The Secret World: I am the Bruce Willis

I’ve been trying to get to day 3 of my 10/10 challenge but horrid GI problems have been keeping me from gaming as of late.  Hopefully tonight!  Instead, let’s talk The Secret World, because I just finished up Issue #6 and have a few glowing words to say about it.

For a $10 DLC, Funcom really has to provide the goods, and I feel like I get a good bang for my buck here (especially since I’m not subscribing).  So far, Issue #5 and #6 have been meaty affairs — not to mention completely replayable.  While Issue #5 focused on the big secret around Solomon Island, Issue #6 is a purely Egyptian affair.

The gist of the story is that the nasty Atenist cult has somehow gotten a hold of the same terrible device that decimated the Tokyo subway and is looking to bomb the crud out of Cairo.  Over the course of four or five missions, players have to thwart the plot.  BUT… it’s not that straight-forward.  There’s some serious time travel involved, as you have to go to the past twice to retrieve special devices, and some serious Indiana Jones vibes going on.  The whole mission chain throws references to Indiana Jones at you, from music to rolling boulders, without it being too obnoxious or overt.  Maybe that’s annoying to you, but I like it — and it makes a lot more sense to do this in a contemporary MMO than a fantasy one disconnected from our world.  Plus, how can you have an Egyptian zone with ancient ruins and relics and NOT do Indy?

Anyway, it’s a challenging chain.  There’s a couple sabotage missions that require a lot of stealth and guile, or, if you have a large group like we did, a blunt-force approach to all the nasties.  The group did enjoy one point where we got locked up and had our weapons taken away, which forced us to approach the game from a different angle.

The final quest, Last Train to Cairo, is a rather impressive set piece on a train barreling toward civilization.  It’s a long, long mission that has you going on top of, inside of, and along side of train cars, fighting your way forward and finding key cards to unlock the next sections.  There’s a few surprises and a devilish boss fight at the end (which took me 10 tries and a couple skill re-juggling sessions), but it felt worth it.

By far, I enjoyed the focus on two of TSW’s breakout characters, Nassir the pop culture-obsessed freedom fighter and Said the laconic business mummy.  The two of them finally meet and it’s an absolute hoot.  I really would watch a TV show or movie featuring them as an odd buddy pairing.  My favorite quote came at the beginning of Last Train to Cairo:

All in all, hats off to Funcom.  The Secret World remains one of the absolute best storytelling experiences in MMOs, both in cutscenes and in the missions themselves.

The Secret World: Quirky Qombat

It’s a sad irony that as I’m getting into some of the most gripping questing of The Secret World, I’m also getting into some of the most difficult combat situations.  Not that TSW has ever been easy from Blue Mountain on, but now in Transylvania it gets downright tough.

I suppose that’s the drawback of the make-your-own-class double-edged sword.  The relative freedom to create a unique build comes with the distinct possibility that your build won’t be up to snuff.  I’d hate to be the developers who have to balance content based on such a wide range of potential builds.  My gut feeling is that they went a tad overboard by making it tougher rather than easier.  It definitely doesn’t feel as balanced as, say, how RIFT does it.

And while I’ve grown to appreciate the open class system, I think I’d gladly trade it in for traditional classes if the content was slightly easier.  Combat feels like a major speedbump that slows us down from getting to the good stuff — progressing quests, hearing new stories, doing the cool investigation missions.  Again, maybe that’s intentional; maybe the devs realize that without a way to pace players, they’d shoot through this content far, far faster than the devs could craft new missions.

Anyway, I’ve gotten a little tired of, y’know, dying all the time, so I’ve started to trade up my DPS gear for health gear.  An extra 2,000 hit points can keep me in the fight a lot longer, especially with a handful of protective and healing skills.  Right now I’m shotgun/blades/chainsaw and it’s working well for me.  I’ve got five attacks, two heals, and a damage booster, all of which feels well-rounded.

My current long-term goal is to finally finish a deck and collect a special outfit.  It’s going to take a while, but it’s nice to have something to look forward to.

I’m definitely looking forward to Issue #6 — trains, time travel, whips, and shades of Indiana Jones is all pretty intriguing.  And I still have a little over two zones to complete in Transylvania, so I’m pacing myself a little so that there’s always something left to do.  I don’t think I’ll ever be rolling an alt in TSW — there doesn’t seem to be as much of an incentive to do so, since you can rebuild any build you like, factions are largely cosmetic, and the progression through quests and zones is identical.

I think we have the promise of a new area, Tokyo, on the horizon, although with Funcom’s situation as of late, it’s hard to say when we’ll ever be seeing it.

Me and Suppafly, a love story

In London in The Secret World there’s a little machine that has the power to CHANGE YOUR LIFE.  It’s the Soulmate 2501 Beta, and its sole purpose is to hook you up with another player.

Obviously, my character is lacking that romantic contact in her life, what with being up to her elbows in entrails on a daily basis, so I took the test.

Huzzah!  I am no longer alone — for me and Suppafly will sail off into the sunset of happiness.  This, my friends, is what true love is.

