The Secret World: The Accursed Woods

SBFord · June 2011

The Funcom team is continuing to reveal locations throughout The Secret World. Today the Accursed Woods are featured a "Lovecraftian" setting, the home of horrid creatures stalking the unwary who trek through.

These accursed woods have been theirs for a thousand years, but they have remained unclaimed and empty, visited only by those who were blind to the darkness. Dogs would howl, birds would fall deathly silent, and the beasts of the island would all shun the eerie ground. Not until the corpse-white fog rolled over Solomon Island did the things that slept finally wake -- all of them. Scrabbling for foothold, biting, scratching and clawing, they rose through the black soil into the sour air. Now their foul nests infect the monstrous trees, strange weeds strangling gnarled boughs, and the ancient forest reeks of death and pestilence.

Read more on The Secret World site.

Thillian · June 2011

Nothing can go wrong here, except of the technical condition at the release, which I hope is now in perfect state, since the engine is up and running for years in Age of Conan.

Yuui · June 2011

I really love the writing style in this game.

Its not just a dry info, every bit of text has its own style, theme, atmosphere and IMO, so far everything in this game as well as in ARG, reads more like a real atmospheric breathing world, or a good good book.

TheLizardbones · June 2011

Originally posted by Thillian
Nothing can go wrong here, except of the technical condition at the release, which I hope is now in perfect state, since the engine is up and running for years in Age of Conan.

Thanks a lot. You've just doomed this game. 'Nothing can go wrong here' indeed.

MMO.Maverick · June 2011

Holy f*cking smoke! ANOTHER location reveal, has this become a daily thing this week?!

I really, really hope that they've managed to capture the atmosphere and vibe of these locations as well as they describe them. A haunted motel, a creepy amusement park, a secret Illuminati cover school that's under siege of the undead and other creatures, a cursed forest. I like it

Originally posted by lizardbones

Originally posted by Thillian

Nothing can go wrong here, except of the technical condition at the release, which I hope is now in perfect state, since the engine is up and running for years in Age of Conan.

Thanks a lot. You've just doomed this game. 'Nothing can go wrong here' indeed.

EVERYTHING can go wrong. Expect the worst, hope for the best, or at least for adequately satisfactory

Grimmly · June 2011

so what i been getting from this past few days and their posts is that this "fog" has alot to do with the game....maybe its the main factor of the end of the world or just something thats awakeing all the secrets...

Yuui · June 2011

Originally posted by pkpoika0 so what i been getting from this past few days and their posts is that this "fog" has alot to do with the game....maybe its the main factor of the end of the world or just something thats awakeing all the secrets...

The white fog is something common in the kingsmouth location and the places connected to the waters around it. Its part of the puzzle.

We do not know on if it is sighted in entire world or no, however we do know that there are other factors that somehow start various things and some things are just plain unexplainable for now(like bee disappearance).

However there are too many factors unknown right now as most secrets of the old seem to have found their sanctuary.3

Anyway, I certainly doubt anyone will ever figure these crazy things.

ProfRed · June 2011

I love the stories of fog and hidden creatures within it. This area is very cool, and the writing style they have is excellent. I can't wait for this game.

Grimmly · June 2011

Originally posted by Yuui

Originally posted by pkpoika0 so what i been getting from this past few days and their posts is that this "fog" has alot to do with the game....maybe its the main factor of the end of the world or just something thats awakeing all the secrets...

The white fog is something common in the kingsmouth location and the places connected to the waters around it. Its part of the puzzle.

We do not know on if it is sighted in entire world or no, however we do know that there are other factors that somehow start various things and some things are just plain unexplainable for now(like bee disappearance).

However there are too many factors unknown right now as most secrets of the old seem to have found their sanctuary.3

Anyway, I certainly doubt anyone will ever figure these crazy things.

yeah i was just reading some of the other articles like chapel of the prince and crash site, and it looks like the fog is only on kingsmouth...so what i said before is completely wrong

celee2222 · June 2011

I seriously cant wait for this game

It is about everything im researching on the net at the moment

TarotMage · June 2011

If this game gets any creepier players are going to be afraid to play it...or at least keep an extra pair of clean underwear nearby.

