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This is a complex game to review. It has many different elements that appeal to different types of people, but if you're one of those whose tastes fall right in the center, you will absolutely love it.
The world is an amalgamation of conspiracy theories and horror themes. It's a very bleak world and this is very much apparent once you're out of the three primary cities (London, New York, and Seoul), which are very detailed and well-constructed (London being my favorite by far). If you're a fan of Stephen King, HP Lovecraft, or Supernatural, you will probably enjoy the atmosphere. It will be even more enjoyable if you collect and read the hundreds (thousands?) of lore items scattered throughout the world that offer greater insight into specific events or groups.
There are three factions, the Dragon, the Illuminati, and the Templars. They are united in their fight against the darkness, but often very much at odds over historical events. They each have their own storyline, and many of the responses to different quests are unique to the faction. The Dragon have a more eastern/philosophical outlook on things, the Templars are a bit more mystical and militaristic, and the Illuminati are very business-like and technical. The stories you encounter reflect this, as the Templar story often feels very mystical while the Illuminati story has more of a conspiracy feel to it.
The dialogue is particularly entertaining. You do not get to make responses, as in SWTOR, but I found the NPCs much more interesting to listen to in TSW. They often seem like real people and make amusing or enlightening analogies. You can talk to many about a variety of topics that do not directly apply to a quest, and I've spent several hours doing so without realizing how much time had passed.
The mechanics initially seem to be typical of MMOs, but differences become more apparent the further you get into the game. Instead of each quest being about killing 10 goblins, quests can have you trying to investigate the origins of the town, setting up defenses and fighting off attacks, or tracking down and stopping a supernatural killer (and killing 10 draug...). If the quest is fairly straightforward (kill 10 draug), you will see markers on your map and on your screen indicating where to go. However, if you're expected to figure something out this is often not the case. For instance, you may be given a vague idea of what you're looking for and through the use of google (there's an in-game browser and a website for various groups in the game, such as the Kingsmouth newspaper) and in-game clues (hidden in or behind paintings, in architecture, or just about anywhere you can think of), you're expected to figure out where you need to go and get there. Once you've arrived, the quest progresses to the next stage.
You're allowed to equip 7 active and 7 passive skills of hundreds purchasable using rewards for gaining experience. Some build resources, some use them. Some set certain states on the enemy (weakened, hindered, etc.), while others will exploit those states. You mix and match the 7 active and 7 passive skills to create a "build" that you enjoy and feel is effective. This can be done on the fly as long as you're out of combat (lose a fight? swap skills and try again). The states can also be exploited by other players, so you could theoretically get with friends and work together to create builds where you exploit each others' actions to greater effect.
As for the combat, again, the mechanics initially seem typical button-mashing. The states and skills mentioned in the previous paragraph add greater variety, but there are also indicators that appear when an enemy is about to use a particularly punishing attack that allow you the opportunity to either run out of the way to avoid being hit or to use an active dodge button for the same purpose. Although avoiding these attacks can be helpful in solo-play, it becomes imperative to avoid as many as possible in instances (dungeons) where one such hit may well kill you or put anyone healing on their toes to try to keep everyone alive. Fortunately, you do not sacrifice much damage or many actions by avoiding attacks, as all combat skills are usable while moving (and many situations will leave you dead if you do not use them while moving).
Armor is in the form of talismans, whether they're rings or belts or other items that do not alter your character's appearance. Clothing is separate and only alters appearance. There is a large clothing store in London where you can customize your character after you've earned some money.
Although there are many servers ("dimensions"), you can play with friends on any of them. If you join a group with someone from another server, you will be asked if you want to be transported to their dimension. When you leave the group, you are returned to your own. You cannot PVP on any server but your own.
PVP is restricted to one of two battlegrounds and one warzone. The battlegrounds only allow around 10 people per faction. The warzone allows 75 per faction and is persistent. Controlling various areas in the warzone provides a server-wide buff to the controlling faction (so people in dungeons or just out questing benefit). The power of the buff depends on the number of areas your faction controls.
There are still bugs (as there always will be in games), but generally you can either skip them or ask for an invite to a server where a particular quest isn't bugged. There aren't too many, but the ones that are there can be frustrating because it's often difficult to know whether or not you are stuck because of a bug or stuck because you just haven't figured something out. Except in a few cases (which often pop up in the help chat), most of the time it's the latter. Fortunately Funcom seems to be working quickly to fix the quests that are actually bugged, and reporting it to a GM will get them to bump the quest so that the bugged part is completed.
