Amazon's new MMORPG New World is finally here, promising an open-world adventure like no other. Announced back in 2016, New World has been a long time coming, and players can finally explore the dark and twisted underbelly of Aeternum island. Whether you've tried one of the beta tests or are new to MMORPGs, New World has the potential to be one of best multiplayer games on the PC. Here's everything you need to know about New World.
What is New World?
New World is a long-gestating project from Amazon Games, the gaming division of tech giant Amazon. In this massively multiplayer online RPG (MMORPG), players find themselves on Aeternum, an island of legend that contains a magical mineral that empowers and corrupts those who contact it.
Led by player-run companies and 50v50 PVP battles, New World offers a bustling dynamic world entirely run by players and their actions. But if local politics and territorial control aren't your thing, you can still play New World like any other open-world RPG. Unlike other popular MMORPGs like Final Fantasy XIV and World of Warcraft, New World features a timing-based action combat system, which feels more in line with a traditional action-adventure game than the typical MMO auto-attack battle system.
Development history
New World was first announced back in 2016, alongside two other games: The competitive shooter Crucible and the multiplayer brawler Breakaway. Unfortunately, by 2018 Breakaway was put on hiatus, and focus was moved towards New World and Crucible. Development quietly continued until 2020, when Amazon Games announced that New World would miss its release window of May 2020 and be pushed back to August 2020, and then again to August 2021. The game was launched to all players on August 28.
What is a classless MMORPG?
New World is a classless MMORPG, which means that you're not locked to a specific weapon class or job. In certain MMORPGs, dungeons are limited to a specific number of healers, tanks, and DPS, but that doesn't matter in New World. It doesn't matter whether you're an archer, an axe wielder, or a brawler, you can queue up and fight at any time.
As you level up, you can use your experience points to upgrade weapon skills, as well as your own stats. While New World isn't class-based in a normal sense, you can still adjust your stats to fit the role you're playing. You can respec your stats at any time, though respecing later levels will require a small fee of gold.
Weapons
In New World, you can become proficient with just about any weapon you pick up. None of these weapons are associated with a class per se, but you might want to consider the archetype or role, you decide to play in the game.
Each weapon also has three special moves that can be unlocked by improving your Weapon Mastery, as well as other passive buffs.
- One-Handed Sword and Shield
- Bows
- Great Axe
- War Hammer
- Musket
- Spear
- Hatchet
- Rapier
- Life Staff
- Ice Gauntlet
- Fire Staff
Factions and companies
New World features both factions and companies for players to align themselves with. Factions are large groups of people allied to one cause. There are three factions in New World that players can join once they hit level 10:
- Marauders: A ruthless military force bent on establishing a free nation where anyone with the strength to do so can prosper and profit.
- Syndicate: A secretive organization of boundless guile and intellect in search of forbidden knowledge.
- Covenant: A fanatical order that has charged itself with cleansing the land of heretics and defilers.
Once you choose a faction, you can only freely change it once. After that, you'll only be able to change your faction once every 120 days. So make sure your ideals align. Amazon Games released a faction personality test to help players choose which faction is right for them.
Once you've joined a faction, you can also join a company, which is a player-led organization within the faction. Companies can have up to 100 members and are necessary to the PVP mode, War. The person who starts the company is called the Governor, while their seconds-in-command are called Consuls. The Governor is responsible for managing territory upkeep, town projects, and leading their company into war, though they can delegate responsibilities to as many consuls as they want.
PVP modes: Outpost Rush and War
New World sets itself apart from other MMORPGs thanks to its emphasis on PVP combat. The two major instanced PVP modes are called Outpost Rush and War.
Outpost Rush is an endgame 20v20 battle where teams must coordinate and balance their time gathering resources, building up their outposts, capturing objectives, and defeating enemy players. Each team will start in their own fort on opposite sides of the map and vie for control of three outposts: Luna, Sol, and Astra. Each outpost can be captured by standing inside its capture point. You gain points for holding outposts and killing enemy players. The first team to 1,000 points wins.
There are many ways to turn the tide of battle in Outpost Rush, so don't give up if your team starts to fall behind. You can access Outpost Rush once you hit level 60.
Player-run organizations, called companies, can attack Undermined Territories. An Underminded Territory is when an opposing Faction has performed a sufficient number of PVP Faction Missions, raising their own Influence and reducing the controlling Faction's Influence.
When a Faction goes to war in a Territory, a Company that has contributed at least 10% of the total influence required to throw the territory into conflict is chosen through a lottery system to become the Vanguard, and the Governor of the Vanguard may select members of that company to participate in 50v50 combat. If there are insufficient numbers in a Company to fill out the ranks of the Vanguard, the Governor may choose from anyone in the Faction, or from volunteers from the third Faction.
