New World Feature Overview

Last summer, Amazon Game Studios delayed their upcoming age of exploration MMORPG New World to spring 2021. And with that release window already looming on the horizon, you might want to check out this PC Gamer article to learn what New World is, how it works, and what challenges it will offer to you. Here’s an excerpt:

How do leveling and combat work?

While New World’s combat requires more than just tactical skill—your attacks have to connect with hit boxes, and there’s dodge and block timing to master—you level up like in a typical MMO. As you gain levels, you’ll be able to add points to a few base stats. Strength will increase your damage with melee weapons, and agility will do the same with ranged weapons—it’s the standard stuff.

As you use different weapon types, you’ll also gain proficiency with them independent of leveling. The more you use, say, a sword, the more active and passive swordfighting skills you can unlock in the mastery tree. Active skills are special attacks—a spinning attack that hits multiple enemies, for instance—that have long cooldowns. If you wanted to, you could completely master every weapon type.

So far, the weapon types we’ve seen are: swords, hatchets, spears, warhammers, bows, and rifles. Interestingly, you can have three weapon sets ready to go at any time, and can switch between them quickly by pressing 1, 2, and 3. So, for instance, you could have a sword and shield bound to 1, a bow bound to 2, and a spear bound to 3. You won’t ever be locked into one combat style.

There are also crafting skills, but we haven’t explored those deeply yet. Gathering materials is streamlined, and rarer materials will be in more dangerous parts of the island. You’ll also need high tier crafting stations to make high tier items. There’ll be trading posts where you can put materials and items up for sale, too.