Next Secret World Beta Weekend Returns To Kingsmouth
I love weekends. They're rife with potential - for adventure. Granted, that usually means a concert, bar-hopping, or sleeping through both of those things, but I don't live in New England. John, however, is trapped there, and he seems to be having a pleasant enough time "joining the Illuminati," "staving off a demonic invasion," and whatever other crazy slang lingo drips from this apparently endless faucet of cool. Fortunately, you will once again have the opportunity to take an all-too-brief tour this weekend - but with even more locations in which to perform wholesome activities like "investigating what lies behind the rising darkness." That means, like, braiding each others' hair, right?
The Secret World blog explains precisely what's new in Kingsmouth this weekend:
"Several characters, storylines and missions have been added since the previous Beta Weekend. You can head over to the scrapyard and talk to Edgar. Apart from his two mean dogs, Tango and Cash, Edgar hasn’t seen many friendly faces lately. Not only has the scrap he has collected over the years come alive, and risen as powerful golems, but he is also neck deep in zombies. Edgar could really use your help to rid himself of some barrels of highly flammable gasoline – and some zombies.
"Over at the airport the veteran mechanic Ellis Hill is holding out against an onslaught of Draug from the sea. These corrupted and ancient creatures are getting bolder and bolder, but seem to be weary of light. Though Ellis is handy with a gun, he could really use some assistance getting the generator going again. The enigmatic and powerful Orochi Corporation is keeping a watchful eye on the dark happenings in Kingsmouth... They are in need of someone with special powers to investigate what lies behind the rising darkness, but perhaps it is smart to do a little investigation into Orochi itself as well?"
Ominous. It also sounds like a potential excuse for some more brain-taxing, real-world-referencing investigation missions, which John and Adam seem quite enamored with. I really, really want to sink my teeth into this one some more, but my time has been pulled in many different directions as of late, as though by some diabolical business kraken.
Among other things, though, I did get pretty substantial access to the skill system during an event late last year, and - while the explanations were actually a bit more understandable after I switched my in-game language to "ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic" - I really got to dig into its experimental side. There's potential for some utterly absurd builds in there - for instance, I came up with a sword/assault rifle build that held its own in PVE and a knockdown-heavy hammer/shotgun build that existed solely for the purpose of making everyone else ragequit PVP - and I love that.
Granted, I haven't really gotten to see how that side of Secret World's evolved since the beta kicked off, but I think trading-card-game-like deck-building possibilities have me a bit more excited than the rest of the Hivemind. That said, most of the PVE areas I fought through didn't leverage those abilities in any unique way at all, so it's a toss-up. Regardless, I can't help but maintain interest in Secret World simply because it looks to raise its hand in victory or faceplant into the depths of utter failure interestingly. It may be rooted in traditional MMO mechanics, but sometimes, baby steps end up being the most exciting.