Planet Calypso's new content takes players on a wild ride

Planet Calypso is one of the more unusual games that we cover here at Massively, mostly thanks to its real cash economy. Massively's Beau Hindman spent some time in the game recently for Rise and Shiny, giving his experience as a new player.

Our newest peek at the game is a bit more advanced and a lot of fun. Planet Calypso is in the middle of the Harbinger event, an ongoing new challenge that introduces players to new areas, new enemies, and some formidable new foes. The Planet Calypso team was kind enough to invite me on a tour of the event, so follow along after the jump for a closer look!
We began our tour by picking up the first mission, Crossroads, and jumping into one of the new VTOL vehicles. Our trip to the mission site took us over Port Atlantis for a bird's-eye view of some newly redesigned content. The Port Atlantis mall, for example, features nearly 40 player-run shops carrying a wide variety of merchandise, but that's only a small part of this redesigned area. Even veteran players will want to check out some of the new and facelifted zones.

We concluded the first part of our tour and headed to the crash site that our quest NPC told us about, landing the VTOL to inspect some mysterious pods among the lava and burned-out trees. The crash site was extremely well-designed -- a dim and smoky area littered with the remnants of charred trees, torn earth, and a handful of mysterious large objects. Our job was to check them out, so off we went to navigate the crash site.

Once we'd ascertained what was going on at the crash site, it was time to report back to our original location and let our quest-giver know what was up. Rather than hop back in our waiting VTOL crafts, the Planet Calypso team took the opportunity to show off some of the new land transportation. We began with a couple of SUV-style vehicles complete with turrets. The turrets are a fun addition, because players are able to weaponize the vehicles.

We took a not-uneventful trip over land and sea in the SUV -- I had the impression that you're not really supposed to do that second thing -- and eventually switched to a speedboat for the last part of our journey. Later in the tour we also checked out the Pitbull, a huge, armored ground-transportation vehicle that comfortably seated all five of our group. All of the new vehicles can, of course, be crafted, customized, and traded by players.

Once we updated our quest, it was back to the VTOLs to find out the source of these mysterious pods. We jumped into the aforementioned Pitbull (complete with independent suspension) and went to take on the newest big bad of Planet Calypso. The Harbingers are more evolved and advanced than what the Planet Calypso community is used to. (I found this out the hard way when I was mistakenly left alone outside the Pitbull and one-shotted in passing by a Harbinger.)

The Harbinger event brings new content to nearly every facet of Planet Calypso: new and revamped zones, two completely new methods of travel, new crafting and trading items, and new combat and quests. This is no fluff event designed to amuse players for a few days, but rather a deep storyline that includes something for almost everyone in the Planet Calypso community. The event is going on until early December, so check out the gallery below for a look at what's new in the game, and don't miss your chance to jump in and check out the new quests for yourself!