Is New World: Aeternum Good? Beta Impressions

Over the weekend, Amazon Games let us enjoy the open beta for New World: Aeternum. Over this same weekend, I have discovered that this is exactly the type of MMO I have been looking for on consoles. With already established titles such as Elder Scrolls Online and Black Desert, both of which are great in their own ways, I still felt something was missing. I am not sure why, but New World reminds me much of my first time playing World Of Warcraft way back in 2004. I'm old, okay? So let us jump into some of the good and some of the bad and get an answer on whether or not you should play New World at launch.

Beta Blockers

I think betas are great. They're great for server load tests, bug fixes, and players get a chance to mess around with the game and decide if they like it. When I first loaded up New World (I have not played on PC previous to this) on my Playstation 5, I did not know what to think. The character creator was alright but I couldn't help but notice the lack of detail in everything. It seemed very muddy compared to the screenshots I was shown. Again, this is beta so nothing is final but it was still jarring that we were sent into the PS3 era for a moment. Once I created my 80's glam-rock star though, it was on. Being launched into the story and being able to battle right away was great. The combat is pretty good and felt as equal on a controller. I picked a class that let me use a rapier and a musket as my weapons of choice and I am glad I did. The musket allowed me to pick away at my foes and then slice them up close with my rapier. It is a fun system that allows the use of your traditional skills you'd find in an MMO or an ARPG. I had a skill that would ignite my enemies when hit with the first shot. I furthered this by pumping in skill points to enhancers that would add second to how long an enemy burned or the amount of damage a headshot would do. Upgrading your skills per level, your region's affinity (you can even lower crafting fee's or foraging times) are good motivators to keep in a region and hunt/gather. Heck, you can even purchase a home within a city and reside there. It's pretty in-depth. 

Wars between regions may break out as events and even though I did not get to experience it in the beta, it seems like such a cool thing to check out and have me coming back to participate in events. 

The open beta did, however, let you do a ton of things within the game. At one point I picked a job to become the town's armorer. I was easily the worst they'd ever seen because, in the middle of my duties, I found a haunted pirate sanctuary and spent way too long battling the undead, scurvy-filled, salty dogs. I became immersed in the world. As great as the previously mentioned Elder Scrolls Online is, I never really felt like I was living there. New World had me feeling like I was looking for my home and deciding where I wanted to stay for long periods of time.

Each quest was pretty rewarding and offered some rewards that would level my gear score up to increase in damage or overall health. I got to play in a solo trial where it was just me versus a boss and it was pretty exciting. Using all the skills and abilities I've learned leading up to level 20 and still not knowing if I would make it out alive was fun. I even completed a fishing quest that eventually netted me a whole fishing outfit that gave a boost to my chances of catching rare fish. 

There were some hiccups, though. Low frame rates at times, rubberbanding and straight up crashes. Since this was a beta, I am staying optimistic and chalking it up to that. I also encountered an issue while dueling other players that hit detection could be spotty. Again, could be because of the fact that a bunch of people popped onto the beta to test. The servers were extremely lively and active so that's a plus.

(M)MO People Less Problems?

The one thing that has always overwhelmed me with MMOs was that you need to be social and in a good party/group to do anything. At least easier, anyway. With New World, I found doing a quest was fun even solo as I would follow a group of people to a destination, take on a boss or objective, and celebrate with them. Some by dancing and some by dueling. Either way, there was always a good amount of people near where I needed to go and I even sometimes stopped to observe people's skills and gear just to be nosey. 

The chat was always going pretty fast with people discussing if they liked the beta and offering people to join their parties. I typically avoid chat at all costs but for purposes of testing, I chimed in every once in a while and people were pretty helpful. It's a good sign that people were at least curious and now retention becomes the focus. New World is a $60 game and doesn't require a subscription (other than Playstation Plus or Xbox Game Pass) to play. Amazon needs to show people it's worth the initial price point to hop in and then have a solid road map upfront to keep playes playing. So far, though, it seems to be pretty solid.

Final Thoughts

I feel like even though I missed the boat of the original launch on PC, New World seems to be making the turn in a way that Final Fantasy XIV once did. Starting new and allowing a whole new player base to experience all of the content it has to offer. Make no mistake, though, they are marketing the game as an Action RPG and it is absolutely an MMO with ARPG elements. Personally, I feel New World will be a day one pick-up for me and I am already experiencing withdrawals knowing I have a whole month before the release on consoles. With some polish and fine-tuning, New World can shape up to be a solid replacement or alternative to the powerhouse MMOs currently dominating the space. I will definitely recommend the game in its current state to anyone looking to spend a few hundred hours in a fantasy world. New World releases October 16th on Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, and Steam (PC).