I would give it a 7/10. After playing AoC from beta I was expecting much worse that what I experienced. Great unique setting, interesting quests, interesting skill system and absorbing story. It is refreshing after the same WoW/Rift/SWTOR type of questing I have been used to.
Drawbacks were bad animations (have heard the current ones are place holders), average graphics (was running in dx9 instead of dx11) and the combat had a 'clunky' feel to it.
Hoping they can improve the gfx/animations and combat after launch over the next few months and I would consider playing it as well as Guild Wars 2.
There were some good aspects. The setting for example won me over and I thought the graphics were pretty decent overall, especially the environments (not so much on the PC models, not bad, but not that good). The music was nice, although a tiny bit repetative.
While the setting became appealing to me, it also felt like they would have benefitted greatly from some subtelty. When 'weird' is in your face constantly it soon becomes the norm, which doesn't have quite the same impact in my opinion.
The lack of closure with most side missions sort of lent to the impression that they may have gone with weird for the sake of weird as well. They set up these odd scenarios for the player to work through, however I never felt I got to the bottom of anything or unravelled anything about the overall state of the world. It felt like they set up all these little mysteries to solve, but there was never an answer, never any explanation. Just 'Yep, here's some weird stuff, now phone it in for your reward'.
The main story line at least did feel like it was building to something, and I found it to be pretty interesting. I got the impression they were laying the ground work for something, but for the most part, the mysteries of The Secret World so far exist only in cutscenes, my day to day life is apparently killing zombies in various locations.
People keep mentioning that it forced the player to think and that the game doesn't hold your hand, however, I followed the storyline as far as we could in beta and did a crap ton of hidden and out of the way sidequests, and I never had to think and never felt they let go of my hand. The in game browser is a fun idea, but overall we were never stumped on what to do or where to go.
There were giant arrows showing me exactlly where to go and how far my destination was. In the tasks that didn't have waypoints, they employed other overt cues (following the ravens and follow the trail of traps for example). Add in the fact that I was invincible (perhaps splitting 50% healing 50% damage is just the most powerful build?) and it makes what could have been an exciting dangerous setting safe and run of the mill. While the mobs telegraph their special attacks, which across the board were completely avoidable, I found that I didn't have to, as standing there tanking things was just faster overall and not very dangerous. I'm sure at later levels that's not the case, but they really could afford to introduce some danger early on.
On Friday we'd started with 4 of us, which was a problem. Many tasks required us to click some objective, then rather than it counting for the whole group, we had to wait a minute for it to reset, click it again, wait for it to reset, click it again...etc. That's a design choice that has no redeeming qualities. By saturday I was alone as the others had seen enough, and I still found everything soloable. I think a lot of people are spreading some misinformation regarding TSW, as what they claim just is not evident in the actual game.
This sounds like a lot of negatives, and I haven't even mentioned combat or the skill system yet (which weren't quite as good as I'd hoped), but over all I liked the game more than I expected to. I just think they'd do the setting justice by making use of less overt visual cues and dialing back the mish-mash of weird crap in every single direction at all times. Throw in some basis for comparison, let us see a bit of normal to give weight to the strange. Same with the swearing, they really wanted us to notice they used swearing. Still, I find it loses it's impact when it's shoe-horned in at every opportunity (one example, scribbled on a page of notes is one entry 'Fu%$*£" tunnels!' Come on, who writes that?). Yeah, use it where it can add some weight to the situation, but throwing it around every step of the way diminishes it's impact.
So, while there weren't any aspects that made me say 'Wow' or feel overly impressed, the combat wasn't spectacular, the skill system not all that I'd hoped, I still found myself disappointed when I'd finished the content available. I kind of wanted to see what came next. I'm sure there may have been a few bits I could hunt for, but I think I get the idea.
I didn't see anything that made me feel I wanted to run out and buy the game, but I think I'll likely check it out again somewhere down the line for sure.
I just want to say thank you guys for hating the game cause I managed to buy TSW on ebay by bid for $10. (Digital download)
I'll have something to play and enjoy while you guys jump on the next game to hate
Cheers! Should have waited with my pre-purchase had I known that lemmings first buy the game, realize in the first beta they don't like it and then sell it for a tenner. Think I'll avoid mmorpg.com forums when much over-hyped GW2 comes out because I predict tons of poison floating around here.
I know some people are gonna be on my ass like there's no tomorrow for this...
But I enjoyed this more than GW2, (chill people - I do like GW2, and I will be playing it) the modern day horror setting is brilliant, and fits my taste so well, although there is quest of the same old same old, the setting, and the investigation missions makes me forget about it, me and some random dude i met did "Something Wicked" quest, and well, this might sound strange, but it's the best quest I've ever done, took us about 2 hours to figure out a 6 step quest, I hope there is much more quest like this one, i was yelling at my monitor "OMFG, THAT IS FUCKING SICK!"...( in a good way ) haha.
I think maybe it's because I'm getting a bit older, just stopping up and do a quest which require you to think hard for 2 hours, and not worry about being behind is nice, and I admit, that might be a flaw in me to worry about such things, but I've always been about getting forward fast, pick up 90 quests do em all in one go without reading anything about them, hand them in and do it again, and I better be 3 in front of everyone else, hehe, that's not an issue here.