I love it.

demonic87 · June 2011

Everytime info is posted on this game I go to check it, but before I even start reading I remember how bad the combat looked from the video's iv seen and just decided not to waste my time.

MMO.Maverick · June 2011

Originally posted by demonic87
Everytime info is posted on this game I go to check it, but before I even start reading I remember how bad the combat looked from the video's iv seen and just decided not to waste my time.

Yes, because it isn't like combat and animation will improve from early builds in the progression towards release, right? And of course, it isn't like AoC's combat animation was pretty slick and stunning and TSw is uinsg the same engine, so there are at least a number of devs that know how to combat animation well at Funcom, right?

karat76 · June 2011

Looking forward to this and ToR. Two different flavors for my amusement.

Gyrus · June 2011

Originally posted by MMO.Maverick
Holy f*cking smoke! ANOTHER location reveal, has this become a daily thing this week?!

....

Oh come on!

It's an artist's design concept painting and two paragraphs of text!???

You write more than that on MMORPG.com forums every day.

It's just a very prolonged advertising campaign to keep this game on peoples' minds.

As for the creapy discriptions - there are dozens of people who could write fiction just as well right here on the forum.

MMO.Maverick · June 2011

Originally posted by Gyrus

It's an artist's design concept painting and two paragraphs of text!???

You write more than that on MMORPG.com forums every day.

It's just a very prolonged advertising campaign to keep this game on peoples' minds.

As for the creapy discriptions - there are dozens of people who could write fiction just as well right here on the forum.

Oh please

You forgot the most important thing, everybody can write fiction, but these are all locations that are ingame and in 1 area alone, an area that already had a lot of stuff happening in, with its zombie infestation, roaming Revenants, tentacled drowned women that came with the fog from the sea and Cthulhu like monsters. And now added to this you'll have intriguing places like an entertainment park that drove people insane a la The Shining, a haunted motel, an Illuminati school steeped in dark magic, and now these woods. All this in 1 area. Which makes it with all those different locations with a past a lot more intriguing and richer in content variety than most of the areas in other MMO's.

Especially since Tornquist is game director and he and other devs already stated that there will be a lot secrets and mysteries to uncover in a way that hasn't been done in MMO's yet - in mystery/adventure games of course sortlike things have been done before.

If you're indifferent towards such atmosphere in games, well, that's your thing. There are also people who think little of the atmosphere in Lovecraft's works or the Cthulhu mythos, or who thought games like Silent Hill, Left4Dead or Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines were lame. Me, I enjoyed those games and loved the atmosphere in them. Shrug. To each their own.

Figure · June 2011

Part of the problem is that they can't go spoiling the entire storyline in these location overviews because many of the missions in the game are investigative, and are about figuring out what the hell is going on. So the scant vagueness is somewhat intentional I believe. Also, it appears like this is 'location week(s)' for the Funcom's info dumping on the game. We'll probably get a new location a day until they fill in most, if not all, the launch locations.

What we should take away from this is that it appears that the Illuminati have several zones to explore, and possibly the other factions as well. I'm hoping this isn't the extent of how deep the Illuminati storyline will go. What I'm hoping is that there's about 3 times as many zones for the Illuminati as are shown currently, and that there's an equal amount for each other faction, as well as several shared pve zones where all 3 are combining resources to deal with some of the larger threats. From what I understand about Kingsmouth, it's a 3-5 part storyline where the players eventually figure out what's causing the mist and how it's tied to the Illuminati's dealings in Kingsmouth.

Part 1: Zombies.

Part 2: Zombies part 2.

Part 3: Draughr, then Draughr leader(s).

Part 4: Investigations of Mist

(possibly intervening missions where players gather more information on the town or exposition on the Illuminati's connection to it)

Part 5: Final confrontation with cause of mist.

And that hopefully the playtime for this section of the game is a week or so, and that each other location takes at least a week or so to explore as well. This time will decrease as more players post public solutions to some of the puzzles. Earlier, more well-tread puzzles will become public knowledge, and hopefully by that time, TSW's endgame plan will be in full swing, with multi-stage ARG puzzles tying up hundreds of players trying to combine their collective brainpower trying to figure out a solution.

