Like most MMOs, New World also features a beautifully designed map. Both the landscape and the water surrounding the map complete the whole New World experience and it may take players a while to discover all the ins and outs of the map.
Considering the water portion of the map and some of the resources that you can gather from these areas, it can be hard to resist the itch to jump into the water and swim. That won’t be the case in New World, though, since your character won’t be able to swim at the moment.
While you’ll have no trouble walking in water in areas where the water levels aren’t that deep, you’ll realize a breath meter pops up when the water levels go over your head. You’ll still be able to walk underwater, but you’ll have limited time as you run out of air. That’s when you’ll need to go toward the shore since you’ll have to get your head out of the water to take a breather.
This makes it impossible to swim to another shore or island in New World since you won’t be able to get out of the water midway to replenish your breath meter. The lack of a swimming animation has been causing a funny scene inside the game, though. It also forces players to stick to ground traveling, which can be less than ideal sometimes if you could swim faster to their target point.
It’s unclear whether New World will receive a swimming animation in the future, but the existence of a breath meter may mean that the topic was at least discussed. If Amazon Game Studios decides to add a swimming animation, players may be able to use the breath meter to their advantage and swim to far destinations to complete their quests. After the developers patch out every minor error or bug they’ve run into during the release period, they should have more time to iron out the game’s finer details, which could include swimming.
