As of last week, Funcom’s latest entry into the world of MMOs, The Secret World, is out—which means the NDA on the beta is lifted, so I can talk to you about it.
But, well, it’s hard. I don’t want to give you spoilers, and a lot of the mechanics changed significantly during beta and may not be representative of the final product. Besides, anybody can tell you about that stuff—and they probably will. Instead, I want to talk about why TSW is the first MMO in years to really hook my interest.
First, you’ve got a unique premise. Set in modern times—as in “todayish”—three secret societies are fighting to save the world while also taking it over. Sounds like it’s at cross purposes, doesn’t it? But when you consider it, it makes a lot of sense. There are three factions to choose from—the Templars (“not those Templars”), the Dragons, and the Illuminati—meaning that yes, it’s a three-way with no side actually neutral. That alone piqued my interest—how would that work in PvP? (Really well, it turns out!)
HI, I’M ILLUMINATI
The opening cinematic reveals your character discovering they have powers—finishing with you being approached by a representative of the faction you’ve chosen at character creation. By which point you’ve already discovered that you have a wide range of appearance options, entirely customizable, which also has managed to avoid the typical “chainmail bikini” plague of most MMOs. In fact, I found it very easy to create very believable and reasonable appearing male and female characters who were not running around half naked. They looked like people you would see walking down the street normally—which ties into the setting just perfectly. If you’re part of a secret society, you’re not going to run around with a giant nametag saying “HI I’M AN ILLUMINATI!”
FETCH ME SOME BEAR GUTS
But the best part is that TSW is not just “go and fetch me 10 bear guts”, and this is what really got me hooked in the beta.
We’ve got three-way faction war, that’s interesting. We’ve got a unique points and cards system, hello there. And what’s this over here? Completely story and plot driven, with good writing? Holy crap! That is what I call some real progress in MMOs. The trend has been to churn out one after the other, all with some mild “uniqueness,” but by the time it’s all said and done you’re just repeatedly collecting bear guts and not even reading the quest text. You already know it’s going to be “go kill Y number of X.” Over and over. After 12 years, yes, that is incredibly repetitive, even with prettier pictures.
GUYS WITH SKILLS
I don’t want to talk about mechanics too much, but I do have to, because they’re not what you’re used to. There are no traditional “levels” in The Secret World. Instead, you have Skill Points and Ability Points. You can allocate these however you like, but you can only have 7 “active” abilities and 7 “passive” abilities at any given time. This keeps the learning curve very short, and the action very fast paced. TSW also introduces “Decks,” which describe specific allocations of SP and AP to provide a sort of class or template. You don’t say “I’m a tank” or “I heal”; you pick your SP and AP and gear. Completing a Deck also rewards you with a pretty neat outfit. Another mechanic that might surprise you is movement; I never found a spot where I just stood there and shot at a boss. You’re constantly on the move, in combat and out of combat. That aspect alone made it surprisingly engaging.
WHAT ARE YOU, TEN?
One of my major gripes with games these days is horrible ‘introduction’ or ‘training’ missions which treat players like they’re ten. There is none of that with TSW. The introduction mission gives you only the basics; this is how you interact with things, use this key to pick up an item, this attack does a cone, that thing you just saw is an attack indicator. But you’re left to figure out most of it on your own, including finding your way around, to various waypoints, and through basic obstacles—exactly how I’d want to see a tutorial written. So a tip of the hat and a high five to the staff at Funcom who wrote it—you did it right!
STORY TIME
But the story is what really, really does it with The Secret World. I can barely relate any of it without giving you massive spoilers, over and over again. But you will find yourself stopping everywhere, and taking the time to listen and read. You have to. When you expect “go kill X,” instead you find an actual puzzle, requiring you to think (and possibly use the in-game browser to look things up!) The investigation quest lines are well written, and you’ll often find yourself going down one line only to find out that it was a trick, and the answer was right in front of your face the whole time. At the same time, scattered throughout the world are clickable “Lore” collections, which tell you more of the story behind factions, events, enemies, and the world itself. But if you think H. P. Lovecraft mixed with SciFi mixed with magic though, you start to get just a part of the story. (Oh, and zombies and eldritch horrors. Okay, no more spoilers). Without even realizing it, you will constantly find yourself reading and looking for more information just to hear more of the tale.
There’s a lot of very good reasons that The Secret World has been highly anticipated, and despite all the delays, I can honestly say this game was worth the wait. The graphics are modern, and performance was solid for me even on beta builds. The default interface isn’t merely livable—it’s actually very usable. The mechanics are interesting and engaging. The gameplay is fast-paced but never rushed. And the story and quest system are just fantastic.
The Secret World from Funcom is available now, and definitely worth your time.
Articles RSS