If you like solving puzzles, learning about the background of the game world, or building "decks" out of hundreds of different skills, this is probably the game for you. If you're looking for something light that you can breeze through without much thought (and there are days when that's the sort of thing I want), you're better off looking elsewhere.
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Having had a chance to really sink my teeth into the game, it's finally time for me to pass judgement on The Secret World. I've played several MMORPG's in the past (World of Warcraft, The Old Republic) and have had fun with them in the past. But after spending countless hours with these MMO's, you start to recognize similarities in the various games. This is where The Secret World really shines.
The Secret World turns a lot of old ideas on their head. Leveling no longer exists, or at least not in the traditional sense. You still earn experience but instead of being greeted with a new level when you fill your experience bar, you now receive Skill Points to be spent in several areas. Along the way however, you also earn Ability Points to be spent on new abilities. You get to fully customize your character to do pretty much whatever you feel like that particular day. You can be a healer one minute and a tank the next. It's a great system that has a ton of depth to it.
Quests are also really well written. All the main quests of cinematic, fully voiced scenes. Side quests usual involve finding notes which is the only reason those aren't voiced. The quests have a lot of variety to them as well. While it is true you'll find fetch quests here and there, even those are done in ways that don't feel repetitive. Something that is truly wonderful about the game is the puzzle and research quests. The game forces you to really think sometimes to solve a puzzle, while other times the game gives you just enough clues for you to research it online (and also has a built in web browser to help). It really adds to the immersion and lore of the game.
Speaking of lore and story, the game really knows what it's doing in this area as well. Sometimes it does get cheesy in areas, but most of the time it stays on course of being a phenomenal story. There are so many missions that really adds depth to the different organizations and to the world itself. It will make you want to really search the world to get every tidbit you can. The controls handle well, there is a great variety of abilities to choose from and play with, and PvP is incredibly fun. There is so much to do and explore that the game will keep you busy for a long time. It will take you months to fully max a character out. No matter what server you play on, you can still pair up with your friends and quest together. Same goes for guilds which are called "Cabals" in The Secret World.
It should be said that the game does initially limit you to only three character slots. You really shouldn't need more because of the fact that you can just load a build and be any class you want at anytime, but it should be noted. You might also find some glitchy quests or other things, but with the game just launching, it's forgivable especially when Funcom stays on top of patches pretty well.
Overall The Secret World is a great game and definitely worth a look.
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I was fortunate enough to get into the last two beta weekends for this game before it went live to release.
I have to say I was absolutely blown away. I finally found a game that wasn't based on _that OTHER MMO that everyone knows_ and I was ecstatic.
They threw out the traditional level grind and made something much more interesting. A sideways and vertical progression. You still level, you still gain experience but it comes in the form of two kinds of points, which can be spent on skill proficiencies and abilities to go along with those skills. The simple fact that your character can learn EVERYTHING in the game is amazing. But the great equalizer is that out of ALL the abilities and ALL the skills... you can only ever have a total of 7 active abilities and 7 passive abilities "at the ready."
What this means is a bit forethought on the part of the player. What will you need for a fight? Which abilities do I have that are going to be best for this area? Need a healer and no one else can? But you can! Change into it! Change from a TANK to a DAMAGE DEALER to a HEALER to any kind of hybrid there-in. There are synergies between all the abilities and untold 1000's of combinations that you can put together to make as unique a character as you want.
Csutomization is amazing out of the box too. In other games, the race for the best gear often results in all the characters of a class looking 100% the same. In the secret world, it's quite rare to see soemone else wearing what you are wearing. It does in fact appear to be a truly living world. In fact my character, well, I change my clothes every hour or so when I'm playing.
PVP is also fun! Three factions make it much more interesting and all of that PVP has benefits and rewards to the players out in the remainder of the world. Bonuses that you get from PVP apply to the PVE experience. And for once, PVP is on an equal footing, since you can have any skills you want, then it's up to you to find the PVP skills that work best for you. No more being beat by the guy that has more time than you so he has much better gear than you "in those other games."
