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The Secret World: Shedding the Secrets
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
In the first of a new weekly series based on Funcom's The Secret World, MMORPG.com Lead Writer Bill Murphy takes a look at what we know about The Secret World so far. Because of how little is known, it leaves the door wide open to speculation. Check out Bill's thoughts and then leave us a comment or two about what you think.
For those unfamiliar, The Secret World is unique in setting in that it takes place during the present day and on our beloved planet Earth. The key difference is that in this version of Earth, everything we ever thought was just myth or legend is true. Werewolves, vampires, zombies, dragons… you name it, it exists and everyone knows it. Real world locations across the globe from urban sprawls to roving countrysides, London pubs and American suburbia are all part of the game world. There’s a massive and terrifying evil preparing to invade and corrupt the world, and it will be the players’ job to drive it back… all while fighting each other as part of one of the game’s three factions.
Read more of Bill Murphy's The Secret World: Shedding the Secrets.
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Comments
Yay, it's finally here, the big news, can't wait to continue reading this column
The Secret World is the game I'm waiting for. Ragnar is the developer... I was in when the name started with an R!
Great addition imo
Looks great! Very excited! This and GW2 are at the top of my list.
I am going to gofanboy on this, I know it.
Love the idea of the setting
Love the idea of the skill implementation
Love the ideas they have for combat interaction
Love the idea of everything
Now I just need to get my hands on it so I can get rid of the 'idea'.
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The person who is certain, and who claims divine warrant for his certainty, belongs now to the infancy of our species.
No matter how much you dislike Funcom for releasing unpolished games, it is currently the only large development studio which tries to bring new and fresh ideas into the genre. Thanks god we have them, and let's hope they will deliver a little more polished game this time.
REALITY CHECK
The more I see of this the more I like it. This could be amazing and from what we have seen it will be.
I've been hooked ever since the game setting/theme was revealed. Real world with an underskin of the supernatural? Fantastic! I'm willing to accept anything else about TSW just to get a AAA horror MMO.
I was intrigued when I first read about the concept, it is outside the box. My only experience with skill-based games is SWG and there my medic/carabineer suffered from lack of access to medical supplies, but 500 is a lot to choose from. Unfortunately, I fear viable or pecieved viable spec options are going to be limited to a handful. If FC are able to design a game where we can mix and match among 500 skills without becoming gimp, they truly have made a innovative game. If they are able to match it to game mechanics and a combat system that is exciting, then I think they will find the success AoC eluded them.
One correction on PvP, they've ditched the idea of 3 factions fighting for Anima in Hollow Earth. PvP instead will be more mini-game like with a King of the Hill style arena at Stonehenge, a Last Man Standing fight in Shambahla, and a slightly modified Capture the Flag game in El Dorado.
Vargur, I brought up the same thing on their official TSW forums when they talked about the freeform gameplay. I did read in another article that skill sets can be saved and loaded and even shared. So expect to see sites available with builds for the holy trinity roles to stop the gimp factor.
Probably best thing is that with no classes, if there is a Build of the Month, anyone can use it. So it's not like everyone looses to the Hunters because they're OP or something.
What about instancing? Will the world be super instanced like AoC or?
My gaming blog
With so many different locations scattered all around the world, I would imagine so.
Apparently it's gone back for more work rather than being ditched altogether (forum post from Nyte here: http://www.darkdemonscrygaia.com/showpost.php?p=431889&postcount=13 ) which is a bit of relief.
As far as I can tell from videos I've seen they're shying away from instancing (apart from the PvP map) and things like phasing in favour of a more open world.
The more I hear about the game the more I like it (and I was hooked way back when the Lovecraftian setting was laid out).
Funcom love instanced games and this Secret World is likely to follow the tradition of AoC. I think we really need to wait till game is near release to get a better idea of what is going on. AoC was very deceptive, Tortage in AoC was like completely different from the rest of the game.
have you heard of arenanet?
Most memorable games: AoC(Tryanny PvP), RIFT, GW, GW2, Ragnarok Online, Aion, FFXI, FFXIV, Secret World, League of Legends (Silver II rank)
That's awesome news that it isn't out for good, I was looking forward to some true 3-faction RvR as their Hollow Earth areas seemed to promise. I hope they can manage to get it working as it should.
The ACTUAL size of MMORPG worlds: a comparison list between MMO's
The ease with which predictions are made on these forums:
Fratman: "I'm saying Spring 2012 at the earliest [for TOR release]. Anyone still clinging to 2011 is deluding themself at this point."
Me too - here's hoping a lot of the really interesting stuff doesn't get abandoned due to lack of time (or whatever).
The cooler the game sounds the more my optimism gets tempered by wariness. I do have faith in Ragnar though, if not in Funcom.
Most of TSW looks very promising and above all it looks to be different and original in the setting in a good way. Only thing I really dislike is the freeform char creation, untill more info is released that is. The idea of everyone being able to do everything and switch roles at will sounds just awful. Everyone picking the best ability X and the next best ability Z etc. Really looking forward to see how they are going to implement this char building, it's going to have big impact on the game. I wish the abilities will have sort of "tiers" and you can pick only one ability from certain tier, having to choose one ability from several good ones instead of being able to pick every ability that is being calculated to be the best. Thumbs up and lets hope TSW will be great
sanbox without crafting, meaning econom, housing? it sounds like themepark with sandboxy aproach to characters only
Happy to see that TSW gets the attention it deserves, I've always loved Ragnar Törnquists stories (Anarchy Online/Prophet Without Honor, The Longest Journey, Dreamfall), and as I saw he was involved in this project, I just knew it was going to become a wonderful game.
The Khitai update was fairly large.
Sounds like Indiana Jones goes to Narnia....I'll wait for WOD.
"Train by day, Joe Rogan podcast by night, all day!"
Heh, funny comparison, hadn't thought of that one
However, it's more like Stephen King meets Lovecraft and Cthulhu.
The ACTUAL size of MMORPG worlds: a comparison list between MMO's
The ease with which predictions are made on these forums:
Fratman: "I'm saying Spring 2012 at the earliest [for TOR release]. Anyone still clinging to 2011 is deluding themself at this point."
*slaps shantideva with a disembodied tentacle* "The Great Old ones scorn such comparisons!!!
Made me giggle though
same old limitations as all their games because they use the same old engine. Just better graphics and new theme, but same old MMO under the hood with pvp that's doing the same old formula done much better in online fps games. Instanced PVP is dull. I bet the targeting is auto target too still *rolls eyes* I'm sure the new gen of young teen MMO players will enjoy it though.