It’s been almost a month since Amazon launched its soft relaunch of its flagship MMO, with New World: Aeternum hitting digital shelves across PC, Xbox Series S|X, and PlayStation 5. Built on the bones of its 2021 MMORPG, this relaunch brings in console players to what was a PC-exclusive for its first three years of operation, injecting new life and much-needed energy into the flagging MMO.
As someone who has played since its PC launch, it’s been a breath of fresh air jumping into New World: Aeternum over the course of the last few weeks, especially on a fresh start server. However, depending on how you’re approaching New World: Aeternum, your mileage will definitely vary.
The Plight of the PC Player
PC players have, rightfully, felt a little left in the dust by Amazon Games Orange County ever since the announcement of Aeternum back in June. While the MMO features new endgame features that, at least at first, would have been appealing to end-game PC players (console players have quickly caught up since then), there is a sense that there really hasn’t been a whole lot on offer other than a new raid and the PvP zone. These activities are great, and the inclusion of repeatable daily solo trials is a nice addition. Still, unless you’re someone who loves a good raid or a hardcore PvPer, there doesn’t seem to be much to entice a long-time PC player already at max level to return right away.
Many of the tentpole features brought by New World: Aeternum are really only felt if you’re a console player starting from scratch, or you’re a PC player who has decided to start over. The revamped leveling line, which is much improved from the grindfest that New World launched with is completely lost on someone who was already level 65 when Aeternum launched.
For those players who chose not to restart their New World journey, Aeternum’s biggest draw for the existing audience might have passed them by: injecting new players and a larger population into the various New World servers. While players can transfer from the Fresh Start servers to Legacy servers, which were awash with activity at launch and even a few weeks removed from that initial rush still feel plenty busy, you cannot transfer an existing player to a Fresh Start server to enjoy the bustling player numbers.
I felt this keenly when Aeternum launched, and I was deciding how best to approach this review. As someone with a level 65 character already, the idea of fully leveling a new character for this review was something I was hoping I could totally avoid. My initial plan was to level a character to 30 or 40, get a sense of how the new progression works, and then hop on my level 65 to take part in the end game.
But on Aeternum’s launch, my Fresh Start server, Bellatrix, was alive with so much energy, optimism, and excitement among players that the idea of going back to my legacy character on a server that felt dead by comparison was not ideal. I have to wonder how many long-time PC players logged on that first day and felt somewhat left behind on legacy servers, only to re-roll and play on a Fresh Start world. Or worse, how may logged off, never to come back after months of perceived indifference by Amazon?
The need to keep large companies coming from legacy servers and steamrolling the Fresh Start servers with established characters makes the transfer restrictions make sense, but there was no added incentive for new players, PC and console alike, to populate the legacy worlds that have been kept alive by New World’s dedicated PC playerbase. I feel like there could have been some incentive by Amazon to direct players towards older worlds to help inject some life into them as well, whether it be by giving each new character boosted XP for a limited time or something.
Yet, as it stands, I’ve now resigned to the fact that the level 65 PC toon I spent the last three years leveling is likely parked forever overlooking the sands of Brimstone instead of stalking players in the Cursed Mists.
This is where my frustration with Amazon’s decision to not allow cross-progression comes into play. There is cross-play with all platforms, and each console has platform-exclusive servers if they don’t want to deal with cross-play, but there is no cross-progression.
To me it makes no sense other than just wanting players to buy and spend on multiple different accounts to not allow for cross-progression. It likely isn’t a platform-holder issue: Warframe and Final Fantasy XIV seem to do it without any issues. Yet, for some reason, New World: Aternum doesn’t allow for it.
As someone who has sunk a ton of time now into both PC and Xbox versions, I would love to be able to play the same character wherever. There are times (especially when in a war) when I’d love to benefit from the added performance of my PC on my new review character, and I might have been more willing to keep playing my now-retired PC character if I could do so from the comfort of my couch.
New Player Experience
I mentioned here (and in my initial review-in-progress last month) that I decided to roll a new character on Xbox Series X, playing the MMO from the perspective of a new player. Since then, I’ve made my way through the main story of New World: Aeternum, experiencing the revamped storytelling, cinematics and story beats along the way, and as someone who grew frustrated with the grind in the initial launch, Aeternum is night and day better than it ever has been.
