The Secret World and Legends

     We won't even talk about how long it's been since I posted anything to this blog. I could write a catch up post but I'd rather jump into what's been eating at my head for a few weeks.

     I was a latecomer to The Secret World. The game had been on my radar for some time before I finally picked it up, but it was a sub game and I could not justify paying more than one sub at a time and everybody I knew was in WoW. Then it was buy to play but I kept talking myself out of spending the money even though The Secret World very much sounded like my kind of game. It was a steam sale that did the trick. And I'll admit that what finally made it stick was a friend who had the game and volunteered to join me. I had a character ready-made, translated from some of my own urban fantasy tales. The screenshot above is my first from the game, my character Roland in the foreground and my friend's with the white hair there behind him. The coffee shop and the actual cups of coffee the character drank was one of the first things I got really excited about.
     Little details matter. And The Secret World is a game full of little details. Both in the environments and the story and in the system for weapons and combat.

      I started out with a blade and blood build. At the time I had picked it for character reasons and with no real idea what I was doing. It worked well enough in Kingsmouth and though neither of us particularly liked parts of the first zone we did like the game. A lot. Sometime in Savage Coast I swapped my blood for pistols, and started working on a starter deck. It fit the character even better than blood had and I never looked back, though I appreciated the ability to simply make that change.
   

     My one quibble at this point (and to the present) was that in a game I was enjoying as a duo there were the odd solo instances that force me to play alone and took us a little bit out of the story we were making alongside the one given to us. This isn't a complaint limited to The Secret World by any means, and while I understand it for reasons of balance I will always find it frustrating when a game that by its nature is a social one forces me to play alone. Still, we enjoyed Egypt even more than we'd enjoyed Savage Coast and Blue Mountain, and Transylvania even more.

     Tokyo's Aegis System is one that feels interesting, but annoying and it slowed our progress through the main storyline very considerably as we suddenly felt not just weak but underpowered and set about working back through achievements and issues to see if we could improve the feeling. But wasn't Aegis that brought our progress finally to a halt. That was the news of Secret World Legends.
     I have mixed feelings about the announcement. On the one hand I have a growing liking for action combat and if the new system is put together well I think it might make for a more fun playstyle when it comes to the battles. I don't mind the idea of starting over terribly since our progress had been slow and spotty with other games in the mix and neither of us was ever playing for end game or gear chasing or for any reason other than story and the world.

     I love this world and I wish there was far more of it. Any world where I can play my kilted Templar and let my RP work in bits of fae lore and legend that aren't explicitly in the game's canon without feeling like I am breaking a single 'rule' is a win for me. I love this game and the stories and the investigation missions that make me think and google demon names and latin phrases. I love the secret passages and the secret societies and that this is a game that not only gives excellent story but feels like it screams out to have my own stories added in.
     And I'm afraid. I'm afraid that the new game will be simpler in the ways I least want it to be. I'm afraid that the limited size of the zones might complicate our grouping together. I'm afraid it won't be as good as I want it to be. I want it to be wonderful and I want it to thrive.
     I'm excited a bit by the idea of starting again and making more stories as we level through it again (though I'm still not sure I feel the level part is necessary). I am excited to see the changes, and hopeful that it will mean more in time. More story, more zones to explore, more of everything I like.
     But I can't help feeling a bit worried too. The announcement had to be made, but the waiting is hard. We had been working our way through Tokyo again, making real progress and the announcement yanked the rug from under us both a little. Why keep progressing and working on achievements when we'd have to start it all over soon? And that's my worry. We've moved to another game to play and wait in the meantime. I know we'll both be there to try Secret World Legends as soon as the doors open. But how many people who had played much longer than my 330 hours (according to Steam) will feel that same let down and just stop playing as I did... and not come back?
     It's a nice cushion that they're leaving the old game where it is, that they're transferring over at least most of the things we bought. But that doesn't quite fix all the things that they're taking from long time players. I just really hope Legends is good enough to more than make up for it so that it can thrive.

     I'm very much looking forward to Roland's new adventures. I just really hope they won't leave me wishing for his old ones.

Swordsman Beta. More thoughts.