Gyrus · June 2011

Originally posted by MMO.Maverick

...Especially since Tornquist is game designer and he and other devs already stated that there will be a lot secrets and mysteries to uncover in a way that hasn't been done in MMO's yet - in mystery/adventure games of course sortlike things have been done before.

If you're indifferent towards such atmosphere in games, well, that's your thing. ...Shrug. To each their own.

It's got nothing to do with me being indifferent towards such atmosphere.

What it has to do with is that this is simply an extended, subtle, 'viral' marketing campaign.

It's smoke and mirrors.

And what they have done is managed to 'infect' a few people with anticipation and those people are in the process of 'infecting' others. Not that that is a bad thing in itself - in fact it's very good marketing.

But the issue I have with it is this: Does any of this relate to the actual quality of the game?

And that's where I have my doubts. Think about what Funcom has released and what factual information is actually known about the game (as opposed to the lore behind the game)? There really isn't that much for a game apparently in development so long and so close to release (if that release is to be in the next 12 months).

Yes, the lore and concept looks fantastic. As I have said before - it looks like the research department has done an absolutely fantastic job. They seem to have tracked down and tied together everything from horror to myth to folklore and fairytales. But can they put even half of that into a game? And more importantly, can they get a decent amount of that into the game at release?

Because to me - this is starting to look like the good ol' "Funcom bait and switch" again.

I'm not saying people shouldn't look forward to this game - but be careful not to let your excitement and enthusiasm turn you into a salesman for a game that hasn't been seen yet.

Your post (for example) says:

"...but these are all locations that are ingame and in 1 area alone, an area that already had a lot of stuff happening in, with its zombie infestation, roaming Revenants, tentacled drowned women that came with the fog from the sea and Cthulhu like monsters. And now added to this you'll have intriguing places like an entertainment park that drove people insane a la The Shining, a haunted motel, an Illuminati school steeped in dark magic, and now these woods. All this in 1 area. ..."

Ummm... so you have seen this? It's not instanced and broken up into smaller instanced areas?

Because what I have seen so far suggests a lot of instances and not one area - but a bunch of instanced zones.

And how this sort of marketing works is that someone will read your post and tell their friends "Yup! It's all one world with no zones and it takes DAYS to walk across it and you have to fight this thing at sea so there will be boats in it and..."

As for Tornquist being a game designer - Tabula Rasa was designed by Richard Garriot. And Devs say a lot of things. Funcom has been caught out promising things they had trouble delivering on before.

Look - I would like to believe it will be different this time and The secret world will be everything promised. But with so little real confirmed info known still (in game info I mean) I would suggest we don't fall for the hype machine yet again?

MMO.Maverick · June 2011

Originally posted by Gyrus

What it has to do with is that this is simply an extended, subtle, 'viral' marketing campaign.

It's smoke and mirrors.

Nonsense. They're mood setters, just as the SWTOR CG trailers: everyone who uses their brains know that gameplay will be different from those trailers and will certainly not look that awesome in graphics as those trailers, but that doesn't mean that people can't enjoy those trailers or the tone that they set.

Same with those locations, or the articles about specific NPC races in GW2 or the timeline trailers of SWTOR. All appetizers and mood setters.

But the issue I have with it is this: Does any of this relate to the actual quality of the game?

See above, they portray a certain vibe and atmosphere of the game just like the CG videos of SWTOR, in the case of the locations they provide a background. If that's not a thing that you can enjoy for what it is, then that's your problem, not mine.

And that's where I have my doubts. Think about what Funcom has released and what factual information is actually known about the game (as opposed to the lore behind the game)? There really isn't that much for a game apparently in development so long and so close to release (if that release is to be in the next 12 months).

Then obviously you haven't paid a lot of attention to what's been revealed about the game. I suggest you read up. It's like those people who kept complaining about that BW only released 'story, story, story' info about their game, while in reality a hell of a lot more was known about the game, only those people couldn't be bothered to look up all the information available.

Yes, the lore and concept looks fantastic. As I have said before - it looks like the research department has done an absolutely fantastic job. They seem to have tracked down and tied together everything from horror to myth to folklore and fairytales. But can they put even half of that into a game? And more importantly, can they get a decent amount of that into the game at release?

