New World: The Good, The Bad And The UI

One of the paradoxes of blogging about mmorpgs is that, when you have plenty of time to write, it probably means you don't have much to say and when you have plenty to say, it probably means you don't have much time to write. That's because ideas for posts about mmorpgs come thickest and fastest when the games are fresh and exciting but mmorpg gameplay is compulsive and time-consuming, both by nature and design.

I have a ton of ideas for posts about New World but, as with Valheim (Not an mmorpg.) earlier this year I begrudge the time it takes to think them through, fact-check the details and turn them into coherent essays that make some kind of point. Instead I find myself bashing out slice-of-life diary entries or op-ed pieces because I can get them done in half the time, then get back to what I really want to do, which is play the damn game.

And they still take way too long! Which is why today I'm going even further and putting up what are basically some notes I made over the last few days with a little bit of commentary tacked on. 

I'd have liked to be able to post my considered opinion, with supporting examples, on why the narrative in New World is actually one of the game's strengths rather than, as seems to be the accepted opinion already, one of it's weaknesses. That, however, would take me most of the rest of the day and I have Standing to grind, if I want that two-storey house in Everfall, so bring on the bullet points!

Some Things I Like About New World

• Landmarks - Such a clean, intelligent way to integrate higher and lower level content within the same region. Reminds me strongly of original EverQuest design, spruced up for a modern audience. The level range of some zones is broad enough that mobs suited for the start of the spread would one-shot players at the end but the Landmark system makes it clear when you're stepping out of your comfort zone without actually telling you you can't.
  

• Mob Tethering and Animations - Falls into the sweet spot between old school mmorpgs, where the mobs hit instantly and chase you forever and what we've grown used to in recent years, where mobs take so long to wind up you're ten meters past them before they strike and if they chase you at all, they give up in seconds. In New World the animations are long enough to give you a chance to move past but not for you to dither and gawp and the tethers stretch just to that point where you start to doubt the mob will ever back off... and then it does. Very immersive when you travel cross-country.

• Distance - Which is just as well because there's a lot of cross-country travel. I've seen a number of comments about the supposed smallish size of the world and it's true the map, opened wide, doesn't look huge but just you try running across it. With only the most limited of fast travel options and just a single basic run speed, getting from one place to another becomes a large part of the gameplay. It's lucky there's so much to do along the way.

• Resources - Like gathering the endless resources that crop up everywhere. Literally everywhere, since you can break the rocks and chop down the trees. The quantity, distribution and variety of things you can gather or mine or harvest or just flat-out steal is deeply satisfying but the best thing about the whole system is how those resources present visually.

• Big Nodes- Oh, there are so many and they look so good. Those resources I just talked about - in other games they're little things, hard to see and when you find them and take them there's no sign they ever were there. In Aeternum you can see a vein of iron ore from the next mountain over. Magical plants stand shoulder high and glow with arcane light or spit like faulty neon signs. Even mundane crops like hemp stand out against sky from three fields away. It makes the tracking on the HUD almost superflous. And even when you've taken all there is to take, some residue remains so the next person passing by knows what was there and will be again.
  

• Tracking - As I level up and my skinning and gathering and mining skills rise, I learn how to spot things from very far away. In other games tracking is a separate interface but here it's just a continuation of the directional indicators I'm alreading using. The difference when I learned how to track rabbits was palpable, as good as learning a new spell might be for a magic user.

• The UI - That compass, with all that goes on along the top line, is just one exemplar of the excellent, ergonomic, intuitive interface that already feels as natural as any I've ever used. The hallmark of a great UI is that it does just what you need it to do without you noticing it's doing it and that's this one to a tee. I particularly like the positioning of all the elements. Even with what is, potentially, a slew of screen clutter (The quest journal alone is very big and bright.) it always feels as though I'm looking directly into the world with a clear, unobstructed view.