     The world is pretty. I poked into it a bit more last night. Got to I think Level 14 very quickly and easily and developed a few more thoughts on it. I like the world... It's got a very in a movie feel to it. A few quests in you're just very unceremoniously given a horse of your own. I like that.  It's a pretty ugly horse but then I'm overly picky about what horses look like in MMOs anyhow.
     I think I like the combat, though I'll admit I'm still sort of confused at figuring it out and kind of just flail around occasionally as a result. I like the animations and the graphics a lot. I am not sure this would be a game for me. On the one hand the fact that it feels a bit like being in a kung fu movie is pretty amazing and I'm curious to figure out what happens next.
     On the one hand at the moment at least this feels easily like it could have been a single player game perhaps better than an MMO. There's a very linear storyline that progresses in a very straight line and all these other guys are doing right now is crowding stuff up... and insuring that world chat is filled with announcements like: Myballs has killed Yourmom and taken such and such off of their still warm corpse. -.- Okay it's pvp, I get that. People will name their characters stupid things. I get that too, but ugh.
     The other thing that bothers me a lot that may or may not bother other people at all. Lots of epic battles most of them end in a really nifty cut scene. Thing is: If most of the gameplay gets taken out of my hands and put into gorgeous cut scenes at the end. Can I please AT LEAST have the option of screenshotting my character doing all this badass shiznit during the cut scenes that I am not playing in anyhow? That would be nice. Lots of screenshots I'd have loved to have... super clunky camera mode function that you can't use during cut scenes anyhow...ugh.
     I will try to stick it out a few more levels, find some bugs I can coherently point out so they can hammer them down and see if it stays a straight line story where all the coolest stuff happens in cut scenes that I just watch, but I am not sure that even Free to Play this one would be a game for me. I think end game is almost entirely pvp and I am not a fan of pvp. If you were though... seems like it might be pretty epic at end game for that.

     The world, though, like I said. Is gorgeous. Quilian got a new costume as a beta prize while joining his school and though I didn't end up really liking the hairstyle it changed his to, I do like the robe part and so he's keeping that for now. I forgot to screenshot him after I realized that it was a costume item and I could take the hair part off and have him look more like  made him but in the neat robes. Maybe when I pop on again.

     Some other gameplay stuff that I both like and don't like. The quest stuff on the map isn't very easy to figure out sometimes. Doesn't matter because you can just click on the name in your log and your character will automatically run there. If it's far enough they'll even mount up on the run (which is pretty nifty.) This is a great feature for when people are twenty deep on the quest NPC and clicking on their name in the log lets you interact with them anyhow. But I'm not convince it's engaging gameplay. I kept trying to get myself to not just click to run there, but you know... why would I do that when it accomplishes nothing the game won't do for me and when I can stop at any point if I want to spend five minutes wrestling with the interface for a screenshot.
     The cut scenes are still really amazing. I like that they kept the original voice acting and just subbed it. I love the costumes and the character designs.

Change of Opinion?

     I'd sort of decided I didn't like Neverwinter. The controls feel weird compared to what I'm used to and I don't like the character models as well as I want to. The lack of ability to 'interact' with my character for screenshots as easily as I do in other MMOs makes it a bit harder for me to get attached to them. But I'd seen a few blog posts on it and in a bit of WoW doldrums I'd been poking around a considerable amount in every other MMO I'm currently poking around in, so I thought... maybe at level 10 you haven't given Neverwinter a very fair shake. So in I went.
     Maybe it was partly the combat in Wildstar, maybe it's just practice but the combat doesn't feel quite as annoying as before, though I do still keep trying to run with the mouse and getting yelled at for not having a target. It's just that drastically distant from the other MMOs I play control wise. I got invocation. That's pretty neat. I leveled a bit more and got a companion! I started opening up features of the game.

     Daily Foundry quests and Daily Dungeons. A cute little puppy companion. Forgotten Realms, which is my favorite D&D setting. And Drazek. He was my very first MMO character and I do like having him again in Neverwinter. I'm enjoying this a bit. The professions feel sort of hard to understand but you can work on them in a browser without even going into the game?! There's a silly little rolling dice game on the side to level your companions?! Okay maybe I do like it a little.
     I tried one foundry quest last night, and atmospheric creepy story one. It was not bad, but not great. I'd have liked a little more of the story somehow... not sure how they'd have done it though. Didn't leave constructive feedback for that reason, just gave them a good rating. Did another today for my daily foundry.

