New World is a massively multiplayer, open-ended sandbox MMO set in a cursed and supernatural version of Northern America in the 17th century. Players can be anything they want from farmers to soldiers to lone wolves, as what you do, and whom you work with or against is entirely up to you. The land of New World will be evolving one that changes with the seasons, weather, and time of day.
New World promises some of that 'emergent gameplay' intrigue—player-run companies and 50v50 PvP wars—but otherwise relies on tried-and-true MMO ideas. Traditional MMO questing and leveling and crafting are all there. If you like, you can ignore PvP completely. One of its major distinguishing features has nothing to do with economy and politics: its timing-based action combat system, which diverges from the typical click-'n'-whack MMO fighting.
It's important to mention that game developers said that we'll share the world with "over 1,000" players at a time!
SUBSCRIPTION OR BUY TO PLAY?
There will not be a subscription fee to play New World. You only need to make a one-time purchase—it's $40 for the standard edition—though there may be expansions or other things to spend money on in the future.
On whether you can purchase in-game items with real money, Amazon simply says that "players will be able to purchase optional in-game items."
STORY
Rather than trying to emulate history directly, New World is entirely fictional but uses 17th century explorers and new land discovery as its basis of inspiration. In New World you take control of an intrepid adventurer that finds themselves on the shores of Aeternum, also known as the Eternal Isle. An island of legend which contains veins of a magical mineral which both empowers and corrupts. So, it's an island full of magic and monsters.
The land of Aeternum is overflowing with Azoth, a powerful substance that’s rumored to be capable of bestowing eternal life -- sort of like the Fountain of Youth. Obviously, you and fellow travelers are compelled to investigate further. Aeternum is, on paper, a diverse region with a mixture of beautiful landscapes and supernatural geographical anomalies.
There are ancient ruins left behind by an ancient civilization (and guarded by their skeletons), natural creatures enhanced by the magic, corrupted settlers, and other baddies to fight. There's more to the story than just the setting, but so far we just have the basic setup and a glimpse at the villain.
IS THERE A CLASS SYTEM?
Simple answer is - no. Your gear and playstyle define the type of character that you play. Players define their characters through the Weapon Mastery, Attributes, and Endless Tradeskill progression systems.
The Weapon Mastery system acts as a replacement for a traditional class system -- every weapon has skill trees to upgrade. So the more you use a certain weapon, the higher level that weapon becomes and then unlocks paths along the skill tree. You’ll also be able to quickly switch to different weapons on the fly.
There's a PvP territory control element to New World, but it isn't a totally player-driven sandbox. If you want, you can spend all of your time fighting monsters, leveling up, and finding or crafting new gear. You can group up with other players to take on world events or attempt a boss fight. You don't have to pay much attention to player politics at all, and can play New World like a standard open world RPG: Explore new areas, kill new things, find new resources, craft new stuff.
If you want to fight other players in the open world, you can turn on your PvP flag once you join one of world's three factions. If you're killed by a player from another faction, you only lose some equipment durability, and maybe some pride and time. Your reward for opting into PvP is extra experience points for everything you do.
New World's island setting is divided into territories which contain:
1. Settlements - are where you'll find a territory's crafting stations and player housing.
2. Forts - are what companies need to capture to take control of a territory.
A company that controls a territory can set its tax rate and organize public projects, such as improvements to the territory's fort or settlement. A company that wants to remain popular will make efforts to upgrade the settlement's crafting stations so that players can create better gear. They'll also want to upgrade the fort defenses.
If another company thinks it should be in charge of a territory, it can declare war, and a battle will be scheduled according to the preference of the defenders (so you can't attack them when they're all asleep).
Both companies will recruit armies of 50 (they don't all have to be company members) to fight for them. During the battle, the attackers will have to capture control points around the fort, bust through the doors, and capture a central point. Siege weapons, defensive turrets, explosive barrels, and other munitions come into play here.
If the attackers win, they take control of the territory, though aspects of it will be downgraded after the battle and they'll have to build it back up.
Developers hope that if you play New World for a while, you'll want to be involved in this territory control system at least a little. You can buy houses in settlements, and they act as fast travel points. You want your fast travel point to lead to a settlement with high tier crafting equipment, not one that's being neglected, so you may find it useful to form a company and take over, or support a company that promises to make strong efforts to improve a territory—without taxing you at a ridiculous rate.
