New World: Aeternum shows off flashy intro, pretty scenery in preview—but lacks a clear audience

I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from New World: Aeternum going into my hands-on preview at Summer Game Fest. After playing for an hour, I now know the scenery, some mechanics, and the general tone of the game, but I’m still unsure of who will play.

That’s not to say my demo went poorly. The game felt smooth and quickly guided me through the very early concepts of what Aeternum is and what players can accomplish, which is one of the main areas of focus from this kind-of-sequel, more-of-a-remaster. I got a brief lesson in attacking, blocking, and dodging on a burning ship full of zombie-like pirates before abandoning that sinking boat and swimming to the lush shores of Aeternum. It was there that I finally got to dig into my class weapons as an Occultist, with a fire staff and ice gauntlet that could deal mostly ranged attacks, and fight a mini-boss to set the tone.

From there, I was launched into the game proper with other new castaways washed up on Aeternum’s shores running around and completing the same early tasks. That included gathering crafting materials, fashioning a carving knife, and hunting a boar I could cook and eat before heading out to take on more zombie pirates and see what was left of my ship and crew.

As far as introductions go, this all felt… fine. I was told the broad strokes of where I was and what I should do in exposition with some NPCs, and then set about to do things. But at no point of this introduction did I feel particularly engaged with any sort of story, or even the game’s combat, which the intro desperately wanted me to engage with.

This might be because Aeternum is still an MMO, despite the clear focus of the game’s new intro sequence focusing more on its action RPG elements. For most action RPGs, deciding who you want to be and plugging you into choices you can make is real off-the-bat stuff. From deep RPG systems like Baldur’s Gate 3‘s myriad choices even in its tutorial stage to something more akin to choosing to escape a dragon with Imperials or Stormcloaks in Skyrim, you’re going to have to make choices along the way. That’s the point of a role-playing game.

I created a character with a class in Aeternum, but beyond that, I didn’t get to make a choice. I didn’t even get to flavor a dialogue selection to my liking, to my recollection. All my early conversations were largely one-button affairs and my responses were singular

So, for my money, Aeternum is still firmly an MMO. As such, I expect more choices and player expression happens further in than I got in an hour’s worth of play time. The battles no doubt would get tougher too. I had little trouble wiping through the game’s early mobs as I participated in little quests and got some loot, with or without other players in the lobby at my side. There were also a ton of progression systems for player attributes and weapon mastery to unlock which customized my own little combat loop, making for a satisfying little scratch of the brain that wants to complete every single task.

Even then, the playtest felt a little hollow. I felt like I wasn’t really participating in the real game, but didn’t know when that real game would start. Eventually, I abandoned the early questing on the coastline and just ran straight through forests to the nearest city, which felt similarly pretty and well-designed, but not like there was anything truly pressing to do.

And all of that leads me back to my original question—who is this game for? There was an angle towards console players (the game felt good to play on the PS5 controller) and on introducing new players into the New World experience. But if angling for new console players with action RPG gloss is the pla, I can think of several other RPGs both past and present I’d rather boot up on my Xbox with more interesting combat and story hooks.

At the moment, New World: Aeternum looks fairly decent, and fans of the genre will probably have a good time playing it. But I’m not sure the fresh coat of paint and new elements I saw at Summer Game Fest will actually be enough to give it the new life it’s attempting to offer the characters washing up on Aeternum’s shores.