The focus on the characters and world-building does a credit to the storytellers and writers at Amazon. I’ve always been enraptured by New World’s Aeternum, this mix of the paranormal and the magical weaving its way through every living thing on the Eternal Isle has been compelling since I first started learning about the MMO, and it holds true even today.
Each of the various regions across New World now feel a bit more unique versus the initial launch, especially those early zones of Monarch’s Bluff, Windsward, and Everfall. Monarch’s Bluff’s Prydwen castle town matches the feeling of the zone, while Oxboro feels distinctly different with its high brick walls and densely lined streets. As you move deeper into the game, however, some of the later zones don’t feel that wholly distinct, especially the outposts in places such as the Shattered Mountain area, or Great Cleave. Indeed, many of the points of interest where you’ll drop in and out of to kill Corrupted and collect quest items are almost exact carbon copies of each other, which breaks the immersion somewhat.
Yet, despite this, Amazon has taken all the lessons it painstakingly learned since its initial release and built upon all the updates made over the years, and it shows.
Quests are fully voiced, and the New World team uses a mix of cinematic camera angles while talking to quest NPCs and small vignettes to tell their story, and it works to great effect. Unlike in the initial release of New World, the story feels more refined and better written, while the actual movement through each zone feels much better.
I also love the general emphasis on world-building this time around. When Amazon delayed New World back in 2020 so it could add quests that players were asking for during the previous alpha and beta tests, the launch product felt like the result of a team that had to rush a questing system in just a mere handful of months. As a result, while the world itself felt interesting and was a joy to explore, especially as a crafter constantly seeking materials to level up New World’s vast array of lifeskills, the story behind everything felt wholly forgettable.
Now, however, as I mentioned previously, the story feels more refined, and as a result, the years of building on Aeternum’s lore and background pays off. Seeing the connections between real-world characters, such as the inspired choice to use Jochi Khan, Ghengis Khans eldest son who dies under “mysterious” circumstances to secure the Mongol succession, to introduce horses into Aeternum, or uncovering the tale of the XIX Legion after they fell to corruption in Brimstone Sands, is always a treat. The way the team weaves the myths of our civilizations into the fabric of Aeternum makes the world feel so much more grounded in our real reality.
In terms of questing, before, there was a ton of back and forth, especially when trying to complete quests for Yonas, your Soulwarden guide from the start. Running across Everfall back to the fishing shack on the border of Windsward and Monarch’s Bluff may have forged bonds of friendship amongst early players who had nothing better to do but talk while on that slog that even the fires of the Shattered Mountain can’t break down, but it wasn’t a fun experience to do over and over again.
Now, though, quest givers and NPCs move throughout the zone with you for the most part, making each leg through a zone a much more enjoyable experience. This isn’t to say there isn’t back and forth anymore - there still is, but it’s much more manageable now as it’s not every major quest.
Along the way, Amazon has done a better job of highlighting its cast of characters, from the weary Yonas, the humble and intelligent Sun Funchun, to the energetic life of the party (and my personal favorite), Grace O’Malley.
Seriously, every time she took center stage in a quest or conversation, I would smile. I also love Isabella de Leon as an antagonist - she is such a compelling villain with one of the better boss fights throughout the MMOs runtime - especially if you tackle the expedition, which features her as a boss.
Some characters feel a little hit or miss, such as the knight Galahad and the sorceress Morgaine - both from the Arthurian legends that have graced the Eternal Isle, though their inclusion makes less sense if you didn’t start your adventure in Monarch’s Bluff. But by and large, the cast of characters is much more memorable this time around and makes the leveling experience much more enjoyable as a result.
This is all coupled with New World’s already incredible crafting loop, with each of its various regions brimming with resources to gather while you explore. And Aeternum begs to be explored. I found myself constantly stopping by the side of the road to pick piles of hemp, mine iron, chop down trees, and generally just let myself be distracted, knowing I could craft something next time I got to town (or sell it on the market for those looking for a quick way to level their own crafting skills). While I will never be a prolific crafter in this game, the loop is so enjoyable and has an addicting quality to it - even when I was too low a level to skin even wolves I was killing in higher zones, I still found myself trying out of habit before rushing off to do the same thing a few minutes later.
