Steam: The new expansion of New World is great for newcomers, but not ideal for veterans

New World released the new expansion Rise of the Angry Earth on Steam on October 3. After about 25 hours of gameplay, MeinMMO editor Alexander Leitsch is sure: Many changes are really good for newcomers, but he worries about long-term motivation.

Rise of the Angry Earth brought some innovations that players have long wished for. This includes mounts, which now allow players to explore the beautiful game world of Aeternum much faster. An important change to the equipment has also been made, so you no longer have to build specific sets for enemy types, but can focus on perfect gear that works against every enemy type.

In addition, there are the redesign of the area First Light, a new max level, new story content, a new dungeon, and a completely new type of gear, the artifacts. They bring unique bonus effects, making them highly coveted.

However, while especially newcomers and casual players benefit from this, veterans see things differently. They complain about the relatively limited scope of the expansion and the fact that one can now quickly obtain max gear. I can relate, as just after 25 hours I have a complete set with a Gearscore of 700.

The expansion also has to endure some criticism, particularly regarding bugs and missing translations. The queues reminded many of the difficult release phase on Steam.

Newcomers benefit from a better start and new travel options

Amazon has done a lot in the past 12 months to ensure that newcomers feel comfortable in New World. The main story has been completely revamped from level 1 to level 50: The story campaign now plays faster, includes some voiced elements, and has a more logical plot. Additionally, a few filler quests have been removed.

I praised these adjustments in my preview report in October 2022. Because the quest design was one of the major weaknesses at the launch of the MMORPG. The latest adjustments in the regions Edenhain and Tiefe Schlucht are well done and now contain a better story.

Those who enjoy story content in MMORPGs will now find a lot more to enjoy.

Furthermore, the leveling phase has been shortened overall. Those starting now can reach the new expansion in about 10 to 40 hours – depending on their playstyle. There you can then play directly with the veterans.

The exploration of Aeternum has also been simplified, as more fast travel points have been introduced over time and the costs for them have been massively reduced. Anyone who owns the expansion can also enjoy the new mounts, which are available starting at level 25. They also bring some new tasks into the world, such as the mount races.

Overall, the mounts are one of the highlights of Rise of the Angry Earth.

They feel fluid in control, can jump and sprint. Each mount also gets its own name and has idle animations, which are movements that are executed automatically while stationary.

They feel more like Guild Wars 2 than WoW. You can also decorate the mounts, collect new skins, and give them a name.

The equipment is now much clearer

With the expansion, the leveling system was removed, so you no longer have to level your equipment. This was a very grindy and annoying feature for many, because while you had cool equipment, you could only use it partially.

However, those who currently find good gear can equip it immediately and receive all bonuses. This especially benefits players in the level 50+ range – that is, returners and newcomers.

Moreover, the various perks against specific enemy types have been removed. This system required multiple equipment sets to compete in the endgame. Now one set is sufficient.

If you are not satisfied with the skins, you can change them at any time in a transmutation system:

Full servers make for much more fun

In addition, there are servers that are packed full. Even during the week, players can again be found in queues on the established servers. According to SteamDB, there have been peaks of over 77,000 people online at the same time since the expansion’s release. Additionally, there have been no fewer than 25,000 players, except during server downtimes.

New players can currently only register on the new servers Felis, Canis, and Delphnius in Europe, which are still relatively empty. Even here, however, on October 17 at 8 a.m., at least 400 players were online.

The entry into New World – especially if you own the expansion – now feels much smoother than it did at the launch of the MMORPG.

But how does it look for a veteran who just wants to play the new expansion?

An entertaining, short story in the expansion

In terms of story, Rise of the Angry Earth is somewhat convincing. You can expect a main storyline in which you can initially undertake rather monotonous, but later very cool tasks.

For instance, you end up in a labyrinth that often leads to dead ends. You have to crawl or jump over walls to find the correct path. Navigation is not entirely easy, but that’s what makes it enticing for me.

Additionally, you can expect three boss fights that take place in their own solo instances. Much is demanded of you, especially in the final battle. If you never dodge or block, you will face a challenge that must be overcome.

In the end, you spend about three hours engaging with the main story.

The scope is comparable to the latest GW2 expansion Secrets of the Obscure, but significantly less than Necrom in ESO or Dragonflight in WoW.

A beautiful area that could benefit from more content

When you enter the new zone Elysian Wilds, you are greeted by colorful colors and crazily designed plant monsters. My colleague Jasmin felt like she was transported to an alien planet. I am also very taken with the visuals.

