Feedback: Whisper in the Dark

[thepenmonster.3621]

Review of first two chapters;

Braham teleporting everywhere was kind of killing the spooky mood the devs were going for.

The teleporting Svanir and other teleporting monsters seemed like an interesting choice for mobs.

I don't know what was causing all of those players to run against a wall like that. Must have been some serious CC.

I'll have to become a better player because I kept thinking that I was pressing the number keys in my usual rotation but I only seemed to be hitting one. Though I do appreciate the Svanir standing still for a few seconds to marvel at my hammer-swinging skills. It was a nice touch.

While the moody music on the five minute loading screen was nice I was annoyed by the enemy called Ping 2779. Those sort of jump scares are cheap.

[Zok.4956]

@"Yasi.9065" said:How you guys liking the new episode?

I could not believe how short this first episode of the "Saga" is. It is much shorter than the other, older episodes and it is even shorter than the "Prolog". Maybe this is a test and Anet tests how much (how little) content they can deliver every 2-5 months without decreasing their Gemstore-revenue too much. Or maybe some parts of the episode had to be removed because they were buggy or otherwise were still not ready.

I hope, this size will not be the new standard for the "Saga".

And the mastery was disappointing. You only really need it, if you want to open the few bigger (medium) sized chests for loot. But I felt no difference between fighting mobs and bosses without the mastery unlocked (when I first entered the map) and after I unlocked the mastery completely.

Only fly in my soup is that the "big" openworld events are a bit anticlimatic, too easy, too fast done.

The map meta is indeed easy, but is dragging too long.

The Prolog-episode itself was not very long, but it felt like both episodes were done by two totally different teams (and the prolog-team delivered a better episode).

So overall, I am disappointed with this episode.

[ZeftheWicked.3076]

I for one enjoyed the story a lot, especially the ending part. That last scene was ... disturbing. As it should given the episode's tone. I learned after HoT not to jump to conclusions when it comes to content of a map. Not before doing the events, collections, seeing the little things. The raven choices were interesting.

One thing that dissapoints me is the base merchant. I would expect more stuff in there, surprised there's not karmic retribution for example. Well nvm, i like what i'm seeing so far, albeit to be fair, due to my preference for nature and verticality HoT maps stand uncontested in my personal ranking. Story wise - good work!

[Crash.5486]

Overall a solid job Anet! This patch should keep me busy for the next month or two, and I can't wait for more!

tell me your secret then because I wanna know how you can keep yourself busy for a month or 2 with this latest patch?

[Murtos.5342]

@"ruikarikun.9402" said:I didn't finish it yet.But I enjoyed it. I want to say thanks for developers :)

I liked "Raven Sanctum" mission, if I'm not wrong it's a part of "The Invitation" quest. I like the voice of the owl xD I was scary when my npc-command dissapier haha. And I like to watch horror movies...Boss fight at the and of "Raven Sanctum" also was interesting to me.

Also I tried meta on map. Map looks very nice. Some interesting mechanics.I don't know yet (or didn't understand correct who is speaking with me and npc) but that women voice which tells us sometimes is EPIC.You fight with mobs, and then get like "Let me help you" or other EPIC haha.Nice work.

And I understand some players who think game is boring while they play it more then 3+ years. Like for real? What did you excpect?

Anyway I like "Whisper in the Dark". This ice theme is better then previous, but it's for me.

Playing this game since release and suprised at how the content in each update drops and drops(either quality, quantity, amount, map).... We dont even expect releases with much content anymore we just dont want content that takes 20-50 min to clear and then isnt really worth bothering with till the next episode comes out.

[otto.5684]

@"Trevor Boyer.6524" said:I've been playing this game for nearly 8 years now, and as of THIS release, I am officially fed up with and done with easter egg hunts. What do I mean by this? Looking for lost coins, finding eggs for skyscale, ect ect ect. I don't know what it was about tonight, but when I was searching for a "boneskinner" for 2 #$%^ing hours to finish the hunger achievement, I just had enough. It was in that moment, I realized how not fun easter egg hunting is. It's like I always hated it, but at this point I just can't do it anymore. I don't care what content they pump up, but it's got to be something other than walking around and waiting for RNG spawns to complete a collection, or traveling around the world to find inconsequential items that are in no way rewarding other than to complete some achievement for a mastery point. They've overdone this type of content to a ridiculous extent. Make me do asuran math equations, make me require going on a 100 enemy kill streak uninterrupted, anything, seriously anything other than easter egg hunts.

