It’s been a difficult week for New world. Amazon Games’ long-running MMORPG is now set to be relaunched in the form of New World Aeternum, which revitalizes the entire game, adds new characters and end-game material, improves combat, and delivers a litany of features additional information requested by players. This sounds promising, but the response to Aeternum has been extremely critical. The New World Steam page is still facing criticism, dropping the game’s rating, based on recent player responses, to “extremely negative.” Speaking to PCGamesN at Summer Game Fest, Amazon Games explains how Aeternum is set to transform the MMO for the better.
Criticism of New World Aeternum focuses on a perceived shift by Amazon to focus on the console rather than PC version of the MMORPG – one of the main features of the relaunched edition of New World is its overhauled combat system, which was designed largely around a controller rather than a mouse and keyboard. Players are also criticizing the pace of New World patches and updates and say that the reveal of Aeternum, after their long wait for more material for the PC version, seems insufficient. Of the more than 3,000 player reviews posted to New World’s Steam page over the past 30 days, only 10% are positive.
There are also concerns that New World Aeternum will compromise or sacrifice the game’s MMO foundations in favor of mechanics more traditionally those of an ARPG. Speaking to PCGamesN, live from Summer Game Fest, the team behind New World offers more insight into its intentions.
“I call it (Aeternum) a spiritual successor,” says game director Scot Lane. “By the time this comes out, we’ll have been online for three years. We have partnered as closely as possible with players to drive the changes we are making. This is the culmination of it all. I was talking to someone who was playing, who hadn’t played New World since it started, and they said “this feels like a different game, just in the same kind of genre”. I think that’s what we were looking for.
“For me, Aeternum is the ultimate New World experience,” says senior producer Katy Kaszynski. “If you played in 2021 when we launched and haven’t played since, when you come back it will be a completely different experience – it won’t be the game you remember. If you played, it’s is now the continuation of your journey.
So what’s different? Why do Aeternum, and why do it now? Amazon Games explains that it wanted to refine certain systems, streamline others and develop the final phase of the New World. The idea is to cut out some of the tedious work and build on some of the more rewarding and rewarding parts of the RPG, including characters, quests, and rewarding end-game material.
“The high-level story is always the same,” says creative director David Verfaillie. “It’s about this island that’s almost a character and it unveils the mystery of ‘what is Aeternum?’ » But I think there are new elements added to the stories, including new characters and NPCs that you will meet along the way. The core of the story is the same, but we’ve done a lot to bring in some really great new characters to accompany you on the journey.
“What I love about Aeternum is how we made the onboarding and initial experience great for new players. It’s not just the story. We’ve streamlined the questing experience. It also fills gaps that players have been telling us about for a long time, like Group Finder – we launched without it, and now it’s so easy to get into a group. This fills in all the gaps we had and is now a complete and ultimate experience.
Every long-running or live game will potentially face this problem. Months or even years after launch, when the foundational technical work is complete, the base game is well underway, and the player base is established, it is possible to begin designing and delivering updates and releases. transformative fixes. But if you have so many ideas and so many new elements that you want to incorporate into your game, rather than gradually building on what already exists, it may be easier to do a gentle relaunch.
“I think there are many reasons to come to Aeternum,” says Lane. “It’s a very different experience. If you haven’t played New World since Brimstone or before, it’s almost unrecognizable. There is so much more to do.
“We’ve done a good job of reducing the chore while still keeping it challenging,” Kaszynski says. “The work is still a bit there – you can’t have a game like this without a bit of work to get to your highest level. But now it’s a lot more fun than maybe a lot of people who once left thought.
“Most of the systems that players have played in late game are just getting bigger and better,” Lane continues. “It’s an addition to the end of the game. It makes the game more final. This is our first raid, our PvP zone. We’re adding our Solo Trials – you can also do them as an end-game activity now. We’re not taking anything away from the end of the game; we improve it. And one thing we’re doing for PC players: if they own Rise of the Angry Earth, they’ll get it for free: it’s a free gift.
Between World of Warcraft Classic and Old School Runescape, we’ve also seen some modern MMOs return to previous versions, so that long-time loyal players can still enjoy the games as they discovered them and fell in love with them. For New World enthusiasts, Kaszynski says Aeternum is a “continuation of their journey…the game through and through, plus the endgame.” On the question of an alternative version of New World, close to WoW Classic, Kaszynski says that Amazon “will always listen to our players.
“If we hear there’s some desire for this, that’s something we can clear the backlog of,” Kaszynski says.
While we wait to learn more about Aeternum, check out some of the other best RPGs available right now, or perhaps the best multiplayer games you can get on PC.
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Additional reporting from Summer Game Fest by Lauren Bergin.