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[Column] The Secret World: Quiet on the Front?
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
Funcom has made no bones about wanting to keep The Secret World on the cutting edge of interesting for its players. In today's column devoted to The Secret World, we take a look at the latest campaign to intrigue and entertain players. Check it out before leaving your thoughts in the comments.
On February 7, Game Director Joel Bylos, writing as Nusquam on the forums. decided to set up a seemingly innocuous experiment. He wrote, “We like to do experiments and we like to try new things. Like minded souls should get twitter accounts and pay attention to the twitterverse. Especially on Tuesdays.”
Read more of Victor Barreiro Jr.'s The Secret World: Quiet on the Front?
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Comments
Secrets of Dragon?s Spine Trailer.. !
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwT9cFVQCMw
Best MMOs ever played: Ultima, EvE, SW Galaxies, Age of Conan, The Secret World
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2X_SbZCHpc&t=21s
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The Return of ELITE !
My favorite..
TSW - nice game for PvE enthusiasts
As a PvP centered player I think this game needs more work in that area
Ill keep this short-
few games have ever left an impression on me.
eveonline- wow:Wotlk- warhammeronline Borderlands2 and GW2...and now The Secret World.
My only regret is that i didnt start playing at its release date!
as i looked at the archives on this site=I Wish you guys covered this game more as you do other mmos. Ive been spending alot of time this past weekend researching the gameplay on other sites!
This is like the underground mmo one needs to find out about on their own.- it really is a secret society!
and yes ive recently focused my game time on this mmo since i picked it up last week!- i cant log out of it!!!!!
-LOL
TSW is woefully under-reported on this site and other gaming sites where the 800 pound gorilla (Guild Wars 2) gets all the bananas.
I'd like to see more information on TSW on this site, but innovation and inherent strangeness sometimes confuses the mainstream media. It doesn't fit into the normal mold of most (boring) AAA MMOs so it tends to get lost in the shuffle, which is really sad.
You make me like charity
Funny you say that- their combat system has actually made me rethink the Holy trinity mmos have, iam actually having a blast with the way they have presented it. (no leveling wheel Ap and multiple hybrid classes).
loving the game.
And it's actually not free either (b2p). Oh well -- I really do think that the folks who don't like combat never got far enough into the wheel to see the amount of variety there. I'm loving the game (and combat) as well -- been playing since beta.
I think TSW is strange enough that people have a hard time jumping in with both feet. Fantasy does rule the genre, but there's some amazing special stuff about this particular game.
I'm glad you enjoy it. I found it to take way too long to kill mobs, resulting in feeling like an annoying grind. It's not so bad in the first zone, but gets worse as you progress. Especially if you play as a healer or tank. And while you can swap out specs easily enough, you have to have the right gear types to make any impact which means tracking multiple sets of gear just to be able to solo.
You make me like charity
Umm he didn't say he did not like the skills or "leveling". He said combat was boring. He is talking about gameplay not skill trees.
i really really want to love the game. it's everything i'm looking for in a MMO but the fighting portion is a huge downer for me. like what you mentioned, it takes too long to kill mobs and it's not uncommon to pull a few mobs at the same time. that gets pretty frustrating later part in the game.
Hi
I love this game, at last something besides armor and space suits.
I don't get the comments about the combat being boring.
You have to use strategy, it makes a diffence what you use on which bad guy and you can dodge and weave always moving. Plus there are a lot of options.
I think it's the best combat I've seen in games I've played except for Age of Conan.
I have Guild Wars 2 but I haven't been able to stop playing TSW to even get involved in it.
Not pulling mobs is part of the strategy but later in the game you can handle them up to a point.
Then it's time to run, what fun is it if you know you are always going to come out on top.
Mike
If you shoot a mime, do you have to use a silencer?
Honestly, The first starter area was the worse in terms of how long its taking me to kill mobs. As I progressed things started getting much quicker. Still on Solomon Island, but the mobs around Darkness Wars have been quick to kill.
However... The very early areas were pure torture for me and made me quite upset over buying the game. When this happened, I decided to take a break and go do research missions. This regained my interest, had me enjoy the game, and gave me enough skill points/ap to get what I needed to kill things more quickly.
I really do not understand people saying it takes a long time to kill enemies in this game, yes compared to diablo 3 or games like that this game does not have "trash" mobs you should be able to one hit.
This game is made for optimizing your build and skill set, fighting intelligently, adaptation to creatures and enemies, I have played since launch but even now there are nuances to the combat system I am still learning.
I have 2 solo builds depending on who and what I am fighting and a couple of skills I switch out for different affects I can take 2-3 normal mobs easily and singe mobs go down quite fast, may other builds are for playing with friends.
I am not a hardcore player I don't even do raids or dungeons pretty casual as it is but I now understand the combat system and anything that does kick my ass I see it as another type of puzzle to solve, open up my wheel and think how can I adapt to this situation.
