New World

At 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.

While 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]

New 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.

New 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]

Will 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]

The 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]