Quick Look: The Secret World

This doesn't really look like Maine. AND MAINE IS PART OF NEW ENGLAND GODDAMIT

Funcom was responsible for such brilliant decisions as "not using a secure page to transmit account data" and "allowing the real names, addresses, and phone numbers of a bunch of their users to be stolen from the unencrypted AoC forum database, then ignoring the problem."

They are assholes who make garbage. If you buy their garbage, you have no one to blame but yourself.

I would play this game if one of the factions was the Reptilians.

@HerbieBug said:

why does MMO combat have to always be so shitty?

Probably because MMOs kind of have to give players a sense of progression and gradual improvement of their character, which means most MMOs have a whole lot of RPG elements like "stats" and "skills" that the player improves or unlocks over time. And that kind of system doesn't lend itself well to an action-oriented game. "Stats" and "skills" are features of old school turn based RPG combat systems, like D&D, so most MMOs use some kind of turn-based combat with a lot of virtual dice rolls and stuff. Like you click to hit, the game does a dice roll against your aiming skill, and then decides if that click resulted in a hit.

If you wanted an action-oriented MMO that doesn't have turn-based combat, it'd have to do away with the RPG elements, and rely more on the actual skill of the player. And that has consequences for the sense of progression or gradual improvement that the MMO can provide, because if you let people aim with a mouse (for example) instead of using a dice-roll against their "Aiming skill" or whatever, then people who have been playing the game for a million hours won't have any advantage over new players.

I think I've just summed up why I don't like MMOs.

I never stick with mmo's past the first ten to fifteen hours. I am intrigued by them and try many of them but in the end I just cant justify my time to all of the mmo busy work. I wish these games were tighter experiences or single player RPGs. I think part of the reason sub numbers drop harshly on these games is the long repetitive nature of them. Id love to see this story or any of the TOR classes all the way through but it stops being fun, regardless of my interest in the narrative.

This looks really boring.

This game seems like it's doing a lot of interesting things but don't like the idea of paying a monthly fee when Jeff said the game is not fun to play. When it's free to play, I will check it out

Yo this game looks rad.

@dropabombonit: Don't forget the cash shop.

Yes, Maine is part of New England. It's where those of us from Massachusetts who get fed up of the Massholes move to.

I wanted this game to be good :sigh:

Why won't people stop, just please stop making MMO's.

Where is Hitman when you need him?

The Secret World seems to do a lot of interesting things. I wish the combat was less traditional MMO, but everything else about it seems like a step in the right direction.

This is a Funcom game written by Ragnar Tornquist, does it have a puzzle in which you feed an undercover cop a mint slathered in toxic goo so that he'd gag it on a guy with a broom who would then chase him away in retaliation?

He's playing as a scrawny Wolverine.

@ItBeStefYo said:

Why won't people stop, just please stop making MMO's.

No!

The combat falls into the click way too much to kill an enemy in 30 seconds who should just die within 3 of most MMOs. And if they wanted to move away from traditional MMOs with the setting and lack of leveling, why not move the camera so you don't just have the world rotating around your character in the center of the screen? Although at least the animations on the character look good so there is less of the look of a character standing in place while everything else moves around them. But the game does look nice, and the setting and story seem to be pretty cool.

I was debating on whether or not to buy this game since I thought the beta was fun, and then Jeff said it was subscription based...and all interest in the game died immediately. Hearing that this is a subscription MMO genuinely took me by surprise; thought that type of game model is dying out. I think I'll check out The Secret World when it inevitably goes free to play like a year from now.

Looks pretty bad!

"Usually when you level your sword gets bigger!"

Lol, Brad is a Size Queen...

@dropabombonit said:

This game seems like it's doing a lot of interesting things but don't like the idea of paying a monthly fee when Jeff said the game is not fun to play. When it's free to play, I will check it out

Jeff never likes MMOS

Running past the same location 20 times in a row is annoying, come on guys it's not that hard to remember your location in game!

all seeing eye in beginning on back wall... interesting?