Cannot stress enough, kitten do something other than easter egg hunts. Am I wrong here? Is no one else tired and just a bit bored at this point, being made to back peddle around looking for random items all the time all the time all the time for every achievement every time every release every time all the time? I'd personally be more interested in finishing achievements if they were more like Crown Pavilion achievements, where you're actually like fighting things and being made to use different build structures to accomplish something. This "Walk around and look for things" is literally the most boring thing possible, that a designer could add into a game that was designed around a combat engine, 9 different classes, and various gear options.

Other than that I can say that the story was shorter than expected but w/e. Content was good story was for the length.

They are fetch quests disguised as "achievements." Most boring thing ever to put in MMO. And the funny thing is that GW2 was a game that pioneered live world quests. How much the quest and map design regressed in the last 2-3 years is astonishing.

[Fueki.4753]

The map is too small.The story was too short.Boneskinner barely has any impact and is a regular, quite often appearing, group event.The creepiness that was teased wasn't even half of what was in the trailer.If I had had any expectations, I would have been disappointed.

[NASATT.3678]

Good fun so far! :)

[Randulf.7614]

Jormag keeps telling me to

"Let me in"

I think s/he has a new Champion...

[coso.9173]

I thibk some of the complaints are just natural things for people who are burned of the game. Take sometime off and you'll enjoy it more when you get back.

[Randulf.7614]

@coso.9173 said:I thibk some of the complaints are just natural things for people who are burned of the game. Take sometime off and you'll enjoy it more when you get back.

No it isn't - I took a break and returned enthusiastic for the return given the potential. So, not this isn't burnout for us. Some of these complaints are very much legitimate for us.

If I had come back to this after a much longer break, I would be a lot more annoyed

[coso.9173]

@Randulf.7614 said:

@coso.9173 said:I thibk some of the complaints are just natural things for people who are burned of the game. Take sometime off and you'll enjoy it more when you get back.

No it isn't - I took a break and returned enthusiastic for the return given the potential. So, not this isn't burnout for us. Some of these complaints are very much legitimate for us.

Just because it wasn't for you, it doesn't mean it couldn't be for others. I never said YOUR complaints were about the burnout. I'm speaking in general, and I said sole complaints, not all of them. Many of the things that are commented in here, I felt the same about the prologue, and it was mostly burnout in my case. I took some weeks away from the game and came back 1 week ago and found it much more enjoyable.

[ButcherofMalakir.4067]

Everyone complains that the episode is too short. Maybe it is on the shorter side but it lacks most of the grindy and boring stuff that is used to artificialy increse duration in other episodes. For me that is a win.How long would prolog be if you cut the fight at the start and all those "do events" missions?

[blueberry.2504]

Why are people complaining the map is too small, it was comunicated many times that the icebrood Saga maps will be expanded with every episode. And why would anyone play everyday contiously, playing a game is not a life. This mentality reminds me of a certain Southpark episode concerning Wow players. And you cant compare one episode with a whole expansion, you got to compare a whole season of it. For years its the same complaining on this forum (and reddit) comparing apples and oranges.

[Ygnir.8961]

I liked the story especially the end fight and the sequence after it. The open world boneskinner was disappointing. The new essence system seems unnessecary because the enemies are so weak. I havent tried the strike missions yet.

[Blockhead Magee.3092]

Eh. I dislike the addition of the new gimmicks to collect this essence or that essence. Not a fan of having to collect another type of mastery point. The lead up to the last fight was boring. I don't care to run around to flip some switch and answer questions that have no bearing on what happens next. I do like that I have a new map to explore in general. I'm ok with another meta (even if I don't care to do it). The story made some headway which is nice. Though the whole Ritlock being chastised for leaving seems off base. He was there to help kill off three elder dragons - seems like a good reason to and everyone knows it. So why would he get grief about 'leaving'. "Stay and die with us instead of going out and doing something about it!" is how its sounds to me.

[Ok I Did It.2854]

I dont know what to make of this, i dont understand why Anet cannot keep consistency when doing things, on LS3 we had unbound magic, LS4 it moved to volatile magic, and now LS5 its neither, they have also removed the Karmic Retribution and made it that your skyscale can get 25 karma per orb collected, the problem i have hear is that Anet pushed glyph's that give both VM and UM and now it looks like going forward they are useless, why the change now, why can you not keep things the same????

