Tag Archives: downloadable content

The Secret World: One Man Army

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Yes, Heart of the Swarm was released yesterday, but I’m waiting until I’m farther into the game to do a post on it. I want to make sure I’ve got something intelligent to say, first. I will say that — considering how much I don’t like playing Zerg — it is amazingly fun so far.

In the meantime…

One woman, technically:

My Templar soloing a nightmare mission in The Secret WorldIn The Secret World, I’ve been pressing deeper into Transylvania on my Templar. I’ve now made it as far as the Shadowy Forest. You may have heard me say before that TSW is a very difficult game.

Let me tell you: the first two regions have nothing on Transylvania.

While the previous zones might have had one or two nightmare missions, it seems like nearly half the missions in Transylvania are nightmares, and even the normal missions are rather intense.

Despite the fact that MMOs are trending more and more towards solo-friendly content, this is the first time that I’ve encountered truly challenging endgame content designed for the solo player.

Essentially, nightmare missions are solo raids. Imagine all the thought, effort, and complexity that goes into a raid in World of Warcraft, strip away all the other players, and you have nightmare missions.

The Dutchman's lair in The Secret WorldEvery enemy has unique mechanics. Instead of a dungeon journal, they just have buffs that you can hover over to read about their abilities and how to counter them. And just like in a standard raid, if you do not learn to adapt to the mechanics, you will be a stain on the ground in no time flat.

Whereas in a true raid you’d have at least nine other people to lean on, it’s all on you in a nightmare mission. You’re the tanks, the healers, and the DPS all at once. You need to make sure you can heal through the damage, tank the hardest hits, and burn the enemy down before your health runs out.

So how do you cope with this rather extreme level of difficulty?

You become a one man army.

My name is Legion, for my builds are many:

This is where the ability wheel truly comes into its own, and where I become glad that I was a bit schizophrenic in my weapon choices prior to endgame.

An RPG where diversification is encouraged instead of penalized? Heresy!

Wee!I quickly developed a very hardy sword/chaos build for the tougher missions, but that was just the beginning. I’ve found myself swapping in different skills to cope with every new situation. Sometimes, I might go through half a dozen builds or more in a single mission.

Werewolves are vulnerable to stuns? Good thing I specced swords, then. Fungal monsters apply a lot of DoTs? Well, all I need to do is equip a focus skill and Ready for More, and they can’t touch me.

The true brilliance of the nightmare missions is not their difficulty, but that they never feel hopeless. No matter how brutal they are, you can always overcome them if you’re just willing to experiment. With no classes, there’s nothing stopping anyone from hitting on the perfect build for the situation.

Remember what I said about how you need to do the jobs of an entire raid to complete a nightmare mission? If that sounds a little overwhelming, it can be, but the other side of that is that you have the power of an entire raid of players at your fingertips.

My Templar poses against a starlit Transylvania skyIf you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you know I don’t set much store by in-game accomplishments. Part of the appeal for video games for me is that nothing you do in them matters. But I have to admit that I’ve never felt like such an utter badass as when I finally saw the last boss of The Girl Who Kicked the Vampire’s Nest drop dead at my feet.

This is what RPGs should be:

Only now does it occur to me that The Secret World is the RPG I’ve waited all my life to play. I’ve always loved the idea of RPGs, but I’ve always hated how they put grind ahead of skill, and how they force everyone into these narrow boxes of class and spec.

The Secret World is what RPGs should have been from the start. It’s not about the grind; it’s about using your wits. It’s not about forcing you into some narrow specialty; it’s about allowing you, encouraging you, to become as diverse and versatile as possible. There’s no limit on what kind of fighter you can become.

And with all those irritating roadblocks out of the way, you’re left to embrace the dream of pursuing the hero’s journey, growing more capable with every evil you vanquish.

The moonlit ruins of Transylvania in The Secret WorldI really, really like this game.

Edit: Issue #6 tomorrow:

And just as I post, it’s announced that The Last Train to Cairo will be launching tomorrow.

Dun da dun dun…

Returning to Starcraft II + Secret World Issue #6

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Heart of the Swarm is just around the corner, but big changes have already come to Starcraft II. Blizzard recently launched patch 2.0.4 for Wings of Liberty, which has overhauled many aspects of the game and its user interface.

The new victory screen in Starcraft 2I’ve been sampling some of the new toys as a way to get myself reacquainted with SC2.

New training tools:

The ladder in SC2 is a harsh mistress. It’s always been true that the campaign in an RTS is no preparation for the multiplayer, but that’s doubly true in SC2, where the campaign really is an entirely different game.

Blizzard did include some training tools in Wings of Liberty to help combat this, but they were woefully inadequate, and those who wanted to play versus other humans were essentially thrown into the deep end in the hopes they could learn to swim.

Blizzard has recognized this is a problem, and so 2.0.4 contains extensive new training tools to help people prepare for ladder.