I did encounter some minor bugs, I'm not gonna defend those bugs with "it's beta", because the closed beta guys should have caught it, but! there's always a but, they were minor, so not a big deal to me.
I give MY experience an 8, and look forward to playing after release.
Yay he donated his kidney!!!!!
Don't worry though I donated both of my kidneys and heart so I took a bigger risk or more so an stupid one.
On topic:
TSW was cool, umm good game, least a few things rather than 1 gimmick was very refreshing.
They need to work on the life but I am assuming cutscene heavy MMOs have to sacrifice In-Game things because for example give this game life and what not, when it's time for a cutscene what's going on in game can be completely different there for breaking immersion. Gotta keep everything like a scene which personally I think that should stay in single player games.
Story is a lot better than SWTOR in my honest opinion.
I'm going to cancel my pre-order though and wait on it, see how Funcom does things, because the cons for [me] outweigh the pros.
Rated it a 7 potential 9 depending on how Funcom does things.
I might get banned for this. - Rizel Star.
I'm not afraid to tell trolls what they [need] to hear, even if that means for me to have an forced absence afterwards.
P2P LOGIC = If it's P2P it means longevity, overall better game, and THE BEST SUPPORT EVER!!!!!(Which has been rinsed and repeated about a thousand times)
Common Sense Logic = P2P logic is no better than F2P Logic.
The lack of closure with most side missions sort of lent to the impression that they may have gone with weird for the sake of weird as well. They set up these odd scenarios for the player to work through, however I never felt I got to the bottom of anything or unravelled anything about the overall state of the world. It felt like they set up all these little mysteries to solve, but there was never an answer, never any explanation. Just 'Yep, here's some weird stuff, now phone it in for your reward'.
They are giving you hints about what is going on and individual fates, not holding your hand and telling you: "This happened".
People keep mentioning that it forced the player to think and that the game doesn't hold your hand, however, I followed the storyline as far as we could in beta and did a crap ton of hidden and out of the way sidequests, and I never had to think and never felt they let go of my hand. The in game browser is a fun idea, but overall we were never stumped on what to do or where to go.
Typical of TSW: you are supposed to find a grave. They mark the whole graveyard. 50-100 of the graves are clickable. The hint is that if you actually read the text (it's an item mission, shortest type there is) you notice that you are looking for an opened grave, so it's much easier to find
Another thing to note is that it's really only the investigation missions that are supposed to be hard, it's the one with the green icons. They gave me trouble at least, have you tried the one you get in the church?
The red action missions are usually pretty straight forward, killing stuff, but I have found quite a lot of them very well made.
...
Add in the fact that I was invincible (perhaps splitting 50% healing 50% damage is just the most powerful build?) and it makes what could have been an exciting dangerous setting safe and run of the mill. While the mobs telegraph their special attacks, which across the board were completely avoidable, I found that I didn't have to, as standing there tanking things was just faster overall and not very dangerous. I'm sure at later levels that's not the case, but they really could afford to introduce some danger early on.
They recently tuned the difficulty down for the open beta, maybe a bit too much? And yeah, it does get worse as the you have ages to avoid telegraphed moves in Kingsmouth. Anyway, have you tried doing Polaris, the group dungeon? It's pretty hard if you are after a challenge.
....
This sounds like a lot of negatives ...
It's your honest opinion of how you perceive the game, I appreciate that.
I'm feeling good this morning, I rated it a 9, would have played more if it wasn't just a beta. Haven't made a decision if I'll play it later down the road, I really like it though, felt like a spy game. The environment and immerson is close to perfect for me.
I know some people are gonna be on my ass like there's no tomorrow for this...
But I enjoyed this more than GW2, (chill people - I do like GW2, and I will be playing it) the modern day horror setting is brilliant, and fits my taste so well, although there is quest of the same old same old, the setting, and the investigation missions makes me forget about it, me and some random dude i met did "Something Wicked" quest, and well, this might sound strange, but it's the best quest I've ever done, took us about 2 hours to figure out a 6 step quest, I hope there is much more quest like this one, i was yelling at my monitor "OMFG, THAT IS FUCKING SICK!"...( in a good way ) haha.
I think maybe it's because I'm getting a bit older, just stopping up and do a quest which require you to think hard for 2 hours, and not worry about being behind is nice, and I admit, that might be a flaw in me to worry about such things, but I've always been about getting forward fast, pick up 90 quests do em all in one go without reading anything about them, hand them in and do it again, and I better be 3 in front of everyone else, hehe, that's not an issue here.
I did encounter some minor bugs, I'm not gonna defend those bugs with "it's beta", because the closed beta guys should have caught it, but! there's always a but, they were minor, so not a big deal to me.
I give MY experience an 8, and look forward to playing after release.
Yay he donated his kidney!!!!!
Don't worry though I donated both of my kidneys and heart so I took a bigger risk or more so an stupid one.
On topic:
TSW was cool, umm good game, least a few things rather than 1 gimmick was very refreshing.
