Fans have long awaited the closed beta for New World, Amazon’s first foray into the MMO genre. With a peak of more than 700,000 viewers on Twitch the new game has all the attention it could ask for. Unfortunately that also meant long waiting times and servers straining under the load.
All is well that ends well?
Not necessarily what we would have expected after New World repeatedly ran into development issues and had to delay the game twice. Promising players a vibrant world with focus on open world PvP, survival aspects and a fresh setting, New World is going for their own take on the genre. Initial reactions to the game are mixed. Many players enjoy the more action-oriented combat system, which does not have fixed classes as many other MMOs do.
But players have also issued quite a bit of critique for the closed beta. Character creation does not offer enough choices for some, while others are not happy with the UI and its lack of minimap. Storytelling is also an aspect often mentioned as lacking as the majority of quests outside of the main story seem to be fetch or kill quests without larger narratives.
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Will New World succeed?
The current hype is certainly a good indicator that MMO players in general are searching for something new. Whether or not it will succeed and carve out its own playerbase between World of Warcraft, Elder Scrolls Online, Final Fantasy XIV and more will be a question that largely depends on the endgame content. The addition of dungeons to the game in comparison to the last test in August 2020 will do much to offer more variety to players that are searching for other content besides PvP.
20 vs 20 battles over Outposts also offer more variety for PvP players that are looking for something in between Open World PvP and the large scale instanced battlefields. As the Closed Beta has only been running for a day now it is too soon to make a judgement on the long-term goals for players. But if Amazon Games’ works on the smaller complaints while also offering a strong and varied endgame, it could become a truly great MMO.
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