Wrapping Up: August = Lazy Time
Not much to report, when it comes to August, so I’ll keep it short. I fell into an MMO hole this month - Secret World Legends had a public raid that awarded nifty costume pieces for regular play, so I needed those, and then I checked in on Neverwinter, which had been sleeping there on the hard drive for a mighty long time. You know how it goes. You double-click on one little icon in a moment of restless weakness, and suddenly all your hours are spent slaying monsters, bandits, and demons through the Forgotten Realms.
I had some good movie-going times for a while, and saw a few friends. Now the new season is claiming its territory. I’m in a once-monthly live-theater soap opera that goes dark over the summer, and our new (fourth!) season starts in a little over a week; I’m doing two plays in repertory this October and November, and so the days are all about rehearsals again. Not complaining. It’s just funny how the seasons come and go.
Alreadies:
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Neverwinter
1 zillion hours playtime
no achievements
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New York Mysteries: Secrets of the Mafia
13 hours playtime
19 of 20 achievements
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Secret World Legends
64 hours playtime
no achievements
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The Witcher: Enhanced Edition
27 hours playtime
no achievements
Neverwinter (2013) is some kind of digital crack I tell you. I played it a year ago, running my main up near (but not to) the level cap before I got annoyed at the endless “get this in our store” design and let it drop. I think I was irritated by my inventory filling with minute variations of things that don’t stack (somehow these games get on my nerves even when I’m liking them). I picked it up again, and zoom. This is an unabashed pay-to-win game, if you want to pay and win. It’s also largely a solo adventure in a shared world of small instances, apart from groups in dungeons and skirmishes, so the monetization doesn’t really bother me that much - I just don’t participate. The stuff they sell is hella expensive anyway. Want to play the Dragonborn class? The module they sell that includes the class is seventy-five dollars. Yeah, um, no.
I play this one through the ARC client, so Steam doesn’t track my time.
New York Mysteries: Secrets of the Mafia (2014) is a cleverly-tinkery concoction of hidden-object assembly scenes and various puzzles, some of which get rather fiddly. Its fresh style and cool locations go a long way toward making this a strong one. If you like hidden-object games, get in there! There’s a bugged achievement, depending on when you try to click that one morphing object, and I just wasn’t up to playing the whole game over just to try and make it work, so. Marking it 100% because life’s too short. This is the only game I actually finished in August, and I contributed screenshots to my woefully lame participation in the scavenger hunt challenge. Which makes this a challenge game, right?
Secret World Legends (2017) is the new free-to-play reincarnation of Funcom’s dark and unpopulated The Secret World, and I enjoy it immensely. I'm still leveling my character through the rich, dense, it's-all-true monsterings of New England and points abroad. My MMO experience is generally always about the tales they tell - I hardly ever make it to level cap, let alone into the spirit of late-game content. For the story and the great writing and character acting and the detailed settings, this is a winner, completely suited to my "MMO but not really an MMO" tastes.
The Witcher (2008) suffered this month from pressing tasks in my online games, but I really want to get back in there with Geralt and the killing and the wenching. Muahaha.
It’s pretty easy to reach the level cap in Secret World. The main focus is on upgrading your abilities and passives of course. I play on the Funcom client, started there before the game came to Steam, and i am 40 lvl after finishing everything in New England. Still got 3 whole regions to go through. I am excited because the story and lore is indeed excellent in this game and i want to see how the story progresses. Investigation missions are the most fun i’ve had with the game. And i agree, the game’s better solo rather than as an MMO.
I’ve just begun the Blue Hills, the final New England area, and I’m around level 30. I took a short break to get Life Things done, will probably dip in again next week. Agreed about the investigation missions! I’m not used to having clues that actually need to be figured out, and I confess that a couple of have driven me to guides. That one in Kingsmouth that ends with cryptic clues to get the code for the basement of the Solomon House? Whoo. No way I was getting that on my own.
I really liked the Foundry system in Neverwinter because it let players create some good stuff that put pretty much all of game’s official quests to shame. Never really bothered with the game that much, though. I think my Half-Orc Ranger was level 25 or so? Shame they shut down the Gateway seeing as I liked rolling the dice here and there for free stuff.
The Gateway really was fun - and I could play it at work - though I didn’t have enough high-level companions to get to the bigger gamelets. There’s really a lot that Neverwinter does exceptionally well, I think, but a lot of it gets complicated as your toon advances: endless things to keep track of with the crafting, and experience advances so fast that sometimes I found I’d flick past the levels for my area quests in just a few minutes. I wish most MMOs would put in a Lore Play option, or a Story Play mode, which would retard XP to keep players on an area-appropriate level. Because I like the little narratives and the exploration, that’s my thing.