New World's Biggest Update Yet Will Add New Zone, Weapon, Leveling Revamp, And More

Amazon's MMORPG New World will receive its biggest update since launch this October, bringing with it new features like the Brimstone Sands zone, major changes to early-game leveling, and the Greatsword weapon, just to name a few.

As detailed in a new developer update video, Brimstone Sands is a massive desert zone that once was home to an ancient Egyptian civilization. But it's not just Egyptian influences players will discover. A Roman legion also once called Brimstone Sands home, only to be consumed by the mysterious Corruption that continues to spread throughout the island of Aeternum. Players will take on these corrupted legionnaires as well as the zone's Egyptian guardians as part of the game's storyline. A new Expedition (New World's versions of dungeons) will take players deep inside the region's gigantic Pyramid to uncover even more secrets.

Though Brimstone Sands is definitely the free update's biggest selling point, major changes meant to address complaints players have had about New World's leveling experience since launch will also be coming. Amazon mentions changes will first come to the game's starter zones (which carry players through levels 1-25), but that the goal is to bring similar changes to the entirety of New World's leveling experience once players are able to give feedback on all the improvements.

Details are light in Amazon's own developer update video, but a write-up from MMORPG.com shares more information about the leveling revamp, with Amazon looking to make visual changes to ensure each zone feels distinct, tell a central story in each starter zone, make updates to enemy AI, and improve quest flow so players don't have to spend so much time traveling back and forth between locations. Changes will also come to how players pick their faction of choice, though what exactly is changing is still under wraps for now.

Last but not least, the Brimstone Sands update will introduce the Greatsword, a new Strength and Dexterity-scaling weapon. The weapon will allow players to swap between two stances, with one skill tree, Onslaught, catering on reckless offense. The other tree, Defiance, is more of a tank-oriented specialization, allowing players to withstand punishment from multiple foes before dishing out some punishment of their own.

Various parts of the upcoming update will be rolling out to New World's public test server throughout September, with the full update planned to arrive sometime in October, a little over a year after New World's one-year anniversary. New World got off to a strong start with more than 900,000 concurrent players shortly after launch last year. Those numbers quickly dwindled, however, with anywhere between 13,000-21,000 players online at any given moment in recent months. In our original New World review, we praised Amazon's MMORPG for its visuals and high-stakes PvP battles, but found its questing experience and story to be severely lacking.