New World: Aeternum PS5 Review. If there’s one chink in my gaming repertoire, it is definitely the MMO genre. I would often hear other players talk in abbreviation terminology that may as well be Klingon to me. When I first saw the trailer for New World: Aeternum it had me intrigued, giving me a chance to finally dip my toe into the fascinating realm of Massively Multiplayer Online games.
New World: Aeternum Review (PS5) – A Phoenix From The Ashes
Rebirth
Aeternum, essentially a relaunch of the 2021 PC release New World from Amazon Games, has been massively tweaked, refined and reworked for its arrival on consoles. What’s nicely done is the fact that you can play the game solo, allowing you to get to grips with the world, its mechanics and your favoured build at a pace that suits your own playing style.
Even playing alone other online players will still jump in to lend you a hand if they see some enemies getting the better of you. Likewise if on your travels you see another player in a bind you can assist with a few well placed arrows from your bow.
There is more of a focus on the story side of things that does a great job of guiding the early steps. While it doesn’t set the world alight, it does fit its purpose.
Combat is smooth and responsive, feeding into very enjoyable escapades. While enemy AI does at times display some odd behaviour, all elements taken as a whole serve up quite a palatable gaming loop.
Doing It Your Way
A well thought out design choice is the freedom players have to build their character to their own liking. Not being tied to your initial choice of starting archetype means you have the flexibility to try different weapons and skills.
Sure, you start with the base weapons for your chosen character class, but you quickly build up an arsenal of arms with which to inflict maximum damage. My choice was to start as a Ranger – the Bow suited my typical play style to a tee.
My initial thought for naming my character was Aragorn but sadly this was already taken – and so Viggo Mortensen was born. While the character customisation options are endless, it’s not an element of games that I ever spend much time on, so I was pleasantly surprised with my results from absolute minimum effort.
If you too don’t care too much for spending time customising your character and want to just head straight into the action there’s a randomiser that will take care of it for you.
Skill points can be reassigned at will with no penalty for doing so. This approach is in particular very helpful to player new to this style of game, allowing for choices to be made and later tweaked when better versed in the lay of the land. You’ll not be left kicking yourself at any stage.
Your character progression is level capped at level 65 and you find yourself zipping up through the levels in no time. At level 20 you can gain the ability to ride a mount; a noble steed that can be summoned to aid speed up your travels across the island of Aeternum.
Sounds So Good
This development team certainly has to be applauded for the wonderful work done on the audio. The score throughout wouldn’t be out of place in Game Of Thrones or Lord of The Rings. It really does a brilliant job of raising the experience perfectly with tunes that are pleasing to the senses and that encapsulate a grand epic adventure.
The sound effects too are well presented making a believable world to live out your adventures in. There’s no denying how great sound can enrich and elevate a game, movie or TV show.
Beautifully Presented Lore
One element I felt that was really excellently done and something I would like to see more of is the almost comic book style cut scenes that serve up the lore. It’s a stark contrast to the oft flat feeling interactions with the games many NPC’s.
This is not down to acting or delivery for me, it more feels that as your character is a silent participant it’s difficult to rouse any sense of chemistry between the characters. This leaves some folk you meet feeling like they are over acted a tad or trying too hard.
As a resident Irishman the detail in Grace O’Maley’s use of choice language is quite accurate to real world conversation here. It’s fine detail that’s not often included in games but very appreciated.
Speaking of little details, I returned to the game after a day not playing and the village I was in had been decorated with carved pumpkins and piles autumn leaves on around the area. A nice touch with Halloween so close.
Group Up
Once you feel you’ve got to grips with most things you can try your hand at grouping up with others for some different experiences. You are free to play with PC, Xbox or other PlayStation players so if you’ve got buddies on other systems you’re not pigeon-holed into the ecosystem you are playing on. You’ve got trials, expeditions, raids and much more to keep you busy with things to do well after you’re done with the campaign.
Throughout my time with the game I found there to be a nice bustling, well behaved community of players. I hope they continue to foster this positive vibe and continue to grow and evolve the space for new and returning players. If you’ve never played an MMO or you are a veteran looking for a new adventure then New World: Aeternum offers a world that you can definitely lose yourself in.
New World: Aetermun is out now on PS5.
Review code kindly provided by PR.