In the decades of video games I’ve played, I’ve experienced a lot of different MMORPG games. I played Dark Age of Camelot with my brothers, was in a hard-core raiding guild in World of Warcraft, was a successful Rng/Nin in Final Fantasy XI, and played the absolute hell out of Final Fantasy XIV. With all of that said, the only info I knew about New World Aeternum is that I remember the game launching a few years ago and I was surprised it was still around.
I had the opportunity to give New World Aeternum a shot with it just released on PlayStation 5. I haven’t played ANY MMORPG (unless we count Destiny) on the console, so it sounded like a way to get out of my comfort zone. Over a full weekend, I devoted all my available time to New World and I’d love to share how it went for someone new to New World Aeternum.
My First Steps Into a New World
When I started New World Aeternum, I was greeted by a cutscene with what looked like the big bad and a little foreshadowing. I was then tossed into character creation. My goal in this experience was to go in as blind as possible. That said, I didn’t bother to look up what classes were best or anything like that. Instead, I saw that there was a starting class, or archetype, with a really big sword and a blunderbuss. Yeah, that sounded about right for me.
The next part is usually the hardest for any MMO I’ve played. I had to select the look and design of my character. I made a cool-looking lady with some big hair and finally started the game. For what it was worth, the customization options weren’t insanely robust but were absolutely workable for building an MMO character on a controller. I actually got through the process faster than I usually would and was completely happy with my character.
I played through the rest of the opening, learned the basics of combat, and maybe killed the guy I think was the big bad? I don’t know, but just a spoiler, I didn’t see him for the rest of the weekend. After completing standard faire fetch-quests and getting to the first real town, New World Aeternum opened up and I set off to… do things?
New World New Surprises
With my background in MMORPG games, I’ve come to expect certain rules. Generally speaking, you only use the armor and weapons for your class and build with those stats in mind. New World Aeternum definitely subverted that early enough that I didn’t even realize until I started messing with the auction house.
As I started with the Swordbearer archetype, I had been destroying anything that wasn’t a greatsword or a blunderbuss. It wasn’t until I bought a considerably stronger sword in the auction house that I realized I wasn’t necessarily tied down to those weapon types. I bought and equipped a standard sword and was pretty shocked when I realized there wasn’t any penalty or whatnot to do that. At that point, it really set in that New World Aeternum, at least for a newbie like me, offered a lot more flexibility than other games I’ve played in the past.
While I began to experiment with different weapons, it also became apparent that the skills I could use were tied to those weapons. This is pretty neat as I can do things like pair a heavy weapon with some magic, or try out different ranged weapons. I really had fun using rapiers and hatchets as well. Over the three full days I played New World Aeternum, I never felt like I was in a position where I couldn’t change things up if needed.
A Very Long Road Ahead
As I spent time playing New World Aeternum, I found it pretty easy to get things done from the controller. Special attacks are mapped to R1, L1 and R1+L1. Inventory is easily pulled up from the Start button and the map from the touchpad button. However I did start to encounter an issue at around level 15.
I have a rule when I play most MMORPGs. I do not like to leave an area until I’ve finished all available quests. That’s always been the norm for me, and really seemed to keep me full of fresh gear and things to do. However, quests started being further and further apart. To the point I found myself running thousands of meters to get to a quest. It took so long that I started to get frustrated. I also learned that throwing yourself off of a cliff just hurts; I never died.
Related:
New World's Mounts Make Travel A Breeze In Aeternum
So, as I was running around trying to get from one quest to another, I did see other players on mounts. I checked the mount option in my inventory, and it said it was unlocked at level 20. Of course I immediately made it my mission to get to that level and get a mount. When I did hit level 20, I was informed I unlocked the mount quest and I dropped everything to go and complete that. It was surprisingly easy, and also set me on a path to show me all the weird stuff New World Aeternum offered.
Quests for Glory, or Just to Show People I Can Do Something
One of the biggest takeaways I have from New World Aeternum is that any time I feel like I come to expect what the game will do, it’s going to throw a curveball. When I started, most quests were having me do things like talking to a character in one place and then another in a different location. I did my fair share of killing certain enemy types or even getting zombie ears at one point. Then I had a quest to fish. When I did, I was introduced to a fairly fun fishing minigame that reminded me of A Link to the Past on GameBoy.
