I was playing with a friends last night. Alt tab out to cheat on a quest we where working on =-P, (at least I dont bother Gen chat) to see it was 4 am PST was like F*** got to log told him it was 4 am he was shockd too. I caught a ton of wife agro today cause her parents where comming over for a BBQ and I had to get the back yard and the pool cleaned up. TY TSW
I am honestly blown away at how good this game is. Totally shocked. I love the combat it is so deep with so many choices. The quests are great and challenging. This is not an easy game, so some people are turned off by that. This is the best MMO I have played since all the MMO's got the WoW treatment.
love the game, have bought lifetime, a few minor bugged quests, which i'm confident will be fixed, launch was flawless & the 'single server' tech , which means you can always join your friends, whichever starting dimension you all choose, will revolutionise mmo's!
I also like the fact that the game is looking like an adventure/mmorpg hybrid. The investigation missions have been praised by a lot of players, and I expect Funcom to add lot's more of these in coming updates. That coupled with the fact that it looks like Funcom intentionally has blurred the lines between the Real world and their gaming Universe. For an example, play "Something Wicked" and do a Google Search for Larry Checkon, the guy they jailed for the murders, coincidence? That, and references to real art, paintings, poems, makes this world feel so much more immersive than other mmorpgs. I love it, keep it flowing Funcom.
As long as Funcom keeps adding fresh Investigation quests, this game will never run out of end game, brilliant.
Originally posted by MattVid Is that guy holding a doll that is having it's period? Or a circumcision gone wrong? That is pretty odd.
It's a Golem* holding a Blood Magic Symbol, think of it as a form of Voodoo Doll.
*: Iirc, the Scarecrows are categorized as a form of Golem anyway.
How it's possible that a Golem can use magic? Well, when you're dealing with a Golem Maker who didn't really understand what he was doing, and supernatural Beasties like Jack O'Lantern, The Boogeyman and some sleeping Eldritch Horror beneath the Island itself.
Expect things to go pear-shaped.
Originally posted by HappyFunBall Umm, yes it is. Not everyone likes re-runs. On TV or in a video game. Also, many people don't have tons of hours to re-invest in "fixing" a bad choice either. If you could respec, ya know, in 2 seconds, problem solved.Just because a work-around exists, to *anything*, that doesn't mean that it was a bad design choice (to start with), or that you can't have a valid gripe about it. I was in the beta and more people felt that a re-spec was needed than those that didn't. Much more.
And a lot of folks couldn't figure out the code to Doc Bannerman's computer or the keypad in the Dirty Laundry Quest either.
So going by the: "but the majority wants this" argument might not always be the best route to take.
And as for the not a lot of time argument. Maybe an MMO isn't their best choice for recreation then. Practically each and every one of them requires that you sink in your time. MMO Makers do like to get paid after all, and the more time you sink in, the more they get paid through the extended subscription.
As for the not liking reruns, well, that's their choice then. If there is an option how you can ungimp yourself, and it only takes say 1 to 2h, and you choose not to select it. Well, that was your choice to make, turning around and then blaming the developers for your own lack of initial thought or willingness to spend some time to rectify it. Just sounds screwy to me.
It's really just a few steps away from asking for an "I Win" button, because you know..
- The Majority wants it. - They don't want to be responsible for their own choices, and it's always someone else's fault. - All these silly lowbie quests are just boring, everyone knows that End-Level is where it's at, so getting there quicker without having to deal with all the boring stuff is a good thing.
(And for those wondering, yes the latter bit was firmly tongue in cheek.)
Originally posted by XPraetorianX I was playing with a friends last night. Alt tab out to cheat on a quest we where working on =-P, (at least I dont bother Gen chat) to see it was 4 am PST was like F*** got to log told him it was 4 am he was shockd too. I caught a ton of wife agro today cause her parents where comming over for a BBQ and I had to get the back yard and the pool cleaned up. TY TSW
There's no need to alt tab out of the game, you got an in-game browser. Standard button is B to open it. I personally rebound it to I myself during the Beta Weekends.
