As the main portion of the game begins, with the player shipwrecked on the remote, fantastical island of Aeternum, the upgrades to the in-game visual presentation is immediately noticeable, as players explore their new surroundings. Verfaillie observes that “beauty of the world has really stepped up” as the developers took advantage of the advanced hardware of the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S and their 4K HDR capabilities to create a lush vision of Aeternum on consoles. Verfaillie also notes that the game will add a swimming mechanic, giving new players a new way to explore the island.
“It’s been awesome letting our artists just create,” Lane adds. “As you travel through Aeternum, you’re going to see it go from this beautiful tropical experience, and you’ll see winter areas, rainy and dark areas, scary and cliff harsh areas, a desert. There are just so many different biomes and areas in the world. Our artists have done an amazing job of making it just look beautiful.”
According to Lane, player feedback was a major force that drove the big changes to the game. The goal is for Aeternum to feel like a welcoming experience for new players but to also feel fresh for veterans of the MMO.
“In the last three years, we’ve already added and changed so much based on that group of players giving us feedback and trying to make the game the best we possibly could for them,” Lane says. “If you played the game three years ago, it’s going to look nothing like that.”
Streamlining the Experience
Even with all these new bells and whistles, including a cinematic presentation, New World: Aeternum is designed to be easy to pick-up-and-play for gamers that are new to the title, leading them right into the action. A major focus was fine-tuning the experience for console gamers.
“It’s been a challenge, but a fun challenge, Lane says. “We’re really excited to bring all these console players in and expose them to some of our current players, as well as get them in our new content.”
