New World: Aeternum is finally here, bringing Amazon’s updated vision of Aeternum to PC players and, for the first time, the console audience. Releasing across Xbox Series S|X and PlayStation 5, New World: Aeternum brings a host of improvements, revamps and new content to the 2021 MMO, including new cinematic storytelling, a new open-world forced PvP zone, and much more.
While we had access to New World: Aeternum last week on a review early access build, it’s not possible to actually review an MMO without the aspects that make it one, namely the community and all of the social aspects that influence the world. With a player-driven economy, territory control, a new PvP zone and raid, we felt the most accurate way to review New World: Aeternum was to really dive in when the rest of the world would be able to as well.
This isn’t to say I don’t have thoughts from playing on the early access server: I do. This review in progress will start to unpack them, with more to follow as I progress through this revamped version of Amazon’s first MMO.
Welcome to Aeternum
Set in the year 1609 during the waning days of the Age of Exploration, New World: Aeternum centers on the mythical isle of Aeternum. A place where death doesn’t dwell, the Eternal Isle, as its come to be known by its inhabitants, has drawn explorers, adventurers, and more towards it throughout history, with those pulled in by its magical storm wall building their own societies and civilization reminiscent of the outside world.
It’s a world where Marc Antony’s XIX Legion took up residence after the war against Augustus, where King Arthur’s legend flourishes, and our civilization's legendary gods and goddesses find their roots. It’s an island in constant conflict with itself, with the forces of Corruption and the Angry Earth vying for dominance over the Eternal Isle.
From its first moments in New World: Aeternum the renewed efforts for story telling are on full display. From an opening cinematic that sets up why our characters find themselves shipwrecked on the Isle to the now zoomed in camera during dialogue scenes, New World: Aeternum immediately feels like a game renewed from the jump. Voicing every character adds a nice touch to the production value as well, even if the character models don’t exactly always look great in motion. The renewed efforts to retell the story of Amazon’s rich world are definitely appreciated, though, and I feel its a strength the team has been building for some time now, going back to its full main scenario quest revamp over the last year. This is that vision realized, and, at least for the first twenty levels, it’s marked improvement over the initial launch.
I remember back when I was working on my initial review series for New World and one aspect I kept coming back to was that both the stories and its characters were completely forgettable. The only reason why I knew who Yonas was is simply because I grew frustrated each time I had to traverse Aeternum’s roadways to make it back to his fishing shack on the edge of Windsward - incredibly annoying even if you’re in the same region as him, made even more annoying as quests sent me further afield.
Now, however, that questing structure has become more streamlined, with quest givers moving around more with the player. Sure, there is still some back and forth, but it’s mitigated largely thanks to this simply shift. Hunting produce and killing corrupted on farms in Windsward is made better because I don’t need to make the trek to Corinth, the settlement in the region, each time I complete an objective. Sure, it’s not far, but that back and forth adds up and it diminishes the amount of time I’m spent actively playing instead of auto-running and looking at my phone.
It’s still early going - one of the main draws for New World: Aeternum is this newly cinematic story experience, and it’s marketed as one that you can play entirely solo. I’ll be leveling a new character on the Xbox Series X to check out this new questing experience and I’ll have my thoughts more fully in future in-progress updates. But first impressions are good: the renewed presentation style and refocused questing has already paid dividends in keeping my interest.
Choose Your Weapon
One major change for players starting New World: Aeternum is the inclusion of archetypes. New World is a classless game, and players can master any weapon and wear any armor they choose, but these new Archetype give a bit more direction for players at the beginning who want to slot into a specific style.
I’m not completely sure where I stand on whether these Archetypes are good or not, as I feel they can make players feel locked into a particular play style, especially as they quest and level up, sinking time and energy into their initial weapon choice. As I mentioned in a previous preview, I wish there was kind of a “blank slate” archetype that allows you to choose your weapons, much like how The Elder Scrolls Online has done with its own tutorial, each weapon laid out before the player to choose from. While the Archetype would still be available, this other option would allow for some experimentation from the get go, especially if you’re someone looking to quickly combine two weapons that don’t fall under a specific Archetype on offer.
I actually felt this early on in my time on the preview server. I want to level up a Mace and Shield character, yet this weapon is completely absent from the Archetype selection entirely. During a visit to New World’s studio last month during our last round of previews, I asked Game Director Scot Lane and Creative Director Dave Verfaillie if this was simply down to the fact that you have to own the Rise of the Angry Earth expansion to use the weapon, to which they confirmed that was the case and didn’t want to make anyone feel left out if it was included and they couldn’t use it.
Personally, this reasoning doesn’t fully hold up to muster when you consider every console player jumping into the MMO from the start will have access to that content since it’s part of the purchase price, while it can be an easy and quick way to direct players on PC to buy the expansion if they really want to use the weapon. But by not having it as part of the initial Archetypes, it is a real hindrance if you want to build around it, but have to make your way through the tutorial experience leveling up another weapon till you have the tools and skills to craft one yourself - assuming you don’t get a lucky drop from a chest early on.
As a result, I found myself leveling up a secondary weapon while I hunted for the materials needed to forge my own Mace, which causes quite a bit of friction instead of just having the option to use it right away. I also fear that, despite the fact that you can use any weapon at any time, the Archetype system might inadvertently diminish player desire to experiment with what works best for them.
That said, I do appreciate that there is some more variety here at the jump instead of just giving everyone a sword and saying “have fun.” Sandbox MMOs like New World: Aeternum shouldn’t hold your hand the whole time, but nudging you in the right direction is always a good decision. I also appreciated the crafting boosts the various Archetypes offer - I found myself confused at first when I was just an hour into my character and somehow had level 50 gathering, only to remember my Archetype had a bonus to the skill.
Adventure…Awaits
I remember the first time I climbed the trail from the beach at Windsward back in 2021, heading into the small valley that holds what is now known as Corinth. I was excited to explore everything around me, especially as someone who was heavily into survival crafting games at the time and didn’t mind spending an afternoon chopping down a tree or hunting for rare ores to finish a crafting project. New World offered such a robust life-skilling feature that I found myself in those early days hunting down coneys, turkeys, skinning an unnecessary number of wolves, mining ore or looking for Soul Motes to sell on the marketplace, and I’m happy to say that even years later this loop does not feel old yet.
That same feeling of excitement came over me as I descended the hill into Corinth for the first time on this new character. I felt excited to see what was coming and how the storytelling had improved overall moving deeper into the content. And that’s a good thing for an MMO that I have already leveled one character all the way to 65 once, especially as someone who just does not like playing alts. Part of this is no doubt because it’ll be easier to just sit back on my couch with a controller and chill while playing, but I’m also eager to see how console players, as well as returning New World player inject life into the various settlements, territory wars, and much more as New World: Aeternum takes off.
I’ll have much more in the coming days as I progress further in this review, so stay tuned.
Full Disclosure: A copy of this game was provided by PR for the purposes of this review. Reviewed on Xbox Series X.