New World Preview: Amazon's Debut Video Game Is A Sandbox MMO With Faith In Its Players

Okay, it’s technically Amazon’s second game, but the company canceled its first game, Breakaway, so…

- Hayden Dingman

Amazon’s foray into the games industry is proof nobody can shortcut their way to a hit. It’s been fully five years since the online retailer, worth more than most (if not all) of the major video game publishers combined, announced it was going to start making video games. And it started so well! Amazon forked CryEngine into its own proprietary engine, Lumberyard. It hired Clint Hocking, hired Kim Swift—hired the sorts of people, in other words, that you’d want to see making games.

Then it uh…lost Clint Hocking, lost Kim Swift, and cancelled the only Amazon game we’d seen in action, the MOBA-esque sports game Breakaway (go.pcworld.com/bway).

So what’s left? Well, New World.

Announced at the same time as Breakaway, New World is an online sandbox set in the 17th century, a combination survival game, builder, and social sim. There’s a lot going on here, for sure. The only problem? I’m not convinced the players will cooperate with Amazon’s vision.

FREEDOM OF CHOICE

We had the chance to go hands-on with New World here in San Francisco. I’ll be honest: Two hours? Not enough time to demo a game of this scope. To its credit, Amazon Game Studios tried its best by giving our entire play-session of around 20 people a “guided tour” through some of the major features.

But it’s hard, because New World is very much a sandbox. When I think MMO, I still think of World of Warcraft, or more modern examples like The Old Republic, Elder Scrolls Online, Final Fantasy XIV, Warframe, and so on. These are all wildly different games, but stem from the same role-playing game influences. They all have heavy story components. There are missions, characters, shopkeepers, and so on.