If I have to choose between playing alone or with someone, the answer will be solo in most cases. And this remains the case when it comes to MMORPGs like World of Warcraft and New WorldWhile it is true that in these cases I need other players to complete dungeons, raids and other world events, the truth is that even in their worlds I prefer to do my own thing.
I’ve only been playing New World on PC relatively recently. The experience has been mostly solo, though I’ve encountered more players than I expected along the way. Many people call it a “dead game,” but I felt like Aeternum was very much alive. Could it be more alive? Yes, but that doesn’t mean there weren’t enough players to organize wars and find at least one or two people while exploring the world. The cities were always full.
I’ve seen two very different islands during the Open Beta of New World: Eternal: one completely empty and one packed with players. And while each option has its pros and cons, I’m pretty clear on which version I prefer for launch and beyond.
Aeternum, from silence to bustle
I was able to enjoy early access to the New World: Aeternum Open Beta and I’m sure I was one of the first players to get in. I’m not saying I was alone, but I certainly didn’t come across more than 8-10 people in the 10 hours I spent during this first phase of the test.
I was lucky enough to start near Prydwen City. It’s one of my favorite cities I’ve seen so far. It’s always full of people, but on this occasion it was completely empty. It was almost completely silent. There was no running around, no music, no hustle and bustle of workbenches. It would have been a ghost town if it weren’t for the NPCs.
The whole experience in Monarch’s Cliffs was very similar. I also got to see the settlements of Capital Corinto and Villabuey City completely empty. The latter is another of my favorites and it was even more shocking to see it empty. You will rarely find the plaza in front of the inn without players playing instruments to give advantages to others. The houses were empty.
The best part, though, was roaming a largely untouched world. I didn’t encounter players logging, hunting, fishing, or killing enemies. And when I did, we didn’t last long together because they would just get ahead of me. I did all of the above, and I stopped to look out at the horizons… because I doubt I’ll ever get the chance to see Aeternum like that again. I felt like Robert Neville from I am legend.
It was great to wander around Aeternum like this, but not so much when I took a look at the trading post. There was practically nothing there. I don’t know if it was because it didn’t load properly or because there really wasn’t anything of quality. This got me thinking about what I was going to do when I got to the first dungeon, so I didn’t rush through it either.
The situation during the Open Beta changed completely and reminded me of how I first saw Aeternum during the launch of New World…although back then it was via Twitch streams. I don’t think the beta brought together as many players as it did back then, but there were certainly a lot of people who tried out this new version.
The contrast was stark. Any location that was a mandatory quest stop was packed to the rafters. I’m talking about an average of 10 players per location and an enemy respawn so insane that you’d kill the creature and it would reappear before you’d finished skinning its corpse. It wasn’t always like that. A mission to hunt and skin three pumas took me almost 40 minutes because the spawning was abnormally slow and several players stole my kills.
I revisited the settlements of Prydwen City, Corinthian Capital, and Oxville City to really notice the contrast. It was amazing to see so many people bustling around at workbenches, trading, and playing music at every point of interest: the main square, the tavern, and the inn. I haven’t seen so many even during my time on PC.
One of the craziest moments during the Open Beta was during a mission relatively close to Bueyville City, if I recall correctly. I think I counted 20 players concentrated in one spot and destroying a group of enemies that kept respawning. The spawn went so crazy that the elite enemy respawned three times before dying, so there were three copies of each enemy accompanying it.
It’s not always nice to see so many people when you’re on a mission, and I admit that I got a bit overwhelmed at times, but I also can’t deny that I loved seeing so many people playing a game that I’m so looking forward to. And the worst thing is that this wasn’t the time I saw more players together, but I was so into the experience that I forgot to take a screenshot.
The only truly unpleasant contrast was the chat. Only two or three people used the general chat during Early Access to ask if we were alone. Three players exchanged messages. The Open Beta was a bit more unpleasant: from people constantly ranting about the game to a group of players arguing (badly) about the series. The Rings of Power.
Luckily, not everything I read in the chat was bad. I was lucky enough to witness several veterans helping new players and several of the latter sharing how much they were enjoying the experience, despite the bugs they encountered. Although nothing made up for my constant annoyance at people killing animals and not skinning them. What a gratuitous death!
I want to imagine that the launch of New World: Eternal It will be similar to what we saw, at least with fewer technical problems on the servers and a slightly less toxic chat. Amazon Games has a chance to redeem itself and make better decisions than it did a few years ago. Personally, I loved experiencing this extreme contrast between absolute solitude and uncontrolled noise.
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