While the story presentation is better, one area where it’s let down is its graphics. Playing on console, there is a sense that an aggressive implementation of AMD’s FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR) is being used to output a high resolution while keeping framerates somewhat stable. Yet, it comes at the expense of overall image quality. Zooming in on character models in these cutscenes can oftentimes look like a last-gen game, with general blurriness across a scene or plasticky-looking character. Galahad always looked terrible, and it felt completely alien compared to an otherwise beautiful world surrounding me.
New World: Aeternum’s character models have never been a strong point, but on console, I feel let down by how they look, and oftentimes, it pulls me out of any immersion I was in. Lipsync also has been an issue for me, and it makes me wonder if there truly has been an overall graphical downgrade like much of the community has speculated or if the concessions made visually to get this MMO to run on console were just greater than I expected initially.
Performance has also been hit or miss, though this depends on a few factors. Areas such as towns run below the 60fps target if you’re running at the 60fps or even unlocked framerate mode, while busy areas such as the foggy forests and swamps of Brightwood also seemed to suffer in motion. Edengrove was an area where I could clearly see the dynamic resolution hard at work trying to keep the image quality high while keeping framerates stable, resulting in a blurry image throughout the zone.
Thankfully, the PC has actually seen improvements in its performance. Even on my RTX 4090 and i9-13900K, before the Aeternum update, performance would generally be under what you’d expect for a PC with that kind of power. Yet New World: Aeternum runs buttery smooth in nearly every area compared to its predecessor. Towns are fluid, even with many other characters running around, while even the busiest PvP scenes are much more performant than ever.
To be fair, Xbox performance hasn’t ever reached the unplayable point, but I do wish it was more stable like its PC counterpart. This is likely less to do with Amazon and more to do with the console’s power itself, and I would be curious to see what the new PlayStation 5 Pro offers in terms of overall performance down the road.
Catering To The Solo MMO Player
One of the biggest selling points of the New World: Aeternum relaunch was its renewed focus on solo play. While New World has always been an MMO you can technically play solo, it was never the most ideal way to experience Amazon’s world. Yet, with Aeternum, the entirety of New World’s story can be played without ever having to (directly) interact with another player.
Throughout the entirety of my run through the main quest line, nearly 50 hours of questing, I never once grouped up or was forced into playing with other players. And for many people hopping in just for the story, this might be ideal. There’s nothing stopping you from joining a group to run quests, but there isn’t anything forcing you anymore, and that’s key.
In an interview with the New World dev team ahead of last month’s launch, the developers mentioned that one of the first major points of friction where they saw player drop-off was when the Amrine Expedition forced grouping. While I personally feel that it should be expected that you would need to group with other players in an MMO, modern-day MMO players don’t seem to feel the same, and Amazon had to adjust to those preferences.
Related:
Should MMOs force grouping as part of progression?
Now, throughout the entire runtime of New World: Aeternum’s main quest, I was never once prompted to join a group or run an Expedition, New World’s version of instanced dungeons. This isn’t to say I never encountered players - New World is still, at its core, an MMO. I would find myself forming informal groups with players all doing the same quests, though we never really ever teamed up to tackle them. The closest I ever came to actually grouping with someone was while storming the Imperial Dockyards in Ebonscale Reach, with another player who was running the same quest waiting on me before proceeding, while I would heal them in turn while we fought our way through. But at the end of the quest, we went our separate ways, an impromptu group lasting only as long as the quest itself.
I actually found myself a bit upset when I realized I was never actually prompted by the MMO to run the various excellent expeditions throughout the MMO’s runtime. In fact, it feels like you need to go out of your way to find the explicitly group-centered content in New World, which feels somewhat out of touch with what I would expect in an MMO.
This focus on solo play feels at odds with New World: Aeternum’s endgame, though. To get the best gear in the MMO, you need to do inherently social activities, whether it's braving the new free-for-all PvP zone in the Cursed Mists or the breathtakingly beautiful new 10-person raid, Hive of Gorgons. As a solo player, there doesn’t seem to be a path to the best gear without dipping your toes into end-game content that is at odds with their preferred playstyle.
Even the daily solo Soul Trials don’t net the best end-game gear. On one side, it can be argued that the top-tier gear isn’t necessary for a solo player since much of the top-end gear is great for PvP or those end-game PvE raids. But on the other side of that argument, it feels weird that such focus would be placed on solo play without a viable solo way to obtain the chase items that keep many of us glued to our MMOs, grinding away.
