New World November Alpha Update and Interview

This month’s alpha update for Amazon Game Studios’ Age of Discovery MMORPG New World introduces a new challenging area, fishing as a gathering skill and some quality of life improvements, alongside the usual combat, UI and difficulty adjustments. There’s also this lore article highlighting the new Reekwater zone.

Here are some update highlights:

Greetings, adventurers! We’re excited to announce the discovery of a brand-new zone, Reekwater, in this month’s Alpha Test update. Veteran adventurers (level 58-60) can challenge themselves in the swamps of Reekwater, a dilapidated fishing village that plays home to a new set of foes. And what would a fishing village be without, well, fishing? We’re pleased to introduce Fishing as a new tradeskill (plus some fishing poles for Engineers to craft!). This release also brings in some quality of life changes, with adjustments to enemy AI and difficulty levels, combat, UI, and more! Take a look at the details in the patch notes below.
SPOTLIGHT
NEW ZONE: REEKWATER
“Life and death shake hands here.”
This vast, densely wooded, supernatural swamp was given the name “Reekwater” by fisherfolk, who gathered there to take advantage of the area’s many prime fishing spots. The name stems from the pungent and sickly sweet smell of decay that pervades the entire region. The original settlement, Bayou Village, was seen by its builders as a “new Venice,” built on the submerged ruins of an Ancient residential district. Those grand hopes were shattered with the arrival of the Siren Queen’s flotilla and her rapid expansion of power. The settlers of Reekwater were forced almost entirely out of the territory—and those unable to leave or hide were dragooned into work crews for the Siren Queen. Her reach stretched across most of Reekwater, even as both she and her crew became Lost. Now, she has turned her sights on the Angry Earth, capturing them to drive her plans as she desperately searches for any way to regain her lost soul, an all-consuming quest that forces her to take greater risks for any chance of success.
REEKWATER STORY QUESTS
New Quests and NPCs lead you on a path to discover the origins of these Azoth infused waters, the life cycle of the Dryads, and the role the Ancient Guardians played in this region of Aeternum.
NEW ENEMIES
What’s a new zone without new creatures to test your skills against? We’ve added the following new enemies, with more still to come in later updates.
4 Swamp Dryads – Angry Earth creatures who use the power of the bog and azoth to fight the player.
Undead Pirate Brute – Imagine the brute as a pirate with a cannon on his back… Enjoy!
2 Swamp Fiends – One of these fiends charges toward the player and explodes, while the other prefers to overwhelm unwary adventurers with a flood of melee attacks.
Creepers – A new type of tendril with some new attacks and strong poison damage.
Sufferance of the Elders – A swamp version of the beast that pulls minions from the ground. Throws a mean spike.
The Protector of the Source – A boss version of the Sufferance of the Elders, with increased difficulty. The Protector consumes minions to grow stronger and throws out homing spikes.

Beyond that, you may also be interested in this recent Game Informer interview that mainly addresses some longevity concerns. Here’s a quick snippet:

Being such a small chunk of gameplay, it’s hard to gauge the progressive flow of the story. With this small hands-on, it felt easy to feel lost and without direction. How does the pacing go for this game? Is it the traditional MMO style where you have an outline of a story but the meat is in the various side quests?
Willette: There is a mixture of main story quests and side quests that lead the player on their journey through Aeternum, where the central question is, what is the price of eternal life? There is an encouragement to explore beyond just the main story as there is also a rich conflict between the opposing player factions with alternative goals and motivations. While we want the story told through quests to give players a strong sense of purpose and direction, we also look forward to watching players decrypt some of the mysteries we’ve embedded in the world, and those that we expect to emerge as the narrative progresses post-launch. We definitely see this as an adventure we’re taking with the audience, and we look forward to lively discussion and back-and-forth both among players and between players and developers. We want the audience to play a role in the direction of the various storylines as they unfold over time.