Jeff's character looks like Harry Potter

murderjunkie was a nice touch. should have given him a hitler mustache.

I really can't get into an mmo that just has you clicking a whole bunch. I feel like so many other mmos have now gotten to the point of giving you direct combat which feels much more satisfying. Mouse controls work for something like Diable 3 or Torchlight because of the way the game is viewed but I've been turned off of this playstyle in mmos for quite sometime.

So you play as Danial Radcliffe as Harry Potter?

all these nay-sayers on the game , need to actually play it first. i find the game to be a nice mix of setting and puzzling that is unique in not just mmo's, but gaming in general. i agree that the combat is clunky, but i dont think anyone is actually playing a game called the "secret world" for pvp anyways. and personally mmo players are so thickle that they want games to fail, BECAUSE NOBODY WANTS THERE WORLD OF WARCRAFT TO GO AWAY.

lets be honest for a minute, all this wow and guild wars 2 talk...

how many of you will be playing guild wars 2 6 months from now?

my advice for the mmo player, is to pick something you enjoy, because you enjoy it. and honestly, dont knock it , until you try it. only a fool takes the opinions of others for a fact, and a wise man makes his own through experience.

#REALTALK#

I'm with Jeff. I'm intrigued by this game's ideas and the notions that it puts forth, but paying a monthly fee for a game that has micro-transactions out of the gate AND the browser-puzzles. I actually really like the idea of "investigation missions" and I loooooooooooove HP Lovecraft, but not enough to spend $60 AND a monthly fee. So ToR or this, whichever goes FtP gets my business first.

This game is fun as hell and pretty awesome.

@jayspadez said:

my advice for the mmo player, is to pick something you enjoy, because you enjoy it. and honestly, dont knock it , until you try it. only a fool takes the opinions of others for a fact, and a wise man makes his own through experience.

#REALTALK#

This advice falls apart when common sense takes place. It's like saying taking meth is bad, and you're all "Man, don't knock it till you tried it!"

@LikeaSsur:

wow!!!! where did you get drugs from.....i guess some people have to find something to knock in everything....fyi only people like glen beck paraphase's other people to prove they're own agenda.....

i mean dont knock it until you try it as in play the game first, before you start bashing the game....where you got the rest from i have know idea, guess it pays to read the whole thing

oh internet, you never cease to entertain me

I never really got how this game in free from levels. I WoW, a sufficient amount of xp only serves to give you new skills and a new talent point. In TSW, a sufficient amount of xp only serves to give you new skill points.

And TSW don't have levels how? Because they don't display a number?

Wanna play an MMO, you've gotta follow the procedures of Multiplayer Order of Operations just to start up, aka: MOO

interesting

@thebigJ_A said:

Yes, Maine is part of New England. It's where those of us from the civilized bits (Boston etc.) go when we want to see trees, lakes, and rednecks.

There's no Southern border, though, Brad, unless you call the ocean a border. The border's in the West. If it's East of New York state, it's NE. Though Connecticut is debatable.

Also, it's not really Stephen King horror, it's (supposed to be) Lovecraft. Some of Lovecraft's work was set in New England, that's where they're getting it. Any King stuff is coincidental.

Specifically the part they are showing is a reference to Lovecraft's, The Shadow Over Innsmouth. However, that story takes place in the fictional Innsmouth, Massachusetts, U.S.A. I'm not sure which U.S. state Kingsmouth is supposed to be in because contrary to what Brad was saying none of the footage seemed to specify where in New England it takes place.

I'd love to go to general to look at player chat Jeff...but the picture is..well terrible, and has been for a little bit. I can't read anything and every game looks like it's a generation old.  Shall I youtube this quicklook?

So much wasted 'fisting' potential...

WOW has microtransactions. So whats different here?

Game no longer requires a subscription. Yeah.

