New World: Aeternum Review – Amazon’s MMORPG Returns

New World: Aeternum Review

I’ve been a fan of MMORPGs since the original EverQuest. Back in 1999, the idea of playing alongside or against hundreds of other players in real time was a novelty. Dark Age of Camelot was my go-to, but I bounced in and out of World of WarCraft, Lord of the Rings Online, Guild Wars and many others. It’s still true that when something new and shiny appears, I’m likely to drop in and see what the fuss is about. That was true of Amazon Game’s New World. And now we have its newest iteration, New World: Aeternum, which is somewhere between a reboot, remake and re-skin. 

As I said, I’ve always enjoyed MMORPGs, but with a bit of mixed feelings around the MMO part. Not that I dislike my fellow humans — well, not just that — but finding like-minded groups that fit my gaming schedule or attitude has always been a challenge. As a result, MMORPGs that feature solo-friendly designs are very appealing. It seems like a contradiction, but games like New World: Aeternum that have both single player-friendly and robust PvP or co-op mechanics are the ideal for players like me.

Old Wine, New Skin

In 2021, Amazon Games’ New World had one of those rocky launches common to MMOs. Long connection queues, bugs and a busted player-driven economy overshadowed some of New World’s better features. But enough players stuck around through the game’s growing pains, patches and content updates. Eventually New World turned into a pretty darn good MMORPG. Good enough, in fact, that devoted, high-level players started getting vocal about needing more endgame content. The developer didn’t entirely ignore those demands. They also focused on revising the game in a way that put more emphasis on the solo player RPG aspect. Perfect for me, right?

New World: Aeternum keeps the world-building and most successful game play mechanics from the original version, but sort of recontextualizes them, at least in part. Now, the opening hours and leveling experience feel much more like an open world action RPG, with co-op and PvP features opening up over time. In fact, multiplayer aspects can be largely ignored, but of course that’s where a lot of good content and powerful gear can be found. It’s clear that New World: Aeternum is trying to find a balance.

Come Back Again

If you played the original and are returning for a new run at it, you’ll find a much-changed campaign. The narrative premise is the same, of course. The tropical island of Aeternum has been overcome by a supernatural evil called the Corruption, and your overarching task is to fight corrupted enemies and aid those in need of assistance. The main story and side quests are the usual mix of fetch and kill quests, of course, but mixed with some political intrigue and interpersonal conflict. There are also some cameos by some real world 18th century celebrities, like the salty Irish pirate Grace O’Malley.

The narrative is fine, but as in any RPG, the combat, exploration and loot systems are the star, or should be. In this regard, New World in its first incarnation was a great success. Aeternum doesn’t fix what wasn’t busted.

Play Your Way

In terms of character creation, Aeternum starts with archetypes, which are essentially classes. Call them what you will, they’re the standard fantasy-RPG starters like tanks, mages, rangers, healers, etc. However, like in many recent games, the starting classes are simply headstarts towards a particular playstyle. Characters are not locked into a particular build. What’s really important is which weapons a player chooses, because the more a tool is used, the stronger it becomes. Naturally, characters also have traditional RPG stats like agility, intelligence, strength and constitution and these both impact survivability and power but interface with the weapons of choice.

All characters can use two weapons, and these can be mixed and matched and easily switched between. Using a weapon earns mastery points, which are applied to weapon skills. These unlock new abilities or upgrades along two skill trees. Especially early in the game, mastery points come thick and fast, which really encourages experimentation before settling in on a couple favorite weapons to take to max level. I would suspect that most players would have some sort of ranged weapon or healing spell and a melee weapon, at least that’s what I did. In addition to weapon mastery, players can level up their skill in 18 different types of crafting, called trade skills. New World: Aeternum’s crafting mechanics are strong enough to become a central focus for many, non-combat centered co-op players.

Gunpowder and Magic

Most of the combat, weapon and crafting systems integrate with Aeternum’s PvE encounters, while preparing characters for PvP as well. Overall, the campaign harkens back to old-school MMORPGs. There are moments of wit and drama, but the game’s dialogue and voice acting are a bit uneven. Outside of combat the story can feel like a pretty shallow experience. 

As a single player game, New World: Aeternum has a lot to offer, but most long-time players will eventually turn to PvP and co-op PvE for fun. There’s a lot, much of it carried over from the original release. There are five-player instanced dungeons called Expeditions, plus 10-player Raids. On the PvP side, there are 3v3 Arenas, large-scale War battles and a free-for-all PvP Lawless Zone. Add to that Faction and Company membership and Trade Skills, and it adds up to a significant amount of content.

Aside from story, combat, crafting and fellowship, Aeternum offers all the MMORPG mechanics you’d expect, like mounts and player housing. Player progression is fast enough at the start that most of these become accessible within a few hours of play.

Time Well Spent

It’s obvious that a game that hopes to capture hundreds of hours of your time needs to be rewarding to play. The world needs to be aesthetically pleasing, too. New World: Aeternum has a vibrantly colorful and slightly stylized art style. There’s quite a bit of variety across its landscapes and in its dungeons. There are moments of beauty in the world to be sure. There’s also a fair amount of copy/paste and not everything is beautifully textured or detailed. Nothing looks really bad, but character faces and combat animations feel a bit behind the curve for 2024.

Music plays a big part in Aeternum. Aside from the excellent score, diegetic (i.e. in-game) music is common and players can learn and play instruments together. Overall environmental audio design edges towards excellent, but I wish weapon and spell effects had more impact and detail.

Try, Try Again

Players with existing New World characters can access the new content on their original platform if they have the Rise of the Angry Earth DLC.  However, they can’t migrate or access their characters to or from a different system. Cross-platform network play is available.

New World: Aeternum is not subscription based or free-to-play., and no Amazon account is required. The two biggest questions are: should anyone who bounced off of New World in 2021 come back, and should new players give this a chance? For those burned by the original, Aeternum is generally a more polished product and the campaign has been rebuilt. For new players — especially solo-focused ARPG fans — there is plenty of content outside co-op and PvP.

New World: Aeternum’s mix of swords, magic and gunpowder is blended with a colorful world and accessible but satisfying mechanics. With a good balance between solo, co-op PvE and PvP content, Aeternum has something to offer most players. Nothing’s incredibly original, but neither is anything totally broken or missing. The most glaring faults of the original have been addressed. Whatever you call it — reboot, remix or re-skin — New World: Aeternum is worth checking out.

***PS5 code provided by the publisher for review***