Dawn of the Morninglight Seems Worth the Wait

By William Murphy on April 07, 2018 | Previews | 0

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On April 4th, Funcom will release the first new story content update for Secret World Legends: Dawn of the Morninglight. The DLC continues the story after the end of Tokyo’s main narrative, with the player being blamed for the events of that story, being tracked by bounty hunters, and generally trying to clear their name. We toured the new issue with Romain Amiel and Andy Benditt, and are now counting down the days to its launch...

Secret World Legends (as The Secret World before it) has always done story better than just about anyone in the MMO space. This issue continues that trend, and it’s entirely free for all players of SWL, though a $20 Collector’s Edition will net you a special Agent, a Kongamato pet, a witch doctor outfit, and a mask of Death’s Wisdom. Aside from the new South Africa Morninglight base zone, there’s also a top secret additional area (you’ll see for yourself when you play it), 10 new agents to recruit for the new agent system, and a new Tribal Cache to get special loot from as well.

The DLC itself is chock full of missions, but the main 6 story-based sort are the lengthy, winding, story missions SWL is known for. All told, if you just rushed through the main campaign, Dawn of the Morninglight would take around 3-4 hours, but there’s a bunch of side missions, activities, and the like to fill your time with as well. And the next story update after this one is planned to continue the tales of some of the issue’s characters, though I’ll let you explore the DLC yourself to see which ones I’m talking about. I’ll try to keep this as spoiler free as possible, actually, since there really are some great tales to be told here.

The Morninglight are the ones truly responsible for the events of Tokyo, and you meet up with your old “frien-emy” Che from Kingsmouth to hot a plane over to South Africa and the compound of the cult known as New Dawn. Once there, you go ahead and sign yourself up as a member to infiltrate the ranks, and begin working your way up through the cult by doing mundane tasks like farming, delivering cult-colored jumpsuits, and so forth. Don’t worry, events unfold and you eventually are able to fake your way to the higher ranks and gain access to the inner cloister of the base.

This update does things that Funcom has never really done before with story. The time of day shifts as you make your way through the story missions, and you’ll see the whole base in a different light between night and day - let’s just say there’s a reason why everyone in the Morninglight has a curfew.

Eventually, you figure out that all is not right within the Morninglight, but you probably knew that already. You’ll work your way through a load of boss fights, into the mansion where you’ve tracked down Philip Marquard, but what awaits you there, and how you get there... well, I won’t spoil it for you. Just know that this update is looking like a winner, with the twists and turns and cosmic implications that have always been at the heart of Secret World. Stay tuned for more explorations of the story after it launches, when we’re able to stream it and show it to you first hand.