Halloween delights

The Halloween content has hit the Secret World and I spent most of Thursday night running through it. It takes you back to Kingsmouth and you get to visit some old friends Madame Rogêt and Deputy Andy. As in all missions in the Secret World the characters are fully fleshed out and they live and breathe on the screen. The play between Rogêt and Andy had me thinking “Oh no she didn’t!!! *finger waving* Sandy is not going to be happy!” We even get back-story on Deputy Andy’s cats!

If I could sum-up the new content it would be flavour and depth. From the cats with thick Mexican accents to hints dropped for future story. I also loved going back to Kingsmouth and travelling across multiple zones. I think Kingsmouth is my favourite zone in any MMO I have played, please keep us going back there for future content.

Would you Adam and Eve it? Issue 2: Digging Deeper goes live.

Issue 2 Digging Deeper went live yesterday. I had a fun evening in the barber shop and plastic surgery, but at the moment I am not sure if the my decisions on changing my characters face worked. The light on the table is different from running around the game world. So I may need to go back and it is expensive to change. It's a shame there isn't a cool down timer when you make your purchase so you can go back as many times as you want within an hour.

After changing my character I went and did the mission to get the rocket launcher with a few cabal friends. The mission 'Venetian Missile Crisis' was enjoyable and you had to pick it up from your cabals HQ. The interface for the extra wheel was intuitive but paying for the rocket launcher is not cheap. I had to sink 55 SP's and 50 AP's into it just to use the weapon.

So I am spoilt for choice with regards to progression. I want to improve my blade/elemental build to help with quests for Transylvania, spend points in my assault rifle/fist healer build as I want to start healing in dungeons and now have points to spend to get the rocket jump.

With the new patch we also got improvements to displaying states on mobs. You now get the little state icons below the monster health. This is one of my favourite additions in 1.2, as now I can see who is afflicted very quickly. After 1.2 though I am experiencing some frame rate drops I don't know if it is the patch or the new Nvidia the drivers.

The cockney accents while in the barber shops chair are fun, check out the video below.

Progress and the Secret World delivering content at Trion speed.

At the moment I am working through the first zone in Transylvania. It is a massive leap in style and theme from Egypt. I have gone from Indiana Jones like relic gathering to ancient feuds between vampire and nature. Transylvania is even different from Solomon Island. They are both dark foreboding places, but instead of zombies in a sea side town you get fantasy like creatures in a great mix of old gypsy like dwellings to carcase urban structures filled with soldier vampires. The quality throughout the game has been great.

I have also just unlocked my first deck 'Ninja' and have been getting used to it. It seems to have come just at the right time too as I was using a Blaze/Affliction build. Rooting monsters which I kited till they died, but a lot of the creatures are becoming immune to hinder and impair in Transylvania. World mobs which are actually challenging are a new thing for me in MMOs, usually the more complex creatures are kept to dungeons and the world mobs just have more hit points or the odd special ability. The classless system allows developers to include more varied creatures as they don’t have to worry if certain classes cannot complete the content.

This week another content patch for the Secret World is out called ‘Digging Deeper’. The patch is getting large as not only does it contain more missions and the ability to change your characters hair and facial features it is going to contain a new weapon with a new auxiliary wheel, changes to lairs (open world group content) and a group finder tool. The Secret World at the moment seems to be able to delivery content very quickly like Trion the makers of Rift.

Secret World: State of the game and new content.

So the Secret World state of the game has been posted. It iterates what the core loyal player base probably already knows, that the game offers something unique in the MMO genre. It was reassuring to once again be reminded that the development team are still on track to produce monthly content.

My favourite points are the hints to vampiric abilities and the Halloween event. But the most important factor is they expect Issue 3 to be released on time!

October could be a good time to re-push the game focusing on genres it straddles. Produce separate trailers aiming at zombie, investigation and vampire genres. Then take these and post them in the Walking Dead, Twilight tweet feeds. Maybe even post them as adverts while programs like these are shown.

Issue 2 of The Secret World

Details have been released for Issue 2 of The Secret World. I am loving the new ideas with regards to auxiliary weapons. A separate wheel is a good idea to prevent overcrowding the main wheel too early on. As time goes on the amount you can customize your character will be a great separator from other games on the market. I am wondering if they will appear on your character like the flame thrower.

Just a note I have not even tackled the missions in the first issue yet as I was leaving them till I finished the release content and I am still only in the Valley of the Sun God, I better get a move on.