New World: Aeternum’s New Raid Is a Challenging, Action-Packed Showcase for the MMO Refresh

I was recently invited by Amazon Games to their offices in Irvine, CA to play The Hive of Gorgons, the new 10-player raid coming with the New World: Aeternum update when it launches on Oct. 15 for PC, Xbox Series X/S, and PS5. It’s the most difficult content in the game. In short, I got my ass kicked.

The bright side is, I didn’t get the beatdown alone. Our 10-player crew was given the crystal-clear warning from the jump that, quite simply, we were about to die…and die a lot. A couple of weeks prior to the press event, it took the devs themselves several, hours-long attempts (“No pee breaks!”) to battle through the grueling three-phase raid.

“We got our 10 best players to play the The Hive of Gorgons,” recalls New World: Aeternum creative director David Verfaillie. “People were crowded around their desks, they were cheering…it was really fun to watch.” And the stakes couldn’t be higher…

“We told the team, ‘If any group beats the raid by Saturday, we’ll throw an ice cream party,’” says New World: Aeternum game director Scot Lane. The pressure was on, and after a brutal 12-plus hours of PvE insanity, the team finally did it, right at the buzzer. “[They did it] that Saturday. You should have heard the team erupt when they beat the last boss. It was hilarious.”

While some members of our group of ragtag journos were experienced New World players with hundreds of hours banked, several of us (myself included) were less skilled, generally console-centric players. With Aeternum marking the expansion of the game to the console community, our group was a good representation of the mix of players one is likely to find in the MMO moving forward.

To help our party stand a chance of getting through the raid, we were given characters with essentially maxed-out stats, the craziest gear and items in the game, and our dev team members’ guidance and support. The thing was, we failed to coordinate when choosing our character builds, meaning despite rolling 10-deep, only one of the devs was outfitted to act as a tank. 

This didn’t bode well for us, and we indeed ultimately got our asses handed to us, but not before we took down hordes of Hercyne monstrosities with us. Gangs of werewolves and corvids descended on us as we made our way through the ornate ruins, littered with traps, ambush points, and mazes that forced the group to coordinate, play defense, solve puzzles, and keep our composure as we fought through the chaos.

The thing that struck me immediately about the raid was that, despite our group having a rough go of it (the devs had to give us a little “dev help” to help us progress when we couldn’t beat the first boss), I was having a blast! A big reason for that comes down to the design of the Hive of Gorgons. The first boss encounter, The Echidna, is a perfect example of how clever and complex the raid can get. As we scrambled around the arena trying to avoid the enormous creature’s deadly bite, tail, and spines, a sense of panic set in, even as our dev guides were essentially telling us exactly what to do to win. It was super intense and chaotic, with potential one-hit kills coming at us everywhere we turned.

The Echidna’s AOE ground pound attack, if not dodged, would send us hurtling into the sky atop jutting pillars of stone. From atop the pillars, ranged attacks dealt more damage to the Echidna, and we were protected from the more deadly attacks. And if you fell to the ground and wanted to make your way back up to one of the taller pillars, you could use your pickaxe to lower them, effectively making stair steps back up to more advantageous ground. What’s cool about this is that it incorporates one of the game’s core mechanics–mining/gathering–into one of the game’s most demanding battles. It doesn’t feel contrived at all, and not only does it add layers of strategy to the boss fight, it also looks cool.

Despite our best efforts, we were not able to take the Echidna down. The next section of the raid saw us split into two teams to navigate a labyrinth filled with Gorgons that could essentially merc us on sight (dev’s tip: “If you see one, RUN”). Some of us lured the Gorgons away so others could stand on buttons to open our path to escape, and then it was a mad dash to get everyone out of the maze, which was easier said than done with the Gorgons on the prowl.

Next we came upon the second boss, a bulldozing werewolf called Typhon. His arena was full of brambles that would crop up and cause massive damage, and thorny cages that would trap members of our squad, forcing us to coordinate and free them before their health dipped to zero. Periodically, Typhon would “target” one of us (that player would see an ominous eye symbol indicating that they were “it”), signaling that he was getting ready to pounce on them at full-speed. The only way to avoid this was to hide behind a pillar, causing Typhon to concuss himself, opening up an opportunity to lay in heavy attacks. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to take down Typhon before our hands-on time with the raid ended.

With New World: Aeternum marking the game’s debut on console, it’ll be interesting to see if any console players typically reticent to play MMOs like this will decide to give it a go. But I think they should. While at its core New World is an online game built for interacting with other players, console players who don’t prefer that kind of experience can play through the entirety of the main quest line as a solo experience. I did precisely this during my time with the vanilla build of the game. But after getting this hands-on time with the game’s multiplayer, which also included some time with the game’s free-for-all PvP zone, I think New World may be ready to surprise console players when they jump in this month. 

Xbox X/S and PS5 players will be washing up on the beaches of Aeternum alongside PC players when the game launches on console (with cross-play!) on Oct. 15.