On first impressions, I was surprised at how witty the dialogue is. I've often found myself laughing out loud over parts which is a first for me.
As I've moved further into the game, my next surprise was to realise that parts of the game are down right creepy! Goose bumps, hairs on the back of my neck standing up etc. Fabulous atmosphere! It reminded me why I never watch horror films!
Like others I've been a little disapointed with the combat. I seem to be running around in circles all the time. But its early days yet and I'm hopeful things will improve as I gain more experience and Funcom make the odd tweak.
Im trying it out, havnt played much since its still BBQ mix a drink time. I did play a bit yesterday was suprised so far Im having fun playing this. Im only at Kingssomething killing zombies. The combat system reminds me of SWG, a jacked up turn based combat system. What I like is the no level skill system they have, its pretty cool even though Ive only looked at it for a moment and dont understand exactly whats what. That is probably the best part right not now knowing whats around the corner, doesnt feel like flavor vanilla, this games got flavor but so far Im still figuring out what flavor it is.
A builder and a finisher with 5 other situational skills that have overly long cool downs. Yeah that's deep.
Combat that is not just boring to play but even to watch. If you close your eyes you wouldn't be able to tell from the sounds if you were facing the mod and hitting it or turned away and missing. The animations of the skills and how they interact with the mods is bad.
The skill wheel which is made up of many useless and similar skills isn't deep.
The game has levels. It has gear levels. A level 0 ap is not taking out a level 10.
Funcon did some things right, but they shouldn't be let off the hook for what they failed at.
Sounds like you want to shine as the star and Funcom made a game where you are not the star but part of a world that is deadly. Gear levels do make a difference but then there is what you want on your gear and then your build. You might be either of these 2 other players without chance of losing yet copy you and put those 2 together and you have almost no chance of winning.
This is a game about giving you options. Some options are better and some are still needing to find their perfect pairing. I don't know a game that gives me so many different ways to combine things. Of course there will be similiarities. That will always happen but doesn't mean they are the same thing.
The game has surprised me in that I enjoy just taking my time. I sometimes push because I want to but I never feel I have to rush and keep up. I am getting close to being ready to be at the end of Kingsmouth and still very happy with my Grandmaster Pack.
A builder and a finisher with 5 other situational skills that have overly long cool downs. Yeah that's deep.
Combat that is not just boring to play but even to watch. If you close your eyes you wouldn't be able to tell from the sounds if you were facing the mod and hitting it or turned away and missing. The animations of the skills and how they interact with the mods is bad.
The skill wheel which is made up of many useless and similar skills isn't deep.
The game has levels. It has gear levels. A level 0 ap is not taking out a level 10.
Funcon did some things right, but they shouldn't be let off the hook for what they failed at.
Sounds like you want to shine as the star and Funcom made a game where you are not the star but part of a world that is deadly. Gear levels do make a difference but then there is what you want on your gear and then your build. You might be either of these 2 other players without chance of losing yet copy you and put those 2 together and you have almost no chance of winning.
This is a game about giving you options. Some options are better and some are still needing to find their perfect pairing. I don't know a game that gives me so many different ways to combine things. Of course there will be similiarities. That will always happen but doesn't mean they are the same thing.
The game has surprised me in that I enjoy just taking my time. I sometimes push because I want to but I never feel I have to rush and keep up. I am getting close to being ready to be at the end of Kingsmouth and still very happy with my Grandmaster Pack.
Red text: That's not what he sounds like at all. It sounds like he has a critical opinion of the game and how it failed to meet his expectations, and not that he was yearning to be singled out as special. How did you even come to that conclusion from what he said?
I think the skill wheel is more complex than he gives credit for, but I agree with him 100% on the combat issue and the level issue. It was weird having to put experience into several different "skills" just to put on a piece of gear.
So far, I'm really enjoying it. There are some "quality of life" improvements really needed in the chat and teaming UI, but the quests are fun, graphics are great, and the music+sound really builds atmosphere. It's definitely worth a look, in my opinion.
I wonder if we'll be able to re-tweak our character creation customization when they add more options (in August according to this article). Really not an alt-strong game so this better be the case.
I wonder if we'll be able to re-tweak our character creation customization when they add more options (in August according to this article). Really not an alt-strong game so this better be the case.
Funcom has stated everyone will get 1 free make-over.
A builder and a finisher with 5 other situational skills that have overly long cool downs. Yeah that's deep.