I am playing this game. It is really great. I'm usually not into MMO's because of the fantasy setting. I have nothing against fantasy settings per se... I played Skyrim for example. But in MMO's I always found it offputting.

This game looks really good. The lore is interesting, the setting is great. The gameplay is a lot of fun. Really diverse too. You can also practically do a 180 on your abilities (provided you want to put in the time to do it. I did it once, took about two hours to get decent skills in a completely different area, much longer to get great skills) whenever you want.

It's really cool.

Several people in the post log are complaining hard against funcom, and their crappy history. If you mean MMO's I have to agree with you there. This one excluded. I played Anarchy Online back when it came out without end content still in the early days of mmo's. Also Age of Conan that promised a lot and delivered a lot but not near the promise. Sometimes they just flat out lied. Those days and those people are thankfully gone but despite the mmo genre troubles they made and in fact in another part of the studio they made "the longest journey" and then years later "Dreamfall" its sequel. Action adventure games that won multiple awards and gets near the top of titles sold for pc normally a stat that is resevered for FPS shooters or the sims gams. Always the story being the for front of the game. Something that admittedly some critics thought was a down side either for mature content or in the sequal as craving more action but still praise the story quality. The same guy who did those did this game the secret world. Its an mmo and certain things go a long with that, but its story and characters are on par with that of any adventure genre if not better.

I am not one to sweep a companys mistakes under the mat just because they created a game I like. And yes I very much DO like it. Though i have grown tired of MMO style games after so many play and so many years on repeat. I have gotten back into it with a friend and found that they have fixed a great deal of what this video laments. And in truth, its more a bit a bias against mmo's as Jeff has stated on multiple reviews and a simple lack taking a few minutes to look at the menu options that are causing their initial gripes.

Even in beta at its glichiest pausing a quest was and is no big deal. They worry and fret "how do i pick it back up, how will i remember what to do?" As with any mmo, rpg, or even adventure game a quest journal or "notebook" is a standard function. TSW is no different, hell I say him complain about it as he pulled down the menu with the think listed. He spoke of how the "O" button is often claimed for social interactions, well "J" is reserved so often with the journal. The Secret world Journal is much more in depth, can go back to any tier level of a quest current or paused and lets you see any thing you found in the form a clue or even replay that morse code bit he was lamenting. He even states he is 9 hours in..... and he is that unaware of the journal. REALLY? He was progressed far enough into the first overall story line to go to the third zone Blue mountain. He says as much at the start of things. In his journal is a copy of the item he found that progresses the quest to that point and holds a big honking clue on where he can find such a person AND EVERYTHING ELSE every step of the way, complete with quest giver dialogue. I have come back after a year, completely forgotten everything i had done and after looking through the journal for ten minutes I was fully up to date.

I get it, its not his type of game he has said so if not in this review but in others. He does a good job of explaining the mechanics but it bothers me that his big cripes are not an actual issue, its just one he perceives to exist. Paused missions can be picked up at the same person or place you got them, not progress lost, and a quick look at the journal can tell you everything you did for it right up to your saved spot.

I am very much with him on not being able to access that tunnel to blue mountain. It unlocks with quests in Blue mountain. It can be reached much earlier but you need to go through the second zone the savage coast to get there. Unlocking the short cut is actually a reward for quest progression and there are plenty of places even in the start zone that a fully experinced and equiped raid player would be killed almost instantly. They designed areas like that into every zone.

For the scenery people, the starting area is in New England, but on an island off the coast not the main land. A fictional island.

The other big gripe i have is there talking about about an item shop along with a subscription fee. Its not the first to do such a thing. And aside from them dropping the requirement to just purchasing it and play forever model a while after release, and also putting aside it was EA wanting to hang on to the subscription model not funcom. There are two things that they failed to notice or mention which is actually huge and a first among mmo's with such cash shops from the start. The big thing is that there were no pay to win items or features. The shop as they scrolled through was a way to claim items bound to your account and to purchase clothes, hats, pets, titles, etc. for looks without having a single thing to do with your stats. Later they added extra quest and story packs called issues. like a comic book issue. You were free to purchase those or not. Later they gave out boosts to help speed gaining xp but didnt provide any tactical boost as it was just reducing time taken to gain xp and the benefits of such.