What, implement all legends, folklore tales, mysteries, conspiracy theories, urban legends, myths and so on from the whole world of all past centuries, in 1 game? Why should they? It's just a fount of lore that they can make use of whenever they feel on expanding the game, no need to implement everything ingame.

Because to me - this is starting to look like the good ol' "Funcom bait and switch" again.

Shrug. I enjoyed TLJ, Dreamfall and AoC and had no trouble at all like the disappointments or failed personal expectations that some players with AoC had. So no, I got no 'bait and switch' vibe at all, especially since their approach with TSW is differently from AoC's pre-release campaign which should be obvious to everyone who's truly objective, and besides that Tornquist is no Gaute or that guy from WAR with their testosterone filled power speeches.

I'm not saying people shouldn't look forward to this game - but be careful not to let your excitement and enthusiasm turn you into a salesman for a game that hasn't been seen yet.

Ummm... so you have seen this? It's not instanced and broken up into smaller instanced areas?

There is no concrete proof, but so far it looks like it's not broken up. From the available maps, this looks like Kingsmouth could be the size of the largest areas of AoC, so technically it's very much a possibility. Besides that, Tornquist said that the areas would be larger than AoC and that he disliked instances and would avoid it in their design wherever they can. It's a wait and see how this translates in reality.

Besides, what I meant with 1 area is that everyone of those locations are situated in the same Kingsmouth area and not spread out over all kinds of areas. If I regard areas in other MMO's, like WoW's Elwynn Forest or EQ's Greater Faydark, or LotrO's Breeland, then the Kingsmouth area portrayed sounds a lot more intriguing with a wider variety of interesting hotspots. To me, that is.

Because what I have seen so far suggests a lot of instances and not one area - but a bunch of instanced zones.

See above.

As for Tornquist being a game designer - Tabula Rasa was designed by Richard Garriot. And Devs say a lot of things. Funcom has been caught out promising things they had trouble delivering on before.

They delivered everything I wanted with TLJ and Dreamfall, and I enjoyed AoC immensely, so I don't see the problem here, besides like you already said, not two games are the same, right? You point towards Garriot's second MMO that was nowhere near his first MMO, well, in the same line of thought FC's TSW project isn't the same as their AoC project.

Look - I would like to believe it will be different this time and The secret world will be everything promised. But with so little real confirmed info known still (in game info I mean) I would suggest we don't fall for the hype machine yet again?

I can understand that for people who have fallen for hype machines in the past that they would and should be more careful. In the 10 years I myself have never fallen for any hype machine, nor were games in the end that far from the expectations I had from them to the point of bitter disappointment. To the contrary, many MMO's I enjoyed for what they had to offer, where other people apparently weren't capable of that.

As for TSW, as with many MMO's, I think there's a lot more to know than people realise, especially if they make the effort of looking stuff up. Most of the times it's the case that a lot of people couldn't be bothered to investigate and seek out information about the MMO('s) they're interested in.

But thanks for the well intended heads up anyway

Dayzon · June 2011

If any game launched now, doesn't live up to your expectations, you are a lazy idiot, and I will not feel sorry for you.

You didn't study the game, didn't read the games' forum posts, didn't read the beta testers' feed back, so I could care less about how cheated you may feel.

I will be playing TSW. I'm active on thier forums, and I have learned enough to make my desision. Don't set yourself up for dissapointment - simple. It does not seem to be a game that if you don't play at launch, you'll never catch up. If you don't know enough to decide, wait untill you do.

OkhamsRazor · June 2011

These days I don't look for an mmo to play for year in year out given none of them are really designed for long term play these days .If I get a few months play out of it I'm happy-ish now . This game looks like something I would enjoy but again I have my doubts that it will have any real longevity . I just hope if thats the case people dont rubbish it in these forums and enjoy it for what it is . After Age of Conan I'm unlikly to play a Funcom game on release and most likly will wait for a few reviews and comments in these forums . Once bitten twice shy sort of thing . Having said that if they pull it off it could be a real breath of fresh air for mmos which are a bit stale at the moment and in definate need of some inovation .

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