They need to work on the life but I am assuming cutscene heavy MMOs have to sacrifice In-Game things because for example give this game life and what not, when it's time for a cutscene what's going on in game can be completely different there for breaking immersion. Gotta keep everything like a scene which personally I think that should stay in single player games.
Story is a lot better than SWTOR in my honest opinion.
I'm going to cancel my pre-order though and wait on it, see how Funcom does things, because the cons for [me] outweigh the pros.
Rated it a 7 potential 9 depending on how Funcom does things.
Lol, can't believe you remember that.. Especially since the thread got canned by mmorpg.
Made for some good entertainment
But ye, I will be playing gw2, mostly for the pvp, and after trying TSW, getting my PvE fix in the secret world.
Its in rough shape for being a month before release but i will disregard the memory leaks, poor animations, placeholder icons and overall clunkiness and bloat of the game engine and the standard yet versatile 3 best skill spam combat system and gave it a 6 based on the setting, storyline and atmosphere alone..
I have spent well over 20 hours playing which says a lot and i still have a few lingering side quests unfinished but i am already burned out on the somewhat standard quest system and the skill leveling system however i can honestly say the game is fun but to me it is still a very thinly disguised classic funcom game full of bloat, outdated ideas and classic timesinks to slow progression, its not quite what i want in a game these days however i can see where many others may absolutely love it..
Minus the linear main progression quest line this game has a lot of free roaming though often zany side quests and if you want to level your chosen skills to equip higher level weapons you better do them all..
This game has potential but is at least 6 hard working months or more away from being ready for primetime..
Voted that I still don't know. TSW is turning into a very confusing experience for me; the parts I like, I absolutely LOVE, but parts I don't like bring me almost to the point of uninstall. There's no middle ground there. I will say that the more unique quests and atmosphere are so entertaining, I anticipate I ~will~ be playing this game at some point. But the clunky combat, terrible acting (bad in a game that emphasizes story) and unexplored, unknown parts of the game still waiting for player review (which are a large portion of it) nearly guarantee it won't be any time soon.
Still gonna take that "wait and see" approach to this, I think.
While I don't think the acting was so bad, I agree with the rest.
People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert
The problem is is that there are more stupid, mundane and boring quests than there are innovative ones. When people mention the innovative quests, they talk about the same 5 to 10. But there are some 200 quests in this Beta.
This is a great solo/coop adventure game sandwhiched into a horrible MMO action-rpg. The two games need to be seperated.
The best test for how good the beta is is to get away from it. With GW2, I still want to play it, it was that good. I'd love it if they had some adventure style quests in there, but as an MMO its amazing. Team work, coop adventuring, great combat. It's a game.
Secret World, i just don't see that. I can't help but think about how stupid it is that every morning i have to find Tom's body. Or how silly it is that this guy wants exactly 6 zombies killed, or, for that matter me, a fire caster can't just show him that yeah, fire hurts zombies. The graphics on DCU, which came out 2 years ago are crisper than this game. And lets not mention all the horrible animation. Jumping looks like this guy is having an enima. Their normal stances look stiff and rigid.
Then thre's all the "waste my time " sturf. Running through the teleportation place, running to reach your body, running to find more quests. This game gets a 4, out of 10.
The beginning of the game was very badly done, initially would have rated it like a 3 out of 10. But after playing for a bit, some of the main story can be ok/interesting, so ended up rating it a 5 out of 10. Could make a long list as to why I rated it so lowly but I think its all been said before.
Overall a bit worse then I expected though. And I think they actually did themselves a disservice by doing an open beta at all.
I would like to add that, like alot of people I am starved for a non-fantasy MMO, and I really like the setting and potentially the stories of it. However I am not so starved that I would pay for this very substandard game. Might mess around with it when it becomes FTP, but then again might not if there is something better to do.
The problem is is that there are more stupid, mundane and boring quests than there are innovative ones. When people mention the innovative quests, they talk about the same 5 to 10. But there are some 200 quests in this Beta.
This is a great solo/coop adventure game sandwhiched into a horrible MMO action-rpg. The two games need to be seperated.
The best test for how good the beta is is to get away from it. With GW2, I still want to play it, it was that good. I'd love it if they had some adventure style quests in there, but as an MMO its amazing. Team work, coop adventuring, great combat. It's a game.
Secret World, i just don't see that. I can't help but think about how stupid it is that every morning i have to find Tom's body. Or how silly it is that this guy wants exactly 6 zombies killed, or, for that matter me, a fire caster can't just show him that yeah, fire hurts zombies. The graphics on DCU, which came out 2 years ago are crisper than this game. And lets not mention all the horrible animation. Jumping looks like this guy is having an enima. Their normal stances look stiff and rigid.