But from the BEGINNING if you had a membership you were awarded the rough equivalent of $10 worth of the in game currency per month to use in the store for anything. Which cuts the horror of the 'cash shop' big time. Plus no pay to win items only cosmetic items.

Coming off games like WoW and such the idea to breeze through the quest text is likely happen. I had to do it and change the urge and as clues to one quest might be found in the dialogue of another. Its a game heavy of story and its not to everyone's taste for sure.

In Jeff's defense too he ended up on a RP server which are typically small and people stay in character so if he did ask for help he would likely only get it from his faction. People were also a bit fantaical on all servers not to blurt out quest answers. People would help by dropping clues or hints or trying to point people where they needed to go or what to focus on rather than just say a code number or solution. Often if someone was truly that lost they a person would offer a Private message to give them the answer. Its been overall a much more helpful community than any I have seen before and has none of the toxicity of things like WoW. Sadly an RP server is going to stay silent in a faction based war which is the setup for this game.

I am actually surprised they did not have the answers to many of the questions they ask out loud after 9 hours of play. But its no spoilers. You know the basic level of enemies relative to yourself in much the same way you do in other mmo's. There is an icon by their name. Friendly npcs have green names, neutral npc/mobs are yellow/orangish Actively hostile mobs have names in red. Beside the name there is an icon. A single circle or dot means is a single mob, a group of 3 dots means its part of a group so will be a group pull and like in other games group bound mobs are weaker as individuals their threat is numbers. A Skull is more or less like a WoW Epic mob, they have many many more hit points than other mobs around them plus special attacks and defenses. They also drop much better loot. Then there are mobs that have Crown Icons, these are special and often "rare" mobs with nice loot tables and are usually tougher, they dont always spawn and may have place holders. A Crown mob with a small asterisk beside it lets you know its a TRUE rare mob, its also needed for an achievement. Its guaranteed that the mob will drop a blue (rare) item of some kind and typically of a higher quality than can be found in the zone. You also get bonus xp for killing it as you get the xp for the achievement as well. The last Icon is a Flag. A flag means the mob is part of some quest somewhere so its worth noting. Flags can appear over other icon types, like a Flag over a skull meaning its EPIC and part of quest.

The way you tell the danger level is similar in other mmo's, i.e. color. The Icon by their name with be a color, Red = much tougher than you, you will glance or miss a lot when attacking it, it wont miss you. Yellow = a challenge tougher than you but should be okay if not in groups. White= equal footing. Green = pushover unless you are swarmed, Light blue= ridiculously easy they will miss you a lot and you have to just stand there and you might regen faster than they damn you. Grey= they may ignore you or not, one hit kills likely.

You should note only the zombies in the beginning zone have the ability so far of going grey. How the computer gauges your strength is by seeing how strong your weapon skills are. The more you build up your chosen weapons the less you glance and miss enemies and will affect what color the enemies are to you. You can still get your but handed to you if you have a crappy combo of abilities. There are plenty of suggested "decks" sets of abilities with the descriptions of how they play. But you can at all times go your own way. Its possible to get ALL the abilities in the game it just takes time.

As they say at the end, this mmo feels different than others and it is. But I wanted to point out that some of the video's questions are not a big deal and can easily be found and was more player error than a game play issue. Its also been up and running for well over a year now with 8 full issues added. So ended up writing a mini-review but wanted to clear some stuff up. And it really is something different. If you like you like, if not you dont.

Should also note no matter what server you are on you can play with anyone on any server. Wow these guys are really burnt out on MMO's there at the end lol But i understand. But hey no more monthly fees if you dont wish.

Super Law Of Attraction World