I pre-ordered The Secret World (the new modern-day MMO from FunCom) last week, and I must say I am enjoying it much more than I thought. I didn’t have high expectations from the company that produced Age of Conan, but so far I am liking SW so much that I sprung for the “Grandmaster Pack” which gives me a lifetime subscription.
Can’t say much about specifics since they make you sign an NDA for the beta (which you can get into for preordering the game) but the world is really cool–creepy and very detailed.
Since I’m not sure what I can say without breaking the NDA, I’ll direct you to the Wikipedia page, which has a nice summary of the game.
Basically you’re a member of one of three cabals vying for world domination (the Illuminati, the Dragons, or the Templars). I haven’t gotten too much of a handle on the gameplay yet so I’ll leave that for the Wiki page, but the atmosphere is cool…kind of urban fantasy/horror (no nonhuman characters, but lots of Lovecraftian-type monsters, zombies, creepy locations, etc.) You can be a magic user, you can hit things with a big hammer, use a big gun…lots of different ways to customize your character.
There’s going to be a store with microtransactions for things like clothing and stuff like that…not sure to what extent it will go. I know the game was criticized for being too micro-transactiony, but I don’t mind that.
It’s a World-of-Darkness-style urban fantasy MMO. Gameplay is similar to Guild Wars in that you have access to a vast number of abilities but can only use 7 at a time. It doesn’t look like it’ll be following the typical WoW model of tank/heal/DPS for grouping.
Everything I’ve heard about it is good so far. I’ve got it preordered and will be playing in beta this weekend.
It’s no more a WoW clone than any other MMO–I mean, they all are similar in a lot of ways by necessity. But the gameplay of TSW doesn’t really feel that much like WoW to me. And I quite like the graphics. These new MMOs like SWTOR, Tera and TSW are really making me realize how old WoW’s graphics are looking these days.
I’ve got a pass for this weekend’s beta test to have a go at the game, it’s one of the few MMOs to come out in the last few years that I’m actually planning on playing. I’m also playing the browser game that is being used as a marketing vehicle and I’m not far off the top rank which gives me access to all the beta weekends. If I enjoy myself enough I’ll pre-order so I can keep playing
I really like the abandonment of classes and the idea of builds of skills. Apparently part of the game is to discover what combination of the 1500 skills work best together and create your own builds for them, which you can then trade with friends so they can use them if they have the right skills. The fact that you can switch builds in game on the fly is great too, so if you’re partying and it’s clear you need some extra healing capacity one of your team can swap for a healer build, or everyone can draw on some healer skills to help each other. Cool idea.
I’ll be playing the open beta this weekend. I’ve been looking forward to this one for a long time, while my friends were all looking forward to TOR. I like TOR. It’s by far the best solo MMORPG I’ve played, but I don’t find the group dynamics great so I’m likely to jump ship.
This summary is based on the publicly available information rather than actual play, so if I get something wrong, please forgive me.
Rather than a class based system like WoW and it’s descendants (Rift, TOR), TSW will offer all skills to all players. You get to have 7 active and 7 passive abilities that essentially make up your build. There are templates available, so you don’t have to start from scratch. I think you gain proficiency in the skills, but that’s a little unclear. Illuminatiprimus overstates the number of available skills, but 500 seems to be the final number. That should offer lots of customization, but we’ll have to see if there are some skills that just aren’t worth taking.
Crafting is all about breaking down items into their component parts and rebuilding them how you want.
There isn’t armor as most games know it. Your character’s clothing is customizable and doesn’t impact gameplay.
I’m not sure how fundamental the roles of tank, healer, and DPS are going to be, but it sounds like they’ll be a fair part of the big boss fights. It’s also unclear when you can switch your build (i.e. Can you DPS most of the trash then convert to tank for the boss fight?).
This alone makes it an improvement over most MMOs, and is one of the long-term strong points of City of Heroes. I don’t know why it’s taken so long for someone else to try it.
