Funkula
2001
I’ve just reached Transylvania and I agree that Solomon Island is so far the high point of the game, and Innsmouth Academy is the high point of Solomon Island. For me, the fact that Jeffrey Motherfucking Combs is one of the NPCs there is a big part of the appeal. I was also quite fond of the storyline with the estranged Wabanaki family having to move past their grievances.
So far though, my favorite NPC has to be The Pyramidion. Do the other factions have as awesome and hilarious quest givers?
Razgon
2002
Stupid downtime lasting my entire evening…
Since this game is on sale today, I should amend my previous post and say that the writing is actually pretty good, if anyone’s thinking about it. The problem is that the main character is silent, so it locks the npcs into giving long soliloquies which I think would have played better read then spoken. But it’s definitely worth 14.99, even as a single player game.
I’ve sunk more time than I like to admit in the past week smashing the giant anniversary pinatas for their loot bags.
Anyone buy issue 6 and 7? Worth it?
Jag
2004
Or get it for $12 on Amazon with code “gooncave”. Note this version will not activate on Steam.
Haven’t tried the issues since I’m still on the main game. Some signet drops I got from farming holiday bosses are going for around 1,000,000 Pax now. Considering I had about 40,000 Pax when I started a week ago and have over 7m now, the economy is definitely broken.
There are lots of games selling three hour expansions for a tenner. This game matches up in that regard. And while the gameplay is clunkier than in a AAA FPS, the writing on issue 6 is among the best in the game and easily beats out AAA FPS games. Plus, you get access to a whip as a weapon, and the option to grind towards an Indiana Jones outfit.
Overall, I’d say it matches up to other new DLC releases (I’d favorably compare it to Mass Effect 3’s Leviathan DLC). However, it delivers much less for your money than the base game does. And compared to the offers available during the Steam summer sale, it looks poor.
Due to extended pinata-whacking, I haven’t had time to fully appreciate issue 7 yet. From what I’ve seen so far, it’s about equal in length, and fleshes out the Carpathian part of the main story line. In a creepy way.
Just do what I did. Throw the money for a grand master account at funcom, hope they don’t go belly-up in the next year, and stop agonizing over trivial questions like “is it worth it?” Life becomes so much easier.
Or buy the DLCs as a thank-you for the pinata-whacking, to avoid the question.
I think they realized that, and in the second half of the event it seemed like they toned down the rewards. You got lucky though, all my blue signet drops were of the crap variety.
Yeah, that’s exactly my dilemma - for $20 I can get a whole lot of value right now with the Steam sale. I probably wouldn’t hum and haw so much on the dlcs if it wasn’t for the competition.
The Tokyo issues they have planned down the line sounds pretty good though – I don’t think I’ll be able to resist getting those. I would actually consider the grand master upgrade if Funcom was in better financial straits, but what’s the odds of them coming out with 18 more dlcs?
Picked this game up yesterday on the Steam Sale; I had been looking at it for quite some time but never had the gumption (word of the day, folks!) to actually break down and buy it, even as a F2P title. (That might have to do with having an ongoing subscription with The Old Republic, but oh well.)
Having actually started it yesterday, though, and seeing where the game is taking me thus far, I have to say I’m quite pleased. It’s very interesting and Kingsmouth has some great flavour to it. I’m still trying to wrap my head around the level system – it’s very dynamic and cool but it’ll take some getting used to, methinks – and the complaints about the monologues are absolutely true, but the game itself is solid and I love a lot of the aspects. It’ll be good as a distraction from TOR and the other trillion games I have on the go, especially when I get to try out the Investigation quests.
Finally got around to finishing the main story missions. Ending was a bit meh, but maybe the future DLCs will wrap things up better. I did warm up to Transylvania part way through, although I’d still rate its story arc lower than Solomon Islands and Egypt. Gameplay-wise it’s the best of the three – I steamrollered through the first two acts, but I actually had to stop and change things around to get past some of the missions in Trans. A few of them were fairly frustrating as I was slogging through (ie. The Cost of Magic, Padurii) but are pretty neat and fulfilling in hindsight.
One thing I just found out (rediscovered?) You have to talk to NPCs multiple times on the same topic to get all the dialogue. Once it’s exhausted you’ll get a green check mark next to the topic.
