In all the hubbub over New World‘s controversial Aeternum relaunch, there’s one element of the update that’s been largely overlooked. The features infographic mentions “combat improvements (stagger PvE enemies”). If this is what I think it is, it could really improve the game’s open world experience… or completely ruin it.
It’s possible this is just a cosmetic change, in which case everything I’m about to say in this column is irrelevant, and I’ll look very silly. But if it’s not cosmetic, it’s a big enough change that it’s worth risking my non-existent dignity to talk about.
Let’s start by explaining what stagger is in New World, and its history. In New World‘s alpha, any hit against players and mobs would cause them to stagger, effectively serving as a brief stun as they visibly reacted to the hit.
There were a lot of positives to this. It made combat very tactical and challenging. You needed to be on point with your blocks and dodges, as any hit left you reeling and exposed you to further hits, but it also made your own successful attacks feel incredibly satisfying. It opened up the opportunity to press the attack, beating enemies into submission before they could fight back, and it just looked cool to see them visibly react to your attacks.
This system caused a lot of balance problems, though. It became possible to effectively stunlock enemies through constant stagger, with fast-attacking weapons like the hatchet being particularly bad offenders. This was especially problematic in PvP.
Thus, before launch, stagger was stripped away from player attacks outside of a few specific abilities. This was very controversial at the time, with some feeling it was a necessary balancing step and others feeling that it ruined the feel of combat. As someone who played in alpha, I can attest that combat has never felt quite as good since, though I do sympathize with the reasons for the change.
Mobs initially kept their stagger, but after launch the developers eventually scaled it back for them as well. Nowadays both players and mobs alike can stagger only occasionally, with certain abilities.
Removing stagger from mobs was a double-edged sword. It was very frustrating to be constantly staggered without the potential to do the same to them, but removing it served as a massive nerf to mob difficulty across the game, and the world lost a lot of its sense of danger and adventure.
I’m nervous that’s going to happen again with the upcoming stagger changes in Aeternum. Again, this could be a cosmetic-only change — mobs visibly reacting to hits without actually having their attacks interrupted — but the fact Amazon uses the word “stagger,” which has a specific mechanical meaning in the game, leads me to believe the devs are in fact adding stagger back to all player attacks in PvE. It was also briefly discussed in the dev video following the announcement, and while the studio doesn’t go into much detail, it does indeed sound like actual stagger.
On the one hand, this could be really good. While I still enjoy New World‘s combat, it really did feel its best back in alpha. Returning to something like that could cement it as the absolute best combat in the MMO genre, at least where PvE is concerned. Staggering mobs just feels good.
But if nothing else changes, this is once again a massive nerf to mob difficulty. If we can stagger enemies with every hit but they don’t get their stagger back or any other buffs, it’s hard to imagine anything in PvE ever being remotely threatening again outside of dungeon bosses. We’re just going to be facerolling the open world like it’s World of Warcraft.
I got interested in New World in large part because it was one of the few MMORPGs on the market to offer genuinely challenging content in the open world. Stagger changes and improved gearing have softened that difficulty severely, and we’re now pretty much scraping the bottom of the barrel in terms of the level of challenge needed to hold my attention. There aren’t a lot of things that could drive me away from New World for good at this point, but completely removing all challenge from the open world might do it.
The addition of repeatable soul trials as an endgame activity in Aeternum gives me some hope that challenging solo content would remain a part of the game’s identity, but people shouldn’t have to wait for endgame to start having fun. Already I see a lot of posts on Reddit from new players asking if things ever get more challenging because the early zones are so easy that even new gamers are getting bored.
And that’s MMORPG players talking. I definitely don’t think that a completely braindead open-world experience is going to go over well with the console action fans whom the developers are trying to court with the Aeternum relaunch. If Amazon is going to avoid the “MMORPG” label, then it should also try to avoid the genre’s worst habits.
As I’ve said in other columns, I’m not asking for nail-biting, Soulslike difficulty. I just want to have to try. New World‘s one of the few MMOs where I don’t feel infantilized. It’s a crucial part of the game’s identity and what makes it attractive compared to its competitors. There are plenty of MMOs where open-world mobs pose no threat; let us keep at least one where solo play isn’t completely mindless.
There are lots of ways to avoid this fate. The devs could give mobs their stagger back as well, essentially turning the clock back to the alpha combat that many players believe was the game at its best. They could also just buff mob damage and health a bit, making it more likely that enemies can get a few hits in on players and making those hits actually feel meaningful. They could add more special attacks to mobs that need to be dodged or blocked; that would replicate a bit of the alpha’s tactical play without the obnoxiousness of chain staggers.
But Amazon needs to get this right. With PC players bitter and resentful over their neglect in the lead up to the console launch, making a good first impression on console players is likely New World‘s last hope, and I don’t think creating a situation where mobs can’t even fight back for the first 65 levels is going to do it.
New World’s Aeternum is a land of many secrets. In MassivelyOP’s Vitae Aeternum, our writers delve those secrets to provide you with in-depth coverage of all things New World through launch and beyond.
