This Secret Monday the Knights of Mercy (well, Syp and I at least) discover that The Secret World hasn’t forgotten that it is a horror game. With elements woven in from The Ring, The Grudge, and even Doctor Who, the main story mission Contract Killers that Imbeda offers up is a spine tingling dive into sleepless nights.

We started off the night, after talking to Imbeda, by doing the three side missions he has on offer in the Bath House: Chasing Bad Luck, The Ghost Lord, and Samurai Robots Can Happen to Anyone. As those guides I’ve linked suggest, waiting till we had two of each AEGIS Controller (one for each weapon) might have been far less frustrating. As it was, with the two of us, it took us a long time to fight the bosses for each of these side quests. They each have two AEGIS Shields, and they regenerate their shields. We got lucky on the last one we tackled, as there was a large group killing him, so if you are going to attempt these with just one set of AEGIS Controllers, bring a friend … or two.

Noses bloodied and ribs cracked, we headed to the parking garage to start Contract Killers. The opening cut scene is only a little taste of what we were to face in this dark, underground garage. Syp noticed right away that his trusty headlamp was missing. It turns out, for the entirety of this mission, you have a debuff indicating the batteries in your headlamp have run out. You must complete this mission in the dark.

And it’s really, really dark. Feeling our way around we quickly discovered that the way up was blocked, and that to advance the mission we would have to proceed deeper underground. Most of the way down is pretty uneventful, aside from flitting shadows and odd noises. Once you get to the bottom, though, and start working your way back up, everything changes.

All I will say about this is that it’s probably second only to Virgula Divina and The Nursery from Issue #7 as far as terror level goes, and may in fact, surpass them both. Borrowing sounds and imagery from The Ring and The Grudge, and mechanics from a certain angelic Doctor Who episode, this mission is probably one of the freakiest things I’ve ever experience in an MMO.

And what we learned in the end didn’t really make things better. I, for one, will probably sleep with one eye open tonight.

Syp called it a night when we finished the mission and returned to Imbeda. I went ahead and ran on to meet Daimon Kiyota; he is one seriously unhinged dude. Still, I’m really looking forward to the next mission.

I’ll close by saying that I’m kind of stunned at how steep the difficulty curve ramps up in Tokyo. I still have yet to find any AEGIS Modules or Controllers, so I’m still running with the original three I was given at the end of Back to the Beginning. In all the mobs we’ve killed I’ve seen exactly one Module drop. I really, really wish there were a way to craft these things. However, it does seem you can get more Controllers by completing the Tower Defense mission (on a 3 day cooldown). I think this is next on our agenda, cause damn.

 

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