Something that also strikes me as factastic, is that they didn't hold back on puzzle quests. They're NOT easy. It's like being in a "Dan Brown" novel and having to solve the same kinds puzzles that Robert Langdon had to. Cryptic clues, and research and patience. It's a whole new refreshing aspect to a genre that lately began to cater to the powergamer; the guy that had to get all the best stuff asap. This game requires you to pay attention as you play it, not just to gather as many missions as you can from a "quest hub" and go grind them out for the fastest XP gains a player can get.
Anyone looking to have their hand held to just get rewards fast and be the "top level" is going to be sorely disappointed here. This is a game about the journey, not how quick it takes you to get there.
It won't be for everyone, but I think more people will come to see the charm, talent and passion that went into making this game.
As a friend of mine put it, this game is like they took Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the CW's Supernatural, stuffed it with Resident Evil and then made it a massively multiplayer game.
Killing Zombies.
Get your practice in now.
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There is a veil over the MMORPG player's eyes for the last ten years. We've been spoon fed quests with mindless kill counts ad nauseum. We've scoured dungeons and battled whatever may have guarded their deepest treasures, over and over again in the name of Epic Gear. Open your eyes and see the secret world. There is more out there that the MMO genre can offer, and Funcom will be your guide...
The Secret World offers a breath of fresh air in a somewhat stale video game genre. Certain mechanics may be the same sure, there's these things that will define an mmo, but TSW succeeds by adding factors and variables to this formula rather than regurgitating the same old stuff with different models and textures. For starters, this is an MMO based in modern times a welcoming break from your standard fantasy or science fiction setting. This naturally makes the game world familiar and easy to digest and possibly make your avatar more relateable. Mix in conspiracies, cultural mythologies, and the monsters that lurk beneath the bed, and you have an exciting setting that begs you to come back, much like a siren's song.
As noted above, Funcom introduces unique mission types that have never been introduced in the MMO genre before. Investigation missions put you, the player, right into the shoes of an agent of the secret society of your choice. These cannot be solved by just following waypoints on the minimap. You literally have to open your in-game browser and SOLVE the puzzles. You'll be googling for historic information, biblical references, or even searching for answers on a fictional websites blurring the line and enhancing the immersion in a fun and exciting way. These missions require some thinking outside the box. No spoon feeding here. Because I'm no Batman, my detective skills were lacking and it took me almost two days to solve my first investigation mission (Not 48 hours of game time, but more like thinking about the puzzle during the day, even when I wasn't playing) The sense of accomplishment was worth more than the XP rewarded. Sure you could just look up the answers or beg for them in general chat but then you're missing the point. You'll be reading the cliff notes to a good novel. "But I don't want to think and work hard when I'm playing a video game that defeats the purpose of a leisure activity such as playing video games!" Then go back to killing 10 wolves and collecting 5 pelts. These missions are truly a test of patience and perseverance. When you don't feel like playing Scully and Mulder investigating the most recent paranormal activity, the game offers your more traditional missions.
The lack of character levels and blatant classes is a welcoming change to your standard mmo from the last 10 years. Quality Level is a gear characteristic that indirectly defines how much progress you've accomplished in the game, so it could be argued these are just like character levels. But when you're wandering the city streets and encounter other players, you won't be able to tell "what level they are" just by looks clothing has no effect on character progression and is strictly for looks. Long are the days of feeling ashamed and weak as your level 1 thief in tattered leather stands next to a seasoned warrior with shiny exotic armor. You won't have to worry looking like a multi-colored clown as you collect all the items for some gear set. Because the lack of classes, you're free to build the character that matches your playstyle. There's still a holy trinity (tank, dps, heal) for group missions but each player can contribute to each role by offering secondary abilities to the table (ex: a damage dealer doing off heals). If you're a fan of collectible card games, you'll enjoy the way deck/abilities system TSW has to offer.
Another quality that stands out about TSW is how they deal with servers. When you create a character, you're asked to choose a "dimension." This selection matters for pvp purposes only as the persistant warzones will only queue up players from that respective dimension (75 players from each faction, 225 total). This design was used to make for shorter queue times for persistant pvp. The current map (Fusang Projects) is a little lacking when compared to other WvW persistant pvp designs out there but nothing Funcom can't fix in future patches (or by providing new persistant maps with more objectives/mechanics. This is possibly the only reason I can think of why I'm giving TSW on release a 4/5). The other pvp maps will queue up players across all dimensions. In addition, you could group up with other players from the other servers to tackle pve content or the non-persistant pvp. Essentially, TSW is "one server" (much like Eve Online) which means player's names are unique and global.