I’ve given them a quick play through, and they’re light years ahead of what we had before.

The new training mode in Starcraft 2To start with, there’s a dedicated training mode against some easy AIs. These tutorials instruct you in all the basic mechanics of SC2, including build orders and general tactics. It’s incredibly thorough — the supply counter even starts to blink when you’re near to getting supply blocked.

This is an amazing tool. Even after playing ladder for weeks, there were still many basic things about the game I never figured out — like how many workers I should have per base or when I should expand. Even after just one play-through, the training mode has improved my game significantly.

Once you’re done with training mode, you can move on to an overhauled versus AI option. The AI has been improved, and the game now automatically analyzes your skill level and matches you against an appropriately difficult AI, much as it would with other players.

If you make a custom game, I’m told you can even program the AI to perform certain tactics — such as early rushes — that you might be struggling with. I haven’t tried this feature myself yet.

Finally, there is now the option to play unranked quick matches against other players. This will help people who suffer from ladder anxiety — no need to worry about being demoted to bronze if you have an off day. Because unranked also has a separate MMR, it can also be used to off-race or experiment with new tactics.

The new training mode in Starcraft 2In all honesty, though, SC2 multiplayer is never going to be easy to get into. These new features help — a lot — but your first few matches against other players will always be a trial by fire.

And that’s probably how it should be. Starcraft 2 multiplayer was never meant to be easy.

Who needs Titan?

While not new with 2.0.4, this was also the first time I checked out the Arcade, the new (ish) interface for browsing player-made custom games. I’m not the biggest custom game fan, but even I could tell the Arcade is a vast improvement over what existed before.

While there, I played a bit of the demo/beta for the fan-made Starcraft MMORPG, previously titled World of Starcraft but now called Starcraft Universe.

Of course, I rolled a Dark Templar. Dark Templar are a bit like Jedi Betty White — given the choice, you should always be one.

A screenshot from the fan-made Starcraft Universe MMOWhile SCU is still in a very obviously unfinished state, I was quite impressed by it. It’s amazing that fans were able to turn a real time strategy game into an MMORPG.

Normally, calling something a “World of Warcraft clone” wouldn’t be a compliment, but in this case, I think it is. SCU felt amazingly similar to playing WoW, but with a Starcraft flair. The interface, the combat, the quests — it’s all there.

What really impressed me was the quality of the story. The demo features a number of cinematics with professional grade voice-acting. I may have to stick around for the full version of the game just to see how the plot plays out — I’m very intrigued.

The Secret World: Issue #6 Announced:

After some delays, we’ve gotten the official announcement for the next content patch for The Secret World, “Issue #6: The Last Train to Cairo,” as well as (awesome) cover art for it.

Cover art for The Secret World's issue six: It all looks pretty exciting. In addition to the previously announced content — a new DLC story arc starring the Atenists, and the new whip auxiliary weapon — we’ll be getting a new ten man raid encounter, a new PvP ranking system, and a veteran rewards system that will also offer benefits for referring new players to the game.

To be perfectly honest, the Scorched Desert is my least favourite part of the game, and I’m not a big fan of the Atenists, but I still see a lot of potential in this arc. For one thing, the first DLC, “The Vanishing of Tyler Freeborn,” ranks as one of the greatest gaming experiences of my life. If this is even half as good as that was, it should be a great time.

Also, the preview mentions we will be participating in some time travel, and that sounds very interesting. I wonder when we’ll be going back to? The obvious choice is the original era of Atenism, when the Marya first rose to fight them. Certainly, it would be awesome to meet Ptahmose and the Sentinels back when they were still mortal.

And by awesome, I mean heart-breaking.

Some have pointed out that Said appears to be alive in the cover image, so that might give us a clue. Although that raises the question of where one finds a fedora and a Milanese suit in the Old Kingdom…

My Templar cuts a heroic pose in the Scorched Desert by nightWe might go back even further, perhaps even to the Third Age. What better place to find the power to cast down the Atenist threat?

One final thing that has me excited for “The Last Train to Cairo” is that Nassir is going to be involved. I’d pay for a mission where my character has breakfast with Nassir; I love that guy.

Issue #6 is due to launch in early march. Probably around the same time as patch 5.2 launches for World of Warcraft, and I must confess: I’m a lot more excited to whip Abdel Daoud in the face than I am to fight the Thunder King.

New article:

My latest article in WhatMMO is The NPCs of MMOs.

Here’s an excerpt, on NPCs who just aren’t impressed by the heroism of players:

“There’s no clear reason what makes these characters so difficult to impress. Maybe they don’t want you getting arrogant. Maybe they’re just big McKayla Maroney fans. Whatever the reason, they don’t care how many dragons you’ve killed, how many opponents you’ve thrashed, or how many times you’ve saved the world. To them, you’ll always be just another scrub.

…Come to think of it, they’re a lot like many MMO players.”