I can understand the desire to cater hard to the solo audience - it’s a growing segment of MMO gamers, and every major MMO does this to a degree nowadays. However, having to go out of my way to find grouping opportunities or specific multiplayer experiences in a game that is, at its core, an MMO felt a bit counterintuitive. It feels like New World has now swung to the completely other end of the spectrum in catering too much to the solo player, and group content took a back burner. hopefully, over time, there can be some equilibrium found between the two.
Fresh Start Rocks
When October 15th rolled around, and servers started to fill, my Fresh Start server was awash with activity. It felt like New World’s 2021 launch, and while player counts on PC would never reach the same heights we saw in its initial burst of popularity, the influx of console players seemed to fill the gaps. The beaches of Windsward were buzzing with activity, cities were jammed full of new players exploring crafting stations, loading up the player market, and forming the companies that would start to fight over New World’s various territories. It was abundantly clear early on that Amazon pushing New World to a new, broader audience was paying off.
Even a few weeks later, while we’ve seen the normal drop off of players most MMOs see a few weeks after launch, but my server still feels plenty alive. This could be down to the fact that I have found myself in one of the more active PvP companies on Bellatrix (shout out, Shield Wall), with our group fighting over multiple territories, running groups in influence wars, and more. The calcification of the territory control that stagnated my old legacy server feels far, far in the future here (we’ve had two wars in two days, for example, with another coming up - it’s a busy life for this PvPer).
I’m not sure I’d be having as much fun as I am if I had stuck it out on my original PC character or just rolled a new toon on a legacy server. My experience on my Fresh Start server has been stellar, and it reminds me of just why I have loved New World since its initial launch: it’s an incredibly fun MMO when playing with others and fighting towards an ultimate goal.
It’s also allowed me to experiment a bit with a new weapon build that I don’t think I would have had I not started fresh. My main PC character was a DPS glass cannon, shoving Rapiers down enemy throats while striking from afar with well-placed musket balls.
However, as I described in my New World: Aeternum review-in-progress, I’ve found myself going completely heavy armor with a focus (heh) on Void Gauntlet and Flail and Shield. I’ve fallen in love with the Cleric role I’ve played in groups, standing on the front line and absorbing damage with my shield while passively helping to heal the real tanks around me. I’ve even stepped a bit out of my comfort zone and have dabbled in actually healing with the Life Staff, which has come in clutch during Influence Races and Expeditions (though not sure I’m skilled enough to be relied on as a main healer in a War).
Wars in New World: Aeternum are still hectic and fun, though I still don’t like the fact that one of the major tentpole features of PvP will only ever be experienced by a small segment of the game population. The 50v50 nature of each War makes it hard to get as many players on the frontlines, unlike games like EVE Online or The Elder Scrolls Online, among others, which can support armies of much larger player counts. I’ve been lucky enough to participate in four total wars ever since 2021 (three of them with my current company since Aeternum dropped, the other back on El Dorado in the first days since the 2021 launch), but I know players who have never sniffed the War roster.
There’s no easy fix for that, and the new open world free-for-all zone of the Cursed Mists helps to alleviate any issues of not getting a frantic, frenetic PvP experience outside of Outpost Rush. But my hope is that, especially with the performance advances with Aeternum, Wars can be expanded and, in the future, additions to Aeternum can be made to reignite those early rushes for land as time goes on.
Monetization
One area I haven’t touched on much is the monetization. New World: Aeternum is a buy-to-play MMO across all its platforms, with no subscription fee for players. This invariably means there is an in-game shop which sells everything from cosmetics to convenience items such as weapon XP boosters and more.
Personally, I don’t mind these types of stores, especially since currency can be earned through the Season Rewards track so you technically don’t have to spend any money if you don’t want to. However, remember when I was complaining about the lack of cross-progression? This is where it was most keenly felt for me.
I hate the fact that I now have purchases on two separate platforms that I cannot combine or use interchangeably. Mounts I bought on PC aren’t available on my Xbox version without buying them again. Those Transmogs I have on console? Yea, can’t use them on PC, which may force my hand into buying more Transmog tokens the next time I get the itch to boot up the Stylemancer to match my new preferred cosmetic look.