Aside from being recruited to help defend a fort from invading players, a company might recruit you to help defend a fort from invading monsters. If PvP isn't your thing, you can still participate in big sieges by signing up for one of those monster invasion defenses. An unsuccessful defense can harm the settlement and fort.
HOUSING
You can buy a house in a settlement, and it'll act as a respawn or fast travel location. It's not going to be in a unique plot—many players can 'own' a house on the same plot of land, but once they enter they'll see their personal version of the interior, which will be customizable with decorations and furniture (some of which can provide you with buffs out in the world). You can bring up to four players with you into your house to hang out.
At level 40, you can buy a second house, and at level 60, you can buy a third house, allowing you to quickly fast travel between three settlements.
PvP
Formal PvP modes are entirely opt-in experiences split between two major types: War and open world PvP. War is a massive 50 vs. 50 player battle that begins when a Company (the New World version of a Guild or Clain) declares war on a territory they want to take over that’s owned by a different Company. From there each Company will draft a roster of 50 combatants and agree on a time. It’s combat by appointment.
The War happens on protected battlefields so only those confirmed for the War can participate which ensures a fair fight. Defenders have to protect their flag which is at the center of the Fort while Attackers try to claim it. The War only ends if the Attackers break through and claim the flag, or the time limit expires. Throughout the battle both sides earn points for supplies, upgrades, gear, and other reinforcements.
Outside of that mode there is still the ability for open world PvP combat, but it’s not always on by default like it was in Alpha testing. Now, you have to opt-in and flag yourself for being open to PvP. In order to opt-in this way you’ll have to be in a Faction and in order to join a Faction you must be at least level 10. When you do this you’ll be eligible for increased rewards, even while exploring and doing PvE content. Because of this, there is no longer a criminal system since all open world PvP is opt-in.
There will not be any forced PvP-only servers at launch.
PvE
It’s entirely possible to play New World without ever engaging in PvP if you wanted, but trying both is the best way to get everything you can out of the game.
Currently, there are no instanced dungeons or raids in New World at all. Instead, PvE content is mostly in the form of questing, open world events, world bosses, and group content across the map as a whole.
Another core aspect of New World is a focus on crafting and light survival mechanics that require players to gather materials, hunt, and establish territory.
Recently new feature called "Expeditions" was added to the game which in a way can be treated same was as a dungeon content within other MMO's you know from the past.
LEVELING & COMBAT
While New World's combat requires more than just tactical skill—your attacks have to connect with hit boxes, and there's dodge and block timing to master—you level up like in a typical MMO. As you gain levels, you'll be able to add points to a few base stats. Strength will increase your damage with melee weapons, and agility will do the same with ranged weapons—it's the standard stuff.
As you use different weapon types, you'll also gain proficiency with them independent of leveling. The more you use, say, a sword, the more active and passive swordfighting skills you can unlock in the mastery tree. Active skills are special attacks—a spinning attack that hits multiple enemies, for instance—that have long cooldowns. If you wanted to, you could completely master every weapon type.
You can have two weapon sets ready to go at any time, and can switch between them quickly by pressing 1 and 2. So, for instance, you could have a sword and shield bound to 1 and a bow bound to 2. You won't ever be locked into one combat style.
There are also crafting skills, but we haven't explored those deeply yet. Gathering materials is streamlined, and rarer materials will be in more dangerous parts of the island. You'll also need high tier crafting stations to make high tier items. There'll be trading posts where you can put materials and items up for sale, too.
In addition to that magic will be tied to items, such as a healing staff and a fire staff. Like regular weapons, these magical items will have mastery trees that allow you to learn new active and passive skills.
MINIMUM AND RECOMMENDED SPECS
MINIMUM
Operating System: Windows 8 64-bit, DirectX 11
Processor: Intel Core i5-2400K, AMD CPU w/ 4 physical cores @ 3Ghz
Video: NVIDIA GTX 670 2GB, AMD Radeon R9 280
Memory: 8GB RAM
Stoage: 7200 HDD
RECOMMENDED
Operating System: Windows10 64-bit, DirectX 12
Processor: Intel Core i7-2600K, AMD Ryzen 5 1400
Video: NVIDIA GTX 970, AMD Radeon R9 390X
Memory: 16GB RAM
Storage: SSD
