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8:28am on Monday, 25th September, 2017:

Secret World Legends

Anecdote

One of the two 45GB games I bought that put me over my broadband limit was Divinity: Original Sin 2. I was playing this just fine and quite liking it.

The other game I bought was Secret World Legends. I was planning on waiting until I'd finished DOS2 before I started, but heard that inventory transfers were available to get stuff moved from The Secret World to TSWL (which seems to be the abbreviation everyone is using, even though the formal title doesn't seem to have a The in it). I logged on, effected the transfer, then started to play.

That was Saturday evening. I've now completed every single quest in Kingsmouth, killed all the rare spawns there and run through Polaris, thus earning myself some kind of special revenant outfit for the achievement. I also did the Lava Game achievement, because I'm really good at jumping puzzles (even though I hate them).

Hmm.

Well, I preferred the original, that's for sure. The combat system, which is the main change, was better in my view. That said, it's not bad as it is, and if it attracts more players, well, fine: TSW is/was my favourite MMO until they messed up Tokyo, and it has a lot to offer (particularly if you like story). Dumbing it down a little to show more people what they missed is a small price to pay. I did love that ability wheel, though.

Character creation isn't as refined as it was in TSW. I couldn't recreate the cosmetic appearance of my old character, so just went for something similar. I also had to choose a character class, which is a pregenerated set-up to help people who expect character classes in skill-based games. I chose a healer spec, as usual, although it's pretty good for survival too: shotgun and fists. I didn't read up on it first, I just looked at the ones on offer and decided that this one would let me leech and do heals over time, so was probably going to be more useful in the long term. You only get five passive skills, though, so it's cruder than in TSW and harder to build synergies.

Loot is veru much simplified. You only get weapons and talismans (and mo ney), and you only get them for quests and rare mobs. You give your weapons and talismans experience points by destroying other weapons and talismans. Money comes quite quickly, so I've been buying cut-price stuff via the auction house and destroying it to level up my gear. It works a treat, but it's tedious when you come across a better item and then have to level that up so it's as good as the one you're going to replace.

So far, I've picked up around a dozen future tech crates, which are TSWL's lockboxes. It's full-on free-to-play now, which means this loathesome devices have been deployed to raise funds. I shan't be buying any. I have taken out a patron account, though, which is good for a month before it needs renewing; developers do need to be paid for their work, and this seems the least reprehensible way of rewarding them (although it does look to add significant overpowerment, which is annoying as it'll make the game even easier than it is already).

I think I'll play a good deal more, seeing as how I've paid for a month. I probably don't need to know much more about the game from a design perspective, but hey, it's nice to revive old memories.

It turned out that gear transfers from TWS only work if you have a character in the game. I didn't when I triggered mine. I fear I may never see my TSW vanity items ever again...




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Copyright © 2017 Richard Bartle (richard@mud.co.uk).