     Wow. I loved it. Maybe part of it was because I know Forgotten Realms so the lore is familiar. I knew what the 'end boss' would be before I got there... but I didn't anticipate how they had set up the final battle. It was awesome. I won't spoiler it here, but  this was part of it.

     The hard to see guy up there 'tanking' is Drazek's Man-at-Arms companion, Randon. The dog in the earlier pictures is his Damaran Shepherd, Kerith. I left a five star rating and a tip for that Foundry quest... and then when I finally talked myself into logging off...clicked on Foundry to see what the editor looked like. I don't understand it at all, but I want to learn. I'd love to translate some of the favorite campaigns I've DMed into it as best I can.
     I've tried the daily dungeon as well. The dungeon was interesting but if I had thought there was a lack of communication in WoW dungeons, I had my eyes opened. Nobody talked. Everybody needed on everything they could. I joined in after the first roll. Combat was more roflstomp than complex but I suspect that changes at higher levels. I wasn't overly impressed or displeased by the dungeons. It's a means to a shiny reward end.
I do have a slightly more favorable review of the game this time.
Things I like: 
Companions. (Though it does seem like I would possible need to shell out real currency for anything better than white quality. :/ Still the system is fun.)
Foundry: OMG I love this idea. I may not do daily dungeons every day or every time I log in, but I do foresee doing the daily Foundry quest fairly often. And providing I can figure out the editor... I'd try writing at least one myself.
Story: (with caveats) At this level the story is very very linear. It's interesting and enjoyable, though unless I wait a bit I'm not sure about replayability.
Invocation: My God loves me and gives me presents. Nice.
Things I'm less impressed with: 
Screenshotting: It's a favorite hobby of mine and Neverwinter definitely lacks versatility in that respect.
Vendors: Holy cow there are so many vendors, one for pretty much everything and right now it's so confusing trying to figure out where to go for what.
No paladins: Seriously? Definitely a core D&D class. Definitely my favorite and just not an option. I won't complain about class variety, they covered the gamut decently well and I didn't expect 20 options or anything. But the fact that I can't be a paladin still rankles. (Even if hunter ranger, my second choice, is amazing and fun)
Overall: For me this -is- a fun game. I love Forgotten Realms and I am definitely finding it inspiring when it comes to maybe helping me break out of my DMing slump as well. There isn't an open world so much as a map you can travel here and there on. The controls feel strange, but overall in a way that works for it. It's like D&D translated as best they could to an MMO. And I am glad to have Drazek back.

The closest to a candid screenshot I can manage.

Minstrels and Horses

     There's been a lot more Lord of the Rings Online in the last several days than I anticipated. It's not a very high graphic game compared to some it's true but the next time I logged in again it was to find that I had been sent more goodies from my kind and helpful Kinship. I've never played in something so friendly! Sadrondir has been entirely outfitted with crafted armor and a nice sword, and had his bags stuffed with food by the bunch of kind people who invited him to join them. Because of that kindness I at first felt slightly obligated to log in a bit more often, but then... well something happened.

     I started to get rather attached to this silly face. I started to get really interested in the storylines he was questing through. And I started noticing that though the character graphics might not be the best there are so many little things that were done very right.

Working on his Jewelry Making. And that really is exactly what it looks like he's doing.

      He saved up the points from doing deeds to buy himself the riding skill and then finally went off to Bree on his free starter horse to buy himself a horse he can keep. He named it. (Because you can do that!) And now that he's reached level 15 he's saving up to buy himself a house. I went and looked into the elven neighborhood because of course that's the sort of house it will have to be. They're lovely, but he'll have a lot of questing to do to earn the gold to have and upkeep one.
     In Bree he went to the Prancing Pony and picked up a few more quests but even better... a harp.

     This makes me very happy, and is what I had in mind for Sadrondir from the beginning. I have a feeling this one will stay on the list for a while. And I think part of the reason for that is the story and lore. I love things where I can really immerse myself into the Lore and even more than WoW LOTRO has that. Of course, stories I can get into leads to wanting more stories of my own and several elfy alts have already sprung up in my head, though for now I'm trying to resist the urge to do much else with them.