Little less of a chance to accidentally open it during combat, when I just wanted to quickly pick up the loot (V) and run from the rest of the mobs.
------ Now on to my own reply to the initial review.
Afaik, you won't be seeing clothing as drops, in all the time I spent on the Beta Weekends, not a single piece dropped, never even heard of it dropping from Closed Beta testers either.
But anyway, ways to get more clothes.
- Complete an Inner Circle Ring gets you a "Back" Item, can be a coat or similar apparel. So complete Shotgun and you get something different than if you'd picked Pistols.
- Complete one of your faction specific Decks. Yes, that means there will be outfits out there that you cannot attain. No looking like an Exorcist if you're a Dragon or Lumi and not a Templar.
- Faction Rank/Missions, attain a certain rank/complete a mission and you get your Faction Uniforms. (my own char was bugged at the time, so I never got that mission, but saw plenty of folks running around during the last Beta Weekend who had done their quest and now had a similar get up to their faction guard npc's.
- PvP supposedly has its own clothing rewards as well. Not much of a PvP player, so I didn't check that out.
- Each Major City has its own clothing store. So Pangaea in London (although there are also some clothing npc's in the Haitian Market as well), there are some clothing merchants selling stuff from the back of a truck in NY., and Seoul should also have its own merchants. Never found those chaps myself, then again I didn't really try looking for them either.
The only downside of this game is that I'm moving house and it'll be a week before my internet access is up and running at the new place, so no TSW for a week
"there is no going back. This was an intentional game design on the developers’ part as they felt it would break immersion. I suppose I can understand that but I don’t know that I agree with it. If a player makes poor choices or “experiments” and those choices result in poor or ineffective builds, not being able to respec one’s character punishes players for trying to do something unique"
This is not a valid complaint. If you picked wrong abilities and wasted a few APs, you can just rerun a couple of missions, and get those AP's back. First I ran through Kingsmouth as a DPS character, then at Savage Coast I realized I want to be a healer, so I reran several important Kingsmouth missions that give a lot of XP - and guess what, in about an hour I had all the AP's to make a viable healer's build, along with healer-item rewards from those missions.
Now one could say that I've wasted about 150 APs so far on abilities I'm not using, since they turned out to be not that good, but they are not really wasted points. Eventually, maybe in the later stage I decide to re-do the entire build and focus on different synergies, and find those abilities useful. Who knows.
Umm, yes it is. Not everyone likes re-runs. On TV or in a video game. Also, many people don't have tons of hours to re-invest in "fixing" a bad choice either. If you could respec, ya know, in 2 seconds, problem solved.
Just because a work-around exists, to *anything*, that doesn't mean that it was a bad design choice (to start with), or that you can't have a valid gripe about it.
I was in the beta and more people felt that a re-spec was needed than those that didn't. Much more.
Just because you don't like the implementation of something doesn't make it "bad".
Developers will typically make things like character development choices slower to reverse in order to give player choice more meaning and significance. You know, what so many people are always claiming they want from a MMO, then start complaining it isn't "convenient enough" when they get it. You're developing a character's learned skill-set, not changing their shirt.
As for the bit about "people don't have tons of hours". On what basis? First, they're playing a MMO, a genre of games that consumes tons of hours to begin with over the course of months or even years. There is no "ending". There is no "finish line". The game doesn't "end".
The only way someone doesn't have the time to do something in a MMO is if they've given themselves an absolute cut-off date at which they stop playing it altogether, no matter what. That isn't the developer's problem. Of course, the real reason I'd be willing to bet, is that people are simply impatient and want what they want "now". That isn't the developer's problem either.
Because you, or others, feel that you "need" to have everything provided to you "faster!" is not a problem for the game. It's a problem for how you choose to approach it. If you're using a plastic hammer to drive a nail into a 2x4, you don't blame the nail when you realize it's not working.
