Game Rant was able to get a live preview of one of the game’s new instanced dungeons, which consisted of a guided developer tour around the atmospheric Amrine Expedition. In addition to a first look at the Expedition PvE content, the New World developer went into detail on how these Expeditions fit into the main game. The developers also touched on lore, the encounter design process, and what players can look forward to at the endgame of New World. While the final state of the game’s open world sections remains to be seen, the more authored content in the expeditions looks incredibly promising.
First, the developers talked through the major changes since the game’s first Alpha. Since that August 2020 preview build, the game has radically changed, which should not surprise followers of the game after the many New World delays. Most notably, the overworld’s faction mechanics became more important, and the weapon system received a revamp. These weapon mechanics were on full display throughout the preview, as the New World team also outlined some of the lore behind this first Expedition.
These Expeditions will appear throughout the final game, but players can access the first dungeon, the Amrine Expediton, at level 25. After this, the dungeons will appear roughly every ten character levels. Some tie into the central narrative, whereas others are naturally discoverable in the world, like lore in the best open world games.
Overall, the tunnels of Amrine mirror structures in the overworld, giving a real feeling of cohesiveness. Traversing through the dungeon in a party of five gave an insight into how the weapon mastery system in New World works, as they follow two potential upgrade paths, called “masteries.” For each weapon, a player can invest in either straight DPS or an additional effect that could range from buffs to crowd control. Cooldowns for weapon abilities are bound to each individual armament, which allowed for some dynamic switching between playstyles as one weapon ability refreshed.
In general, the dark depths of Amirine were relatively imposing. The music had a looming, weighty quality to it, and this nicely complimented the light environmental puzzles also present in the dungeon. Notably, puzzles like this always have the potential of feeling gimmicky, but this dungeon used them sparingly enough to be effective. Occasionally, this atmosphere was undercut by the spiraling chaos of several different area of effect abilities active on party members at once. This is, however, a general quality of many MMOs, and was perhaps compounded by the third person perspective. Thankfully, the emphasis on positioning and movement meant that player effects did not overlap too much.
Despite the huge number of different player abilities active at a time, encounters never felt trivial. Enemies seemed to pose a real threat, as dungeons denizens were able to rush down players quite quickly if team members did not support each other. The real meat of the game’s combat in the claustrophobic dungeon was in those moments of team cooperation. Teams of adventurers needed to communicate and move in formation throughout. However, the game still let individual players shine. The weapon mastery system contributed to this heavily. Furthermore, a deep attention to animation detail on each weapon makes every playstyle feel and look great to play. Chained combination attacks also add to this feel of this combat, and even ranged attacks feel weighty and substantial, letting each player in an Expedition feel important.
From the discussion with the development team after the preview, the more open-ended overworld is just as mechanically dense. What was shown in the preview was an example of the more closed, authored elements in the MMO. However, these expeditions are not the central focus of the main campaign. While not set in stone, developers estimated in the preview event that roughly 35 hours of gameplay would come before the first Expedition. Although these Expeditions do continue up until endgame, the central focus at higher levels will be PvP and territory contests between factions.
The Amrine Expedition’s combat reflects well on how exciting the large scale PvP in New World could be. With an upcoming closed beta and an August release date, more fans will get a chance to experience the tight mechanics of New World soon.
New World is set to release on August 31, 2021 for PC.