Lets me real the new story is super short, its probably less than an hour worth of content there, the new map is designed nicely, ( as a GW1 player i wanted to see more of the shiverpeaks ) but yet again the map has no replay ability what so ever, when everyone has done the story and achievements this map will be abandoned, just like all the others, why do Anet design maps like this, it seems like such a waste of resources to build a map that will be abandoned in a few weeks,

The meta is fun the first time you do it then its boring, 15 minutes of standing there killing a few enemies every 30 seconds, either shorten the time to 8 minutes, or spawn bigger enemies in the middle ( where the 3 orbs would meet ) and make people have to go there also,

Are Anet sticking to a 3 month window still, as if the content being put out is only going to be 1-2 hours every 3 months ( bar the time gated achievements ) then it wont cut it, and i would rather then ditch living story and go full paid expansions, where we know the content will be, i already have a hard time trying to get friends etc to play or to come back to GW2, and this type of content will not help, when other games are pumping out content left right and center. ( i know people harp on about sub fees but other games sub fee is allowing alot of content, i would have spent more on gems than a subfee and im not getting anywhere near the content, Anet should consider a subfee if it would allow them to push content out faster, in LS1 we have new content every 2 weeks, now its every 3 months )

[Fueki.4753]

@"Blockhead Magee.3092" said:So why would he get grief about 'leaving'. "Stay and die with us instead of going out and doing something about it!" is how its sounds to me.

Her grief possibly relates to happened before he met Logan.He preferred to seek out Rurik's sword, Sohothin, rather than stay with 'family', which Crecia is angry about. He already had the sword in the novel.So Rytlock was going for the sword, which (for all we know since GW1) was still in the Fire Ring, where we (as GW1 players) defeated the undead/revived Rurik rather than staying with family.So Rytlock chased all the way to the Fire Rings for the sword and Crecia did not know and probably STILL doesn't know it was to get rid of the Ascalonian ghosts.Or maybe she's referring to Rytlock jumping into the mist portal to get Sohothin back, which also was to get rid of the ghosts.But the fact that a Charr is so angry for "family reasons" is annoying anyway, as they were supposed to not have the same family bonds as Human/Norn/Asura have.Thinking of it, Rytlock still hasn't returned that darn crown to "my" people!

[Vlad Morbius.1759]

I've been away playing other games for the last few months and came back a week ago to get caught up in time for this first real story for their new saga expansion like delivered content and wow, where do I start?

• the story albeit interestingly in concept was shallow and poorly done mechanically
• the map was beautifully done and captured the mood nicely, in fact it reminds me of a couple Diablo maps I've played through
• the lore or rational for the area should have been more clearly thought out as it felt very much like the creatures were just thrown in with zero forethought to lore
• the masteries, albeit somewhat expected could clearly add some good mechanics for future fights and broaden the entire concepts of how we fight in groups if done correctlyNow to the meat of the issue....where's the beef??? This episode can barely be constituted as a living world episode let alone expansion like content and frankly once again we have been left with proof beyond a shadow of a doubt that LW cannot nor should not ever replace expansions. My honest opinion this effort seems to me like they have already decided the game is going to be on life support and they will just continue to focus on bleeding money through the gem store until it is no longer supported. If this isn't the case, someone in Anet or at NCSoft needs to wake up and smell the coffee before it is too late and dedicate the resources and leadership required to refocus the staff and get moving on building an expansion as quickly as they can or I'm afraid GW2 will just fade into oblivion.This game has such potential in so many areas and in my mind it is being squandered by visionless leadership propped up by fallacies that they know what their community wants more than the people playing the game daily. Lick your wounds admit this isn't good enough and get started on an expansion and give everyone who plays the hope they need to hang onto until such time this expansion is done because this first chapter of the saga is a glaringly empty promise that will continue to drive players away.

[Teratus.2859]

Climbed to the top of the tallest tree on the new map.. cause why not :D

[PookieDaWombat.6209]

Now that I've played through the story and did map complete let me list out my Pros and Cons:

Pros:

1. I like the direction this story is taking with its dark undertones and the very real feeling of knowing Jormag is bad news, but still having that "voice" in your head asking if Jormag isn't as full of it as we think they are. Like, we KNOW Jormag is bad news, but maybe there IS something on the horizon that we might need them for. Its a good balance.
2. The Almorra story was good enough for a wrap up. There is a "but" here, however I will use my other section for that.
3. The final story step in the raven shrine/temple place had a suitably creepy aspect but could've gone further as could the voice or Jormag in your head.

Cons:

1. WAAAAAAAAAAAAAY too short. I should not have completed this whole story step AND map complete in a little over an hour of play. Like, are you serious? To put it mildly, if Anet doesn't drop the next part of this "saga" in January after wintersday, you will have a problem on your hands that micro-transactions won't cover. This content was anemic at best. Even the map meta was a joke, and worse, once people train up their masteries it will be impossible for future players.
2. The Almorra story could have been delivered a bit better than it was. The flow of events was not depicted as clearly as it could've been and getting to see a glimpse of her final fight might have felt like she got a good death. I know its supposed to be tragic, but at the same time you undercut her death with token dialog and then moving on to the next story beat. There was no room for that to breath and for someone who made a whole organization after surviving a branding and having to kill her warband, I just would've expected a bit more for her.
3. The map in general just doesn't feel good. I'm not sure how to better explain it other than there is something about its flow that just leaves me shrugging, or at times frustrated. Rarely did I feel like I wanted to go in any particular direction, instead just looking at the map for markers of events just so I could push up my xp for mastery or when getting map complete which was also waaaaay too fast.
4. That creepy feeling from the final bit was just absent everywhere else on the map, even in the forest which really should have upped the factor. No, throwing a million of those half invisible re-skins of core GW2 enemies isn't a viable substitute.
5. The prologue to this felt bigger and more fleshed out than this story step, with far more things to do in general. Even then I found my reasons to go back into that map difficult at the time. I didn't have any great need to for the most part. I say this because this new map gives me even LESS of a reason to want to be there.

