Richard Bartle is one of the co-founders of MUDs (Multi User Dungeons), which are considered the precursors to the first MMORPGs. He also wrote the well-known book Designing Virtual Worlds. In recent months, he has spent over 350 hours in New World and summarized his experiences.
What does the developer think about the game? On Facebook, Bartle shared a long post summarizing his experiences with New World. Overall, these sound very positive, although he points out some criticisms.
- He especially praises the world design, the freedoms given to players, the action combat system, and the gathering.
- Criticism is directed at the empty servers, the often “terrible quests,” and limited weapon design.
- Additionally, he discussed the UI, which he considers too focused on PC. However, he sees New World as an MMORPG that would be perfect for consoles.
His overall conclusion: “All in all, New World was much better than I was led to believe. I liked it more than Lost Ark, which I also really liked because it was something different.”
What has Bartle achieved? In his 350 hours of gameplay, he has raised his gear score to 619 out of a possible 625 points. He has brought his gathering skills to 200 (except for logging at 190), and the majority of crafting skills to 150+. In PvP, he experimented with a few things, but he was primarily active in PvE. There, he completed the main storyline and tried his hand at dungeons as a healer.
New World feels like a step back for PC players
What exactly does Bartle criticize? His biggest criticism relates to the interface and the overall structure of New World. Here, he posits that New World would be better suited for consoles than for PC:
Normally, interfaces don’t bother me too much, as I am more interested in the world and the gameplay. But when an interface has negative effects, it does bother me. New World is one of those games that was developed for consoles and feels like a step back for PC players (of which I am one). That alone is not a big problem, but one of the consequences is that you can use only a very limited number of available actions.
Basically, there are only three actions per weapon, and you can only equip two weapons at a time; if you want to use an action for the other weapon, you first have to switch to that weapon – there is no automatic switching because, due to console interface reasons, there are only three and not six slots.
The result is a rather exciting action combat that is interrupted by unnecessary flailing around.
Additionally, he emphasized multiple times that there were far too few players online on his server. This led to deserted events and problems with finding groups for dungeons and PvP.
The quests and the lore receive a mixed conclusion. Many quests were labeled “terrible” by the developer, while the lore and worldbuilding are overall very coherent.
What does the developer praise? The many freedoms. He found it great that players have earned their own chest runs and still do them regularly 1.5 years after release. In this, they run in a large group of players through elite areas to open chests and obtain loot and equipment.
He also highlighted that although he had to accept limitations due to fall damage, he never died. He had a negative experience with that in The Secret World.
He also praised the combat system as very action-packed.
What do you think about the conclusion of the developer legend? Is New World really better than its reputation? And what holds you back from returning to the MMORPG? Recently, the game received the first major update of the year:
New World brings the first major update of 2023 – Is the return worth it?
