Recent reviews by Ascendance

UPDATE:

You can see my original review below but I will now be amending this to a positive review, for the following reasons.

THE GOOD
1. The MMO aspects that made this game amazing are very much still intact: world trains; large scale, open-world PVPing, shenanigans in settlements, a renewed focus on PvP, deterministic crafting, etc are all present in this game still. If this is AGS' definition of an ARPG, this game should've been classified as one from the beginning because the identity of the game is very much still intact.

2. A slightly more simplified combat system with tap to target, a more fluid jump, and archetypes to help influence drops makes this grind of this game feels easier to attain to reach the massive end-game faster. More than ever before, the end game content of this game is accessible without degrading the skill expression inherent to this game. That means more people to play with which is never bad for the game's overall health. Archetypes also help heavily sway your random drops towards what would be useful to you, a much welcomed quality of life that helps you reach end-game faster.

3. DX12 Support - While buggy, if you've got a system that can handle DX12, the game just looks better. It took an already good looking gaming up to a new level that helps even more with this game's immersion. It's genuinely more fun to play now as a result. This game on

4. The focus on solo players makes this game more accessible than ever before. The soul trials are genuinely challenging enough to give players a pursuit to reach and encourages over-leveling if that's your play style. Because of the integration with console, more players than ever are playing the game, getting involved in the world, and truly open up the end-game experience for more veteran players to enjoy it.

THE BAD
1. Lack of content is still an concern for returning players. An updated Cutlass Keys plus a few extra chase items is hardly content. This is probably my biggest criticism of the game currently, because it doesn't help the game feel larger.

2. Shard system for server instancing can feel weird at times. It's not the best when it comes to trying to join friends sometimes, and I feel that if there was a way to increase optimization to allow for more players to be present in an instance, it'd make the game feel more alive. This is a minor criticism because it works just fine when there are plenty of people already playing.

THE UGLY
None anymore. This is a massive improvement in my eyes.

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I've tried to find reasons to defend this game and the company, but after the recent announcement at Summer Game Fest 2024, I cannot reasonably recommend this game to anyone that wants to play it. Let me say briefly what I do like about this game:

THE GOOD
This game has a certain fantasy charm to it that I think is the real appeal to this game. The world is large, immersive, and feels alive. It's been difficult to find another game that's able to do it the way that New World has, and I think for anyone willing to give this game an honest try (prior to Summer Games Fest 2024), you'd see what I see. You feel active in the world - like your place in it matters and has a real effect in it. Beyond this, the social aspect - when you can find people to play with - is great. Shenanigans in the open world or within the Settlements really helped to bring this game to life and feel even more alive. Add the game's great souls-like combat system into the mix, and I think that you have a stellar recipe for success. Sadly, this is where New World falls short - it's got all the pieces it needs to succeed with none of the execution.

THE BAD
There are plenty to talk about here, but I suppose we can start from the very beginning - with all of the hype surrounding this game, it was a complete disaster for nearly the first week. You just couldn't get into the game. Long queue times coupled with a lack of servers to accommodate the nearly 1,000,000 players at launch left a scar upon this game's legacy like nothing else. To this day, people still refuse to give New World a try because of how frustrated they were from this. Many people were unable to play with their friends as a result. Once these issues were resolved, however, even more issues surfaced - an incoherent, subpar story-line, tedious grind and questing system, and lack of end game content really made this game, essentially, dead-on-arrival. The game saw a sharp 98% drop in players over the next few years. Despite revamping the questing system, revitalizing the story with cutscenes and actual lore, catering the experience to more solo-oriented players, and offering legitimate power fantasy through 2 great expansions (imo) the game simply could not get back to it's former glory.

THE UGLY
With a content drought lasting several months, AGS promised us "big news" for New World. The weary, but loyal playerbase hungry for more content and things to do in a game that they loved were eager for anything that could help any of them get back into the game and sink countless hours into it. What we heard, instead, told us everything we needed to know about AGS, their view of the playerbase, and our investment (both money and time) in them.

We were blindsided by a complete relaunching of the game. Nearly 4 years into it's development cycle, the MMORPG called New World will be relaunching as a console-first, Action RPG called New World: Aeternum. As of the time of this writing, AGS has not clarified whether this means that all the MMO aspects that made New World fun - world touring, open world questing with random players, bustling Settlements, and large-scale wars - will exist as they currently do.

This comes as a shock and quite frankly a massive slap in the face to many current and dedicated players. All we wanted was more content to enjoy a game that we love. Instead, we were told that we do not matter, our money was all that was needed from us, and if further possible, to go screw ourselves because the game that we payed money for would no longer exist in the way that we knew it.

If Amazon is abiding by some strict definition MMO such that they cannot reasonably classify New World as one, but can retain all of the MMO elements that made this game fun, I will amend my review to be a positive one. Truth be told, even for all of it's faults, this game still kept me coming back for more. I can only hope that AGS does the right thing and provides us with an unbroken, refreshed experience of a game that all of us here knew and loved.

PvE is alright, PvP is full of cheaters. Would not recommend.

pay to win but easy peasy