That's not deep. The deep part is that while you have that, I have: ST Builder, ST Weap 1 Finisher, AE Builder, AE Weap 1 Finisher, AE Weap 2 finisher and 2 skills with short but complementary cooldowns that result in one of them always being up.
The awful tab-target combat is enough for me to avoid this game. That combat system was ok like 8 or 10 years ago, but now it's absolutely outdated and boring. I don't understand how they can waste interesting stories and settings that way. Since the game doesn't excel in anything AND has awful combat, I will skip it.
It's a pity that most larger companies create titles that are technically great, but incredibly boring. While smaller indie companies have great ideas, but not enough money and manpower to give the game the frame required to be successful.
Interesting article. I hope you decide to give the game more of a try. And.. try to realize the inner trees are bland and simple for a reason. The real meat of the system is in the outer wheel where you really start to add complexity to combat along with much harder NPCs once you get to Blue Mountains and beyond.
Lots of fixes for many annoying bugs in the test server build today.
1. The amount of bugs during questing. Not just small bugs but rather bugs which keep you from completeing a quest which is needed to unlock other quests.
I have completed all my quests to date. All it took was seeing someone inviting people to a shard where the quest was working properly and accepting.
2. How shockingly bland combat is. It is even worse than I thought it was in beta. The ability wheel is great but it is completely overshadowed by how bad the animations/feel of combat is. Mashing a couple buttons over and over gets very boring, especially when fighting mobs with a lot more hp as you get past kingsmouth/savage coast.
I am enjoying my 5 builds so far and constantly tweaking them to adapt to content. But all MMOs can be boiled down to mashing the keyboard. In this one the only limit is the effort you want to put into it.
3. That there have been few updates since early access started with all these bugs around. Rift by comparison was patching nearly everday to fix problems at its release. There has been one update since early release started that I'm aware of.
And people were constantly whining about Rift doing constant patching, damned if you do damned if you dont. Devs cant win that one.
4. At the number of people who blame players rather than funcom for the bugs.
Players will be players, its not Funcoms fault for the players choice to belittle others.
5. At the number of people who refuse to figure out quest's for themselves or at least find the information themselves. I cannot believe how many people are constantly asking for answers in chat. I had to shut off all my chats except LFG. The entire point of the game is figuring out the quests. If you take that away there is literally zero reason to play the game.
Again, blaming Funcom for the choices the person behind the keyboard made.
None are surprising and especially the combat because it was that way in all the betas I played. Not sure why anyone would be surprised to be honest. It also cant be that bad if you are still playing.
funny how bioware spends 300,000,000 dollars to make the first immersive story based MMO with voice acting and they still had quests that were "I lost my eight power generators in the ice cavern. Can you retrieve them for me?". (also not to mention intentionally corny dialogue, because its star wars!)
then underdog TSW sweeps in from out of nowhere and pretty much puts TOR to shame in the story/quest writing/voice acting department.
the actual game definitely needs a lot of polish, but it's still incredibly refreshing to play after all the failed 'wow killers' (which ironically were all vanilla wow clones)
A builder and a finisher with 5 other situational skills that have overly long cool downs. Yeah that's deep.
That's not deep. The deep part is that while you have that, I have: ST Builder, ST Weap 1 Finisher, AE Builder, AE Weap 1 Finisher, AE Weap 2 finisher and 2 skills with short but complementary cooldowns that result in one of them always being up.
and this also not, what i call deep
Well, it's all relative. It's deeper than 99% of the skill systems on the market. Pretty much the only AAA MMO with a deeper skill /progression system is EVE. And I'll easily admit, compared to EVE, TSW is shallow. (Although the movement factor does add a dimension to TSW that EVE doesn't have.. but that's not really depth per se).
last time i had to spend so much time theorycrafting my build was Fallen Earth. Also a good game, but a bit too FPS-ey for me and lacking on challenging PvE.
So yeah, it all depends on what you're playing. If the last 3 games you played are SWG, EVE and FE, then TSW's depth probably isn't very impressive. Whereas if you've played TOR, Rift, GW2 or any of the other recent AAA releases, the depth of TSW is quite refreshing.
"Id rather work on something with great potential than on fulfilling a promise of mediocrity."
