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It’s hard to give a definitive review for an MMO as this is a genre of games that are constantly evolving. You can expect these games to receive regular and consistent patches, updates and new content expansions even years after they first release. These massive online player-driven games are fundamentally different from how other kinds of games operate, so we’ll be dividing our New World review into two parts. Here we’ll give our initial impression of the game and how well it works for a new player, and we’ll come back to the game in a few months and then give our impression on the long-term support the game is likely to receive and how well it has fared since launch. 

New World is a buy to play MMO created by Amazon Games. There are no subscription fees and so far, the only premium items in the store are skins. This alone is a huge positive step for the game as most MMOs released in recent years have gone the mobile market route with blatantly P2W items in the shop that basically tells you that if you don’t spend money then you won’t go far in the game. The entirety of New World and its various systems are designed around a huge open world that encourages exploration and resource gathering. New World isn’t Amazon’s first foray into the gaming industry, but it is certainly the most successful by far.

There’s a reason why almost a million players played the game on release and caused so much server issues in the process - New World is a good game that does many things right. We’ll start with how well the game performs even on low end PCs and offers relatively good visuals and framerates on older GPUs. The game is very well optimized and I’ve only run into a single minor movement related bug during my 20+ hours of play. The good performance is needed for the fluid combat as New World eschews from traditional MMO combat trappings and instead goes for a full on action approach. The game has a skill tree for each weapon, but uses only three active skills for each weapon type. The limited number of skills is a deliberate step away from the hotbar filled screens of older MMO titles in a clear move to make combat encounters more skill based. When you shoot a musket or throw a spear, you better make sure your aim is true or the enemy will dodge and counterattack. One of the biggest draws of New World - and yet another point that sets it apart from other MMOs - is the entirely player driven economy.

There are no NPC shops in this world. The only way for you to get new items is from trading with other players, going on expeditions or gathering the materials to craft it yourself. There’s certainly a sense of pride and accomplishment when you increase your smithing skills to a high enough level and also have enough materials to craft your own loadout of weapons. The game relies on a pseudo-Diablo like loot system that makes each drop just unique enough to make you excited when you see anew piece of gear, and so crafting and looting in dungeons is always a good time. The crafting itself is deeply interconnected between the dozen or so different systems in the game that actively encourages the player to constantly keep an eye out for rare materials when out questing. The system makes it so that even a high-level player can find useful items in low-level areas making the whole map feel alive when exploring.

However, the game isn’t without its flaws. Even though the leveling experience is great for new players, the game doesn’t have nearly as robust an endgame as other MMOs. While there are endgame weapon quests, PvP battlegrounds and plenty of skill grinding still left to do, a proper PvE raid is still missing from the game. In addition to this, there is still the matter of server issues that have plagued the game since release in addition to some quality of life features that players have repeatedly requested from the developers. These include better resource detection on the minimap, a less restrictive teleport feature and better server management for character transfers.

The MMO community has gotten used to disappointing releases over the years, so it’s easy to see why everyone is excited about this title. Despite the action combat style not being for everyone, most seem to enjoy it. And even though low population servers might have trouble selling or buying items on the trading post, the idea of real people who play the game influencing the economy by crafting new items and buying or selling what they need is indeed a novel and interesting one. 

The various systems present supports more community and social interaction in and out of the game making for a better MMO experience. I can confidently say that New World is a good game. And it has the clear potential to be a great one. 

About the author: Maldivian Gaming League is a team of e-sports organizers and competition promoters based in the Maldives. For more information, check them out on Facebook or Instagram.