New World's progression and crafting sound pretty familiar

The appeal of New World seems to be that it's just an MMO. It's not a battle royale, it's not a survival game and it's not putting an unusual spin on the MMO formula. It's the kind of thing you might have expected to be announced a decade ago, but has since fallen by the wayside.

As a result, there aren't many surprises in its list of features. The latest breakdown, posted by Gamespot, gives us a tour of New World's progression and crafting systems, and for the most part they're a familiar bunch.

You'll work your way through five progression systems. As you level up, you'll be able to put points into your attributes, making you stronger or smarter. Weapon mastery, meanwhile, will make you more deadly in combat, unlocking new abilities for your favourite weapons. When you want to take a break from hacking away at enemies, you can work on your crafting and gathering tradeskills, unlocking new recipes as you go. There are factions you can help out, too, netting you faction reputation and the opportunity to buy special gear from them.

Territory standing sounds like the most novel of the progression systems. Just by playing in a territory, you'll gain standing in it, which will let you claim rewards that will make your time in the area a bit easier. The rewards range from small things, like boosting your gathering speed by a few percent, to the ability to own a house.

The devs also go into a bit more detail about how the crafting system works. You'll start, not surprisingly, crafting crappy leather boots and other mundane items, but you'll eventually unlock new recipes that let you create more elaborate gear with gem slots and perks, increasing damage or giving a weapon elemental properties. The higher tier recipes will require harder to find reagents, of course, necessitating the skills of expert gatherers.

If you fancy finding out more, a pair of blog posts on crafting and progression were also published earlier in the month.

Fraser is the UK online editor and has actually met The Internet in person. With over a decade of experience, he's been around the block a few times, serving as a freelancer, news editor and prolific reviewer. Strategy games have been a 30-year-long obsession, from tiny RTSs to sprawling political sims, and he never turns down the chance to rave about Total War or Crusader Kings. He's also been known to set up shop in the latest MMO and likes to wind down with an endlessly deep, systemic RPG. These days, when he's not editing, he can usually be found writing features that are 1,000 words too long or talking about his dog.