Full Disclosure: Amazon did provide about 10K Marks of Fortune for us in this review, but I have now spent an additional $55 of my own money on the store to try to get some parity with my PC version (as well as buy the premium track on the Season Reward pass). I don’t mind spending money and supporting a game I like, and I don’t think there is anything Amazon is doing with its storefront or prices that is nefarious. I just wish it didn’t feel like I was wasting money on one platform or the other by not having access to the same purchases across versions.
It’s a problem that new players won’t have to worry about, but it’s a problem that has also been solved by other MMORPGs on console and PC, so it’s confusing to me why it’s at play here. The lack of cross-progression and what it means for store purchases is likely my biggest issue with New World: Aeternum if I’m honest, and it’s one I hope they figure out how to fix, whether it’s allowing players to link accounts to sync purchases or just offer full cross-progression. Something.
Where do we go from here?
New World: Aeternum is the most accessible version of the MMO since it launched in 2021, and that’s by a longshot. The revamped quest chain is much more palatable, while the new cinematic presentation and approach to storytelling makes romping through its 65 levels much more enjoyable than it used to be.
Bringing it to console also has reinvigorated the game with fresh perspectives, new energy, and, most importantly, bodies that the MMO has desperately needed in recent months. The MMO feels right at home on console as well thanks to its limited combat action bar and focus on dodging, positioning and timing over simply spamming a rotation of skills like MMOs of yesteryear.
Yet, even just a few weeks removed from New World: Aeternum’s launch, I can’t help but wonder what is next. As of the time of this writing, we don’t have a roadmap for New World’s future. There’s no real news as to what players can expect next, especially those PC players who have yearned for a more defined content roadmap ever since they felt spurned by the Aeternum announcement back in June.
While Amazon Games told me during our interviews back at our visit to the studio in September that the plan is to get back to the seasonal content rotation that they had in place before the studio went heads down on Aeternum’s launch, the radio silence on definite future plans is deafening. For PC players who feel they’ve already exhausted the new end-game activities they waited months to dive into, the lack of a clear roadmap could see them hang their Ice Gauntlets and Fire Staves up for good. For the newly franchised players who jumped in with Aeternum’s launch who might not be big PvPers and are looking around for something to keep them logging in, a roadmap can’t come fast enough.
While we are currently in Aeternum’s launch Season, I’ll be interested to see what the future holds and whether the MMO has staying power on its new console homes. The test of any live service, especially nowadays, is that constant drip feed of content, and while there is a sizable amount on offer at the jump, players are always looking for what’s to come or jumping to the next new hotness.
Conclusion
New World: Aeternum is leaps and bounds improved over the initial 2021 offering. Its quest chains and story progression are just better than they’ve ever been, while its world-building shines as the team has built on its lore and characters over the years. PvP is still fun, if that’s what you’re into, and its Expeditions are still a highlight. Despite its solo focus, New World is still, by its very nature, inherently social. You’ll never find yourself completely alone in Aeternum unless you’re in a Soul Trial.
Yet it still has a host of issues that hold it back from truly being great. Its endgame feels at odds with itself, especially if you’re a solo player looking to get the best gear that is out of reach unless you’re willing to brave the new free-for-all PvP zone or 10-person raid. Its console version suffers from performance and visual issues, making the overall presentation at times feel decidedly last-gen. The lack of cross-progression still really bothers me, but for new players this won’t really be an issue, which likely influenced Amazon’s thinking here.
During the last three weeks, I’ve found New World exhilarating at times, especially during long Influence Races, fighting Isabella or Artemis in challenging Soul Trials, or defending my company’s territory from our Marauder and Syndicate enemies. It has been tremendous fun over this review period, and I can easily see myself keeping New World in the main rotation of MMOs I play again.
New World: Aeternum isn’t perfect, but it’s a fun experience that feels like the definitive version of Amazon’s flagship MMO. The question still remains whether Amazon can stick the landing with post-launch content, but the MMO is the best it has ever been and well worth a visit to the Eternal Isle if you’ve ever thought of dipping your toes into its Azoth-laden waters.
Full Disclosure: A copy of the game was provided by Amazon PR for the purposes of this review. Amazon also provided 10K Marks of Fortune as part of the review process, though we did spend about $55 of our own money to test out the store's monetization in addition to this. Reviewed on Xbox Series X.