The actual combat takes place at a time of the defending Company's choosing, The attacking Faction must breach the Gates of the Fort to capture the defending Faction's Claim over the Territory. Attacking and defending forces can use Battle Tokens to acquire Siege Platforms to aid in the battle and traps to hold get the upper hand on their enemies.
Expeditions
In addition to the in-depth PVP, once players hit level 25, they will be able to join Expeditions, five-player instanced dungeons that bring a traditional dungeon crawling element to New World. Each Expedition is unique, from the mechanics necessary to advance to the boss fights, and of course, special loot exclusive to those dungeons.
Amazon Games promises that each Expedition will tell its own story and be a unique experience, with varied mechanics and puzzles instead of just increased difficulty. We actually got to spend some time with the game's first Expedition, The Amrine Excavation, so be sure to take a look to learn more about the dungeons of Aeternum.
Settlements and housing
Once you've reached level 20, you can actually settle down in one of the Settlements in New World and buy a house, which will act as a fast travel location and respawn point. It won't just be you owning the plot of land, however. Other players also buy the same house, but upon entry, you'll see your own personalized interiors. You can customize with decorations and furniture to your liking, and have up to four friends over at once.
You're able to make your first purchase at level 20, but you can buy your second house at level 40, and your third at level 60, which means you can easily fast travel between all three settlements using your homes if you so desire.
The local economy
The local economy plays a big role in New World. As you level up, you'll gain reputation within the settlement you're questing in, and as you grow in level, you also unlock new passive buffs (like increasing storage capacity) and even decreases taxes and fees for selling and buying within the settlement. Your Factions standing in the territory will also affect the type of fees you may incur. So, for example, you might want to sell and buy in a town that is controlled by your faction to get the best deal.
Crafting
In addition to PVP, New World aims to set itself apart with its in-depth crafting system. Immediately upon washing up on the shores of Aeternum, you'll be able to harvest materials and craft. You can craft consumables like health for immediate consumption, or cook your own gourmet meals with rich resources found on the island. Once you get to a settlement, you can even craft your own gear to help you on your journey. Almost everything can be harvested as well, from fish in a river, to the trees of the forest, to the hides of wild animals, if you see if, you can use it.
We've just barely scratched the surface of the game's crafting complexities, but the rabbit hole runs deep. While there's just too much to go over here, you can take a look at the crafting section of the New World site to get familiar with its complexities.
Does New World require a subscription?
No, New World will not require a subscription. Players will have to pay only once to gain access to the game's breadth of content. There may be expansion packs that release somewhere down the line, but nothing is planned at the moment. There are also additional in-game purchases that can be made with real money.
PC requirements
Despite the problems with the RTX 3090 cards, the PC requirements for New World aren't too computer-breaking. Be sure to check out our recommendations for best GPU, best CPU, and best RAM if you plan on upgrading for hardware for the game.
Minimum system requirements
- Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
- OS: Windows 10 64-bit
- Processor: Intel Core i5-2400 / AMD CPU with 4 physical cores @ 3GHz
- Memory: 8GB RAM
- Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670 2GB / AMD Radeon R9 280 or better
- DirectX: Version 12
- Network: Broadband internet connection
- Storage: 35GB available space
- Additional notes: Internet connection required to play, offers in-game purchases
Recommended system requirements
- Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
- OS: Windows 10 64-bit
- Processor: Intel Core i7-2600K / AMD Ryzen 5 1400
- Memory: 16GB RAM
- Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 / AMD Radeon R9 390X or better
- DirectX: Version 12
- Network: Broadband internet connection
- Storage: 35GB available space
- Additional notes: Internet connection required to play, offers in-game purchases
Is New World destroying graphics cards?
After the launch of New World's closed beta on July 20, reports began circulating claiming that players who launch New World while using an RTX 3090 will sometimes cause it to overheat, destroying the card entirely. While the damage wasn't limited to just 3090 users, the damage done to those players hurt the worst, as RTX 3090 graphics cards are incredibly expensive and incredibly hard to find.
While the reason for the issue has not been officially confirmed by Amazon, players theorized that there wasn't an FPS cap on the menu screens, causing GPUs to render ridiculously high FPS counts while browsing menus. In response to the issues, Amazon Games implemented a patch that caps frames per second on menu screens, along with a statement that claimed New World "was safe to play" and that they "have seen no indication of widespread issues with 3090s, either in the beta or during our many months of alpha testing."
EVGA, the manufacturer of the RTX 3090 graphic cards, has agreed to replace all of the 3090s that were accidentally bricked by New World.
When does New World release and how much will it cost?
New World has released on PC and the servers officially went live on Sept. 28, 2021. The game costs $40 to purchase on Steam or Amazon.
A new MMO awaits
New World is here, and it may end up being one of the biggest MMOs in PC gaming.
