That was the beginning of our problems. We slowly realized that “New World” spawns new players at four points across the game’s massive map, meaning friends who want to play together might have to quest for hours before meeting up. (There is a workaround to this problem, but not one that the game tells new players about.)
Before the Aug. 31 launch of Amazon’s “New World” (available on PC for $39.99), the company held a closed beta from July 20 to Aug. 2. The beta gave a great overview of the game’s potential, from its vivid scenery to its robust global chat, but also highlighted a lot of its shortcomings. The game is set on the island of Aeternum, where players create a character that was shipwrecked and must slowly grow more powerful over time, using a sword, an ax, a bow or a gun while uncovering more of the world’s lore.
After wandering around camp aimlessly, not finding my friend and checking a map, I asked her to share her screen via Discord. That’s when I realized we were both doing the same quests — but with different non-playable characters giving us those quests. I set her location as a waypoint on my end, only to discover she was four kilometers away, a distance that would take around an hour to traverse.
There’s a workaround, but it’s hardly self-evident. At the very first quest you receive in the game, you can hand in the quest to the non-playable character and see which zone you’re in. But if you don’t accept the next quest from that character, you can instead open the map to see four watchtowers, all with available quests. You can then choose which area you’d like to go to. It’s unintuitive to back out of a quest and check the map first, but by taking this step, you’ll be able to play with friends and not end up stranded like me.
I began walking toward Andrea, but there were mountains all along the border of Monarch’s Bluff, the zone my character spawned in, and First Light, where Andrea’s character had spawned. Undeterred, I walked all the way past the mountains, making my way along the main road.
During my trek, I polled players globally about their thoughts on Amazon founder Jeff Bezos going to space, which coincided with the day the “New World” closed beta began. Most players ignored my question, though it was clear the man was on people’s minds. One player I came across was named “Jeffie Bezzie”. Another jokingly begged in chat for Bezos not to ban them for using profanity. “New World” was developed by Amazon Game Studios, the games division of Amazon; Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s founder, owns The Washington Post.
Eventually, I found myself in a level 24 zone while I was only level 8, and suddenly “New World” felt like a horror survival game. One blow from a zombie would kill my character, so I crept through the bushes, careful to keep my distance. At one point, I ran across a full horde of zombies and shrieked. I was still two kilometers away.
Some of the mountainous terrain is scalable if you can find a short enough rock to hop over. But at one point, a wolf saw me, gave chase and killed me with one attack. This was before I had unlocked camping, an ability that allows players to set spawn points. When I died, the game sent me all the way back to Monarch’s Bluff. I was four kilometers away again.
Players have requested the addition of mounts, namely horses, to make long journeys shorter. “New World” is a mount-free world, and there’s even lore to support why there are no horses. Instead, there is an “auto-run” feature, commonly found in mobile games, which lets you run without pressing down on a key. It’s not exactly a sprint though, and it’s another source of frustration.
Eventually, Andrea managed to trek all the way over from First Light to see me, and we playfully crawled across town on our hands and knees, confusing passersby. (The ability to goof around in town and involve strangers in the joke is every MMO’s best feature.) One player backed away from us while we crawled toward them, and I guffawed over the bit. But after crawling, emoting and crouching, we were out of gags and it was time to log off.
Last weekend, I logged on again, and Andrea and I played with another friend who was starting the game and had spawned in First Light as well. This made the game more bearable for Andrea; she now had a buddy to do quests with, which is the point of an MMO. But not for me. I started to do faction quests to level up and increase my standing with the Marauders, my chosen allegiance, which involved killing sheep, skinning them and venturing to some mines. After I completed these quests, I received the same quests again. In the beta, at least, it didn’t feel as though there was much for me to do.
I love the grind of MMOs, and all the loot quests, jump quests and kill-this-collect-that quests that comprise them. And it makes sense that Amazon developers would want new players to be spread across the world to ease up server strain and populate the map to make it feel lively. The downside is that one crucial element that makes any MMO fun — being able to quest with friends — is made very difficult from the get-go.
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