As someone who has spent far too much time cutting down yews inRunescape, the chance to wash ashore another MMORPG was not going to pass me by.
The genre is unique in attempting to facilitate a fun single player experience that merges into a wider multiplayer one, in a massive uncharted world.
Taking place on the island of Aeternum, the setting is highly inspired by exploration of the new world, full of pirates and magic and treasure; a respite from thegeneric fantasy MMOs often provide.
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WhileNew World: Aeternumisn’t technically a new release (the Amazon Games title launched in 2021), Aeternum offers some new experiences and a fresh coat of paint to old players, while gaining a whole audience of new players due to console crossplay.
As someone who hadn’t had the chance to play New World yet, I was eager to play the “remaster”, and dive into the grind we all know and love. But does New World: Aeternum break new ground on the MMO scene? Let’s set sail on this review and find out.
Desert Island Disks
The vibrant island of Aeternum provides the backdrop to your castaway tale, having shipwrecked in an unknown land full of cursed people and cursed monsters, where no one truly dies.
Instead, they go mad, whether it be from the evil red energy “Corruption” or from starvation. There is a force intent on taking control of the ancient powers of the land and you are there to stop it.
As is often the case with MMORPG, the story comes second in Aeternum. It’s a bit hard to run out the “Chosen One” plotline in any game where you see hundreds of other weirdly dressed folks running around doing the exact same thing as you.
That isn’t to say there aren’t delightful, funny, or frightening characters in Aeternum. The voice of the Corruption constantly speaks in your head as you progress through the main plot, attempting to turn you to their side. There’s the enigmatic Grace O’Malley, a pirate intent on striking gold and then leaving the cursed land.
Set dressing can only do so much, and there’s a constant string of enigmatic quest-givers that do draw you in as you run around the island. Which you will be doing alotof.
An Accessible Grind
With any entry to the MMO, grind is to be expected. You’re going to be running around occasionally empty feeling worlds, running through the same enemy encampments, fighting the same monsters, over and over.
New World: Aeternum is no different. What Aeternum does offer to the MMORPG genre is a new level of flexibility and accessibility, in the form of its character progression options.
You have standard gameplay things like gear scores, stats, and passives; long lines of text you’ll be sorting through as you’re looting enemies and completing quests. When you start the game you are able to pick a “class”.
This doesn’t lock you into anything, it just gives you a slight boost to certain starting skills, and determines your starting equipment. As you level up your character, you are free to spec your attribute points however you like, all pretty normal.
Where Aeternum diverges is the weapons your character uses. These operate as your “classes”, and any player can use up to two of these weapons. From muskets to greatswords to healing staves to ice summoning gauntlets, any player can pick up these weapons and immediately feel impactful, with almost no downside at all.
These weapons level up individually and unlock weapon specific abilities and passives. Some of them scale with different attributes, like Strength, Intelligence, Dexterity, or a combination of a few. But due to stat boosts from your other gear, the fact remains that you can switch from a healer to a tank to a dps almost instantly with no repercussions.
And if your stats don’t line up with your gear or strategy, you’re free to respec them anytime. All this opens the door for a myriad of gameplay options, both for players going it alone, to players joining up and taking down dungeons.
As an MMO grinder, I loved this. I got solidly to the mid-game, picked up a new weapon type I had no experience with but wanted to try, and then ran into an Expedition (raids for non-endgame players) and did great.
I traded out a weapon type I had been using for 30 levels just to do something different, and it felt incredibly rewarding, new, and impactful. While the gameplay isn’t necessarily innovative, that flexibility offers replayability for all sorts of players.
The weapon system is just one aspect to accessibility. Fairly early on you learn to build a camp, which you can build anywhere.
This serves as a movable respawn point and a place to craft items. You can drop a camp right outside a fort you’re nervous about entering, and if you die, no big deal, you’re already there. No fuss, no muss.
An Aesthetic Archipelago
While you will spend much of the early game running around on foot through the vast landscape of Aeternum, the view isn’t without its charms, with painterly forests and sweeping vistas.
Additionally, running on roads gives you movement speed buffs, and the game has fast travel points scattered around the world to make quest hopping much less of a headache.
