I want to clarify a few things and I suspect this is probably the place to do that. Some of you have seen my video. I wanted to document the end, so that whatever intelligence beings come after us (whether they evolve from cockroaches into some kind of super cockroach or are beings from Gliese 581g) can see a tasteful and down to earth portrayal of how a species faces the end with dignity.

Firstly, the end of the world *is* coming. Scientists agree with me. See this link http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/2012.html

Note that they are saying why the world won’t end beyond 2012, which implies that it will end in 2012. Clearly they support my position and no I didn’t fact check the rest of the article but still… science clearly agrees with me.

If you doubt me, that is fine. You choose to prepare or not to prepare at your peril.

But let’s talk about what the end of the world means for The Secret World.

Well, first of all Issue #5 is going to have a very short run on the servers. Which is a massive shame. Because Issue #5 has some great content so people had better try to run through it very quickly.

Like the first of our new story arcs, this one called “The Vanishing of Tyler Freeborn”. It follows the story of Tyler Freeborn, a conspiracy researcher, who is investigating the events on Solomon Island. As players follow his trail, running afoul of the military, the Orochi corporation and all manner of eldritch horrors that have emerged from the fog, they begin to discover more about the nature of the filth and the fog that surround Solomon Island.

Eventually, they follow Tyler into the mist itself. There’s even this really awesome bit where a giant lobster man hurls a van into a helicopter. So yeah, I just hope people get time to play and see that before it all ends, because it is some pretty cool stuff.

Apart from that mission chain, we also have a new mission in each region. Tanis is at it again in Egypt – and players will need to race against time to track down and prevent Saids agents from being assassinated.

In Transylvanina, Alina has grown sick of the Morninglight’s interference in her life and she sends the player on a mission to learn more about the mysterious cult.

And finally, back in Kingsmouth, Andy and Moose are working on their relationship by making more explosive devices. Testing their devices will lead the player to Edgar, who has been tampering with Quantum Physics in his spare time.

So there is also the Quantum Brace, a weapon that takes Edgars dubious interpretation of Quantum physics and builds it into a real world weapon. Nobody really knows why it works, but it does. And this new auxiliary weapon gives the player access to one of the new combat features that we will start to introduce more as we move forward .If we don’t die. Which we will.

Namely, each ability has more than one possible state. When you fire off abilities with the Quantum Brace, they change state to become a second, new ability which has a different effect. This provides a deeper level of strategy and depth to combat. It also means you need to make damned sure you hit with your first ability.

Though, again, this is a great addition to the system, it is ultimately pointless due to the aforementioned apocalypse.

And sure, I know some of you are probably asking the question: “If he really thinks that the world is going to end, why doesn’t he just give everybody full accounts to The Secret World with all skills and abilities unlocked and the best gear in the game.” And to those people I say…

Oh dear, look at the time. I have a bunker to build.

Sincerely yours, Joel Bylos Game Director The Secret World