This isn't a "finish it in a week, set it aside, move on to the next game" deal. MMOs are designed to be played for the long-term. If someone decides that's not how they want to play it, that's their choice. But then they should accept that the game isn't designed to cater to their preferences.
Perhaps you should re-evaluate how you approach MMOs and try to play the game in the spirit it was designed with? Maybe take a step back and say "okay, it takes time to re-spec your character, but in the meantime, there's all this other stuff going on that I can do". It's not like you're sitting in one place, unable to do anything until the respect is complete. You can continue playing. Just a thought.
Hey, this is Apothos. we ran Hell raised together. was a great time and u played well . hahaha hope you get to explore the Amusement Park area. its amazingly spooky. Cya in game, Zona
Just a peice of constructive (hopefully) criticism for the writer: you used the superlative phrase "nothing short of amazing" three times in your section about the game's ambience. (which, to me, reads fairly amateurish compared to simpler choices with the same meaning.) Try not to repeat the same words of praise or criticism too often or too closely together in the article.
Anyway, I'm a bit MMO'd out nowadays and not currently playing one, but The Secret World intrigued me during its development because it's obviously offering something a bit different from the typical games in the genre. I'll keep an eye on it!
Really loving this game so far, more than I thought i would. Character creation feels about on par with most other MMO's. The NPC's are varied and the voice acting is really good but facial animations are shit, especially in terms of the lip/mouth animations...almost as bad as DCUO's muppet mouth syndrome. There are some problems with buggy quests, but the GM's seem to be quick enough getting to petitions. Combat is a bit different from the MMO standard with active dodging and less hot keys to deal with, but it is not so different as to make for a huge learning curve. The questing feels fairly refreshing while still keeping with some MMO questing conventions. There are kill quest mechanics, delivery quest mechanics, escort etc but pretty much all quests have multiple parts to them and it mixes different parts together to result i in interesting quests/missions. Some quests/missions (notably the investigation missions) contain puzzles and mysteries that require a good deal of thinking and reasoning to accomplish which is really nice...I think TSW may be making me smarter hehe. Exploration of the gameworld is fun with unique mobs, lore and side missions scattered throughout the various zones. The ambiance is "nothing short of amazing" :P There is a creepy, dark, spooky atmosphere to everything. There is even a day/night cycle to the game, something that was missing from SWTOR that I really noticed the lack of.
Now onto the meat and potatoes of TSW: the ability system. The ability system is the best to be featured in an MMO time. The lack of classes and levels is AWESOME! The ability system in TSW harkens back to more open and free character development systems like Asheron's Call and pre-NGE SWG. You can learn pretty much all skills and abilities in the game! Talk about having multiple builds...there is no need to roll an alt in TSW except to experience the other factions' experience/story. There is also no need for respecs at all; I was asking about respecs on day 1 until I realized that you could learn everything in the game on one character and this is great for me because I prefer to invest in one character as opposed to rolling a bunch of alts. The flexibility in developing a character is just great. The drag and drop mechanic of the active and passive abilities is great for changing up character builds on the fly.
Group instances are on par with group instances/dungeons from other MMO's. I would compare the group instances in TSW to SWTOR and Rift. There seems to be less focus on hordes of trash mobs and more of a mix of obstacles/traps and trash mobs to overcome to get to bosses. All the group instances so far look pretty nice to me with good environments and good level design. The first group instance, Polaris, really blew me away at the end.
I haven't tried PvP yet, still questing and enjoying the PvE aspect of the game and working on finishing various builds to make use of in PvP. I usually save PvP for endgame in MMO's but I will be hitting the PvP up in TSW long before I reach the end game. Coming from SWTOR's repetitive, grindy and seemingly pointless PvP there seems to be more point to the PvP in TSW with faction buffs and the whole world domination battles going on. I would rather battle it out in PvP instances for faction buffs and control of world landmarks than for PvP rank and PvP gear any day.