Aeternum even gives you a mount to saddle up and ride out on after you level up enough. This isn’t an endgame perk of anything or something you have to pay an exorbitant amount of real-world or in-game cash for.
Just level up enough and bam, you have a horse, making trekking across the island much more enjoyable.
Perhaps due to its price point, Aeternum offers an MMO grind that is less filler, and more fun, over its free-to-play competitors.
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Multiplayer Makes Aeternum Shine
Sometimes with MMOs, the multiplayer aspect can feel quite competitive, even hostile. Racing to loot an enemy after they drop, trying to get the last hit for experience; it can be frustrating interacting with other players. Aeternum avoids much of this.
There is still PvP, mind you. 3v3 gladiatorial combat and faction wars provide many opportunities to clash with fellow players. But in terms of just grinding and moving through the world of Aeternum, the game pushes you to work together.
For one, you can use campsites built by other players if you don’t have the resources to build your own. Additionally, monsters and treasure chests are lootable for each player, so there’s no race for the hoard. There is some slight XP sharing when killing an enemy together, but it is minimal at best.
All of this creates moments where two players are running towards a cave on the same quest, and they just team up for the whole dungeon, slaying monsters and then parting without a word.
It feels really great to be able to work together with other players without any downside or social tension and it lets you experiment with finding your role in a group before you get to Expeditions and Raids.
Alongside classic elements likeplayer-made factions and friends lists, Aeternum goes a long way to bring players together, instead of setting them against each other.
I spent 30 minutes in the middle of a town square, playing a guitar (which brings up a DDR-like minigame), just to grant buffs to myself and other players. At its core, Aeternum is fun on your own, and fun in a group.
A Rich World, with Little Depth
You’ll notice that I’ve said little about New World: Aeternum’s story, and that’s because there isn’t much to it.
What story there is, functions to set up the stage for a world of magic, mystery, and pirates, which it does well enough. What lies beyond isn’t received much by players.
That’s not for a lack of effort; there are scraps of lore and letters scattered throughout the entire world, and the game rewards you with experience every time you pick one up.
How this translates to the average player, however, is that they see a glowing blue book, pick it up, and immediately run on their way, content with the free experience.
A hurdle felt by all MMOs is the feeling of walking across an empty world, and Aeternum is not exempt. While there are beautiful forests, lush streams, and towering mountains to gawk at, the feeling of plodding from point A to point B is difficult to escape.
No amount of differently named or colored wolves can change that, no matter what.
If you’re hoping to level up your trade skills, like logging or mining, you’ll be spending countless hours in these areas, but don’t expect the grind to be particularly engaging.
The payoffs can be good, but to say non-combat skills arenota slog would be disingenuous. The scenery is great, just not much in the name of variety when it comes to non-combat gameplay.
Journey’s End
New World: Aeternum breathed new life into the MMO for me. As someone who often plays these games on their own, Aeternum’s mechanics that reward players working together were such a delight.
Combined with the flexibility to do anything, anywhere, with little to no mechanical backtracking, it offers a diversity of experiences backed by solid gameplay loops.
Aeternum doesn’t escape the grind, but that’s because it is part and parcel to what the genreis.Rather, Aeternum takes the grind and makes it a lower barrier for entry.
Tired of using a Fire Staff for 20 levels? Here’s a gauntlet that shoots black holes, or a halberd with lightning damage. Use them right now and have fun, don’t worry about the min-maxing. But if you want to, go for it. New World doesn’t stop you.
Overall, New World: Aeternum is great, and I only had more fun the longer I played it, which is a good sign for any RPG. While it sometimes stumbled withconnectivity issuesor empty world syndrome, the game more than delivers on its title: A New World to explore.
Closing Comments:
While Aeternum doesn’t do anything to avoid the pitfalls inherent to the MMORPG genre, it lessens their impact with flexibility and smart multiplayer mechanics. The Grind falls to the wayside while dynamic, fast-paced gameplay takes center stage. Married with a setting that diverges from MMO predecessors, New World: Aeternum offers an experience that will keep players invested, and enjoying the whole ride.
