I have never had so much fun in New World, but one thing annoys me: you other players

One can discuss whether New World is an MMORPG or just an MMO, but our author Mark Sellner would like to completely disregard the MMO part. He plays New World as a single-player RPG and only has one problem: other players.

What is New World? New World is the new game from Amazon. It falls into the genre of MMOs, an online game where many people come together and usually play together.

Now, New World actually wants to be a social MMO, but makes too many mistakes, as our editor Alexander Leitsch has summarized. It has many features that do not necessarily support actual cooperative play among multiple people.

That’s why it often happens that you end up going alone for your quests or crafting, even if you initially plan to play together.

However, that cannot happen to our author Mark Sellner because he feels right at home in New World as a solo player.

As a Gothic fan, New World feels like coming home

What makes New World so different? In most MMORPGs, you choose a class at the beginning, which then determines your life and limits what you can do. However, that is not the case in New World. 

Here, there is a classless system in which you get better with the weapon you are using. It feels freer and less limited than it is in many MMORPGs. Something that is actually more common in single-player games.

Where does the single-player feeling come from? At the beginning, you land as a castaway on an island threatened by dark magic. You start on the beach, dressed in rags, with a rusty sword and a dilapidated shield in the hands of a character who can do absolutely nothing.

Many Gothic fans among you might already find this familiar. Because we experience almost exactly the same beginning in Risen, the single-player RPG from the Gothic makers from the year 2009. 

You then fight your way on the beach and search for better equipment until you soon find a person who at least explains what you could do next. 

Shortly after that, you find yourself in one of the towns on the island and have to decide which of the three factions on Aeternum you want to work for. There are the scientists and wizards of the Syndicate, the cutthroats of the Marauders, and lastly, the devout fighters of the Covenant. 

If you have played Risen and do not immediately think of the devout fighters of the Inquisition, the researchers, and wizards of the Fire Mages, and the cutthroat bandits from the swamp, then you probably won’t be helped. So from the start, I felt like I was coming home to one of my favorite games. Home to Risen.

Not least because the combat system feels very similar. Although there is no stamina in Risen that you need to pay attention to, it’s about combos, targeted blocking, and a few special attacks. Therefore, I felt right at home in New World, even though I still didn’t know exactly why. Because most of these parallels only became apparent to me many hours later.

Also, one of my recent forays into the single-player genre strongly reminded me of New World. It is the 2019 release GreedFall, which focuses on a similar setting and centers around the colonization of the “New World”. 

So I had two excellent single-player titles in my head that set in the same, rather unused setting. However, that is not the only reason why I prefer to play New World alone.

What brought me back? Already at level 3, so still very early on and on the beach, one thing bothered me in New World: the chat that was constantly chatting and completely broke my immersion.

After a little searching through the menu, I managed to completely turn off the MMORPG’s chat, which I haven’t changed even now, 100 hours later.

But even if the start, the setting, the factions, and the weapons were very similar to my favorite game Risen, it wasn’t dark enough. No one hit me hard right away. So I was constantly reminded that I wasn’t playing a single-player game.

I simply have more fun alone

What does New World offer for solo players? Since level 3, I have been very focused on consistently excluding and ignoring all other players, which I am doing very well. While I regularly play with friends, we are not playing together. 

We talk together on Discord about the game and occasionally trade, but we handle the actual gameplay all alone, and no one has a problem with it. On the contrary, we even find it quite pleasant. 

Because New World is an open-world sandbox in which you can set your own goals as a solo player. The quests are interesting, and the locations in Aeternum tell exciting stories. Especially those who read the diary entries they find learn many fascinating details about the world.

But even if you don’t care about the story, New World encourages exploration. The lack of a mini-map bothered me at first, as it is virtually indispensable in an MMORPG. However, when you see New World as a single-player RPG, the mini-map is suddenly no longer missed.

On the contrary, the compass at the top of the screen encourages you much more to discover what lies ahead. 

Overall, I experienced something in New World that hasn’t affected me like this since Guild Wars 2 – I want to get to know this world. It’s not enough for me to just know that there is an old ruin ahead; I also want to know why it is there and what its purpose is or was.