• Counters - Everyone mentions how New World makes numbers go up and why that's the reason people like it but no-one mentions another set of numbers; the tiny counter on every harvest. Of course the game tells you just how many logs you picked up when you chopped down that last tree - every mmorpg does that - but it also gives you the running total of how many you're carrying altogether. I've wished for that in so many other games. In some, when it's been possible, I've pulled the stack onto a hot key so I can follow the count there. In most games I just have to keep opening my bags to check. New World puts it there in front of me, exactly when I need it.

• Interruption Memory- File this under things I never thought I needed. When I'm hacking away at a rock in other games and a wolf chooses that exact moment to take a chunk out of my thigh, after I've broken off to break his skull and turned back to my task I have to start all over again. Even though I might have hit the rock a dozen times, now it's as though we'd never met. In New World the rocks remember. If the circle was half-turned when I stopped, it's still half-turned when I start up again. So much energy saved, so much stress removed.
  

• Mystery - At the other extreme from all this pragmatic praxis comes the ineffable. Time, history, frozen in stone, mysterious, enigmatic, unknowable. Strange, bifurcated statues, pristine obelisks, shattered acqueducts. The architecture of the arcane is everywhere. My absolute favorite thing, visually, in the all the game I've seen so far, arrives early: those gigantic stone spheres that dot the landscape around one of the first settlements. Windsward, I think it is. I can't help but stop and climb onto them whenever I pass, just to stand there and wonder. It always makes me think of Tales From The Loop. I like to be reminded of things I like.
  

• Lore - As I said, there's a much more thoughtful post than this to be written about the way New World handles narrative, story and lore. In case I never get around to writing that post, I'll just mention here how although much of the story is there in the world itself, carved in stone, it's the letters and notes and journals, scattered far and wide, that really tell the tales. They're better-written than such things in many mmorpgs and more purposeful. They don't just add color to the game, they inform and define it. In narrative terms, working out what happened before we arrived and how it might affect us in the future makes up the thrust of the gameplay. That's what the game's about and that's what driving my engagement, outside of those ever-increasing numbers. 

I could go on eulogizing but that would make it sound as though I think New World's some all-but-perfect game. Far from it. It's good but it's not that. Let's finish up with

Some Things I Don't Like About New World

• Caps - I hate them. Can't do this, can't do that, got to wait until such and such to do so and so. Why? Why give us freedom then take it away? If I'm good enough to get to the place where the quest begins then give me the quest when I get there! If I'm not good enough to finish it, let me fail. And if if I do finish a quest, give me what you promised! If you said I'd get Azoth then give me Azoth, don't flush it down the drain because I'm "At My Azoth Cap". Hold it in escrow if you must but I earned that blue stuff! Give it me!

• Counters That Don't Clear - Remember how much I liked those counters? And the tracking? I know I didn't mention it then but I also love all the quest indicators that let me know what's where and how far and how many and all the good stuff like that. And just like I loved the big gathering nodes you can see from far away, I love how quest objectives glow bright blue so you can't miss them. Only why don't they stop? When I've put poison in five barrels, why do all the other barrellight up? Can you not code it so they switch off when my quest counter hits cap? I mean, you like caps, right?

• Sprint, Lack Of - I said nice things about the distances. I said nice things about how mobs attack and chase. I'd say nicer things still if you'd just let me kick away and run for a while. I'd love to be able to gain some distance on those wolves rather than have them snapping at my heels. I'd like to be able to jog a bit faster on the slow stretches, make up a few seconds here and there. I can't remember the last mmorpg I played that had absolutely no means of increasing run speed at all. I keep thinking maybe there's something and I've missed it. If there is, someone please tell me.

• Too Much Of A Good Thing - Inventory space is generous and the ways to make it stretch are ingenious and satisfying but it would be better yet if less stuff dropped. Yes, I know, we all like a good drop but this is Guild Wars 2 all over again and that's a loot model no-one needs to copy. I don't need to come back laden down with magic weapons and armor from every last little trip. I get that all we're meant to do with most of them is salvage them for parts but if that's all they're good for then why not just have the mobs drop repair parts in the first place? Sometimes less really is more, y'know.

And that's about all I had written down. Guess I'd better stop and go play some more until I think of something else.

That's my excuse and it's the only one I've got. It'll just have to do.