I forgot to mention the factions; having three faction in TSW is more dynamic than the two faction system in many MMO's. There is an interesting system at work where the three factions coexist in the same PvE areas yet contend against each other in the PvP areas.
Does it sound like I am gushing? Perhaps I am, but I love this game that much. I do have some misgivings with the game. Although the game has cutscenes reminiscent of SWTOR and GW2 there are no dialogue choices, which I didn't really mind. The lack of voicing for player characters is a drawback though; the "silent protagonist" thing is a disappointment. There are a bit too many buggy quest steps as well as chat and combat glitches, but as I mentioned previously the GM's seem to be pretty responsive to handling petitions...at least from my experiences so far. Also, I miss mounts; I would love to have a sweet motorcycle to ride around ala Fallen Earth hehe.
the no respecs thing isnt because "it would break imersion"
its because having them would completly break the game, the game has an inverse power curve, as you progress in game to around mid egypt, you stop increasing in raw power so much and instead progress more horizontally. You are supposed to have several builds and change them on the fly. This is how they gate "endgame" content. With respecs they would have had to go the boring old wow clone route of tiered items sets, gear checks and never ending vertical expansion.
also body sliders later - i doubt that. The reason everyone is the same size is simple - performance.
Great game but as a very CASUAL player I just don't have the time........
one the one hand its harder than many mmos, you will hit brick walls, you will have to rethink your builds etc..
on the other hand, its not a game where you have to rush to keep up with everyone else, you can work at your own pace. Vertical progression really isnt that much in tsw, once your out of new england it slows down a lot. Its not a traditional loot grinder type game.
In 3D on ultra settings it looks absolutely stunning. Not even TERA can touch it. Story, atmosphere, quests, character development, dungeons... wow. Just wow
After betaing this game, I can say for sure that I won't be playing it.
The animations of the pc's are so primitive that they look like they are eight years old.
The game feels like Vampire Bloodlines, right down to how the game plays, how it looks, the music, and more. You can even use the in game computers by using equivelent to dos.
The npc's talk at you, and you select your response but you don't actually take part in the conversation lke you do in SWTOR (I admit, SWTOR might have made me a bit biased). Instead, you stand there like an idiot blinking, and listening while the only part of your body that moves is your eyes blinking (someone needs to tell the devs of this game that there are more muscles in the body than that. For gods sakes, go look at SWTOR if you want to see proper animations, right down to fidgeting and how most people move slightly even when standing still).
The facial proportions of the pc's are wrong so that your toon is ugly no matter what you do.
No housing is boring and the crafting is boring.
There are two things about this game that are really actually very good. The scenery is incredible. And the method of advancement needs to be copied elsewhere.
One of the most annoying things about the game is that no sooner do you leave the starter area than you're thrown into Silent Hill/Resident Evil and surrounded by zombies. I mean really? Zombies? Our planet is rich in mythology, and the only thing they could come up with was zombies? Hated every second of that area with a blind passion.
The game showed such promise but I don't want to play games that are eight years old. I swear these guys played VtM and decided that since White Wolf hadn't released a game, they'd make one the way they like it, and then they designed the pc's right around the time that game came out and got to the rest after (as evidenced by this odd feeling that your toons don't belong in the world. They are too shiny and kind of seem to float above the landscape). I love Bloodlines, but we are, and should be, well beyond that now. I so badly wanted to like this game, but I just couldn't.
I'd like to add that I have an i7 processor, a geforce 570 fermi, 6 gigs of ram, and a velociraptor. I had everything set to max. I'm still very disappointed.
I hope mmorpg give this game the rating it deserved. So far i'm quite dissapointed by most of the rating mmorpg dish out. The review may be nice and rosy but then BAM 7.5/10
Umm... it's a work in progress "review" right? Because honestly I didn't get much Review here.
