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Author Topic: The Secret World  (Read 4736 times)

Misan

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The Secret World
« on: 26 Nov 2011, 19:20 »

Had totally forgotten about this game: http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/404/feature/5830/page/1

When I first got an email about it they gave absolutely no details so I kind of wrote it off, but it seems like it has some potential to be very good.
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Graelyn

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Re: The Secret World
« Reply #1 on: 27 Nov 2011, 02:59 »

I saw a 10-min or so video of it being played by a Dev at a recent conference.

All interest has vanished, I'm sorry to say.

But that's just me.
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If we can hit that bullseye, the rest of the dominoes will fall like a house of cards. Checkmate!

Misan

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Re: The Secret World
« Reply #2 on: 27 Nov 2011, 08:32 »

What about it changed your mind?

Also: 500th post.  :)
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Esna Pitoojee

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Re: The Secret World
« Reply #3 on: 27 Nov 2011, 12:08 »

Doubt it'll be the "next big thing", but looks decently interesting. Curious as well what made Graelyn lose interest.
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Graelyn

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Re: The Secret World
« Reply #4 on: 27 Nov 2011, 12:39 »

The mechanics just looked clunky and unfun. Target something, and start shooting it, making numbers pop up over that enemy. WASD around on the floor if you want for effect, it doesn't actually change the dicerolls....

The art was nice, and the environments are a nice change from your average fantasy pap. It's still very basic high-latency MMO mechanics; cooldowns, standing there doing your animation while an enemy runs up to you and starts doing their one swinging thing to make numbers pop up on you.

It was the opening missions, so maybe things will flesh out, but I wasn't exactly awed.
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If we can hit that bullseye, the rest of the dominoes will fall like a house of cards. Checkmate!

Misan

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Re: The Secret World
« Reply #5 on: 27 Nov 2011, 15:47 »

Best I could find for recent video footage was here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uk57oisDDJ0 (30 minutes). Graphical quality on the characters seems to have improved a little since the earlier gameplay previews. Also the other big write-up here: http://massively.joystiq.com/2011/11/21/hands-on-impressions-of-the-secret-world/

As far as the mechanics, from the original article I linked it actually sounds like TSW does try to change it up a little bit:
Quote
One of the most important things new players will learn when entering The Secret World is that movement in combat not only is encouraged, but is necessary in a big way. Monsters don’t simply charge at you and stay there in front of you. They move in random patterns, throw projectiles and incendiary devices, and hurl spells and more. Movement is quite literally the way to stay alive even in these earliest phases of the game.

I think with the current footage it can be hard to tell since it's all dev showcase stuff where they are way stronger than the intended difficulty of the enemies, so there is less urgency to stay away from things. With that said, that objection applies to just about every MMO that doesn't try to do some hybrid or full TPS/FPS (or RTS perhaps). Hell, EVE is a pretty bad offender on that front especially on the PvE side.

I'm of the view that the mechanics behind any of the avatar driven MMOs aren't bad on their own. I definitely remember enjoying both PvP and challenging raiding in WoW when I played. I think it's an effective design that goes beyond MMOs, especially any MOBA style game like DotA or LoL use very similar underlying mechanics. They key in my mind is challenge and needing to be actively engaged, rather than just pressing some established combo of buttons until the thing dies. It remains to be seen if TSW can do that, especially on the PvE side, but so far from what I've read it has potential to be interesting. The Polaris boss fight from the Massively article sounds like a lot of fun.

The PvP actually has me more interested. They haven't explicitly mentioned territory control, but it was in one of the trailers, which is making me think of the glory days of DAoC again. With the 3 faction setup it can make things a lot more interesting and potentially avoid annoying problems of stalemates and population imbalances. Otherwise with the potential to fight even the same enemies and never know exactly what you are dealing with it should be much more engaging than current offerings.

