The Kingsmouth Code [Spoiler]

Posted by FelizB on Jun 19, 2012 in Guides, The Secret World | 0 comments

Reverend Henry Hawthorne claims to be a hobbyist member of the Illuminati, if there is such a thing. He has done research on the internet and found secret codes leading him to message boards, hidden from Google. He’s a frequent poster there. He asks you to follow the signs of the Illuminati and to decipher the Kingsmouth code. God bless the internet. Knowledge is power, especially with Google on your side.

“The Kingsmouth Code” is another investigation mission that starts at the Congregational Church of Kingsmouth. (Spoilers are in orange on orange print, highlight with your cursor to read them)

Tier 1.

Follow the Illuminati symbols

Hint 1

There’s a manhole cover just in front of the church. take note of the inscription.

Hint 2

If you run a straight line in the direction of the tip of the pyramid, you’ll find a plague on the ground behind a shack in the harbor, near the anchor spot of the Lady Margaret.

Tier 2.

Find the location referenced in the message

Hint

Not to many locations of power in this small town. Try City Hall. There are pictures on the wall, one of them the navigator

Tier 3.

Find the next hidden location.

Hint 1

In City Hall you’ll find numerous paintings on the wall, some with messages on their back. Most of them will send you to pretty obvious places within town, like the gas station or the fire station. Try to find the right painting before you touch any, otherwise you’ll actually have to visit these places before you are given another chance to look at a painting.

Hint 2

One of them is “The Navigator” by Frans Hals. There is an inscription that talks about time, Kings and God. Check the clock above the doorway.

Tier 4.

Use the computer.

Hint 1

During the cut scene for this mission, Solomon Priest was mentioned. Behind his home you’ll find the entry to a cellar, protected by a keypad.

Hint 2

The keycode comes from the book of Kings 10:10, 120 talents of gold…

Hint 3

Enter the basement and use the computer. The password is the Illuminati motto: Lux Omnia Vincit. You saw it at the first manhole cover

Tier 5.

Collect the artifacts.

Hint

No secrets here. You are done.

And remember to heed Reverend Hawthorne’s advice: Google’s on your side.

Edit: found a clearer source for the keycode

Something Wicked [Spoiler]

Posted by FelizB on Jun 17, 2012 in Guides, The Secret World | 2 comments

I just finished one of the more difficult investigation missions in “The Secret World”. It made me pause a couple of times and lead to a good deal of head scratching. And using the game’s secret sauce “Google”. The Secret World has a built in browser and they expect you to use it, even to look up their puzzles directly, or just to research some of the riddles.

Norma Creed has seen plenty of strange things these days as well as in the past. And she’s dealt with it well. She recalls a series of murders in Kingsmouth a few years back in 2002. It looked like ravens were involved in it. Five steps will solve the mystery:

Tier 1.

Find more information about the murder, perhaps in a newspaper.

Hint

There’s an archive at City Hall.

Tier 2.

The sheriff’s office held back more information on the case.

Hint

Check the computer at the sheriff’s station.

Tier 3.

The suspect killed himself in his cell. Find a way to get inside the cell and examine it.

Hint

No key, no keypad, no saw or cutting torch. Go kill yourself. Find the message on the wall.

Tier 4.

There’s a message inside the cell, find out its meaning.

Hint 1

Follow the white raven while still in anima form. It will lead to a group of ravens reciting a nursery rime. Release four of them in the order given by the message in the cell.

Hint 2

Golden Girls, Sorrows Secret (6317)

Watch out when trying to do the final step in sequence. You share the quest area with others. If other players click things in different places, your sequence gets messed up. Coordinate with other players in the area.

Tier 5.

Find Jack.

Hint

But don’t kill him

And this sets the atmosphere of the secret world. Somebody mentioned in chat: “There are no puzzles in MMO’s”. Not until now, not in this form and not that many of them. I know Dungeons & Dragons Online has some and you might even call the platform jumping in SWTOR a puzzle. By myself, I’m not the greatest puzzle solver, but I just like the whole ambiance of the game. I could have left the Kingsmouth area for the next zone a good while ago, but those investigations will keep me here.

Introducing Tweak

Posted by FelizB on May 21, 2012 in Blog | 0 comments

Yesterdays post about my gamer family wasn’t entirely accidental. My stepson has been posting regular zombie survival tips on his Facebook page. He has agreed to post them here as well under the account “Tweak”. I think they will be helpful for the upcoming release of “The Secret World”. Besides, being prepared will pay off, eventually.

Welcome to Kingsmouth

Posted by FelizB on May 13, 2012 in Featured, The Secret World | 0 comments

Welcome to Kingsmouth, Solomon Island.
Where SUMMER RECREATION is written in all capital letters. Come and join me for a quick tour through town.

Lets go down to the harbor, busy for fishermen and tourists alike.

Learn of our local mining history at the museum.

Lets stop for a meal or for a quick coffee at Susie’s Diner.

Visit the historical residence of the Priest family.

Main Street invites for arts & crafts shopping.

Visit the local Sheriff’s station for advice how to deal with the zombie population.

I had fun playing this weekend’s “The Secret World” open beta. I didn’t really follow the game until recently some fellow blogger mentioned it. Also, my Twitter feed was full of beta anticipation since at least Wednesday. Here are just a few impressions from playing the game for a few hours.

The game did surprise me with its looks, with great background music and a beautiful user interface. Strangely enough I was impressed by the splash screens, which start out black and white and slowly add color. A simple effect, easy to implement, but a nice impact for me.

It also helps that one of the first voice actors I meet in the game is Catherine Taber, well known as Vette from SWTOR. Which makes me wonder, how much value and recognition voice actors will add to MMO’s in the future. The first set of quests led me to Kingsmouth, on an island off the New England coast. As you can see in my picture tour, it’s wonderfully set, recreating the Eastern seaboard feeling.

The game mechanics promise to be interesting, since the game doesn’t have player levels, only skills. The consequences of this aren’t fully visible, since the beta players didn’t get to far into the game.  There are plenty of quests, classified as story line missions, action missions, investigation missions and some more. During the quests you will discover various puzzles, finding a path through a maze of lightning fields, finding hidden switches, etc, etc.

One other thing is worth mentioning. The area doesn’t seem crowded, despite the claim of 1 million beta signups. There wasn’t any server selection during character creation and there wasn’t any visible division of zones into multiple instances. I’ll see if I can find out more about it next beta.

Of course, this being beta, there were bugs, we’ll have to see how agile (there’s a pun somewhere) the development team is in fixing them. But in general I was surprised finding such a nice game. However, I am not really a fan of horror settings or events in the present. But this game might convince me.