Hands-On Preview: New World's Rise Of The Angry Earth Expansion Brings Mounts, Laser Mammoths To MMO This October

mmorpg.com:

New World: Rise of the Angry Earth has officially been unveiled, with the expansion coming on October 3rd, 2023. The expansion was announced back in February, and the MMO has been laying the groundwork in recent updates, with Amazon Games cutting off one of the first regions of Aeternum, First Light. Picking up the narrative, Adiana has effectively erected a Bramble Wall, barring entry into the region. Rise of the Angry Earth finally showcases what has been happening behind that wall all this time: Artemis has transformed First Light into a new region called Elysian Wilds.

First Light was actually the region I spawned into back when New World launched two years ago, though, like many players, the rush brought so many of us through the region and on into Windsward and Everfall. While part of the storyline back in the early days of the MMO did bring you through the region, I can’t remember the last time I stepped foot in it before Adiana, who we now know as the God Artemis, walled it off with her Angry Earth Bramble Wall. 

While most MMOs will add a new zone to the game with an expansion update — New World did so with the Brimstone Sands update last year — taking First Light and transforming it into an end-game zone reuses the space and revitalizes it, it also has the added effect of keeping players close together.

“We want to grow the world in size, but we also want to make sure we’re getting the most out of what’s there,” game director Scot Lane told press during a round table interview.

“We want to grow the world with our players,” senior producer and expansion lead Katy Kaszynski continued, “not necessarily expanding the landmass, but taking maybe some of those areas that are less used by lower levels and keeping