Character creation is meh with only clothes being the big difference? Okay I can deal with that.
Atmosphere? Really that's a major thing here? That's as big a red flag as "graphics" in a lot of ways. Because seriously a game can be as atmosphereic as you want but how's the GAME since that's what it is, a GAME.
No real discussion of the quests (which I hear are cool because they don't hold you hand) and no discussion of the gameplay. I look forward to reading more but for now this "review" isn't (and like I said before I'm pretty sure this is a WIP review) anything of the kind since how can you review a game if you don't talk about gameplay?
Current Game: Asssasins Creed 2(PS3, Gamer Tag: Happy_Hubby) Current MMO: World of Warcraft and World of Tanks Former Subscribed MMO: Star Trek Online, Aion, WoW, Guild Wars, Eve Online, DAoC, City of Heroes, Shattered Galaxy, 10six. Tried: Too many to list
Comments
I was playing with a friends last night. Alt tab out to cheat on a quest we where working on =-P, (at least I dont bother Gen chat) to see it was 4 am PST was like F*** got to log told him it was 4 am he was shockd too. I caught a ton of wife agro today cause her parents where comming over for a BBQ and I had to get the back yard and the pool cleaned up. TY TSW
I am honestly blown away at how good this game is. Totally shocked. I love the combat it is so deep with so many choices. The quests are great and challenging. This is not an easy game, so some people are turned off by that. This is the best MMO I have played since all the MMO's got the WoW treatment.
I also like the fact that the game is looking like an adventure/mmorpg hybrid. The investigation missions have been praised by a lot of players, and I expect Funcom to add lot's more of these in coming updates. That coupled with the fact that it looks like Funcom intentionally has blurred the lines between the Real world and their gaming Universe. For an example, play "Something Wicked" and do a Google Search for Larry Checkon, the guy they jailed for the murders, coincidence? That, and references to real art, paintings, poems, makes this world feel so much more immersive than other mmorpgs. I love it, keep it flowing Funcom.
As long as Funcom keeps adding fresh Investigation quests, this game will never run out of end game, brilliant.
Conlai "Darkmoor" MacGregor
Templar and Lifer (in TSW)
It's a Golem* holding a Blood Magic Symbol, think of it as a form of Voodoo Doll.
*: Iirc, the Scarecrows are categorized as a form of Golem anyway.
How it's possible that a Golem can use magic? Well, when you're dealing with a Golem Maker who didn't really understand what he was doing, and supernatural Beasties like Jack O'Lantern, The Boogeyman and some sleeping Eldritch Horror beneath the Island itself.
Expect things to go pear-shaped.
And a lot of folks couldn't figure out the code to Doc Bannerman's computer or the keypad in the Dirty Laundry Quest either.
So going by the: "but the majority wants this" argument might not always be the best route to take.
And as for the not a lot of time argument. Maybe an MMO isn't their best choice for recreation then. Practically each and every one of them requires that you sink in your time. MMO Makers do like to get paid after all, and the more time you sink in, the more they get paid through the extended subscription.
As for the not liking reruns, well, that's their choice then. If there is an option how you can ungimp yourself, and it only takes say 1 to 2h, and you choose not to select it. Well, that was your choice to make, turning around and then blaming the developers for your own lack of initial thought or willingness to spend some time to rectify it. Just sounds screwy to me.
It's really just a few steps away from asking for an "I Win" button, because you know..
- The Majority wants it.
- They don't want to be responsible for their own choices, and it's always someone else's fault.
- All these silly lowbie quests are just boring, everyone knows that End-Level is where it's at, so getting there quicker without having to deal with all the boring stuff is a good thing.
(And for those wondering, yes the latter bit was firmly tongue in cheek.)
There's no need to alt tab out of the game, you got an in-game browser. Standard button is B to open it. I personally rebound it to I myself during the Beta Weekends.