Also for anyone still playing, it’s easy and worthwhile to install modsfor the game. I found Eth’s Buff Bars and Deck Manager particularly useful.
Got this during the recent Sales, and just started in on the Savage Coast. Completed my first quest that brought me into the Innsmouth Amusement park - Wow - that is one of my favorite visual experiences ever in a game. I can’t wait to do more quests there and see what the backstory is, and explore more of the strange phenomena there.
The totally awesome deck-management mod as mentioned in the latest QT3 podcast…
Torsion
2012
The deck manager mod is very good, I also have Resource HUD which is great for moving and resizing weapon resources around the screen. Nametag Overload and Topbar Information are worth installing as well (All these are made by the same guy, Ryiort). I use Curse client to install and manage TSW mods, makes life easy to keep them up to date, had no issues or bugs either.
Excellent, thanks Torsion. I know Tom is mod-averse in his gaming habits, but I especially wanted to link to the deck manager, because I think that one is essential.
You’re right though, there’s a bunch of great UI mods out there, and for folks who don’t want the hassle of manually installing them the Curse client does indeed work great for them!
Whoa, that deck manager mod is good. How do people play without it?
-Tom
Funkula
2015
I’ve about exhausted the single-player content, aside from being an insane completist and chasing down all the lore and stuff–which I’m probably going to do–so I picked up Issues 5 and 7. Holy crap, those are both excellent. Vanishing of Tyler Freeborn is a bit short (I finished it in an evening) but it’s more New England content and every bit as good as the existing stuff. A Dream to Kill is also excellent. It’s clearly inspired by James Bond, and if you’ve wondered what’s up with those Orochi snowmobiles you occasionally see zipping around in Carpathian Fangs, now you can take them on in an action sequence straight out of classic Bond. The story advances the main plot and provides some closure to the Emma storyline. I do recommend finishing the story quest in Transylvania before doing it…I was hung up on the “getting into Mara’s stronghold” step, and there are some events after that that are important to the Issue 7 storyline.
I’ll probably grab Issue 6 when I have the spare cash. It seems like the new content packs are being designed to be all killer, no filler, which is exactly what they need.
I was using the standard Funcom deck manager for the longest time. It did work in 95% of cases, but it’s not nearly as quick or convenient as the Deck Manager (plus Funcom wants you to pay pax/real money for extra slots!) It’s really a life saver in Trans (or fighting other nightmare mobs) where you would want a build vs single targets, build vs multiple opponents, a different build vs ghosts, etc.
Finished Last Train to Cairo yesterday. It didn’t blow me away, but it was decent fun. I think red guy’s comparison of issue 6 to ME3’s Leviathan DLC is pretty apt, in terms of my ultimate satisfaction (eh, as opposed to ME3 Citadel, which I thought was a great DLC and a must buy.) You do get some nice loot out of it, as well as a repeatable quest for blue signets.
I have higher hopes for Issue 7 though, since I thought the Transylvania arc in the main game needed more closure. Black Sun, Red Sands concluded pretty well, and Last Train doesn’t add much to it.
Completed issues 5 and 7 this weekend. I liked them both better than issue 6, mostly because they weren’t tangential to the main story (as Last Train was) but actually advanced the plot. Good stuff. Ten bucks is probably still a little steep for what you get, but I’ve gotten so much value out of the Secret World I can’t complain. I’m definitely getting the next few dlcs just to see what happens.
Also, I finally did a dungeon mission. Finding a pickup game was a huge pain, but after half an hour or so of idling in Agatha I got into a group, and we did the Slaughterhouse dungeon. Really fun and atmospheric. The Red Hand is my favorite part of Transylvania.
I think I gave the shortcut to the wrong gear/deck manager. Oops!
This is the one that integrates perfectly with TSW’s Gear Manager, but makes it work. You click the button to update, create, or save, and then when you switch between them you can watch as it changes your active and passive skills and changes through all your gear. Very handy!
Eth’s Fixed Gear Manager
Did you ever find a cabal, triggercut?
I find myself doing the nightmare dungeons these days. PUGs are still not very easy to come by (especially for one just starting out in nightmare), but better than when I was doing elites. It’s a daunting and ultimately senseless treadmill, but it’s been challenging and fun so far.
