I feel like I'm moving through the Savage Coast very quickly, and the design of the zone contributes to that. Kingsmouth felt like a real place, and is one of the most authentic locations I've ever experienced in an MMO. The Savage Coast is nowhere near as cohesive, and comes across more as a series of self contained set piece locations that don't really connect to one another.
The terrain isn't as open. Line of sight is more often blocked, and rocky outcrops and high fences limit the ways by which you can access certain area, though it's still nowhere near as linear as say the levelling zones of Neverwinter. Lighting effects add to the disconnected feel, which works in the amusement park but less so in the part of the forest inhabited by the Ak'ab, where the boundaries of the green filter that overlay it are so sharply defined I've seen my dodge rolls jumping me in and out of it multiple times in a single fight.
None of this is actually bad. It's just different. A lot of it is very good, especially Innsmouth Academy. That it's fully a part of the zone and not instanced is something I particularly love about that location. It makes a difference to the atmosphere of a building to be able to look out of the windows and see the surrounding area, and I'm reminded of Fallen Earth*, which did the same thing.
It also results in some creepy moments, with fleeting glimpses of awful things moving around outside.
*Especially the University of New Flagstaff, which I passed by but didn't enter during my attempt to 'finish' that game last year. I'd have liked to have explored it, but the mobs were very tough and I was in a hurry...
If I do sound critical of the Savage Coast it's only really in comparison to Kingsmouth. Thinking about it I'm realising that I have a bad habit of being unduly harsh on zones that follow directly on from my favourites – Sharkhead Isle after Cap Au Diable, Northfields after Plateau, Hillsbrad Foothills* after Ghostlands.
With 4 hours to go of this run I've just hit level 20 and am about to enter the Illuminati Archives. It feels like this will be the culmination of the story so far as this zone is concerned, but if it is I'll still have plenty more to do on the Savage Coast.
*That one is justified though. Hillsbrad is a mess.
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