In From the Cold was one of the best mmo quests I have ever seen (spoilers)

[Red_Panda]

I haven't enjoyed a quest in an mmo so much in a long time. I've collected an infinite number of bear galls and wolf teeth and escorted more stupid npc's than I can count. Rarely am I given a treat so delicious as a quest that I don't open the map and click the red area and press auto walk. It felt very intuitive finding paths to skirt around enemies, accidentally missing one around the corner and having to fight to the death with little health or power. It gave me a thrill I haven't felt in a long time.

At first I just wandered around heading towards the town but then it becomes obvious that there is more to it. Took me about 10 minutes to stumble upon the wrecked magitech. Than I found the hurt soldier shortly after. Finding the fuel and returning it took the longest, I foolishly forgot to mark on the map mentally where the wreck was so it took me a bit of time scouting around to find it again. I wasn't sure what would happen if I got into a fight holding the fuel so I had to pay extra attention to avoid enemies. Then you have a nice transition from being completely weak and defenseless to being a killing machine mowing down foes with your newfound weapon. This isn't the first time you use a magitech walker to fight hordes of enemies but it felt more impactful for having worked so hard to get it up and running. It felt like you earned it instead of just being a scene you want to get past.

The last fight I was down to about 3 minutes and was starting to sweat when I saw how many enemies were left. Didn't even notice the warning of the mech about to blow that took me quite by surprise. The animations throughout the quest felt a little above the standard. When the mech blows, you and the people you were fighting ragdoll across the ground very convincingly. I thought I had failed and was upset at myself for not noticing the warning but then you go to the scene of having no option but to crawl away with no health and no abilities. Reminded me of that final crawl through the radiation in mgs4. Overall I just can't praise it enough, between all of the login issues and the story having kind of a slow start I was beginning to worry that maybe they weren't going to be able to pull it off but my doubts have been cast aside.

I know that the quest has caused some controversy and I can understand how some people would be frustrated by it. I sympathize but also see it as a great opportunity, how often do you really get to test yourself in these kind of games? Aside from high level raiding and extreme trials not very much. The struggle might be painful but that just makes the reward that much sweeter at the end. I urge anyone who has troubles with this quest not to give up or let it taint your view of the game as a whole. Persevere and you will be rewarded with a feeling of accomplishment. Best of luck to anyone still struggling with it. Don't give up on yourselves I know you can do it.

[JackHatchet]

My real controversy is this quest seems like a major plot-hole. Shortly before this happened, another round of tempering went out, which means all those soldiers you joined up with -- should have been tempered. And I looked for a radio, lol...

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I loved the Thancred stealth quest. I like the idea of playing around as other characters when it comes to exploring or one-shotting enemies. I'm not a fan of playing a whole other rotation against a boss that stands in one place.

[Powercow]

My real controversy is this quest seems like a major plot-hole. Shortly before this happened, another round of tempering went out, which means all those soldiers you joined up with -- should have been tempered. And I looked for a radio, lol...

You do know they had those dragonscale talisman thingies right? Like Urianger calls it out to make sure people are under its protective influence. They even zoom in on some soldiers pulling them out and having them glow, the protective bubble appears...

Edit - Ohhh, I think you mean the refugees. Yeah they were moving through the area. They most likely weren't in the ruins when the cry went out.

[Hysorn]

You do know they had those dragonscale talisman thingies right? Like Urianger calls it out to make sure people are under its protective influence. They even zoom in on some soldiers pulling them out and having them glow, the protective bubble appears...

Edit - Ohhh, I think you mean the refugees. Yeah they were moving through the area. They most likely weren't in the ruins when the cry went out.

Or they were listening to the radio.

[Momo_Kozuki]

My real controversy is this quest seems like a major plot-hole. Shortly before this happened, another round of tempering went out, which means all those soldiers you joined up with -- should have been tempered. And I looked for a radio, lol...

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I loved the Thancred stealth quest. I like the idea of playing around as other characters when it comes to exploring or one-shotting enemies. I'm not a fan of playing a whole other rotation against a boss that stands in one place.

Don't sound like a plot-hole to me. Those untempered soldiers must have been around a radio when it happened, wherever they were hiding before that. Like, it seems every Garlean knows that whoerver stays next to a radio will not get tempered. That explains why the ones in the subway were safe from the second wave cuz they you saw them huddled around radio most of the time. And the tempering wave seems not happen very frequently, or people who go outside foraging for food would have to go around with a radio strapped on their back. Back to your temporary allies, I think they feel unsafe after the second wave so they decide to YOLO to escape the ruins of the capital.


For stealth mission, I agree that Thancred did it better, but I think Thancred is a specialist, while WoL is in a foreign body. If you put Thancred in Y'shotla's body, you won't have a stealth sorceress, but a sorceress that cannot stealth or use magic, assuming that he can even "see" the surrounding cuz the cat girl is blind and relies on a special vision to see around.


I think the mission would be better to emphasize on WoL's resourcefulness. Start with a foot soldier, get a magitek armor to tear through tempered soldiers and crazed magitek weapons, helps an engineer to hack a hexadrone, then just bee-line straight to Zenos and ram the whole thing into him. Yeah, it will be lack the desperate factor, but I think it is cooler that way, lol.

[Anatha]

Pretty sure we were inhabiting a corpse. It's pretty clear that the bodies used via this method do not need to be alive when the possession takes place.

[Olinara]

I don't like playing as not-me with 3, 4, or 5 buttons. Ever. I got the distinct impression we were supposed to fail it once or twice to figure it out, which is another design choice I don't care for.

Overall, the storytelling AROUND the duty was fantastic. But I don't like playing as someone else.

[LyraNavillia]

Man I thought I was going to have to crawl all the way to camp. I looked at my timer at 20 minutes and hoped...then

Cool duty. I liked the "stay conscious" button clicky thing.

More like this please.

[Anatha]

I don't like playing as not-me with 3, 4, or 5 buttons. Ever. I got the distinct impression we were supposed to fail it once or twice to figure it out, which is another design choice I don't care for.

Overall, the storytelling AROUND the duty was fantastic. But I don't like playing as someone else.

I'm 100% sure you were not supposed to enjoy that experience, it was supposed to make you frustrated, upset, and desperate to get back to being you again.

[Misplaced_Marbles]

I'm 100% sure you were not supposed to enjoy that experience, it was supposed to make you frustrated, upset, and desperate to get back to being you again.

So....it was designed for masochists? After all, why would anyone design an unenjoyable experiance into their game. Obviously it was made for the pleasure of some weirdos.