Then thre's all the "waste my time " sturf. Running through the teleportation place, running to reach your body, running to find more quests. This game gets a 4, out of 10.
id give it a 5/10 or maybe a 6/10 personally but I agree with the quest thing.. Some are interesting but most are not. The one you go to the beach to kill the things coming out the water was ok for the first tier then it was kill 4 of these then you do that its its kill more of these I just didn't want to even finish it after the third tier... but yea some are good though and deviate from the mundane quests we are used to but to many are just go here click on than then go back to here click on that go to there click on that.. I enjoyed the amunition quest blowing up the zombies with differn't types of ammo though. When the questing is the big selling point here I'm sort of let down overall
I angered the clerk in a clothing shop today. She asked me what size I was and I said actual, because I am not to scale. I like vending machines 'cause snacks are better when they fall. If I buy a candy bar at a store, oftentimes, I will drop it... so that it achieves its maximum flavor potential. --Mitch Hedberg
I'm not sure if I would purchase this at release or not based on this weekend.
Pros
The atmosphere/setting and details throughout the game buildings are great and definitely the best part of the game.
The quests are as good as it can get for static quest givers. I actually have to pay attention to my surroundings.
The adult theme is refreshing. Not staring at cartoon/anime characters is nice. You are not treated like a drooling idiot (although some of us may be!)
The classless lvless skill point system is interesting and looks like this may be the part of the game that would keep people playing after they have done all of the quests.
I only encountered a couple bugs through the weekend thus far.
Cons
The big con is the combat. No sense of impact when I hit something with a hammer. And there doesn't appear to be much in the way of tactics...very spamtastic. Not sure if there are castable buffs or castable debuffs, that would be nice, I've yet to see the castable type. Passive buffs aren't too fun and not being able to really cripple a mob with castable debuffs isn't fun either.
Animations are not great, but I can live with them. And the overall gameplay/graphics feel a little rough around the edges, not too polished.
Is this an MMO? I sometimes feel like I'm playing a single player puzzle/action console game. How will the replayability be with this game? SWTOR ran into this same problem, nice to level and then you couldn't force me through the same quests again.
Mob loot looks to be the dreaded universal loot table. No camps of mobs to kill for something interesting or unique to the that mob (I could be wrong on this one). The mobs look to only be around for the quests and story, not just living in a world.
I almost want to buy it to support the company as they have not tried to appeal to the grandmother that plays WoW or even my wife. Also they are basically telling people that have to RUSH RUSH RUSH to "endgame" (whatever the hell that is) to sit and spin...zomg I have to walk and learn the areas!!1!1!
Much, much better than I expected. I've actually really enjoyed it so far. I think TSW and GW2 will be my new MMOs.
Yeah I agree it was a lot better than I thought it would be going in. I voted it an 8 as a game, it's fun, the story intrigues, atmosphere/music are stellar. Combat was acceptable, although animations do need work. As an MMO I really don't know yet, nor do I know if it's a game I'm going to buy.
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
Originally posted by Distopia Originally posted by skeaser Much, much better than I expected. I've actually really enjoyed it so far. I think TSW and GW2 will be my new MMOs.
Yeah I agree it was a lot better than I thought it would be going in. I voted it an 8 as a game, it's fun, the story intrigues, atmosphere/music are stellar. Combat was acceptable, although animations do need work. As an MMO I really don't know yet, nor do I know if it's a game I'm going to buy.
I like the game and I would be interested in pre-ordering the game if there was more clarification about the amount of content.
gave it an 8, though I pretty much fragged up my first day and treated it like a typical mmo....rush in grab the quests kill the mobs repeat ad nauseum....and by friday night was very much...meh...even though I had super high hopes for this game as I love the setting and lore they were going with/for. so saturday I hardly played as was feeling kinda bummed about it and just kinda did some thinking about the game and trying to see why I was not 'getting it' and realized I had really been playing the game from the wrong mindset...this was a game I could actually go at my own pace and not feel like I had to rush to endgame like with swtor...if it had endgame...lol. And working at night and keeping my daughter during the day my game time has been greatly diminished from a few years ago, so this is definitely a bright spot in my gaming line-up and will most definitely be playing this for awhile along with gw2.
I've gone with a 7 as this is still a Beta stress test so actually rateing it now seems a bit idiotic but for the sake of arguement there you go,combat does seem uber light compared to kick ass combat and decaptations of AOC so for a horror game that sort of took the shine of it but these are supposedly place holders animation wise anyway.
The world graphics are very atmospheric obviously not fully optimised and there is some neat touches that show some real love and care has been laviished on the game,hopefully this will also be addressed with the spell effects which are a bit wishy washy and don't seem to have much impact when they hit a NPC.
The story is the real winner here the cut scenes are not the best graphicaly but the VO are top notch and London does feel like a urban hotch potch of the worlds populace which in reality it is,not quite sure how the heck you actually get away with strapping an AK47 on your back when in reality you can get an armed response squad on yer ass for showing a replica gun in the UK !!,but takeing reality to one side the amount of quests per level is impressive and the amount of exploration needed will if i sub keep me happy for quite a while and with all the myths in the world they have an endless variety to pick from.
The skill system is awesome the way you can mix and match is quite amazeing and only one zone is unlocked for this Beta,so the possiblities are endless and the way you can then save a build then load it is a touch of genius,it does seem the holy trinity is practically dead as with GW2 this is a major progression in the latest Mo's in my book.