- Raph Koster
Tried: AO,EQ,EQ2,DAoC,SWG,AA,SB,HZ,CoX,PS,GA,TR,IV,GnH,EVE, PP,DnL,WAR,MxO,SWG,FE,VG,AoC,DDO,LoTRO,Rift,TOR,Aion,Tera,TSW,GW2,DCUO,CO,STO Favourites: AO,SWG,EVE,TR,LoTRO,TSW,EQ2, Firefall Currently Playing: ESO
Its the first mmo i've played where i'm not gonna make an alt.. Because after doing all the quest and unlocking all skills on the wheel, i'm sure not gonna do it again..
For me I see little replay value after maxing all AP point.. Story/lore while cool and all can only hold me for so long..
I also realy like how the game did away with the 'Class looks'. In PvP/PvE there's no clear seeing how certain classes look any more, which makes everyone just unique (or at least how they want to look)
"We need men who can dream of things that never were." - John F. Kennedy And for MMORPGs ever so true...
Well, i finally got me a game and played Kingsmouth and i like it so far.
With my limited knowledge of the later zones in mind i say that TSW has done the Story-Pillar better, far more immersive than SWTOR.
The Voice Acting is very good, even in german.
The character and mood of the NPCs is refelcted in the acting.
The quests fit the zone and setting very well.
The seach and abotage missions be a welcomed addition to the kill ridden usual quest offering.
Did not encounter a serious bug so far and only one crash in the first 30 hours of gameplay.
Yet i have two things negative and that is the size of the fonts of the quest journal and knowledge base at high resolutions of 1920x1200 which is far, far, far to small.and DX11 wont run for me.
Is it again a TWIMTBP thing and only Nvidia users see DX11 running?
"Torquemada... do not implore him for compassion. Torquemada... do not beg him for forgiveness. Torquemada... do not ask him for mercy. Let's face it, you can't Torquemada anything!"
1. The amount of bugs during questing. Not just small bugs but rather bugs which keep you from completeing a quest which is needed to unlock other quests.
Non critical missions, personally I havent found any that pervented me from unlocking the next mission. The ones I heard people complain about that where required to progress to the next missions where not bugged, just people missunderstanding the hints.
2. How shockingly bland combat is. It is even worse than I thought it was in beta. The ability wheel is great but it is completely overshadowed by how bad the animations/feel of combat is. Mashing a couple buttons over and over gets very boring, especially when fighting mobs with a lot more hp as you get past kingsmouth/savage coast.
Combat is more down to earth, I do agree there is plenty of room for improvement but the main gripe people seem to have is the animations are too normal, no power ranger pose before discharging a weapon, no tripple backflips after swinging a blade. Not to mention.. if you saw the animations in beta.. how did they still suprise you?
3. That there have been few updates since early access started with all these bugs around. Rift by comparison was patching nearly everday to fix problems at its release. There has been one update since early release started that I'm aware of.
Overall TSW is running properly, unlike rift there arent that many critical bugs and exploits which required the servers to be brought down for. Other then some minor inconveniances the game really is working rather nicely.
4. At the number of people who blame players rather than funcom for the bugs.
Most "so called bugs"are people not "getting"the clue and simply put went to the wrong spot. Not understand clues isnt a bug.
5. At the number of people who refuse to figure out quest's for themselves or at least find the information themselves. I cannot believe how many people are constantly asking for answers in chat. I had to shut off all my chats except LFG. The entire point of the game is figuring out the quests. If you take that away there is literally zero reason to play the game.
These people are in every mmo not sure why it suprised you.
What surprised me is that I have this feeling of not being in a hurry. I can go back to the starter area and help a friend who just started. I can do the same quests and get AP and SP from them.
With this game I can take my time, replay some parts if I want to, I can join some of the quests my friends are further along with. I have no need for alts (and believe me that is a big change as I am a true altoholic).
I do love the questing - I do listen the cinematics, and I just love how the NPCs have attitude and personality. One called me a parasite yesterday lol.
Oh and what surprised me as well as I thought only women were after the fashion in games, that so many of my cabal friends - males - are checking up on outfits and really putting thought on their choices and using the in-game store and shops to buy some fancy clothes
I believe a lot of people have waited for this game. I believe it really tryed to break the mold as Conan did. Funcom should be applauded and revered. Not bashed and ridiculed better to have tryed, and failed than not tryed at all. The combat and immersion is amazing , I would say the best bar none in my humble opinion. I don't post much I have recently merely because I dont want this game to be washed aside like so many others with potential. We need to spread the word and give them the chance to further develop and fund this great game.
Comments
On first impressions, I was surprised at how witty the dialogue is. I've often found myself laughing out loud over parts which is a first for me.