Secret World hasn’t previously been on my radar, but based on this thread, I may try to get a look at the beta. It sounds good conceptually, but I’ve been disappointed before.
Been playing the beta weekend and OH MY GOD this game is so much fun! I love how you’re completely free to start getting whatever abilities you want, and have reached the stage where I’m now having to balance going further into the skill wheel for more expensive abilities or spreading them out a bit.
The quests and locations are interesting and I don’t for a moment feel bored whilst hunting around, which I really can’t say is the case for a lot of MMOs I’ve played. Some of the features are missing because it’s the beta, and it’s a bit rough around the edges, but if the later weekends are as good I’ll definitely keep playing this one
TOR kinda-sorta does this by giving you certain armor and letting you fill it with whatever stats you want. However, that makes it cumbersome when you want to change your appearance without changing stats or vice versa.
I really like TSW’s skill model from an RP/character standpoint. As long as you have reasonably synergistic skills, it doesn’t matter where on the wheel they came from. So you can have a character that starts out entirely focused on Pistols, then gradually learn some Elemental magic and begin weaving that into your build, adding in an ability or two from Hammers to blend. It’s lateral growth rather than vertical +1 growth, and I’m really looking forward to it.
Combat isn’t bad at all, my only concern at the moment is that you’re stuck in a limited area trying low level skills. The mechanic is fine, as far as I can see.
I played plenty of the beta this weekend and I liked it. As Illuminatiprimus mentioned, it was limited to a low level area. Only the first tier of abilities was available (of three tiers), so it’s hard to judge where late game aspects will fall.
I like the ability/combat system. It’s flexible, and you can change more or less on the fly (not in combat, for obvious reasons). As already mentioned, you get 7 active and 7 passive abilities. Active abilities can generally be broken down into builders, consumers, and other.
Builders give you a “point” in for each weapon you have equipped, either on the enemy or for yourself. Think of a rogue’s combo points or a warrior’s rage. They can work a little differently (i.e. regenerating over time, decaying over time, being on the enemy, being on the player), and you can have up to 5 for each of two equipped weapons. Builders build each equipped weapon, not just the weapon that ability uses.
Consumers require one or more points in that weapon to use. These are the more powerful abilities and can be finishers, bigger heals, and other types. They don’t necessarily have to have full combo points to work, though some benefit from it. For this reason, I could use build, finisher, build, finisher as part of my rotation.
Other includes buffs like increased evasion or unavoidable attacks.
Passives do things like have your attacks give a buff or debuff, increase buff durations, award extra combo points. Like the name suggests, they’re passive and you don’t have to activate them, only put them on your passive ability bar.
Each weapon type has a DPS ability and another branch, either survivability (tank), healing, or support. I played chaos/fists, which have survivability and healing abilities. I figured the DPS and healing parts would be good for leveling, the protection would give me the ability to tank. I found combat fairly dynamic, though I had a regular rotation if there weren’t adds, and my health wasn’t falling too fast. Early fight was all about building my hit buff and my opponent’s armor debuff, then settling into a build, claw finisher, build, claw finisher rotation, hitting my finisher when I had full chaos.
It appears that you can go deep into two trees fairly quickly, so I expect equipment will play a major role in separating power levels. Skill points play a part in the ability to equip high end gear. By the end of the beta, I was mostly in tier 3 gear, which may have been the best available at the time.
The crafting system has potential, but it’s cumbersome as it currently exists. To craft, you arrange the materials in a pattern based on what you’re trying to craft, select the pattern you want to use, and make the new item. You can then add prefixes and suffixes to get the stats you want. This sounds well and good, but creating the pattern meant splitting stacks of materials into seven or more individual items, then arranging them in a formation that you can only find by breaking up an item of the type you’re trying to craft (i.e. all shotguns have the same pattern, so breaking a tier 1 shotgun will provide the configuration that can be used for all shotguns).
