New World (Amazon MMO)
I got into the alpha test phase of this a week ago. Aside from a few rounds in Escape from Tarkov, I've played New World ever since.
This is the first MMO I've played since quitting Eve Online several years ago. I'm not terribly knowledgeable on the MMO scene otherwise, dabbled with Warcraft and ESO several years ago but they didnt grab me.
This game is a lot of fun. Very pretty and has mountains of lore to grab you in. The crafting system is very well developed alongside the ways you hunt or gather the absolute glut of materials available in the world. It's fairly understandable work, use what you have, craft better, collect faster, upgrade your stuff, collect more and faster sort of affair.
The combat is hugely varied also, the game is set in roughly approx 1600s to 1700s, so the weapons available at the time are there, muskets, swords, rappers, hammers etc. There is also a magical set of weapons including staff of various types and magical gauntlets of varying sorts. All the weapons have skill trees available in them and each weapon plays very differently to others. The combat itself is satisfying and meaty, I personally use muskets and spear. One gives a ranged option and the other a good close in option.
The audio is brilliant in this I have to say, they have put alot of effort into making the world Audibly rich and immersive.
There is also opt in PvP flagging if people dont want that they can untick the PvP flag at any time. You get a boost to XP though if you have it on, I left it on all the time I've played and never been killed yet outside of trouble ive started myself. The alpha community seems quite PvE focussed I'd say. That will likely change with Main release at a guess.
Overall this is a very strong, interesting and satisfying game from Amazon. It's a flat one time purchase with a cash shop for cosmetics and quality of life bits, personally I haven't seen the cash shop aspect yet as it's not implemented yet. There was some hoo haa about them doing this a few months ago but considering it's one time price and the quality overall I woildnt begrudge a few quid here and there personally.