It feels like the pace of levelling has slowed down since I hit 20. I have some recollection of that being the case when the game was live as well, and it definitely slows further at 40. That's not a bad thing – running at +0/x2 since level 5 has seen me through the first three zones of redside fairly fast. So much so that I've barely written about them up until now, and they're worth writing about.
Mercy Island
Mercy Island was given a revamp toward the end of the game on live, with new contacts added and the flow of the zone significantly changed. I have to admit I do miss the old Mercy Island – the new story arcs are good, but I liked it more when new villains started in Fort Darwin in the north, and only later came down to Mercy itself in the south.
To go from the anarchic no man's land around Darwin to the more urban environment of Mercy felt like ascending – it's no coincidence that the first exploration title you acquire upon entering Mercy was 'The Next Big Thing.'
(it still is but the timing isn't as good.)
Port Oakes
Port Oakes, in contrast to Mercy Island, feels like somewhere people might actually willingly live – Arachnos is less omnipresent and there's more signs of ordinary life going on.
The design of the zone has always felt a little off to me. The majority of regular contacts only hand out missions in the 5-9 level range, and it's very easy to have out-levelled them by the time they are unlocked.* There's also only one regular contact in the 10-14 range, though it's a really good one. There is at least one other contact in that level range, but you'll never find them unless you know they are there.
*To put this in perspective, I levelled through PO quite a few times when the game was live, and I'm not sure if I ever did the story arc of one of those three contacts.
The other oddity of PO is the distribution of missions. It seems like almost every door mission in the zone (certainly the newspaper missions) takes place in or around the same couple of blocks of warehouses near the docks. Entire sections of the island, around Fort Hades and Villa Montrose, are so far off the beaten track you'll never see them unless you go and explore.
Cap Au Diable
Cap Au Diable is easily my favourite redside zone. It's visually distinctive, easy to navigate since Aeon City and/or Mount Diable are almost always in view, and it's fun to move around in with the multi-level design, particularly in Haven, where if you get bored at street level you can move along the catwalks overhead instead, or across the closely packed rooftops.
It has plenty of contacts, and a couple of fun enemy factions unique to the zone in the Goldbrickers and the Luddites. The Luddites in particular are hilarious, even if these days their conspiracy theories about 'the orange pipes of doom' remind me a bit of 5G truthers.
*The difference being that the Luddites have a valid point...
Sharkhead
Finally, for now, I've come to Sharkhead.
It's kind of a dump.
If you want a zone that backs up the view that redside is dirty, dull and depressing then look no further than Sharkhead. It's an industrial hellhole and the scenery is as ugly to the eyes as the squealing, discordant, grinding music is to the ears. From the striking workers to the corrupt security guards of the Cage Consortium I get the feeling that nobody is having a good time in Sharkhead. Except for the Freakshow. They always seem to having fun.
The first four zones of redside each embody a different kind of villainy. Mercy Island is dog-eat-dog survival of the fittest, whereas Port Oakes has a veneer of civilisation, and feels more grounded, due to the presence of organised crime in the form of the Family. Cap Au Diable, meanwhile, is all about Mad SCIENCE, with it's high-tech environments and larger than life factions.
The villainy in Sharkhead is something closer to the real world, and as such it's not played for laughs as much. The Scrapyarders and the Cage Consortium don't toss out one-liners like the Goldbrickers or the Luddites, and that subtly amplifies the more brutal atmosphere of the zone.
I get why people don't like Sharkhead. It's a meatgrinder of a zone, and a jarring shift of tone after Cap Au Diable. I'd rank it alongside zones like Silithus in World of Warcraft or Quarantine in Fallen Earth as a zone that tries to conjure up an unpleasant atmosphere and is, perhaps, a little bit too successful at doing so.
Comments
Post a Comment