Overall i'm impressed but as it's Beta still feel they have more up their sleeve,and Funcom state this is not the final build and from videos seen at events the graphics are way better and seem much more optimised.
It would have an 11 and I'd be a raging fanboi if there wasn't tab targeted combat. If the combat was fun I'd never log out.
I love the UI - it's like we're wearing Google Glasses or using a phone with an augmented reality app
The environment is awesome, the quests are fun and puzzling. I love weird conspiracy theories.
The graphics are beautiful - the insides of places we can't go in are fully fleshed out - you can look through the windows - the buildings aren't instanced!
It's a lot funnier to watch a train of zombies chase people than a train of boars for some reason.
Just random thoughts - I'm having a lot of fun with it.
I haven't pre-ordered yet - if the beta didn't end for preorders too I'd buy it right now.
Voted 6, While the graphics are good, the setting is nice, and it seems like there are quite a few missions to do and they require using our brain which is awesome, I feel beef with a couple of things.
One, the animations and combat are bland.(small I know but I'm voicing it out). I deducted no points since I can get over this.
Two, alot and I mean ALOT of the quests are repeatable. At this early of a stage it reeks of laziness and repetativeness. - 1.5 points.
Third and final, The game very much encourages you to solo, while it gets you going to think out riddles with friends or guilds, it is very focused on being able to do everything on your own. The quests are rated by difficulty and even the hardest one can be done solo with very little issue. Solo instances are abound in very many quests. I understand your main quest, but I have seen them in a bunch of side quests too, so while you are actively trying to group up to do things all of a sudden you are split up and have to enter said solo instances which breaks the immersion of the group as well as the world, because we all know a group would go in that basement together. - 2.5 points. I am Tired of MMO's being completely soloable. This ruins alot of the Online Experience for me. Having dungeons and raids as the only real group content. It is sort of the same mistake SWTOR made.
So There is my Opinion, I don't care if you agree with me or not, I am not here to fight, only voice my opinion.
Also Deserving Honorable mention is barely any lag, and freeze-ups, and no Disconnects. WTG Funcom.
I voted 8. My thought there is that a good deal of the issues in beta will be resolved. I know a bunch will still likely be there at launch in the way of small bugs, etc but I know they do plan to have many more options in character creation added and are replacing animations.
Even if those things did not change a lot I might still give it an 8. The setting, the story lines, the voice acting, the design on missions, the environments, are all very good for me. I LOVE the fact that the game is actually challenging. I DIE....what a concept. Then I have to do a corpse run that reminds a little of the original EQ.
I like the fact there are many real world references and that you will have to go to google (in game browser or otherwise) to research and look things up and while there may be some marker on the map as to the general area to go to, it does not hold your hand.
People asked for something different, and innovative and I would have to say this is it, even more so than GW2 (Which I thuroughly enjoy as well). I am a Lovecraft story/game fan too which helps. This game, while I really love it, will not be for everyone.
Yeah I agree it was a lot better than I thought it would be going in. I voted it an 8 as a game, it's fun, the story intrigues, atmosphere/music are stellar. Combat was acceptable, although animations do need work. As an MMO I really don't know yet, nor do I know if it's a game I'm going to buy.
I like the game and I would be interested in pre-ordering the game if there was more clarification about the amount of content.
Yeah that's one factor in being usure how it stacks up as a purchase title for me. The parts I saw looked good and were fun, but considering it's just a very small preview of the overall game, it really doesn't say much toward the whole package.
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
Also another item, I forgot to mention in my impressions, that helps the immersion is that you can play this in first person. I would play in first person a lot of time when traveling and it was suprisingly great.
Really the more I think about it the more I think I will be buying this game at release.
Comments
I would give it a 7/10. After playing AoC from beta I was expecting much worse that what I experienced. Great unique setting, interesting quests, interesting skill system and absorbing story. It is refreshing after the same WoW/Rift/SWTOR type of questing I have been used to.
Drawbacks were bad animations (have heard the current ones are place holders), average graphics (was running in dx9 instead of dx11) and the combat had a 'clunky' feel to it.
Hoping they can improve the gfx/animations and combat after launch over the next few months and I would consider playing it as well as Guild Wars 2.
There were some good aspects. The setting for example won me over and I thought the graphics were pretty decent overall, especially the environments (not so much on the PC models, not bad, but not that good). The music was nice, although a tiny bit repetative.
While the setting became appealing to me, it also felt like they would have benefitted greatly from some subtelty. When 'weird' is in your face constantly it soon becomes the norm, which doesn't have quite the same impact in my opinion.
The lack of closure with most side missions sort of lent to the impression that they may have gone with weird for the sake of weird as well. They set up these odd scenarios for the player to work through, however I never felt I got to the bottom of anything or unravelled anything about the overall state of the world. It felt like they set up all these little mysteries to solve, but there was never an answer, never any explanation. Just 'Yep, here's some weird stuff, now phone it in for your reward'.
The main story line at least did feel like it was building to something, and I found it to be pretty interesting. I got the impression they were laying the ground work for something, but for the most part, the mysteries of The Secret World so far exist only in cutscenes, my day to day life is apparently killing zombies in various locations.
