[Hands-on preview] New World: Aeternum is the console MMO that might make me finally dive in

New World looks to make a comfortable leap to consoles

I’m not an MMORPG guy. I’ve generally found them to be incredible deep and engaging, full of plenty to do and plenty of people to interact with. They’re great! But they’re also, maybe, a little too demanding of time for me. Being on a PC all day for my full time job means that I want to use one after hours less and less, and I’d rather be away from the close up glow and into a slightly more relaxed mode.

“You’re the perfect person to play this, then,” one of New World: Aeternum‘s developers told me during my hands-on with the game at Summer Game Fest. Aeternum‘s goal isn’t just to make the transition to consoles, but to make it accessible for new players who don’t have much MMO experience, while also making sure it’s still just as challenging and deep as it has always been. It’s a set of lofty goals, but by focusing on some smart, non-intrusive changes I came away with impressed.

The developers explain to me that by streamlining a few things (like the character creation system) and offering more of a single player aspect, they are able to cater to core PC and new console players alike. The demo begins with the creation system, now focusing on an aspect called “Archetypes.” Archetypes are more focused classes, with aspects of ability and weapon leverage. It’s easy to get lost in character creation, but by giving a starting “set” then a player can concentrate more on the specialties and gameplay.

Once we’ve selected our character, the game kicks off, thrusting us into a world that’s filled with pirates and magic and monsters and the undead. Going to the console adapts the controls to a gamepad, with thumb sticks and button pushes replacing a mouse and keyboard. Jumps and actions are easy to figure out, but it’s the take on the combat system that is a promising change: tapping a trigger button initiates an attack, but holding down the button makes for stronger and more varied outputs, like sword strikes or gunfire. We can tap the right thumbstick to lock onto an enemy, use the left trigger to zoom in with our gun, and switch between melee and range weapons on the fly, depending on the situation. It’s an action RPG system, but suited for the necessary switching and quest understanding of an MMO. It’s not replacing of actions and icons for buttons, it’s an optimized change to the concept. That includes making abilities easier to access by setting a select few to specific slots, and to make every action more “direct,” according to the devs.

Once we’re familiarized with the control scheme, we can take on quests to craft weapons and tools, to hunt animals, to clear our ship of the undead, and to rescue other people — and all of this is done alone, without the traditional trappings of an MMO’s requirement for other players. Yes, we can see other players on our (closed) server running around and undertaking their own quests, but it’s really up to us to engage with them. This made the experience feel more like a traditional console RPG instead of something reliant on huge raids and guilds and parties. That stuff will be there, sure, but this demo wanted us to understand that we can play this like we play Mass Effect or Dragon Age or Assassin’s Creed if that’s what we’re used to on our platform.

Because we’re on a console, we’re much more likely to play the game while we’re in front of that bigger screen — away from my tiny 16″ laptop and 24″ monitor — and the one on premises was a chunky living room view. I played while sitting on a couch, with a pillow behind my back and my feet up on a small table nearby. This is generally an anti-MMO feeling, but the experience felt right. The visuals are stunning, running in beautiful fidelity, with bright colors and a lot of noticeable fine detail.

Though it was just an hour-long demo, New World: Aeternum‘s leap to consoles feels almost natural. It’s enough of a design update that someone who isn’t a PC MMO player will feel comfortable and unalienated, and yet those who *are* understanding of the genre will still manage to maintain that level of depth and expectation without losing a step. A closed beta will launch in July, with the full release coming to PS5 and Xbox Series on October 15th.