As I've moved further into the game, my next surprise was to realise that parts of the game are down right creepy! Goose bumps, hairs on the back of my neck standing up etc. Fabulous atmosphere! It reminded me why I never watch horror films!
Like others I've been a little disapointed with the combat. I seem to be running around in circles all the time. But its early days yet and I'm hopeful things will improve as I gain more experience and Funcom make the odd tweak.
The combat is good. It's not the best ever combat, that would be planetside. But its a lot better than wow combat (and all its imitators)
Bad combat is sto, lotro & rift. Not tsw.
I would take a game with fairly good combat like tsw over a game with great combat but everything else a bore.
Im trying it out, havnt played much since its still BBQ mix a drink time. I did play a bit yesterday was suprised so far Im having fun playing this. Im only at Kingssomething killing zombies. The combat system reminds me of SWG, a jacked up turn based combat system. What I like is the no level skill system they have, its pretty cool even though Ive only looked at it for a moment and dont understand exactly whats what. That is probably the best part right not now knowing whats around the corner, doesnt feel like flavor vanilla, this games got flavor but so far Im still figuring out what flavor it is.
Sounds like you want to shine as the star and Funcom made a game where you are not the star but part of a world that is deadly. Gear levels do make a difference but then there is what you want on your gear and then your build. You might be either of these 2 other players without chance of losing yet copy you and put those 2 together and you have almost no chance of winning.
This is a game about giving you options. Some options are better and some are still needing to find their perfect pairing. I don't know a game that gives me so many different ways to combine things. Of course there will be similiarities. That will always happen but doesn't mean they are the same thing.
The game has surprised me in that I enjoy just taking my time. I sometimes push because I want to but I never feel I have to rush and keep up. I am getting close to being ready to be at the end of Kingsmouth and still very happy with my Grandmaster Pack.
Red text: That's not what he sounds like at all. It sounds like he has a critical opinion of the game and how it failed to meet his expectations, and not that he was yearning to be singled out as special. How did you even come to that conclusion from what he said?
I think the skill wheel is more complex than he gives credit for, but I agree with him 100% on the combat issue and the level issue. It was weird having to put experience into several different "skills" just to put on a piece of gear.
FC made a game they want to play. A game made by gamers. Can't beat that.
So far, I'm really enjoying it. There are some "quality of life" improvements really needed in the chat and teaming UI, but the quests are fun, graphics are great, and the music+sound really builds atmosphere. It's definitely worth a look, in my opinion.
1) The same people who were bashing the game before it went live have not moved on and are still bashing.
This game just hasn't grabbed me tbh, it's not a bad game in fact I can see why people love it but it just bores me.
I wonder if we'll be able to re-tweak our character creation customization when they add more options (in August according to this article). Really not an alt-strong game so this better be the case.
Funcom has stated everyone will get 1 free make-over.
and this also not, what i call deep
played: Everquest I (6 years), EVE (3 years)
months: EQII, Vanguard, Siedler Online, SWTOR, Guild Wars 2
weeks: WoW, Shaiya, Darkfall, Florensia, Entropia, Aion, Lotro, Fallen Earth, Uncharted Waters
days: DDO, RoM, FFXIV, STO, Atlantica, PotBS, Maestia, WAR, AoC, Gods&Heroes, Cultures, RIFT, Forsaken World, Allodds
The awful tab-target combat is enough for me to avoid this game. That combat system was ok like 8 or 10 years ago, but now it's absolutely outdated and boring. I don't understand how they can waste interesting stories and settings that way. Since the game doesn't excel in anything AND has awful combat, I will skip it.
It's a pity that most larger companies create titles that are technically great, but incredibly boring. While smaller indie companies have great ideas, but not enough money and manpower to give the game the frame required to be successful.
Let's play Fallen Earth (blind, 300 episodes)
Let's play Guild Wars 2 (blind, 45 episodes)
Interesting article. I hope you decide to give the game more of a try. And.. try to realize the inner trees are bland and simple for a reason. The real meat of the system is in the outer wheel where you really start to add complexity to combat along with much harder NPCs once you get to Blue Mountains and beyond.