At this point it looks promising enough that I'm keeping an eye on it.
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Mizhara

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Re: The Secret World
« Reply #6 on: 03 Jul 2012, 13:38 »

Looking over the shoulders of a friend who's trying this out. I'm rather impressed. I've only seen some of the beginning but as far as MMOs go, it looks quite decent. Anyone actually playing it here?
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Desiderya

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Re: The Secret World
« Reply #7 on: 03 Jul 2012, 16:38 »

I've participated in the closed beta and this has led me to buying a lifetime sub. I'm not regretting it.
It is a more mature MMO, where mature doesn't mean tits and gore ( I'm looking at you, Age of Conan ) but the general aspect of the game. It's not [classic MMO] wrapped in [shiny universe] with added [singular selling point] (I'm looking at you, SW:TOR ).
While it's most certainly not to everyone's liking it is also very good at what it wants to do.
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BloodBird

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Re: The Secret World
« Reply #8 on: 03 Jul 2012, 17:24 »

What DOES it want to do?

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Lyn Farel

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Re: The Secret World
« Reply #9 on: 03 Jul 2012, 19:44 »

All the feedback I got is quite positive, so I finally decided to buy it and give it a try.

Apparently if you are looking for a revolutionnary pvp, the game is not for you, its pretty standard stuff with backgrounds and arenas. It is not the "big thing" of the game. But if the combat system is good, then pvp should be, though, at least.

Otherwise, the combat system, I will have to try it to see how it is. People seem to say that it is quite slow/clunky at the beginning, and starts to improve a lot over time. Pve donjons and raids apparently have been described as very well constructed and thought, though there is nothing revolutionnary here either. On the good side, you can custom your skills the way you want (just read any guide on the matter to understand how it works, it will explain it better than me).

The character creator is my only fear, it is really basic with not many choices (except for clothes, it does not really matter since you can get/buy a lot of clothes once ingame).

On the good points though, the feedback I got was that the universe is very, very, subtle and well written. The story is quite engaging and also adult, with very deep NPCs dialogues, and the solo quests all have their little unique and immersive cutscenes. It is worth mentionning that not that many quests will actually ask you to farm mobs over and over. A lot are about investigation, clues to find, enigmas to resolve, and when that happens, you will have to do it alone since the game does not bring you the answers. You will often have to look yourself on the net (I friend even opened his bible to find an answer to something, he told me). Exploration specific quests will not even points you the direction, you actually have to find it. There are also infiltration missions ala Deus Ex where you have to remain unseen.

Then, you have the "sandbox" part of the game where you can learn every skill, and get the appearance you want, with the clothes you want, and the weapons you want. Maps are described as gigantic, and yet not generic and void of everything at all. There are a lot of little things that make players pay more attention to what they do, for example I have heard that if you jump on the abandonned cars in the streets in the first area, it will trigger their alarms and attract all the zombies around waiting for the feast. Or, a friend that saw a steel-jaw trap on the floor, thought it was just part of the scenery like any standard prop, walk on it, and almost died hemorraging all over the place. Though I am slightly annoyed that falling from a certain height does not kill you...

Amongts other things : a crapload of emotes (I am looking at you SW:TOR), devs that say that they are definitly interested to see RP blossoming in their game, devs already mentionning possible housing, etc.
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Victoria Stecker

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Re: The Secret World
« Reply #10 on: 03 Jul 2012, 20:43 »

That sounds fucking awesome. I'm going to have to look into this.

and just as I was starting to get back into EVE too.... :welp:
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Silver Night

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Re: The Secret World
« Reply #11 on: 03 Jul 2012, 22:22 »

Is there a good run-down on the lore somewhere?

Misan

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Re: The Secret World
« Reply #12 on: 03 Jul 2012, 22:45 »

Pretty sure my laptop can't handle this right now, so never actually tested it during the beta (was really busy then anyway).  :s
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Matariki Rain

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Re: The Secret World
« Reply #13 on: 03 Jul 2012, 22:50 »

The lore seems to be modern-Earth, but where every mythology, urban legend, superstition and conspiracy theory is true. The factions/secret societies are the Templars (London), the Illuminati (New York) and the Dragon (Seoul).

They have zombies, a hollow earth, and Cthulhu.

They seem to be seriously in the niche that I expected for CCP's WoD, but with "less vampire".
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orange

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Re: The Secret World
« Reply #14 on: 03 Jul 2012, 23:17 »

They seem to be seriously in the niche that I expected for CCP's WoD, but with "less vampire".
And thus better...
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