Raid mechanics and story outlined for Secret World

Graeme Lennon has announced some rather interesting details planned for the first raid to be implemented into the (somewhat awesome) MMO, The Secret World.

To the gibbous joy of many grim adventurers, The Secret World continues to evolve their dark and threatening world. Details of their first raid, The Manhattan Exclusion Zone, are now starting to surface with a fairly hefty release on their development blog.

Initially planned as part of the overall story arc, the players will need to gather their remaining strength and sanity to stare down a threat that isn't content with hiding in the dark corners of the globe. The term "Plausible Deniability" can hardly apply when disastrous events begin to unfold within the middle of New York City itself.

The raid is to be designed for a 10 character team, with a 32 hour lockout if successful (a strange number in my eyes, but there you go). Aimed towards being inclusive and to help bring people into the raiding concept, it will allow you to potentially succeed with Elite gear equipped. The real meat of the game dynamic will be in the open-ended skill tree system. The devs are confident they have a grip on how to mesh such a wide variety of skills with the needed tasks and roles to suit the raid mechanic. Time will tell, but things are certainly looking interesting.

Thanks, Joystiq.