Lots of fixes for many annoying bugs in the test server build today.
http://forums.thesecretworld.com/showthread.php?t=39024
None are surprising and especially the combat because it was that way in all the betas I played. Not sure why anyone would be surprised to be honest. It also cant be that bad if you are still playing.
funny how bioware spends 300,000,000 dollars to make the first immersive story based MMO with voice acting and they still had quests that were "I lost my eight power generators in the ice cavern. Can you retrieve them for me?". (also not to mention intentionally corny dialogue, because its star wars!)
then underdog TSW sweeps in from out of nowhere and pretty much puts TOR to shame in the story/quest writing/voice acting department.
the actual game definitely needs a lot of polish, but it's still incredibly refreshing to play after all the failed 'wow killers' (which ironically were all vanilla wow clones)
Well, it's all relative. It's deeper than 99% of the skill systems on the market. Pretty much the only AAA MMO with a deeper skill /progression system is EVE. And I'll easily admit, compared to EVE, TSW is shallow. (Although the movement factor does add a dimension to TSW that EVE doesn't have.. but that's not really depth per se).
last time i had to spend so much time theorycrafting my build was Fallen Earth. Also a good game, but a bit too FPS-ey for me and lacking on challenging PvE.
So yeah, it all depends on what you're playing. If the last 3 games you played are SWG, EVE and FE, then TSW's depth probably isn't very impressive. Whereas if you've played TOR, Rift, GW2 or any of the other recent AAA releases, the depth of TSW is quite refreshing.
"Id rather work on something with great potential than on fulfilling a promise of mediocrity."
- Raph Koster
Tried: AO,EQ,EQ2,DAoC,SWG,AA,SB,HZ,CoX,PS,GA,TR,IV,GnH,EVE, PP,DnL,WAR,MxO,SWG,FE,VG,AoC,DDO,LoTRO,Rift,TOR,Aion,Tera,TSW,GW2,DCUO,CO,STO
Favourites: AO,SWG,EVE,TR,LoTRO,TSW,EQ2, Firefall
Currently Playing: ESO
For me I see little replay value after maxing all AP point.. Story/lore while cool and all can only hold me for so long..
I think the vast majority of people who expressed disinterest in the game have moved on, really.
When I want a single-player story, I'll play a single-player game. When I play an MMO, I want a massively multiplayer world.
I also realy like how the game did away with the 'Class looks'. In PvP/PvE there's no clear seeing how certain classes look any more, which makes everyone just unique (or at least how they want to look)
"We need men who can dream of things that never were." - John F. Kennedy
And for MMORPGs ever so true...
Well, i finally got me a game and played Kingsmouth and i like it so far.
With my limited knowledge of the later zones in mind i say that TSW has done the Story-Pillar better, far more immersive than SWTOR.
The Voice Acting is very good, even in german.
The character and mood of the NPCs is refelcted in the acting.
The quests fit the zone and setting very well.
The seach and abotage missions be a welcomed addition to the kill ridden usual quest offering.
Did not encounter a serious bug so far and only one crash in the first 30 hours of gameplay.
Yet i have two things negative and that is the size of the fonts of the quest journal and knowledge base at high resolutions of 1920x1200 which is far, far, far to small.and DX11 wont run for me.
Is it again a TWIMTBP thing and only Nvidia users see DX11 running?
"Torquemada... do not implore him for compassion. Torquemada... do not beg him for forgiveness. Torquemada... do not ask him for mercy. Let's face it, you can't Torquemada anything!"
MWO Music Video - What does the Mech say: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FF6HYNqCDLI
Johnny Cash - The Man Comes Around: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0x2iwK0BKM
What surprised me is that I have this feeling of not being in a hurry. I can go back to the starter area and help a friend who just started. I can do the same quests and get AP and SP from them.
With this game I can take my time, replay some parts if I want to, I can join some of the quests my friends are further along with. I have no need for alts (and believe me that is a big change as I am a true altoholic).
I do love the questing - I do listen the cinematics, and I just love how the NPCs have attitude and personality. One called me a parasite yesterday lol.
Oh and what surprised me as well as I thought only women were after the fashion in games, that so many of my cabal friends - males - are checking up on outfits and really putting thought on their choices and using the in-game store and shops to buy some fancy clothes
I believe a lot of people have waited for this game. I believe it really tryed to break the mold as Conan did. Funcom should be applauded and revered. Not bashed and ridiculed better to have tryed, and failed than not tryed at all. The combat and immersion is amazing , I would say the best bar none in my humble opinion. I don't post much I have recently merely because I dont want this game to be washed aside like so many others with potential. We need to spread the word and give them the chance to further develop and fund this great game.
Farstryder,