New World Closed Beta
By the time New World reached its closed beta in July 2021, it already carried several years’ worth of expectations and arguments. Amazon Games had pitched it as a classless, action‑combat MMO about carving out a foothold on a supernatural 17th‑century island, and early alphas had shown that basic shape clearly enough to draw both enthusiasm and concern.
Aeternum itself was the clear highlight of that beta period. The island’s mix of dense forests, stormy coasts, broken forts and corrupted landmarks stood out in screenshots and streams, helped by strong lighting, detailed foliage and an art direction that leaned more on colonial‑era grit than on high fantasy flourish. Enemies like the Corrupted, Lost and Angry Earth gave the landscape a distinct cast, keeping it from feeling like a reskinned Europe even as muskets, pikes and tricorn hats rooted it in a specific visual era.
Combat and progression were built tightly around weapons rather than fixed classes. Each weapon levelled up separately, unlocking active skills and passive perks along two simple trees, and you could equip two at a time and swap between them on the fly, effectively building your own “class” out of combos like sword-and-shield plus life staff or fire staff plus rapier. The feel was closer to action RPGs and Souls‑inspired systems than to tab‑target MMOs: attacks relied on hitboxes, blocking and dodging consumed stamina, and positioning mattered in both PvE and PvP.
That classless, weapon‑driven approach was one of the beta’s most divisive points. Some testers liked being able to respec and pivot into new roles without rerolling, appreciating how easy it was to experiment with different builds as they unlocked more weapons and attribute points. Others missed the clearer identity and group expectations that come with named archetypes, and found the limited number of active skills per weapon – three at a time – too restrictive to keep long fights interesting.
On the structural side, New World pushed heavily into player‑driven territory control and crafting. Three factions – Covenant, Syndicate and Marauders – competed for regions, with companies (guilds) declaring and fighting 50‑versus‑50 Wars to seize forts and set local taxes. Crafting and gathering professions knitted into that loop: chopping trees, mining, skinning and refining all fed settlement projects, player housing and gear, giving crafters a clear role in supporting their faction’s ambitions. For many, that sense of shared infrastructure and contested territory was the main hook of the beta, even if it amplified worries about balance and zerg dominance.
Monetisation debates flared up hard around this time. An early look at the in‑game store and datamined plans for potential XP or convenience boosts prompted accusations of creeping pay‑to‑win, especially after statements that the shop would initially be cosmetic‑only. Amazon responded with open letters and blog posts trying to reassure players that any gameplay-affecting items would be carefully handled and that the launch focus would stay on cosmetics, but the incident left a lingering wariness in parts of the community.
Narrative structure was another common criticism from beta impressions. While Aeternum felt rich in visual lore, the main story and side quests were often described as thin or repetitive, sending players repeatedly to similar POIs without much dialogue or cutscene support to explain the bigger picture. For players used to more guided, story‑heavy MMOs, that lack of clear narrative direction could make early hours feel like aimless grinding punctuated by impressive vistas and occasional faction drama.
In the years since, New World has changed significantly without abandoning those early pillars. Major updates like Brimstone Sands, the Rise of the Angry Earth expansion and the New World: Aeternum relaunch have added large new zones, revamped chunks of the main story, introduced seasonal models and broadened both solo and group endgame options. The weapon‑based system, territory control and crafting remain core, but they now sit alongside more cinematic storytelling, curated quest lines and rotating events designed to give Aeternum a clearer sense of ongoing life.
Looked at from 2024, the closed beta feels like an early snapshot of what the game wanted to be: a visually cohesive, combat‑forward sandbox with light questing and heavy emphasis on player interaction. Some of the rough edges that testers flagged – narrative thinness, monetisation anxiety, faction imbalance – have been sanded down more than others, but the basic experience of trekking through Aeternum’s forests, lining up heavy swings and watching a settlement’s skyline grow still traces back to what people first tried in that July build.