Little less of a chance to accidentally open it during combat, when I just wanted to quickly pick up the loot (V) and run from the rest of the mobs.
------
Now on to my own reply to the initial review.
Afaik, you won't be seeing clothing as drops, in all the time I spent on the Beta Weekends, not a single piece dropped, never even heard of it dropping from Closed Beta testers either.
But anyway, ways to get more clothes.
- Complete an Inner Circle Ring gets you a "Back" Item, can be a coat or similar apparel. So complete Shotgun and you get something different than if you'd picked Pistols.
- Complete one of your faction specific Decks. Yes, that means there will be outfits out there that you cannot attain. No looking like an Exorcist if you're a Dragon or Lumi and not a Templar.
- Faction Rank/Missions, attain a certain rank/complete a mission and you get your Faction Uniforms. (my own char was bugged at the time, so I never got that mission, but saw plenty of folks running around during the last Beta Weekend who had done their quest and now had a similar get up to their faction guard npc's.
- PvP supposedly has its own clothing rewards as well. Not much of a PvP player, so I didn't check that out.
- Each Major City has its own clothing store. So Pangaea in London (although there are also some clothing npc's in the Haitian Market as well), there are some clothing merchants selling stuff from the back of a truck in NY., and Seoul should also have its own merchants. Never found those chaps myself, then again I didn't really try looking for them either.
The only downside of this game is that I'm moving house and it'll be a week before my internet access is up and running at the new place, so no TSW for a week
I think they will do just as well without you and 99% of your friends....
The Secret World is a massively multiplayer online game from Funcom, where players must battle the forces of darkness that are threatening our world.
Just because you don't like the implementation of something doesn't make it "bad".
Developers will typically make things like character development choices slower to reverse in order to give player choice more meaning and significance. You know, what so many people are always claiming they want from a MMO, then start complaining it isn't "convenient enough" when they get it. You're developing a character's learned skill-set, not changing their shirt.
As for the bit about "people don't have tons of hours". On what basis? First, they're playing a MMO, a genre of games that consumes tons of hours to begin with over the course of months or even years. There is no "ending". There is no "finish line". The game doesn't "end".
The only way someone doesn't have the time to do something in a MMO is if they've given themselves an absolute cut-off date at which they stop playing it altogether, no matter what. That isn't the developer's problem. Of course, the real reason I'd be willing to bet, is that people are simply impatient and want what they want "now". That isn't the developer's problem either.
Because you, or others, feel that you "need" to have everything provided to you "faster!" is not a problem for the game. It's a problem for how you choose to approach it. If you're using a plastic hammer to drive a nail into a 2x4, you don't blame the nail when you realize it's not working.
This isn't a "finish it in a week, set it aside, move on to the next game" deal. MMOs are designed to be played for the long-term. If someone decides that's not how they want to play it, that's their choice. But then they should accept that the game isn't designed to cater to their preferences.
Perhaps you should re-evaluate how you approach MMOs and try to play the game in the spirit it was designed with? Maybe take a step back and say "okay, it takes time to re-spec your character, but in the meantime, there's all this other stuff going on that I can do". It's not like you're sitting in one place, unable to do anything until the respect is complete. You can continue playing. Just a thought.
Best game ive ever played!
Great game but as a very CASUAL player I just don't have the time........
Hey, this is Apothos. we ran Hell raised together.
was a great time and u played well . hahaha hope you get to explore the Amusement Park area. its amazingly spooky. Cya in game, Zona
Id have to agree the lower level content is very dissapointing, the variety is lacking indeed.
A nice article and a good read to be sure.
Worrying about respec is a sure sign that someone hasn't gotten very far into the game yet.
Honestly, chill. It'll be fine, you'll see.
_____
Bright indications singe cool undisciplined hours.