The atmosphere is great. Kingsmouth, one of two areas available the first weekend, felt like a small village from a Lovecraft story. The developers aren’t shy about hiding the Lovecraft influence on their sleeves, even naming a street after him. The investigation quests only serve to add to the atmosphere, and are probably the most compelling quest type. Sure, slaughtering zombies is fun, but it’s much more interesting to unravel the Illuminati influence in town by following the clues. A couple of these turned out to be frustratingly challenging, but they’re overall very entertaining.
I’d love to know what the endgame will hold, because that’s where most otherwise good MMORPGs lose my interest, but TSW made a good first impression. It’s certainly not without bugs (e.g. I was completely incapable of communicating in game with a group member for a while), but it’s beta for another month.
I had the same communication issue - turned out I’d reassigned the reply button (which I thought was enter!). I agree with your assessment; positives starting out but let’s see the end game. I don’t have any idea of how many zones there are at launch, but I loved playing Kingsmouth and if that is representative of every zone in the game I can see it being of way more interest to me than the standard WOW clones full of their “kills 10 rats/take this package here/gather 10 rat tails” that we’ve seen recycled to the point of it almost now being a parody.
The exploration/examination quest searching for clues about the Illuminati was great! I loved having to really think about things, and use the web to do research to come up with the answer. I actually fist pumped the air when I found a location that had been evading me for ages, it’s the kind of intelligent alternative to the standard quest faire that we’ve been asking for in MMORPGs for so long.
It’s hard to pass any real judgement on the combat only seeing a limited amount of two parts of the wheel. I only played one character so don’t know how the other disciplines play, but I do like the fact that you can buy any skill you want and create your own builds. The decks (where you acquire specific sets of skills to form a named role, like thaumaturge) look interesting too, even though they are essentially taking it back to a more traditional character class in the process. Of course, even if you do unlock and use a deck, you’re not stuck in it, which is the most important part of the game.
So for me two thumbs WAY up based on my experience, and I’ll definitely be playing the other beta weekends as they come up. I’m on the fence about whether I’ll buy the game, but to be honest I can’t see why not unless the later beta weekends turn out to be terrible (which I doubt).
The provided decks are just suggested templates for people who feel overwhelmed by the amount of choice provided; you don’t get locked into anything. You can also create your own decks for changing builds on the fly.
Kingsmouth Code (the Illuminati puzzle) was absolutely amazing. I love Myst-style games, but I usually get horrendously stuck on them, but with the Kingsmouth Code I was intent on breaking through. There’s some issues with the mission, but nothing terrible, and although I spent a couple hours on a relatively simple puzzle, even when talking it over with a friend, I felt enormous satisfaction when I beat it.
Combat is definitely fun and dynamic, and the skills interact with each other in interesting ways. I started off with Hammer skills, and while questing I picked up a decent shotgun, so I branched off into Shotgun skills. When I saw that swinging the hammer built up both Melee and Ranged resources, I immediately pulled a Shotgun finisher into my build, which enhanced my power considerably. Build up 5 with the Hammer, then use the Hammer finisher immediately followed by the Shotgun finisher. Major damage.
Then I picked up Buckshot, which does extra damage if you have 5 Ranged resources but doesn’t consume them. So I swapped out the Shotgun finisher, and now I just build up to 5, Hammer finisher, Buckshot, then just start using Buckshot whenever it’s up while I run through the Hammer pattern, which provides even more damage.
It can get complex juggling all the skills, but the game just feels right to me. It’s fun and engaging and makes sense to me. I don’t know how the endgame will be either, but it’s going to keep my attention for a while regardless.
(Ironically, I’m not going to play in Beta any more. I’ve played enough to know I like the game, and I really don’t want to play through so much in Beta that playing on Live is just retreading a bunch of ground.)
On that whole retreading thing, I really agree with that. I loved taking one character through Kingsmouth, but the investigation (puzzle) quests have no replayability at all aside from a quick boost of AP/SP/cash/loot on alts.
The voice acting and writing are terrific. The atmosphere is top notch, as is the soundtrack.
