When Amazon first announced New World, it initially planned to release the MMO in May 2020. Earlier this year, the company delayed the game to August 25th due to the coronavirus pandemic. As a kind of apology for the latest delay, people who signed up for New World‘s open beta, pre-ordered the game or took part in its alpha test will be able to play the RPG in its current state for “a limited period” starting on August 25th.  

The delay comes a week-and-a-half after Amazon took the unusual step of rolling back the availability of its hero-based shooter Crucible following a rough launch. As of July 1st, the game is once again in closed beta so that developer Relentless can polish its gameplay. Amazon Games has been working on New World for more than four years. With how much massively online games cost to develop, it’s understandable that the studio would want to take more time to give the project a chance at success.      

Amazon’s colonial online RPG New World is arriving later than expected, but you might not have to wait much longer to give it a try. The PC-only MMO’s closed beta is due to start on July 23rd, with sign-ups available now. The finished game is due to arrive just over a month later on August 25th. The news comes alongside a trailer that shows off the game’s action-oriented combat — unlike many such games, your reflexes and tactics should matter as much as your stats.

The title is a supernatural riff on colonialism during the Age of Exploration, with would-be settlers building homes and whole companies as they fight off undead legions (and each other) on a magical island. You can see up to 100 players on the battlefield at the same time, making for some particularly epic fights.

Amazon’s New World MMO will apparently have an intricately detailed war system, based on the company’s latest post about the game. As part of New World’s Developer Diary Series, Amazon has revealed how players will be able to wage war against each other and showed off the siege platforms and traps they can use.

A faction can only declare war against another if it has weakened a territory enough, the post reads, and wars will be scheduled to avoid raiding and fighting during inconvenient hours for participants. The game will beam players to the battlefield from wherever they are when the time comes for battle. And once they’ve arrived, they need to capture three Rally Points in front of the defenders’ fort if they’re the ones attacking before they can breach the fort gates and capture the territory.

03.15.20 #Westworld pic.twitter.com/AVLWy5z1DW

— Westworld (@WestworldHBO) January 13, 2020

As we’ve already learned, the third season will take place not only in the park from the first two seasons, but also in the outside world. We saw Dolores interacting with a construction worker played by Aaron Paul, and learned that she’s a target. The plot will also feature a creepy company called Incite that bears a resemblance to current Silicon Valley tech giants.

The latest trailer gives us a bit more background about how Westworld’s AI came to be. A number of chaotic events coalesced into a massive problem for humanity, which was only saved by something called the “System” in the year 2039. (On a side note, it seems tasteless to use the Hong Kong riots as part of a plot point to demonstrate the rise of dystopia.) Apparently, though, Dolores and her self-aware AI friends have messed that up. “Up until now, the system was working, but there’s someone we haven’t accounted for: You,” the narrator says darkly.

Co-creator Jonathan Nolan said that the world is still pretty messed despite this System but, unlike Blade Runner and other dystopic fictions, they filmed it in nice locations with a pretty sheen. “Dystopia can look pretty beautiful in the world,” he told Deadline. “Just because the world is corrupt inside, doesn’t mean it can’t be smothered over and pretty. We wanted to find a version of dystopia that we hadn’t seen before.”

Westworld suffered from a lackluster second season after the enormous success of season one. However, viewers will no doubt be less willing to tolerate the boring episodes like we saw in season two that failed to move the plot. We’ll certainly see a lot of new faces, including Paul, Vincent Cassel, Lena Waithe and Marshawn Lynch.