Just a peice of constructive (hopefully) criticism for the writer: you used the superlative phrase "nothing short of amazing" three times in your section about the game's ambience. (which, to me, reads fairly amateurish compared to simpler choices with the same meaning.) Try not to repeat the same words of praise or criticism too often or too closely together in the article.
Anyway, I'm a bit MMO'd out nowadays and not currently playing one, but The Secret World intrigued me during its development because it's obviously offering something a bit different from the typical games in the genre. I'll keep an eye on it!
Really loving this game so far, more than I thought i would. Character creation feels about on par with most other MMO's. The NPC's are varied and the voice acting is really good but facial animations are shit, especially in terms of the lip/mouth animations...almost as bad as DCUO's muppet mouth syndrome. There are some problems with buggy quests, but the GM's seem to be quick enough getting to petitions. Combat is a bit different from the MMO standard with active dodging and less hot keys to deal with, but it is not so different as to make for a huge learning curve. The questing feels fairly refreshing while still keeping with some MMO questing conventions. There are kill quest mechanics, delivery quest mechanics, escort etc but pretty much all quests have multiple parts to them and it mixes different parts together to result i in interesting quests/missions. Some quests/missions (notably the investigation missions) contain puzzles and mysteries that require a good deal of thinking and reasoning to accomplish which is really nice...I think TSW may be making me smarter hehe. Exploration of the gameworld is fun with unique mobs, lore and side missions scattered throughout the various zones. The ambiance is "nothing short of amazing" :P There is a creepy, dark, spooky atmosphere to everything. There is even a day/night cycle to the game, something that was missing from SWTOR that I really noticed the lack of.
Now onto the meat and potatoes of TSW: the ability system. The ability system is the best to be featured in an MMO time. The lack of classes and levels is AWESOME! The ability system in TSW harkens back to more open and free character development systems like Asheron's Call and pre-NGE SWG. You can learn pretty much all skills and abilities in the game! Talk about having multiple builds...there is no need to roll an alt in TSW except to experience the other factions' experience/story. There is also no need for respecs at all; I was asking about respecs on day 1 until I realized that you could learn everything in the game on one character and this is great for me because I prefer to invest in one character as opposed to rolling a bunch of alts. The flexibility in developing a character is just great. The drag and drop mechanic of the active and passive abilities is great for changing up character builds on the fly.
Group instances are on par with group instances/dungeons from other MMO's. I would compare the group instances in TSW to SWTOR and Rift. There seems to be less focus on hordes of trash mobs and more of a mix of obstacles/traps and trash mobs to overcome to get to bosses. All the group instances so far look pretty nice to me with good environments and good level design. The first group instance, Polaris, really blew me away at the end.
I haven't tried PvP yet, still questing and enjoying the PvE aspect of the game and working on finishing various builds to make use of in PvP. I usually save PvP for endgame in MMO's but I will be hitting the PvP up in TSW long before I reach the end game. Coming from SWTOR's repetitive, grindy and seemingly pointless PvP there seems to be more point to the PvP in TSW with faction buffs and the whole world domination battles going on. I would rather battle it out in PvP instances for faction buffs and control of world landmarks than for PvP rank and PvP gear any day.
I forgot to mention the factions; having three faction in TSW is more dynamic than the two faction system in many MMO's. There is an interesting system at work where the three factions coexist in the same PvE areas yet contend against each other in the PvP areas.
Does it sound like I am gushing? Perhaps I am, but I love this game that much. I do have some misgivings with the game. Although the game has cutscenes reminiscent of SWTOR and GW2 there are no dialogue choices, which I didn't really mind. The lack of voicing for player characters is a drawback though; the "silent protagonist" thing is a disappointment. There are a bit too many buggy quest steps as well as chat and combat glitches, but as I mentioned previously the GM's seem to be pretty responsive to handling petitions...at least from my experiences so far. Also, I miss mounts; I would love to have a sweet motorcycle to ride around ala Fallen Earth hehe.
