Hands-On with New World: Aeternum and Throne and Liberty at Summer Game Fest

Amazon Games keeps trying to stamp its mark on the MMO genre, but if early indications of their new one (and their updated one) are anything to go by, they still have a few things to learn if they want to compete with the bigger ones in the space.

At the recent Play Days event at Summer Game Fest, I had the opportunity to go hands-on with two different MMOs, both published by Amazon: the free-to-play Throne and Liberty, coming September 17th to PC and consoles, and the updated, new-to-console version of New World: Aeternum coming October 15th.

Throne and Liberty Impressions

I began my hands-on time with Throne and Liberty. The game launched last year in Korea, so while we haven’t had a chance to play it in the US until now, it’s been around for a minute. According to the person running me through the demo, it typically focuses on Player v Player content, and interactions with the environment are important mechanics.

I can’t comment much on the PvP content, because after a bit of time with the character creator, they ran us through a dungeon. The thing that really distinguishes Throne and Liberty is the volume of interactions they expect you to have with the environments, including this dungeon. We had to use a grappling hook to move through some spaces, and one boss mechanic forced us to leave the arena and jump in some water to get rid of a fire damage stack.

Outside of that, the dungeon really felt like a typical MMO. We fought trash mobs and bosses, and the combat was your typical auto-attacks mixed with using skills to push out additional damage. I will say that the skills were flashy, and the game looks great in motion, but again, especially when there are other, more polished MMOs out there that also look great, it’s not doing much to distinguish itself.

One thing of note is that the game worked well on controller. All of your character’s skills sit on two different palettes and you can simply swap them with the R1 or R2 button on a PlayStation 5. I’m not sure how robust it will be later in the game because I only got a chance to play around with eight abilities. Compared to what you’re juggling in other MMOs it seems a little sparse, but it’s possible I didn’t get a full sense of it during my limited time with the game.

Hands-On with New World: Aeternum

While Throne and Liberty is very much in the vein of the more popular MMOs, New World: Aeternum is more of an action-survival game. This is an updated version of the original game, now coming to consoles. It’s important to note that I’ve not played the original, so while I’ll try to talk a bit about some of the changes, my knowledge is limited.

The demo starts at the character creation screen, and I’ll admit that I was a little underwhelmed at first — there just aren’t as many options as I’d expect in a fully-fledged MMO, but maybe that’s my love of Final Fantasy XIV talking here. The character creation screen is where you choose from one of seven jobs ranging from heavy-damage sword-wielders to musket-wielding classes. The variety of weapons may expand as you play through the game, but it’s hard to say at this point. While this might seem a bit disappointing, it’s worth noting that this wasn’t available in the original New World and is all new to Aeternum. Apparently, the first 25 levels will serve as a way of “onboarding” you, and after those 25 levels, you’ll have a chance to respec your character.

After creating my character, I was thrust right into the action aboard a burning ship under attack. At this point, we got a brief tutorial on the combat. Essentially, at least in the early going, it’s a character-based action game with strong and light attacks, blocking, and dodging. I’d be curious to see how this almost Souls-like combat works when lag might come into play, but I’m sure they’ve had enough time to work on it since New World has been out for a few years. Otherwise, some story cutscenes are sprinkled throughout, and it sounds like these are new to Aeternum, but they didn’t mean much to me without more context.

After that, the demo dumped us on the island of the titular Aeternum, where the game seems to begin in earnest. We learn some of the key mechanics by being asked to kill some boars to gather materials (which seems like a central element of the game) or to craft a knife. It’s all pretty standard MMO stuff, but the writing with the characters you’re interacting with is pretty solid, and everyone I spoke to had a unique sprinkling of personality.

That’s about all I had time to check out in Aeternum. If you’re interested in the MMO experience but more interested in action-based combat, New World: Aeternum might be a solid place to start, but for me personally, I’m concerned that it might be a game more about resource gathering than tackling dungeons, so it might not be for me.

Overall, both Throne and Liberty and New World: Aeternum show promise in different ways, and they both function well on console with a controller in hand. Throne and Liberty plays more like the typical MMORPG but with a few environmental wrinkles tossed in. New World: Aeternum is more of an action-based survival MMO, and it might be a good entry point or some, even if I found it a bit underwhelming. Regardless, Amazon is certainly trying to continue strengthening their presence in the MMO sphere. We’ll see if either of the games get them there.

Throne and Liberty launches September 17th, 2024 on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S, and New World: Aeternum follows on the same platforms on October 15th. Keep an eye on them through the Throne and Liberty official website and New World: Aeternum official website.