The luminous colors, along with the many roots and confusing paths give the place a magical yet dangerous feel.

However, the longer I wandered through the zone, the more I yearned for tasks. There seem to be significantly fewer side quests that are ideally already linked with the main story. There are also zones for chest runs and a few bosses to farm for the new artifacts.

While I felt almost lost in the size of the last area Brimstone Sands, after several hours in Elysian Wilds, I no longer had a clear goal.

Furthermore, the area is just a re-skin of First Light. No new area was introduced, but rather the starting area was transformed into an endgame zone. I don’t find that objectionable, but I would have wished for both a re-skin and an additional completely new zone for the 28.99 euros. Guild Wars 2 offers two entirely new areas with Secrets of the Obscure in comparison.

Equipment and long-term motivation

With Rise of the Angry Earth, the max level has been raised to 65, and the gear Gearscore from 625 to 700. Initially, I anticipated a lot of grind with the introduction of these changes but was proven wrong.

At release, players visiting the old 60 dungeons – Garden of Origin, Lazarus’ Instrumentarium, and so on – had a chance to drop legendary gear at level 700. While this was addressed via a hotfix and the maximum Gearscore is now 685, the fact remains that players can quickly acquire strong gear, either from bosses in the new area or indirectly through crafting or the auction house.

This sounds good at first, but it comes with a significant downside. While New World thrived over the past two years primarily by allowing players to build equipment sets over weeks and months, you can now easily have a complete 700 set within 20 hours of gameplay.

There is some fine-tuning and perfecting perks left towards the end, but I miss a certain attachment to the equipment.

This ring, for example, is dropped by Baines, a boss that you can defeat solo in Edenhain.

Until the expansion, I could farm the perfect 600 gear and still upgrade it to level 625. Additionally, there were the shadow shards. While this system was far from perfect, I had a connection to my equipment. I purposely didn’t upgrade transition pieces. I engaged with the topic since I needed multiple sets.

Now I only look at each drop to see if it’s better than my current gear or not. I equip one of both items, and salvage the other. Even though the shard and shadow systems were annoying, I long for a system that forces me to make more adjustments.

Even the new artifacts, which are supposed to provide this feeling, completely miss the mark. Just five hours after the expansion release, I already had four artifacts:

• One was randomly dropped (at level 64, by the way, I couldn’t even wear it)
• One I got from the season pass
• One from a round of PvP
• One for completing the main story

Afterward, I quickly farmed the Featherlight armor – which is quite strong – in five boss kills. It is speculated that the drop chance is around 10%, and the boss respawns every 6 minutes.

Thus, after just a few hours of gameplay, I already had a perfect piece of armor and a perfect weapon.

I spoke with several people who previously spent thousands of hours in New World and have already put more than 50 hours into the new expansion. They confirm that the equipment grind is too short.

This sounds nice on paper, but it leads to players quickly lacking goals.

Compounding this is that the mutations in the dungeons currently feel too easy. While in the past you needed equipment for specific mob types, now it’s enough to have 700 gear to breeze through mutation levels 1 and 2. Even in the highest level 3, the perks on equipment play a secondary role. It feels like more players are achieving gold rewards than before the expansion.

The scaling of the new levels is not yet perfect.

One aspect that could bring long-term motivation is PvP. However, aside from the cool influence races in the open world, there hasn’t been a major update. The wars themselves and the outpost sieges still play nearly the same way they did before Rise of the Angry Earth.

Bugs and localization issues

Anyone who played right at release is likely to have stumbled over a few bugs. For instance, initially some players couldn’t complete the main story, there were issues with the quest for the marauders, and players who had purchased 20 levels for the battle pass with real money could not claim them. These issues have since been resolved.

However, it still happens that you don’t mount the mount but get stuck in a middle version of human and mount. While this is not game-breaking, it’s annoying because you have to dismount and remount.

There are also a lot of bugs with the equipment. Sometimes you can’t salvage items when you have the maximum number of spare parts. Since mine are almost always full, I have to constantly run to a storage facility and put items away to make space in my inventory.

For German players, several errors in localization are frustrating. Some missions in the season pass are not translated, some items still have English text, Dark Matter is still called Dark Matter, and even in the game world, you occasionally stumble over lines that have not been adjusted. Here are three examples:

These translation errors are not serious, but it’s still frustrating when you want to present yourself as a AAA MMORPG and compete with the big titles.

New World is now the game it should have been at release