09/30/2021
Here is my review of Amazon’s New World released Sept. 28th 2021:
New World is basically a hybrid between Elder Scrolls Online and Albion Online. There are no classes and player abilities are determined by the weapons they use, much like Guild Wars 2 and Albion Online. Players must choose one of 3 factions in the game which help create the PvP dynamic built into the game.
The game is quite beautiful as this was Amazon’s flagship game for years. They spent a small fortune building the game engine Lumberyard from the ground up for this game. An effort that definitely paid off as the game engine was gutted of artifacts and legacy architectures which plague other modern game engines and creating an engine with minimal tech-debt. My favorite part of the game is the harvesting and crafting, especially the models/animations for the nodes that players must mine, log, harvest, etc. I definitely got my dopamine fix while running through the landscape and seeing a majestic Shockbulb plant with flowering buds of lightning arcs from it’s pedals that I got to harvest.
Now for the bad, this game is definitely not a roleplaying game. It’s a questing grind-fest of copy/paste content players must grind out in order to level. The big beautiful world quickly shrinks to a small clustered world after level 10-15 when the player is forced to pick up and turn in batch quests all while fast traveling everywhere. Every zone area is separated into level ranges and doesn’t flow organically at all. One zone that is level 1-25 is exactly the same as another zone that’s level 1-25. Yet players are forced to travel from one of these areas to another in order to complete quests. Players stack on top of quest bosses waiting for them to spawn in hopes to tag the boss for quest credit. Then to turn in for another batch quest and do it all over again. There is literally nothing about that process that’s immersive or has any resemblance to a “Roleplaying Game”.
Every player gets a map of the entire world so players will never get lost, losing the chance for players to truly explore the landscape on their own. However, I did like that they didn't actually put a mini-map on the player HUD, allowing the player to enjoy the game without following a marker on a map. Instead, players are given a compass which I feel was a better choice.
After playing the game for 17 hours, I have not needed any player-to-player interaction as every character is self-sustained and self-reliant. There are no roles to fill or any real need for players to communicate other than to organize PvP or for the occasional, mindless instanced dungeon. There is zero player-to-player utility such as buffs or any need for players to develop their own unique “toolkit”. There are no labyrinths, mazes, puzzles, or anything that would resemble a true expedition, journey, or adventure. There is a night/day cycle, but it literally means nothing and is featureless. There’s no weather patterns, or any conditions from the environment for that matter. There’s no fatigue, wet, soiled, hunger, thirst, cold, hot, etc. Death is meaningless in the game where it's customary for players to fast travel quickly by just dying, leaving you disconnected from your character and not caring about their survival. There are literally no gameplay features which make the game immersive and the lore that is written for the game, and the music, seem like a sad afterthought. There is nothing in this game for the roleplaying enthusiast and the game quickly loses its charm after level 15.
All this being said, this is a great game for people who do enjoy this style of gameplay like Albion Online, Elder Scrolls Online, Final Fantasy 14, or World of Warcraft. And compared to these games, New World beats them out of the water. But since this game is calling itself a “massively multiplayer online role-playing game” I have to judge it as such and there is literally nothing immersive or roleplaying about it for me. It’s an action-adventure MMO with beautiful graphics. And if that is your cup of tea then this game is fun to play. Although the RPG elements I'd like to see in the game are lacking, I can see them innovating quickly on these features with the power of their gaming engine.
If you are seeking roleplaying, journeys, exploration, and overall immersion, then this is not the game for you. The game you will be waiting for is the MMORPG Myr’Nora by Stormbreach (see link below).
https://stormbreach.com
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