Indiana Jones, eat your heart out

Yeah, The Secret World is so not being subtle with the whole Indiana Jones connection in Issue #6, but you know what?  I don’t care.  If you’re going to do an homage, go whole-hog — and that includes aping the style of the classic Indiana Jones posters.

Picture of the Day

Picture of the Day

“And so I said to her, ‘My rocket launcher is so big…’ Wait, did you just shove your hand through the side of the helicopter?”

Quote of the Day

“I’m old.  I live in a tree.  Sometimes I turn myself into an owl and hunt mice.”

~ Cucuvea from The Secret World

The Secret World: A return to hell

Our Monday night TSW group, equipped with cutting-edge gear and — more importantly — the most ridiculous outfits known to mankind, decided to go to hell.

Again.

We’re continuing our slow and gradual tour of The Secret World’s dungeons, and last night’s challenge was to do the second of the hell instances, Hell Fallen.  I unfortunately didn’t see the beginning cutscene, so I’m not 100% sure why our lost our falootin’ minds and decided to vacation once again in Lucifer’s backyard.  But before I knew it, we were back in this crumbling industrial wasteland.  Lots of screenshot opportunities, except that we were mostly running for our lives.

Since none of us had done this dungeon before, we decided to tackle it without the aid of any guides.  That made for an interesting experience, as we were shouting at each other suggestions and obvious observations: “Don’t stand in the deadly sandstorm whipping rocks at you at 500 mph!”  “Fire bad, Pid, fire bad!”  “Stop DYING everyone!”

Hell Fallen continued the tradition of TSW dungeons having minimal trash mobs and maximum boss fights.  I think there were six?  Only the third gave us any serious trouble, but we made a little more progress every time until we beat it.  I think that’s a good indication of a well-balanced fight.  Challenging, but not impossible.

The fourth boss fight was interesting in that the game let us immediately come back into the fight if we died.  Usually, you’re trapped in a little circle with the option to heal up or watch the others fight without you.  But to come back right away?  That was like cheat mode.  I don’t know whether or not it was glitched, but I guess we can’t complain.

I finally got enough AP by the middle of the dungeon to buy a top-tier shotgun skill, rail turret.  I don’t know why it the name suggests like a big rail gun, because the actual skill is kind of like laying down a small techno volcano that spits fire at nearby enemies.  In any case, I love having a few turrets now to lay down.  Going to see if there’s any I’ve missed collecting.

It wasn’t too long before we cleaned up — and that’s only with one pit stop for a certain someone to change outfits.  I won’t name names, but it’s the person in this photo who’s not me:

Picture of the Day

Blood Stacks in TSW — exceedingly yucky contraptions that the vampires use to “milk” blood from humans for consumption. I always feel bad for these guys, but you don’t have an option to rescue them, just put them out of their misery. This picture is of one of the more complicated contraptions I’ve seen.

The Secret World: A stealthy approach

Much has been said about The Secret World’s excellent investigation quests, as well should be.  They’re (almost) always a pleasure to encounter and unravel, requiring more brainpower than brawn.  But I haven’t seen a lot of folks talk about the game’s stealth missions.

Maybe there’s a reason for that.  Maybe stealth missions are of the devil and should be shunned.  That’s how I feel sometimes when I run them, but then I acknowledge that they’re giving my brain a workout in a different way too.

Stealth missions are the exact opposite of action missions; they downplay combat immensely by either (a) giving you no enemies at all, (b) placing groups of enemies who will overrun you, or (c) placing super-mobs who will one-shot you.  Instead, you have to be careful in planning your approach to objectives, dodge security cameras, find ways around laser wiring, set off diversions, and so on.  They can be exceedingly tricky and sometimes frustrating, usually because a single mistake means almost certain death.  However, the game does take pity on us by providing checkpoints through the mission so we don’t have to start all over again.

Last night I was running a stealth mission in Transylvania, Sins of the Father.  Story-wise, it’s a good chapter in the story of a disgraced doctor whose dad was some sort of mad scientist/super-scientist.  The goal was to head into a spooky Soviet bunker and find a prototype vampire or somesuch.

It was an exhausting mission, taking place over numerous stages.  You first had to skirt around giant mobs while repairing a door to open to the next section.  Then you had to jumpstart four reactors in a certain order within a time limit — all while dodging more giant mobs.  Then a hide-and-go-seek session with a patroling mob in a corridor (plus security cameras attached to turrets that will shred you).  Then not one, but two separate rooms full of crazy laser wiring and hard-to-reach switches.  Finally, there was a fight with the prototype itself.

I think I died about three times, all in all, which isn’t too bad for a stealth mission.  I had to tamp down on my impatience, because there’s just no way to rush through these missions.  It’s a lot of waiting, timing, and careful jumps.  I guess for some people that’s a refreshing change, but I was so dang antsy by the end that I welcomed a final boss fight instead of all of this sneaking around stuff.

Then again, I certainly won’t forget the mission or the gloomy bunker with its cold war sensibilities.  Maybe the game making me take my time to notice everything is a blessing in a cruel disguise.