People keep mentioning that it forced the player to think and that the game doesn't hold your hand, however, I followed the storyline as far as we could in beta and did a crap ton of hidden and out of the way sidequests, and I never had to think and never felt they let go of my hand. The in game browser is a fun idea, but overall we were never stumped on what to do or where to go.
There were giant arrows showing me exactlly where to go and how far my destination was. In the tasks that didn't have waypoints, they employed other overt cues (following the ravens and follow the trail of traps for example). Add in the fact that I was invincible (perhaps splitting 50% healing 50% damage is just the most powerful build?) and it makes what could have been an exciting dangerous setting safe and run of the mill. While the mobs telegraph their special attacks, which across the board were completely avoidable, I found that I didn't have to, as standing there tanking things was just faster overall and not very dangerous. I'm sure at later levels that's not the case, but they really could afford to introduce some danger early on.
On Friday we'd started with 4 of us, which was a problem. Many tasks required us to click some objective, then rather than it counting for the whole group, we had to wait a minute for it to reset, click it again, wait for it to reset, click it again...etc. That's a design choice that has no redeeming qualities. By saturday I was alone as the others had seen enough, and I still found everything soloable. I think a lot of people are spreading some misinformation regarding TSW, as what they claim just is not evident in the actual game.
This sounds like a lot of negatives, and I haven't even mentioned combat or the skill system yet (which weren't quite as good as I'd hoped), but over all I liked the game more than I expected to. I just think they'd do the setting justice by making use of less overt visual cues and dialing back the mish-mash of weird crap in every single direction at all times. Throw in some basis for comparison, let us see a bit of normal to give weight to the strange. Same with the swearing, they really wanted us to notice they used swearing. Still, I find it loses it's impact when it's shoe-horned in at every opportunity (one example, scribbled on a page of notes is one entry 'Fu%$*£" tunnels!' Come on, who writes that?). Yeah, use it where it can add some weight to the situation, but throwing it around every step of the way diminishes it's impact.
So, while there weren't any aspects that made me say 'Wow' or feel overly impressed, the combat wasn't spectacular, the skill system not all that I'd hoped, I still found myself disappointed when I'd finished the content available. I kind of wanted to see what came next. I'm sure there may have been a few bits I could hunt for, but I think I get the idea.
I didn't see anything that made me feel I wanted to run out and buy the game, but I think I'll likely check it out again somewhere down the line for sure.
Cheers!
Should have waited with my pre-purchase had I known that lemmings first buy the game, realize in the first beta they don't like it and then sell it for a tenner. Think I'll avoid mmorpg.com forums when much over-hyped GW2 comes out because I predict tons of poison floating around here.
Yay he donated his kidney!!!!!
Don't worry though I donated both of my kidneys and heart so I took a bigger risk or more so an stupid one.
On topic:
TSW was cool, umm good game, least a few things rather than 1 gimmick was very refreshing.
They need to work on the life but I am assuming cutscene heavy MMOs have to sacrifice In-Game things because for example give this game life and what not, when it's time for a cutscene what's going on in game can be completely different there for breaking immersion. Gotta keep everything like a scene which personally I think that should stay in single player games.
Story is a lot better than SWTOR in my honest opinion.
I'm going to cancel my pre-order though and wait on it, see how Funcom does things, because the cons for [me] outweigh the pros.
Rated it a 7 potential 9 depending on how Funcom does things.
I might get banned for this. - Rizel Star.
I'm not afraid to tell trolls what they [need] to hear, even if that means for me to have an forced absence afterwards.
P2P LOGIC = If it's P2P it means longevity, overall better game, and THE BEST SUPPORT EVER!!!!!(Which has been rinsed and repeated about a thousand times)
Common Sense Logic = P2P logic is no better than F2P Logic.
I'm feeling good this morning, I rated it a 9, would have played more if it wasn't just a beta. Haven't made a decision if I'll play it later down the road, I really like it though, felt like a spy game. The environment and immerson is close to perfect for me.
Lol, can't believe you remember that.. Especially since the thread got canned by mmorpg.
Made for some good entertainment
But ye, I will be playing gw2, mostly for the pvp, and after trying TSW, getting my PvE fix in the secret world.
I give my beta experience two thumbs up, maybe three if I was a mutant...
That Guild Wars 2 login screen knocked up my wife. Must be the second coming!
Its in rough shape for being a month before release but i will disregard the memory leaks, poor animations, placeholder icons and overall clunkiness and bloat of the game engine and the standard yet versatile 3 best skill spam combat system and gave it a 6 based on the setting, storyline and atmosphere alone..
I have spent well over 20 hours playing which says a lot and i still have a few lingering side quests unfinished but i am already burned out on the somewhat standard quest system and the skill leveling system however i can honestly say the game is fun but to me it is still a very thinly disguised classic funcom game full of bloat, outdated ideas and classic timesinks to slow progression, its not quite what i want in a game these days however i can see where many others may absolutely love it..
