Preview: Secret World Legends Dawn Of The Morninglight

QuintLyn Bowers
By QuintLyn Bowers, News Editor
Share:

After a sizable wait, Secret World Legends players are finally getting the chance to continue their journey. On April 4th (this Wednesday) Funcom will release Dawn of the Morninglight. The update is the first set of completely new story content since the game's relaunch.

Being a huge fan of the Secret world -- and someone who's been waiting on this update with much anticipation, of course I jumped on the chance to get an early peek at the new content courtesy of Funcom's Game Director Romain Amiel and Community Manager Andy Benditt. And, of course they've been nice enough to let me share some of my experience with you -- I say 'some' because this is Secret World Legends and they want to avoid too many spoilers. In fact, Romain jumped me around in the content a bit to avoid spoiling everything for me. But he did offer enough to give a feel of what things are going to be like.

As the Funcom staff have mentioned before in various streams and on socials, etc., Dawn of the Morninglight is just the beginning of the new content. This isn't a full expansion. It's (for lack of a better name) the first chapter of the second season. For this content, they've focused heavily on the main storyline, and for the time being, we won't be seeing much in the way of major investigation missions. There will still be side missions and other content, but in general it will all tie into the main story as much as possible.

Picking up after the events in Tokyo, where players discover the truth behind The Black Signal and its association with the cult known as the Morninglight, the new content is focused specifically on our favorite cult. In fact, once you log in, you'll be contacted by a well known Morninglight figure, Che Carcia Hansson.

Che may be on your list of shifty dudes -- like most everyone else you've met in Secret World Legends -- but that doesn't mean you can completely ignore him when he comes knocking. And come knocking he does. Or, rather, he sends you sketchy anonymous texts asking you to meet him. Of course, what else are you going to do? So, despite your better instincts, you go along with him when he suggest infiltrating the Morninglight. Besides... free trip to South Africa.

Mission-wise your early days as a member of the Morninglight will be probably what you'd expect of being the new guy in any cult. There's mundane work that needs being done so your supreme leader can reap all the benefits, and you're just the guy to do it. You'll level up in the Morninglight by earning points, and those points are earned by doing chores. There are three levels to work your way through, with each level offering more perks such as getting to live in a nicer area of the compound. So, you know... You're stuck doing some gardening and running errands all over the compound. Unless, of course, you can figure out a way to get around all that and ascend to the next level without having to put in all the effort? Hmmm....

While I did get a peek at the levels of the compound designated for the more ascended Morninglight members, most of the focus was on this early area with Romain even showing me some of the tiny details they've put in. First, it should be noted that players will run into more supernatural creature and all of them are based on South African lore. One of these creatures -- a humanoid-pterodactyl-like creature, is actually available as a pet in the Dawn of the Morninglight Collector's Edition. Yes, there's a CE. It'll run just under $20 and include costumes, a mask, a foil agent, and a pet. I inquired and this won't be a limited-time offering. So players will be able to pick it up at a later date if they want to.

It's important to note that the first section of the Morninglight compound has a day/night cycle mechanic where things will get decidedly more dangerous at night and different things will be happening. Players wanting to get the full story about the compound are going to need to pay attention to this. There's plenty to discover about the people who have elected to devote their lives to the Morninglight, including those a bit higher up in the chain like Che, and the actual leadership. Everyone remember Philip Marquard? Yeah. What's that dude and his creepy Stepford family been up to? Perhaps you'll find out soon. Whatever it is, I bet it's not good.

There's actually a pretty interesting group of people living on the compound. You'll meet other bees, and even run across some people you've encountered before. Even background NPCs have stories for players to discover.

The really great thing about this update is how it expands on one of the most notorious and questionable groups in Secret World Legends. The Morninglight have been there since the beginning and they're responsible for some of the more disastrous things that have occurred. Now, we finally get to look behind the curtain and see what they're really about -- and just how dangerous they are.

On a final note, there's another bit of good news for players -- particularly those that like to collect pets, mounts, and clothes. We're finally getting a new cache. I didn't get to see everything that will be available in this particular cache, Although Romain was wearing the outfit -- an all black ensemble with red lighting, and he also teased the mount and pet, a zebra and a hyena, respectively. Although, I think the coolest thing is not the mount that will drop from the cache, but the alternate version you'll be able to pick up from the cache guy in Agartha. Pink Zebra!

I know I've been a bit vague on some of features here -- and for good reason. I'm honestly very excited by what I've seen of the new content, and I think players will enjoy what Funcom has done here. The only downside is that this is a smaller amount of content, and of course at the moment, we're not sure when the next bit will arrive. That aside. I can't wait to hop in once Dawn of the Morninglight releases and find out more about the Morninglight and what questionable things they're up to.

Share this Article:

In this article: Funcom, Secret World Legends.

About the Author

QuintLyn Bowers
QuintLyn Bowers, News Editor

QuintLyn is a long-time lover of all things video game related will happily talk about them to anyone that will listen. She began writing about games for various gaming sites a little over ten years ago and has taken on various roles in the games community.

More Stories by QuintLyn Bowers

Discussion (1)

Travis 5 years ago
Sounds fun, but I really hope they aren’t stringing us along. I can see the profit from the relaunch being the sole thing that funded this new content. Whether this new content will feed into future content? I don’t think there will be much to go around. FC is focusing on other things- their personal investment in SWL seems so fleeting, and it makes me sad.


Read Next

You May Enjoy