Currently, there is a preview event for the upcoming MMO New World. MeinMMO editor Leya Jankowski is currently looking at the game from Amazon and already misses mounts terribly.
For almost a week now, a preview event for New World, the upcoming open-world MMO from Amazon Game Studios, has been running. For the first time, there is no NDA anymore and anyone can freely express their thoughts about New World. In previous early access phases, there was always a strict confidentiality obligation.
There is a lot we can discuss about New World:
- Be it the balance of the entire game,
- the crafting, which I can spend hours on,
- the lags and performance issues,
- power guilds that are already spreading,
- the abundance of content and whether it will be sufficient
- or the dreamy, picturesque environment.
I promise you, we will talk in detail about these things on MeinMMO. However, I want to play until the end of the preview event before I go into more detail. I even intended to say nothing about New World until the preview is over.
But there is one thing that is currently upsetting me so much that I have to write about it right now: Where the hell are the mounts?!
The environment of New World would be perfect for mounts
When I wander through the landscape of New World, I can hardly get enough of it. I walk through abandoned and decaying farmlands while the tall grass wraps around my knees. In the distance, behind a dense thicket, mysterious ruins appear on the horizon that I immediately want to explore.
There are paths everywhere that make their way through nature and lead me to settlements, landmarks, caves, and important places for quests. After all, I need to complete quests for my settlement and faction.
Moreover, crafting armor, weapons, food, or potions plays an important role in New World. Stones, trees, grass, berries, oil, water – almost everything can be gathered in nature to create new items. It’s almost meditative to walk through the environment and just collect resources.
However, the capacity of my backpack works against my collecting fever. Often I have to retrace my steps to the settlement to store my valuable junk. Surely, I can use all of this somehow!
The map of New World is expansive, which in itself is a nice thing. But it is VERY expansive and much of my time is spent running back and forth. Whether for completing tasks or collecting certain resources. The long distances become tedious like an old gum after a while.
Since there are already perfectly laid out hiking paths, a mount could move effortlessly here.
I could use fast travel, but …
New World has options for faster and more convenient movement:
- each settlement can be accessed via fast travel, which, however, costs the currency Azoth. Only the home settlement can be reached for free at the press of a button.
- it is possible to walk forward automatically. This makes the journeys at least more comfortable.
Like many others, I have resorted to the trick of using the life staff for faster movement. To do this, one must level the weapon to level 5 and unlock the skills Arcane Power, Light Speed, and Cosmic Shift from the “Life Thief” tree. Then one can zip around like the superhero Flash.
I consciously choose to ignore fast travel. Because I would love to move through the picturesque environment of New World. This makes the game world much more immersive for me. It would just be nice if it could be done faster with a mount.
I don’t have the impression that I would explore the places less if I could ride. I want to go to those points anyway and also gather resources. If I saw something interesting, I would just have to get off the saddle.
Mounts could be profitable for Amazon
From a business perspective, I also don’t quite understand the renunciation of mounts. I believe we all agree that most players love to stand out with special cosmetics. It is part of personalizing one’s gaming experience.
Typically, special mounts can be found in a shop. Here, premium mounts could wait for the players’ wallets. Likewise, mounts can be unusual rewards when certain milestones in the game are achieved or for events.
All in all, mounts would only have advantages for the MMO. Or what do you think?
In short, our impressions of the preview are coming soon: The preview event will run until about Friday. Once the event is over, we will write a detailed report on gameplay, atmosphere, and technology. We hope, of course, to hear as many of your impressions as possible.
Until then, you can dive into our beginner’s tips for New World and I will continue to dream of mounts.
