If New World had come out at that time, it could hardly have distinguished itself from all those other copies of World of Warcraft. And now, at least a decade after the genre’s peak of success, it’s as if the developers are still trying to make a game “like World of Warcraft, but different,” without thinking about how a fresh, modern take. could operate in a massively shared world. This is quite a diatribe to begin with, and one that requires some explanation.
New World is set on a magical island where survivors of shipwrecks discover that they are immortal. They can die, but then come back to life. The island is full of mysteries and enemies. The survivors try to survive by building settlements as if they were colonizing a new world. See the origin of the title there.
You start as a survivor of a shipping disaster (with magical causes) and once washed ashore you reach the first other survivors. They have all kinds of chores for you to do, which initially teach you the basic principles of the game. This quickly results in a feeling of déjà-vu that you won’t let go of for the rest of your playing time. Kill x number of those, go to spot y, collect z. You get to know the crafting system and learn that fighting is through action. Action as in: you swing your sword, you hit the opponent and it takes damage. Dodge or block the opponent’s attack to avoid damage. It works, but feels a bit stiff. It’s very easy to get into a mindless rhythm of hitting, dodging and blocking to defeat the countless zombie pirates.
Exploring the world also earns you experience points and you will be more computer characters against other chores. Going through chores that eventually result in bigger jobs in the dungeons, which you can only complete with a few others.
Classless society
There are also no ‘races’ in the game. You are human. You can customize your character to your own taste with an extensive editor, but in the end you are just homo sapiens on an island with many forests.
What makes New World so frustrating is that if you have experience with mmorpgs, you probably love want to love this game. The idea of a new modern MMO with modern graphics and action-packed combat is very appealing. You also want to see the game develop. But if you’re still doing the same things 10 hours after you started, you’ll wonder why you’d want to do all of this again. For the ‘end game’? Weren’t we done with this, that you have to grind for fifty hours before the so-called ‘real game’ starts? It was occupational therapy ten years ago and it still is today. If you invite people to spend hundreds of hours in your game, you must bid more than fifty hours of “kill ten rats” each time.