What makes the world so exciting? Even though I consistently ignore other players, they determine how my single-player world changes. Because even if I don’t participate in wars, invasions, or PvP as a solo player, the world of Aeternum is constantly changing.

Areas change hands, taxes change, and new factions gain influence in areas where they were not previously. This struggle between the factions could not be represented so well by a single-player game, which is why New World feels absolutely alive for solo players.

“No, I just want to chop wood today”

Life Skills are the most fun: I constantly use the sentence from the headline as a response when someone asks me if I can help somewhere. Improving life skills feels incredibly satisfying in New World and has already captivated me for hours.

Because you don’t have to chop down 200 trees and suddenly be better at it; no. With each tree you chop down, every ore you mine, and every fish you catch, you get better. 

Here again, Risen comes to mind. Because the principle is quite similar when it comes to resources. I see a gold ore vein, which is great. However, it doesn’t help me at all if I don’t have a pickaxe and don’t know how to mine gold yet. 

Although I initially thought that these life skills would not interest me much, I had already chopped wood to level 20 before I had even seen the first city from the inside.

As you also unlock new things whenever you improve the corresponding skill, you often find yourself in situations where you set your own goals. And so I found myself again with a strong desire to also have woodcutting at level 100.

This enthusiasm and the setting of goals has not stopped since then. Also due to the fantastic sound effects and the visuals. Because nothing feels as satisfying as watching and hearing a huge tree trunk fall to the ground.

Sound design that brings joy: I usually play most games either completely without sound or with soft sound through my speakers. I admit, when it is not gameplay relevant, I pay little attention to how a game sounds.

However, in New World, I even put on my headphones and turn the volume up, because the soundscape on Aeternum will surely captivate you. It is more than just the soundtrack and the sometimes very good dialogues.

It even starts with how good it sounds when your axe hits the tree. That is then only surpassed when your pickaxe strikes the rock. The clattering of the metal of the pick on the hard stone can be heard over many meters. This way, you can hear a quarry long before you see it.

Also at this point, New World encourages you to explore again. Because that ore deposit over there that I just heard, I can’t see on the map or on the compass. However, ore is rare, so I have to take a look.

And suddenly I find myself in a quarry full of enemies that tells me a new, exciting story.

One thing does bother me, though

What disrupts my immersion? In general, it is you, the other players, even though I can usually ignore you. Of course, it annoys me when people loot a mini-boss in front of me that I actually needed. However, I can live with that.

What bothers me, however, are the few points where New World suddenly forces me to play with others. This is understandable for an MMORPG, but it simply doesn’t feel smooth. Especially when I can manage almost everything else alone.

Without wanting to spoil, I can reveal that the main story forces you fairly early on to play at least once with other people. And that is annoying. 

Because for me personally, the gameplay as a group feels not very smooth yet. It is chaotic, everyone is everywhere, and somehow everything is very disorganized. 

New World does not even provide a group finder tool. So I had to turn my chat back on at level 25 for the first time. Just to find someone from whom I can get annoyed.

Why other players are still important: Even though I want nothing to do with other players in New World, they make the game a better single-player experience. Because the lively world, the area takeovers and wars, as well as the hustle and bustle in the cities, ensure that Aeternum feels alive.

Forests are being cleared, stones are being removed, and through the company mechanic, settlements can be built up more and more. Where yesterday there was a simple cauldron as a kitchen, tomorrow there can be a house with ovens.

The world of New World lives and changes even when I am offline and not playing. Every day when I log in, the world has changed a bit. Then there are new things I can discover, and that is great.

Therefore, it is precisely the other players that make New World a better solo game. In the end, that’s also somewhat genius. Then I also accept that I have to fight my way through a chaotic unorganized group through a dungeon. After all, I can feed a dog afterwards.

How do you approach this? Do you play New World alone or as a classic MMORPG? Do you all think I am crazy for finding that New World is a great solo RPG? Feel free to share your opinions in the comments here at MeinMMO.

If you’re not like me and are interested in PvP, there is a big problem: New World’s endgame PvP excludes players without a large guild.