Minus the linear main progression quest line this game has a lot of free roaming though often zany side quests and if you want to level your chosen skills to equip higher level weapons you better do them all..
This game has potential but is at least 6 hard working months or more away from being ready for primetime..
Playing GW2..
8
I have had a real good time.
While I don't think the acting was so bad, I agree with the rest.
People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert
This game's a 4, solid.
The problem is is that there are more stupid, mundane and boring quests than there are innovative ones. When people mention the innovative quests, they talk about the same 5 to 10. But there are some 200 quests in this Beta.
This is a great solo/coop adventure game sandwhiched into a horrible MMO action-rpg. The two games need to be seperated.
The best test for how good the beta is is to get away from it. With GW2, I still want to play it, it was that good. I'd love it if they had some adventure style quests in there, but as an MMO its amazing. Team work, coop adventuring, great combat. It's a game.
Secret World, i just don't see that. I can't help but think about how stupid it is that every morning i have to find Tom's body. Or how silly it is that this guy wants exactly 6 zombies killed, or, for that matter me, a fire caster can't just show him that yeah, fire hurts zombies. The graphics on DCU, which came out 2 years ago are crisper than this game. And lets not mention all the horrible animation. Jumping looks like this guy is having an enima. Their normal stances look stiff and rigid.
Then thre's all the "waste my time " sturf. Running through the teleportation place, running to reach your body, running to find more quests. This game gets a 4, out of 10.
The beginning of the game was very badly done, initially would have rated it like a 3 out of 10. But after playing for a bit, some of the main story can be ok/interesting, so ended up rating it a 5 out of 10. Could make a long list as to why I rated it so lowly but I think its all been said before.
Overall a bit worse then I expected though. And I think they actually did themselves a disservice by doing an open beta at all.
I would like to add that, like alot of people I am starved for a non-fantasy MMO, and I really like the setting and potentially the stories of it. However I am not so starved that I would pay for this very substandard game. Might mess around with it when it becomes FTP, but then again might not if there is something better to do.
id give it a 5/10 or maybe a 6/10 personally but I agree with the quest thing.. Some are interesting but most are not. The one you go to the beach to kill the things coming out the water was ok for the first tier then it was kill 4 of these then you do that its its kill more of these I just didn't want to even finish it after the third tier... but yea some are good though and deviate from the mundane quests we are used to but to many are just go here click on than then go back to here click on that go to there click on that.. I enjoyed the amunition quest blowing up the zombies with differn't types of ammo though. When the questing is the big selling point here I'm sort of let down overall
I angered the clerk in a clothing shop today. She asked me what size I was and I said actual, because I am not to scale. I like vending machines 'cause snacks are better when they fall. If I buy a candy bar at a store, oftentimes, I will drop it... so that it achieves its maximum flavor potential. --Mitch Hedberg
I'm not sure if I would purchase this at release or not based on this weekend.
Pros
The atmosphere/setting and details throughout the game buildings are great and definitely the best part of the game.
The quests are as good as it can get for static quest givers. I actually have to pay attention to my surroundings.
The adult theme is refreshing. Not staring at cartoon/anime characters is nice. You are not treated like a drooling idiot (although some of us may be!)
The classless lvless skill point system is interesting and looks like this may be the part of the game that would keep people playing after they have done all of the quests.
I only encountered a couple bugs through the weekend thus far.
Cons
The big con is the combat. No sense of impact when I hit something with a hammer. And there doesn't appear to be much in the way of tactics...very spamtastic. Not sure if there are castable buffs or castable debuffs, that would be nice, I've yet to see the castable type. Passive buffs aren't too fun and not being able to really cripple a mob with castable debuffs isn't fun either.
Animations are not great, but I can live with them. And the overall gameplay/graphics feel a little rough around the edges, not too polished.
Is this an MMO? I sometimes feel like I'm playing a single player puzzle/action console game. How will the replayability be with this game? SWTOR ran into this same problem, nice to level and then you couldn't force me through the same quests again.
Mob loot looks to be the dreaded universal loot table. No camps of mobs to kill for something interesting or unique to the that mob (I could be wrong on this one). The mobs look to only be around for the quests and story, not just living in a world.
I almost want to buy it to support the company as they have not tried to appeal to the grandmother that plays WoW or even my wife. Also they are basically telling people that have to RUSH RUSH RUSH to "endgame" (whatever the hell that is) to sit and spin...zomg I have to walk and learn the areas!!1!1!
7.5/10
Yeah I agree it was a lot better than I thought it would be going in. I voted it an 8 as a game, it's fun, the story intrigues, atmosphere/music are stellar. Combat was acceptable, although animations do need work. As an MMO I really don't know yet, nor do I know if it's a game I'm going to buy.
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
I like the game and I would be interested in pre-ordering the game if there was more clarification about the amount of content.
gave it an 8, though I pretty much fragged up my first day and treated it like a typical mmo....rush in grab the quests kill the mobs repeat ad nauseum....and by friday night was very much...meh...even though I had super high hopes for this game as I love the setting and lore they were going with/for. so saturday I hardly played as was feeling kinda bummed about it and just kinda did some thinking about the game and trying to see why I was not 'getting it' and realized I had really been playing the game from the wrong mindset...this was a game I could actually go at my own pace and not feel like I had to rush to endgame like with swtor...if it had endgame...lol. And working at night and keeping my daughter during the day my game time has been greatly diminished from a few years ago, so this is definitely a bright spot in my gaming line-up and will most definitely be playing this for awhile along with gw2.