Personally this game is an 8/10.
the no respecs thing isnt because "it would break imersion"
its because having them would completly break the game, the game has an inverse power curve, as you progress in game to around mid egypt, you stop increasing in raw power so much and instead progress more horizontally. You are supposed to have several builds and change them on the fly. This is how they gate "endgame" content. With respecs they would have had to go the boring old wow clone route of tiered items sets, gear checks and never ending vertical expansion.
also body sliders later - i doubt that. The reason everyone is the same size is simple - performance.
one the one hand its harder than many mmos, you will hit brick walls, you will have to rethink your builds etc..
on the other hand, its not a game where you have to rush to keep up with everyone else, you can work at your own pace. Vertical progression really isnt that much in tsw, once your out of new england it slows down a lot. Its not a traditional loot grinder type game.
In 3D on ultra settings it looks absolutely stunning. Not even TERA can touch it. Story, atmosphere, quests, character development, dungeons... wow. Just wow
I was in the beta you clown, I dont need to prove it, that post was related to my previous post, talking about innovation here, HEEEEEEEEEEEELLO?!
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Before: developers loved games and made money.
Now: developers love money and make games.
After betaing this game, I can say for sure that I won't be playing it.
The animations of the pc's are so primitive that they look like they are eight years old.
The game feels like Vampire Bloodlines, right down to how the game plays, how it looks, the music, and more. You can even use the in game computers by using equivelent to dos.
The npc's talk at you, and you select your response but you don't actually take part in the conversation lke you do in SWTOR (I admit, SWTOR might have made me a bit biased). Instead, you stand there like an idiot blinking, and listening while the only part of your body that moves is your eyes blinking (someone needs to tell the devs of this game that there are more muscles in the body than that. For gods sakes, go look at SWTOR if you want to see proper animations, right down to fidgeting and how most people move slightly even when standing still).
The facial proportions of the pc's are wrong so that your toon is ugly no matter what you do.
No housing is boring and the crafting is boring.
There are two things about this game that are really actually very good. The scenery is incredible. And the method of advancement needs to be copied elsewhere.
One of the most annoying things about the game is that no sooner do you leave the starter area than you're thrown into Silent Hill/Resident Evil and surrounded by zombies. I mean really? Zombies? Our planet is rich in mythology, and the only thing they could come up with was zombies? Hated every second of that area with a blind passion.
The game showed such promise but I don't want to play games that are eight years old. I swear these guys played VtM and decided that since White Wolf hadn't released a game, they'd make one the way they like it, and then they designed the pc's right around the time that game came out and got to the rest after (as evidenced by this odd feeling that your toons don't belong in the world. They are too shiny and kind of seem to float above the landscape). I love Bloodlines, but we are, and should be, well beyond that now. I so badly wanted to like this game, but I just couldn't.
I hope mmorpg give this game the rating it deserved. So far i'm quite dissapointed by most of the rating mmorpg dish out. The review may be nice and rosy but then BAM 7.5/10
Umm... it's a work in progress "review" right? Because honestly I didn't get much Review here.
Character creation is meh with only clothes being the big difference? Okay I can deal with that.
Atmosphere? Really that's a major thing here? That's as big a red flag as "graphics" in a lot of ways. Because seriously a game can be as atmosphereic as you want but how's the GAME since that's what it is, a GAME.
No real discussion of the quests (which I hear are cool because they don't hold you hand) and no discussion of the gameplay. I look forward to reading more but for now this "review" isn't (and like I said before I'm pretty sure this is a WIP review) anything of the kind since how can you review a game if you don't talk about gameplay?
Current Game: Asssasins Creed 2(PS3, Gamer Tag: Happy_Hubby)
Current MMO: World of Warcraft and World of Tanks
Former Subscribed MMO: Star Trek Online, Aion, WoW, Guild Wars, Eve Online, DAoC, City of Heroes, Shattered Galaxy, 10six.
Tried: Too many to list