It's been nearly a year since New World: Aeternum, the relaunch of Amazon's MMORPG that introduced console versions with cross-play and a lot more. The developers were certainly hoping to get a big boost to the active player base, but that didn't quite happen.
However, that might change next week with the upcoming debut of Season 10, which is already garnering a lot of interest among MMO fans. Admittedly, it's not the most exciting time in the genre; sure, there's the Guild Wars 2 expansion Visions of Eternity due later this month, and ZeniMax will release the Writhing Wall event for The Elder Scrolls Online, while Blizzard has opened the Alpha test of World of Warcraft: Midnight. But all those games are pretty old (if not very, very old) at this point. The only new MMORPG release of the year will be Pax Dei's 1.0, which, unfortunately, does not look like it will be ready for prime time when it comes to polish and features.
Compared to the aforementioned games, New World is undoubtedly much more recent, having launched in September 2021. Some of you will even remember that it was quite popular at first, with Jeff Bezos applauding Amazon Game Studios for its first successful release. That did not last due to a severe lack of content, which led players (myself included) to leave in droves.
It took a long time, but the New World development team is slowly getting there, and the new season is very appealing. Nighthaven will introduce an eponymous new zone that, in a lengthy dev diary, was described as the game's largest and most vertical map, contrasting with previous additions like Brimstone Sands (which was horizontal and barren). Visually, it is a love letter to classic horror with macabre, Eastern Europe-inspired aesthetics featuring towering castles, decrepit dungeons, and sweeping pine forests.
Not only does Nighthaven feature more points of interest, lore notes, and quests, it even adds some new interactive exploration and combat mechanics:
- Falling Chandeliers: Shoot them to drop on enemies (or risk them falling on you), reinforcing "look up."
- Throwables and Flammables: Use torches or fire staffs to burn spider webs and rat nests, expanding on systems from Cutlass Keys' lightning fields.
- Doors and Secrets: Various doors (bookcase, metal, wooden, magic-locked) lead to hidden areas.
- Arcana Tarot System: Collect 22 major Arcana cards (with Aeternum twists) to unlock tarot towers, elite chests, and caches. Combines with ancient glyphs for puzzles; encourages exploration via jump pads instead of guides.
- New Exploration Elements: Swim through mazes, dodge lasers, use water jets/elevators for vertical traversal.
- Jump Pads: Borrowed from the OPR (Outpost Rush) mode for open-world traversal in the region.
There are many horror-inspired creatures, from vampires to werewolves, bats, gargoyles, and even Frankenstein-inspired constructs, and a new story to follow, of course. But the most exciting additions to New World, at least for the long term, are arguably those that seek to expand the endgame.
First and foremost, there will be a new 10-man raid titled Isle of Night. This will be the new toughest PvE challenge in the game, featuring many new enemy types and three boss fights, each with unique mechanics to encourage group coordination. Amazon Game Studios is also adding a Catacombs mode where players venture into a procedurally generated dungeon with a countdown. Through a Catacombs run, they will obtain various power-ups and rewards and have to decide whether to keep going forward or exit before time runs out to retain the rewards.
Progression is getting a big shake-up as well. Level cap is increasing to 70, and the Gear Score is being raised from 725 to 800. Additionally, any Gear with Gear Score of 700 and more will be upgradeable all the way with the new Umbral system.
But there's more: gear can now have up to four empty sockets called Perk Charms, which are roughly split into four categories (offensive, defensive, skill, gems), allowing for greater build customization. Plus, the new gear from PvP, Catacombs, and the Isle of Night raid will feature set bonuses for the first time, making it even more important to get all the pieces in a set.
You need only go to the MMORPG subreddit to see that there are a lot of positive vibes among MMO fans about Nighthaven (which will go live on October 13 on PC and consoles) and New World as a whole. Could it be the start of a big comeback for Amazon's game? Hopefully, but even greater is the hope that the studio will have learned its lesson ahead of the upcoming The Lord of the Rings MMO they are making.
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
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