough attention to the details. We’ll see how Amazon Games decides to proceed with what’s working and what doesn’t as I work towards the end game.
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Oct 6, 2021New World feels like a modern MMORPG. It looks beautiful, the combat is fluid, and there's plenty to keep you engaged. The island feels alive with warring factions and hostile enemies. And the fighting is very fun. You'll never be short of tasks to complete, but sometimes the narrative will leave you feeling uninspired. It needs a little more emotion injected into it. [Early Access Provisional Score = 80]
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Oct 2, 2021Will the early wave of players stick around? It depends on whether New World can stand up to their machinations. If each server becomes dominated by a single faction, or the PvP can’t hold people’s attention, the game seems doomed to wither on the vine. The game itself isn’t really the main indicator of New World’s 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. [Impressions]
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Oct 8, 2021The thing is, though, that I don't exactly hate it. I've chosen to be a carpenter and spend a lot of my days in the forest, strip cutting the whole place with a song in my heart and the sun at my back. There are a truly dizzying number of achievements in New World, and I've got my sights set on the Master Carpenter one, partly out of spite at this point. And, you know, a good MMO should facilitate you playing how you want. It's just, I do also really want to do the dungeons. [Review in Progress]
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Oct 6, 2021New World is a stunning and technical and visual masterpiece, but it is still very clearly in its infancy. What is available from launch day, however, is enjoyable, immersive, and polished, with great opportunities for growth. As more content is released, and activities are diversified, New World has the potential to become a powerhouse MMO on the same level as World of Warcraft or Final Fantasy XIV. [Review in Progress]
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 445 out of 929
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Mixed: 91 out of 929
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Negative: 393 out of 929
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Oct 14, 2021Awesome game so far. I hope they will bring us a lot more to explore with new content.
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Oct 16, 2021
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Oct 15, 2021