New World’s Fresh Start servers went online on November 2, 2022. MeinMMO author Anny Bader dared to take a look at the MMORPG as a completely new player.
New World was released in September 2021. I was interested in the game but was reluctant to buy it. In the beginning, the MMORPG had an enormously high number of players with long queues, but then it suddenly became empty.
When I heard about economic exploits, empty servers, boring quests and the tough leveling process, that put me off and I decided to stay away from New World for now.
When the fresh start servers went live recently, where every player starts over from the beginning, I dared. Also because I had heard that New World had improved massively and was no longer so monotonous. The Fresh Start also ensures a new, clean economy.
Who is speaking here? Anny has been working as an MMORPG author for MeinMMO since the beginning of 2022. It’s her first time playing New World, but she’s been following the action for a while. Now it was time to make up your own mind about how good or bad New World actually is.
For the launch of the new servers, I arranged to meet up with a few veterans who wanted to start over. The release of the servers was relatively bumpy, but was probably no comparison to the 2021 release. Amazon quickly realized that 4 servers were not enough and delivered more every minute, so that nobody was stuck in endless queues. All of them are currently being played diligently, whether newcomers or veterans.
Monotonous quests and slow leveling would probably have scared me when it was released
Players who experienced New World before Fresh Start often complained about the quest guidance. You were always bluntly led back to the same place. Cutscenes were much rarer at the beginning.
My own experience is entirely different. I spawn on a coast, do some stuff there and learn the basics like crafting around a campfire. Shortly thereafter, I’m on a completely different path, my path from NPC to NPC feels fluid and I rarely have to run back. I’m so short in the starting area that I even forget to craft my tools. I only have the opportunity to do this again a few levels later.
The dialogues are set to music and there are comic-style cutscenes in between, which visually remind me of Borderlands. In addition, my screen turns red in between and I hear the voice of Isabella, leader of the corrupted. She tells me my mission is doomed. I do not share your opinion.
My level keeps increasing, I reach level 10 in less than an hour. Even later, I’m progressing quickly in leveling and have now reached level 40. For some veterans it is now even too fast because they are used to it differently from before: Leveling used to be very tough and took forever.
Since an update in summer 2022, you’ve leveled up faster from 20 to 50, and since the fresh start, the experience points required between level 35 and 55 have been reduced again. Some hardcore players were already at level 60 after 18 hours.
Personally, it motivates me to keep progressing, which is why I like the current leveling process. In the past, the tediousness would probably have demotivated me and ultimately scared me away.
In the video you can see a few tips to get you started:
5 tips if you want to start with New World in 2022
I test all weapons and professions first
Unlike back then, you can now access all weapons much more quickly. You can find them right in the starting area, since they’re just lying around there. I found a few and got others through quests.
I quickly had a copy of each weapon and tried them out in peace. Resetting skills is free up to level 20. It was the same before, but there were hardly any weapons to test. You usually only get them later.
In the end, I decide on Spear and Musket, a build that should be good for the level phase. All attributes and skills can also be reset at a later point in time, but then it costs some in-game currency.
When it comes to professions, too, I try everything out and am impressed by the variety. The fact that you can level everything you do in New World keeps me going. I especially like making music – it feels like playing a round of Guitar Hero. It’s not all that useful, but at least I get a buff that gives me more items to collect for an hour.
Due to the fast leveling of my character, I quickly reach areas where my life skills are not sufficient. For example, I kill a bear and I can’t skin it because I need to have level 50 skinning. So I have to take extra care of the life skills. They also increase in level quickly, but go up to level 200 and especially the felling of wood quickly becomes too monotonous for me.
While I like New World, there are a few issues
Even if I like it very much, New World is not a perfect MMORPG and therefore comes with some problems, despite the restart:
I probably wouldn’t have liked New World when it was released, but apart from a few small things I love it now
The things that bother me as a newcomer to New World will probably make veterans chuckle. At launch, the MMORPG had so many problems that I would have joined the wave of angry players and quickly left the game. I couldn’t have had the patience for leveling and questing.
But I really like New World as it is today. I can overlook small bugs and instead of the group finder I have to use the old school version and talk to my fellow players to form a group.
Anyway, I’ll keep playing New World and look forward to future content, especially Brimestone Sands.
Anne Bader
MMORPG author at MeinMMO
What do you think of the fresh start servers in New World? Did you start all over again, or did you also start from scratch? How do you like the game with all the changes? Do you think the leveling is going too fast now? What level have you already reached? Write it to us in the comments here on MeinMMO!
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