I took my toon down the swords AE tanking tree and as a secondary I used blood’s shield/healing and was virtually unkillable unless I got really reckless. Grouped with a friend though, and we barely made it through some incredibly tight spots with quick respawns and unintended aggroing of zombie swarms, and it was incredibly fun.
Crafting was entirely too cumbersome. I really hope they revisit that system, particularly the stacking and stack-splitting headache.
I’m wondering what the “end game” and PvP will be like. As much as I enjoyed the beta, I don’t see myself making more than maybe one alt to fool around with different skill combinations, but I do see myself grinding a ton of cash just to buy a bunch of clothing
Sounds like the crafting is “inspired” by Minecraft. That’s…interesting. I like what I’m hearing about the setting, and I definitely like the idea of a real puzzle element to the game.
I haven’t gotten anything about the beta, and probably won’t, but I signed up, just on the off-chance. The “Whaddya mean, you don’t use Facebook?” vibe from the promotional thing annoyed me a bit, but not quite enough to declare blood vengeance on the company.
I don’t use Facebook, and the promotional stuff has been barely a blip. Definitely hasn’t affected my enjoyment of the game.
There’s one thing that seems to be getting a lot of heat and is probably worth mentioning here because it’s so different: the mission limits. You’re only allowed something like 5 missions at once: 1 main storyline, 1 action mission (combat, sabotage, I think investigation, etc.), and 3 item missions (tiny little sidequests). If you have an action mission and accept another, the one you had is paused; you can’t make any progress on it until you pause the active mission and reactive the paused one.
This is getting some heat because, well, it’s a lot different from the WoW and TOR-style games. A lot of people are used to collecting a bunch of quests at once and going off to a particular area in the zone to finish them all at once. The nature of the low mission limit requires you to backtrack and run around quite a lot. This is upsetting a lot of people, I think partially because Funcom hasn’t made the pausing mechanism very clear.
However, I choose to look at it this way: the way WoW streamlines its quests, you do 5-10 quests in a small section of a zone, then never go back there again. It’s a theme park. You get your stuff, go on the ride, get off and go to the next ride. It can be fun, sure, but that’s what makes WoW and TOR theme parks.
By having you work on only a few tasks at once, TSW asks that you focus on them. Each mission is as deep as 4-5 quests in WoW (in WoW, one quest might be to kill X things, one quest might be to retrieve Y items, another quest might be to escort someone, whereas these might be all steps in a single TSW mission), and they’re generally more interesting than ‘kill X things’. You get more deeply involved in the story, rather than clicking Accept without reading the text and just seeing what the quest log tells you to do.
In this way, Kingsmouth becomes a place instead of a theme park, and it’s small enough that running around is not especially tiresome. Revisiting a location becomes interesting because you get to find out more secrets about that location, rather than being annoyed at having to go back through an area you’ve already been in. There’s depth to the zone and the story around it, and the completion of each mission triggers a sense of satisfaction at a job well done, whereas in WoW, with a few exceptions, my general sense at finishing a quest was “Great, got that over with.” I keep playing because I want to see what happens next, not because I want to reach the next level. I can’t wait to see what’s beyond Kingsmouth.
It feels more alive than most MMOs I play, and it’s just…like I said, it feels right. People looking for another WoW/Rift/TOR are going to be heavily disappointed, though.
I agree with your assessment of the quest system Bosstone, both the positives and negatives. Again, the only issue is that this kind of set up reduces replayability, as what draws you in and makes something interesting isn’t something that you’re going to want to do repeatedly (whereas the WOW theme park model makes it easy to kill those ten gnolls over and over and not mind it too much because it’s simple and you don’t need to get invested in the reason for it).
I hadn’t actually considered not playing in later betas so that I could be fresh for launch, but now that it has been mentioned I think that’s probably what I’ll do too. I absolutely want to play an Illuminati character, and it would be a bit sad to play the truncated version in a beta weekend and then have to re-roll a month or two later.