I've gone with a 7 as this is still a Beta stress test so actually rateing it now seems a bit idiotic but for the sake of arguement there you go,combat does seem uber light compared to kick ass combat and decaptations of AOC so for a horror game that sort of took the shine of it but these are supposedly place holders animation wise anyway.
The world graphics are very atmospheric obviously not fully optimised and there is some neat touches that show some real love and care has been laviished on the game,hopefully this will also be addressed with the spell effects which are a bit wishy washy and don't seem to have much impact when they hit a NPC.
The story is the real winner here the cut scenes are not the best graphicaly but the VO are top notch and London does feel like a urban hotch potch of the worlds populace which in reality it is,not quite sure how the heck you actually get away with strapping an AK47 on your back when in reality you can get an armed response squad on yer ass for showing a replica gun in the UK !!,but takeing reality to one side the amount of quests per level is impressive and the amount of exploration needed will if i sub keep me happy for quite a while and with all the myths in the world they have an endless variety to pick from.
The skill system is awesome the way you can mix and match is quite amazeing and only one zone is unlocked for this Beta,so the possiblities are endless and the way you can then save a build then load it is a touch of genius,it does seem the holy trinity is practically dead as with GW2 this is a major progression in the latest Mo's in my book.
Overall i'm impressed but as it's Beta still feel they have more up their sleeve,and Funcom state this is not the final build and from videos seen at events the graphics are way better and seem much more optimised.
I gave it an 8.
It would have a 9 if the animations were better
It would have an 11 and I'd be a raging fanboi if there wasn't tab targeted combat. If the combat was fun I'd never log out.
I love the UI - it's like we're wearing Google Glasses or using a phone with an augmented reality app
The environment is awesome, the quests are fun and puzzling. I love weird conspiracy theories.
The graphics are beautiful - the insides of places we can't go in are fully fleshed out - you can look through the windows - the buildings aren't instanced!
It's a lot funnier to watch a train of zombies chase people than a train of boars for some reason.
Just random thoughts - I'm having a lot of fun with it.
I haven't pre-ordered yet - if the beta didn't end for preorders too I'd buy it right now.
Voted 6, While the graphics are good, the setting is nice, and it seems like there are quite a few missions to do and they require using our brain which is awesome, I feel beef with a couple of things.
One, the animations and combat are bland.(small I know but I'm voicing it out). I deducted no points since I can get over this.
Two, alot and I mean ALOT of the quests are repeatable. At this early of a stage it reeks of laziness and repetativeness. - 1.5 points.
Third and final, The game very much encourages you to solo, while it gets you going to think out riddles with friends or guilds, it is very focused on being able to do everything on your own. The quests are rated by difficulty and even the hardest one can be done solo with very little issue. Solo instances are abound in very many quests. I understand your main quest, but I have seen them in a bunch of side quests too, so while you are actively trying to group up to do things all of a sudden you are split up and have to enter said solo instances which breaks the immersion of the group as well as the world, because we all know a group would go in that basement together. - 2.5 points. I am Tired of MMO's being completely soloable. This ruins alot of the Online Experience for me. Having dungeons and raids as the only real group content. It is sort of the same mistake SWTOR made.
So There is my Opinion, I don't care if you agree with me or not, I am not here to fight, only voice my opinion.
Also Deserving Honorable mention is barely any lag, and freeze-ups, and no Disconnects. WTG Funcom.
I voted 8. My thought there is that a good deal of the issues in beta will be resolved. I know a bunch will still likely be there at launch in the way of small bugs, etc but I know they do plan to have many more options in character creation added and are replacing animations.
Even if those things did not change a lot I might still give it an 8. The setting, the story lines, the voice acting, the design on missions, the environments, are all very good for me. I LOVE the fact that the game is actually challenging. I DIE....what a concept. Then I have to do a corpse run that reminds a little of the original EQ.
I like the fact there are many real world references and that you will have to go to google (in game browser or otherwise) to research and look things up and while there may be some marker on the map as to the general area to go to, it does not hold your hand.
People asked for something different, and innovative and I would have to say this is it, even more so than GW2 (Which I thuroughly enjoy as well). I am a Lovecraft story/game fan too which helps. This game, while I really love it, will not be for everyone.
Yeah that's one factor in being usure how it stacks up as a purchase title for me. The parts I saw looked good and were fun, but considering it's just a very small preview of the overall game, it really doesn't say much toward the whole package.
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
Also another item, I forgot to mention in my impressions, that helps the immersion is that you can play this in first person. I would play in first person a lot of time when traveling and it was suprisingly great.
Really the more I think about it the more I think I will be buying this game at release.
FC has what they call "One Server" Tech. They have the ability to let everyone play on 1 sever.
I can't wait for launch.