These are just a few things that stand out from TSW that I've personally noticed and appreciate. The game officially releases today (03JUL12) but I've been lucky enough to play since early access and have been enjoying it since (Fun 5/5). This type of game seems to attract the more mature player due to content as well as game design which proves to be a plus. If you enjoy X-Files, Dresden Files, Dan Brown, Men in Black, SCP, or love conspiracies: the secret world is waiting. Kudos, Funcom. You've shaken things up in the mmorpg world!
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Update 10JUL12: Still digging the game despite some minor bug issues, barely scratching the surface content wise. My in-game time is approximately 4 days and 19 hours and I'm still half way through the first zone (Solomon Island). A couple of the missions are bugged at certain points but the first patch just went live this morning. Chat is still a little buggy, which can make socializing difficult at times (some channels reset when you zone in/out of areas). These are just minor bugs that don't really affect the enjoyability of the game overall.
Lastly, I'd like to leave this update with an official State of the Game written by Ragnar Tornquist. For those people questioning whether or not this game is worth a subscription or whether or not there'll be enough content 2-3 months after launch, hopefully this answers your questions . Back to the secret world; the spirits trapped at the academy are getting restless again.
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Funcom as a developer has had a somewhat checkered history among gamers. While Anarchy Online, its earlier title, had a strong yet small following, Age of Conan disappointed many due to its premature release, which was reflected in a lack of content and many bugs in various game systems. So, to be quite honest, I didn't expect anything in particular at all from The Secret World, other than perhaps a better version of The Matrix Online.
Well.
Funcom has created a secret masterpiece. The Secret World is an MMO which, in many ways, reflects the desires of MMO fans who have been playing the genre for 10+ years, and want something different from yet another clone of World of Warcraft. And this game delivers that, on pretty much all levels.
The gameplay is reminiscent of other 3D MMOs, yet the action system is different, being based on synergies between skills and weapon choices. The game affords the player the flexibility to choose their own skills in whatever way they wish -which also allows players to mess up their decisions with an old school approach of having to live with one's mistakes in this regard. As a result, the game has a steep learning curve, but rewards players who want more complexity in their MMO experience as compared with most of the offerings since 2004.
The mechanics of the game involve the familiar quest system, yet in TSW the focus is very, very heavy on story telling (even more than in TOR, the first MMO to focus heavily on story telling .. and it has quite better writing than TOR does as well). And quest design is not monolithic. There are storyline quests and main quests and then side quests -and the main quests can be either combat, investigation (puzzle solving) or sabotage (stealth) in nature. This makes for a very diverse gameplay set as compared with almost any other 3D MMO. Quests advance in "tiers", and the story focus is underscored by a strict limit on the kind and number of quests one can be "working on" at any one time (gone are the days of going to a quest hub, loading up on its quests, and powerleveling through them to "level as efficiently as possible" -you are following stories here that have their own pace). And speaking of leveling -there are no levels, either, but rather Action Points (used to purchase new abilities) and Skill Points (used to upgrade abilities in weapons and armor slots) which are rewarded based on experience and certain quest completion. The player can allocate these in any way they wish (there are no set classes), although research is recommended to optimize one's choice -in that sense, the degree of complexity and prep required is moving in the direction of EVE Online, although not nearly as complex as EVE is.
I will say this, however. If you are looking for a light-hearted pew-pew type game, this is not that. If you don't want to invest time to learn the game's systems (which are not really like the familiar MMO systems), you won't like this game. If you are looking for another game where you can rush to max level and look around "to see what the endgame is like", then you won't like it either. As a result, I believe this is a niche game, similar in that respect as well to EVE Online -a game that will appeal to a certain segment of gamers, but not the "mass market" of MMO gamers like WoW or TOR or GW2.
So... if you're a bit of an experienced and jaded MMO gamer who is looking for something a bit different, a bit more complex, and quite a bit less mainstream, give TSW a try. It's a great game for people who are looking for the kind of experience it offers.