[Tiny Doom.4380]

It's undeniably a very short episode but I don't believe that's a problem in itself. The pacing is actually good and the content is a huge improvement over most of the tedious, longwinded and painful filler that padded out many episodes of the last two seasons. I vastly prefer the new approach, especially the absence of the "learn new skill A, learn new skill B, Learn new skill C, now put them all together while dodging lava pits during an artillery barrage" trope that served to make every episode both a boring and a miserable experience.

The problem is the length of time between episodes. Whisper in the Dark has about as much content (less, in fact) than we routinely got in every bi-weekly episode of Season One. Granted, those episodes didn't come with new maps, the lack of which did become a problem in itself, eventually, but we've had plenty of new maps now. If we could have the current amount of content on at least a monthly schedule, happening in existing maps, that might work better.

I would certainly take these shorter episodes with better content and gameplay every time over what we suffered for the preceding several years, though.

That said, this episode has its problems other than length. The voiceover/dialog is very flaky. I could hear Rytlock and Cre talking all the time I was with Marjory, even though they were on another part of the map doing something entirely different. That was by no means the only time I heard the dialog from one scene while I was engaged in another, either.

Also, while the atmosphere was excellent and the plot solid enough, the charater interaction was off. Several characters really didn't sound like themselves. Rytlock was virtualy incoherent at times and Marjory was almost unrecognizeable. She was less emotional back when Belinda was actually killed and I don't recall any character development since then that would explain her almost terrified reactiion to yet another hallucination. It's not like she hasn't seen mind tricks before, either. She is going out with Kasmeer, after all...

[ugrakarma.9416]

the forest should had a "darker night" like in bitterfrost frontier + more challengeful bonneskinner.

[Xion.5694]

Hi Anet,Great Living Story. It met my expectations on quality and quantity and was fun for the given time.But jokes aside.

So the SAGA (aka Living Story) has begun. The snowball has been dropped so hard...But can you tell me, as Announced in September, what is the Expansion Level Content in this SAGA, because I dont see any, but for sure it is there, as you said.I'm sure you added it, but could you give me a glipse or point into right direction what is that?

Love to hear!

PS. Give the artist, who painted the loading screens, a payrise (in $, not Gems) he/she did a wonderful job for this episode.

[BlackyWarsX.5384]

I'm disappointed by this episode. It's so short, it literally just is: go to the fort > search for the npc > do a boss fight. Nothing more. I think the writing has improved over the last expansion and season and I know you want to expand on this episode/map with the next episode, but judging by how all is set up, this is still ~2 month away.

Also, the boneskinner is somewhat underwhelming. Here's a suggestion how I'd imagine him to be a creepy world boss:For a creature that’s supposed to be creepy and a predator with unique hunting skills, it’s a huge disappointment. And again a huge amount of wasted potential.

Pre-Event: Something‘s not right

Just imagine you hear a familiar voice in the creepy forest. Be it... I don’t know, your mentor, trahearne, your races leader, one of dragons watch members or a certain someone you’re looking for in this super short story. you follow that voice, get a buff (feeling uneasy, watched) and then sometime later the boneskinner jumps on you, an event starts. Not that hard so you can either escape or kill it with some effort, but still not easy.

Main-Event: The Boneskinner

once the initial boneskinner is defeated, it mutates bigger and scarier, BAM, a world boss you have to fight across the forest. It has different phases where it hides and imitates voices again and jumps out on a random player, locking them down. The locked down player gets some special skills to defend themselves, the rest have to break the breakbar. If the boneskinner killed the locked down player, it gets stronger (therefore harder to kill)

In the last phase it retreats to it’s den. There you see several dead bodies, disfigured and stuff because it’s the boneskinner after all. They have to set the mood, you know?

Failing the event spreads darkness and mist across the map (could possibly influence the other meta) and spawns smaller boneskinner throughout the map (hearing voices, veteran boneskinner jumps on you, similar to vinetooth(s?), just small solo events)

Just dreaming of what could be.