It was obvious that the launch of New World: Eternal It wasn’t going to be the dementia it was three years ago with its original version. The initial reception in 2021 was full of emotion, many queues and no less problems. Amazon Games’ decisions ended up scaring away many players and creating a general rejection, despite the fact that many updates and content were released.
Aeternum is a new version of New World available for PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X, and includes cosplay. I have been able to try several betas, including the Open Beta which was available for all platforms. Yesterday the final version of the game was released and I have played around 10 hours to tell you what my first steps were like. The final analysis will take a while to arrive due to its MMORPG nature. There is much to discover and try.
A very different story from three years ago, for better and worse
The truth is that it is not the first time that I have come to Eternal. Not the second, third or fourth. I have arrived at least a dozen times with different characters in both the original PC version and the PS5 early access versions over the past few months. I know a good part of the southern area of the map like the back of my hand. I have about 80 hours (+10 recent) on this new version and about 60 hours on the old PC version.
My current experience is on PS5. I’m aware that things tend to be a little more complicated on PC, but obviously the Sony and Microsoft machines are the stars of this release. And what exactly has it been like? Well, very good, so much so that I haven’t had a single serious problem.
It is obvious that Amazon Games has prepared much better for the launch of New World: Eternalalthough there are obviously still problems with logging in, server performance, and game performance. It is a relatively normal thing during the launch of an MMORPG.
The framerate was somewhat unstable around my starting city. I got the settlement of Corinth. I also had brief freezes and some lag at specific times, especially around 11:00 p.m. yesterday. A trusted friend added that he had a couple of crashes and some minor connection issues throughout the day on PS5. Some visual errors are added such as world flaps during cutscenes and the occasional player has snuck into my dialogue scenes with a stiff, ghostly pose.
It is clear that Amazon Games has work ahead of it with New World: Eternalbut it’s nowhere near the disaster it was during its original release in 2021. As I said, it’s not the same story for both the bad and the good. And the truth is that this is where my complaints end in the technical section, because the rest has been the joy that I have been waiting for so much in recent months.
A toast to second chances
New World: Eternal includes many great changes and improvements. Beyond the meme that we can now swim, the controller control feels very good, the new HUD is much better than the previous one and the class system allows for much earlier specialization… although without taking away the possibility of restoring all level points and take a totally different path.
I like that the really determining factor when choosing a class are the enhanced profession attributes and the pieces of equipment that you will find, since 80-90% are designed for your class. The game also takes care to give you other options so you can try out.
Now, I think the class and profession system could be much more refined. In essence it is the same system as the original, but with slight changes. There really is no difference between choosing Musketeer or Ranger beyond weapon specialization. You can redistribute the points at any time to be a Berserker, for example. You can also match the initial profession bonus of other classes by leveling them up.
It’s not something that bothers me. Long live freedom and variety! However, I would like choosing a class to have consequences or at least room for error. Even the initial choice of Pokémon has trade-offs: if you choose Charmander, you’re left without Bulbasaur and Squirtle… at least until you find one in the world. I know it’s not a popular opinion, but I would like the choice of classes to involve some concessions that would force you to put in extra effort in certain areas.
The stories and missions (main and secondary) have also changed from the original version, including more dialogue and cinematics. I don’t think it’s enough incentive for someone who knows the lore of New Worldbut it is richer and more complete than the original. The Spanish dubbing is still quite average, even the voices that sound good have very strange tone changes between one phrase and another.
In short, very good impressions after 10 hours of play, despite its pluses and minuses. Amazon Games has work to do with performance, servers, PVP balancing and especially with all the bugs that have appeared upon our arrival. It’s not a bad start and they have enough room to make this game prosper as it deserves. It will all depend on whether they learned the lessons from the original release.
For my part, I will continue playing a lot and I will bring the final analysis as soon as I am sure of my final assessment. I’m going to take it very patiently, so use this article as a guide in case you’re thinking about embarking on the adventure during the first few days. See you in Aeternum!
In iGamesNews | New World: Aeternum will have three weeks of cooperative challenges and exclusive rewards depending on the platform you play on
In iGamesNews | I had completely forgotten the existence of this game and now I have been immersed in its incredible world for more than 40 hours