After I unlocked the mount, the New World Aeternum immediately tossed me into a racing minigame. While this was far from my favorite quest type, it wasn’t all too hard to do. Even in that case, though, there are at least two types of racing quests. One where you race through checkpoints and another where you race long distance from one point to another. It was an easy way to get experience, and I liked to grab fast travel points along the way.
I continued to progress further into New World Aeternum until I started a goofy quest for instruments. When you play instruments in the game, it comes up with a rhythm-game screen that is surprisingly fun. I practiced the song I knew until I could play it really well, then completed the dorkiest quest chain I’ve ever seen in a MMO. I had to run around a capitol city and basically show all these people that I learned how to play a song. It was a real “Look what I can do” situation. I loved it.
My New World Aeternum Experience With Others
What’s an MMO experience without playing with other people, right? I did a little of this near the tail-end of my New World Aeternum weekend. It was, well, something. As it turns out, when I started a new character in the game on my PS5, I was playing alongside people that have also been playing the game. I’m not sure if they’ve been around since launch, but in most cases I did prefer the solo experience.
The first time I played cooperatively with other human beings, it was in the arena. From what I experienced, I played in a three versus three elimination battle. As I hadn’t played any PvP in New World Aeternum yet, I got smoked. As I tried to figure out what I was doing wrong, one of my teammates decided to get on his mic and let us know what he thought of us. It was interesting to learn that the game has a proximity chat.
I did try to do a dungeon as well, but while I expected to take a bit to queue up as a DPS, I never was able to get into a group. This was after going through the quest to allow me to do dungeons as well, which involved a comical experience where I got stuck in a hole because I didn’t know how to crawl into a space. If you are reading this and wondering the same, it was L2+L3.
I did meet some really cool people who showed me a few neat tricks to leveling up weapons by fighting never-ending waves of monsters. It’s not that all the players in New World Aeternum are mean, but there is absolutely a disconnect between long-term and new players. There were also a lot of interesting open conversations you could hear in major towns. I heard a story about how there “are animal buttholes in hot dogs” and also how a guy really respected someone with the grit to live in a two-bedroom trailer.
Related:
New World: Aeternum Review-In-Progress
New For Me, Old For Others
My biggest takeaway overall was that while New World Aeternum is a new experience for console players, it isn’t a new experience overall. Do I think there should be a little more server segregation? I don’t know. Certainly the game needs the new players, but there was a level of occasional elitism that was a bit of a turnoff. Especially when I had only been playing for a short time.
World chat was interestingly toxic and also informative. While I was grinding out some quests, there was an open discussion taking place about genociding a political party. While I was doing my best to ignore the conversation, someone started posting some helpful tips for new players in between the hate speech.
This person advised me not to stress about gear until I hit the max level. They also highlighted that it was important to keep your gathering skills level and level up your riding skills. They were adamant that the latter was very important. They also explained that you will be able to queue for dungeons after you complete a part of the main quest. That was good to know, as I was trying to figure that out.
There were also a lot of players trying to make sure new players were outfitted with reliable gear. That seemed to be really nice as it seems like it would be easy to really gouge the newbies through the auction house.
My Final Takeaways
After a full weekend of nothing but New World Aeternum, I came away with a few final thoughts. Will I continue to play the game? Yeah, I think I will. I won’t be playing it like it was my job, but I’ll see where the story leads me and try to do some dungeons.
I saw a TikTok ad that said it was the most beautiful game they’ve ever played. The game doesn’t look bad but graphically, it wasn’t anywhere near the best looking MMO game I’ve played (For the record, I was playing with the 4K mode enabled with an uncapped framerate).
There was a point when I was playing that the game really opened up. I started seeing a season pass, I was getting notices to play PvP and seeing new missions pop up to join covenants. New World Aeternum loves to just start throwing things at the player and at times, that can really feel overwhelming.
My final takeaway is this: New World Aeternum does some things that are absolutely out of the norm. Pseudo 17th Century sword and sorcery is definitely a vibe some people will enjoy. The flexibility of playing how you want is extremely nice. While there were some PC sourpusses out there, the player vibe overall was pretty chill.
New World Aeternum, I’ll be back. I’m looking forward to seeing more group related content but also seeing if the story ever goes anywhere!