Not only pvp, the combat compared with games of the same age (and some older ones) is clunky and gives little or no feedback. You appear to be using skills, with the results detached from any immediate input back to the player. Playing melee just disintegrates into a tactile-deficient arm waving escapade. It needs significant improvement in this area.
The picking up and organisation of your quests is - different. Ok, they wanted it to be "different". In fact the game tries too hard in this respect, as though the developers decided "No! we cannot use anything that's established in other games!"
Well sometimes established methods become that way purely because they are proven to be the best way of doing things. Of course it is good to have different methods in games - variety is much needed - but only if the alternative is on a par, or at least near, the methods you are trying to replace.
There are ways that TSW suceeds in this, but there are others where the attempted alternative simply doesn't. - by a significant margin.
^ Yes. It really does come down to playstyle I think. TSW demands you pay attention, and the game asks you to use your head, both for the in-game investigations and to understand how to best optimize yourself for combat. Players are not simply given a single set of skills that always work; instead, you are given a set of abilities that CAN work well, IF you understand how they work together. The player needs to take the time to understand how to create an optimized deck -- once you've done that, the monsters go down quickly. I'm much more satisfied when I finally figure out the build to take down a that's been kicking my ass for the past week. The combat system is there, but it's on the player's shoulders to make their character better.
I think a lot of players have a hard time with this. They simply are not used to being given the freedom to create a sucky (or good) combat build.
I wouldn't go that far. Rift has a similar, if not wider, range of build options and carries this out far clearer than TSW.
However, the whole idea of giving players the freedom is a minomer. You know what happens, players look up build guides in the game's forums or associated sites and run with these. People do the number crunching with build options and pretty soon there is the updated cookie cutter build for all the classes.
Sure players can have a go themselves, there will always be those people, from wow to rift, swtor, tera, or whatever. But the players who want the best for their class/role will generally ignore the whole being given the freedom bit (which isn't new or special) and refer to the various game guides.
Ok well it seems this site dosent work well on an iPad. so my post never was.
I share the same feelings Mike Moss has.
I just finished Polaris last night for the first time and i was impressed, i didnt feel the heavy handed trinity Roles other mmos have-and the combat and reward system where pretty badass!- iam not sure how higher nightmares (dungeons) are but if they are like this i will continue to do them!
I finished my second personal story mission which led me to Brooklyn NY and i a former New yorker was impressed with the details the city had. Ive actually been in that area!!-lol..so they have really paid attention to detail!!
I just purchased their 'fifth issue' becouse i see myself getting emersed in this game for a while- nothing has dissapointed me yet.
I do recomend for the peoplewho want to give it another go and having issues in combat -to follow their starter decks- its great how much freedom you have to create a character but if your feeling frustrated and having issues with mobs- the decks will iron that out. i had similar issues till i opened up 2 starter decks- now iam breezing through missions. it all falls into place in a way...later i plan to expand and experiment with my character.
I also welcome the complexity this games brings from navigation to missions to character tree. Havent seen this since eveonline days!
I still have a hard time with combat, but not because I can't figure out the skill wheel. I just am not good at dodging the attacks (watching out for lines). There was one solo instance in the haunted carnival that repeatedly handed my head to me on a platter. After trying various builds that I had access to, I finally went online and looked for some recommended strategies, and it came down to "you gotta dance and weave", in other words, avoid all those attacks. Suffice it to say I never completed that quest and haven't plucked up the courage to try it again, even with better gear.
I'd probably fare better with those button mashers where you just stand in one place and click buttons. So I don't get it when people say that combat is bad, because in my opinion, it is much more advanced than many games I've played. Too advanced at times (for me, lol).
I will be continuing to play, as there are plenty of quests that are not as physically challenging as that one I mentioned above, where my clumsy "dancing and weaving" is sufficient. Love the game, glad to hear above that some people are still discovering it and liking it.
The combat in TSW is a very "Thinking" style combat. You must align every skill with each other....that's why they call it "synergy" cuz that's what it does.
The difference between a poorly put together build and a well built build is night and day. And no, Rift does not offer the same depth. It just offers several builds that will mirror each other from player to player.
It's really funny that combat always comes up as a deterent...I'd consider it a one of it's strength's. Im so sick of the "new" action type combat...if I wanted action combat Id play an action console game or mortal combat....Im playing an RPG damnit...I want to think about my build before I go fight...not rely on twitch movement to make the difference.
As for having to move out of the way with dodge...it's really not that difficult and your build plays a much bigger part than this mechanic in most cases.
Exactly - me too.
I saw YouTube footage of TSW gameplay and it looked boring frankly - turned me right off.
However, the comments on this thread seem to be describing a completely different game.
Id say if you are a part of the group of new MMO gamer's that are more into action combat it could be boring, but again, I'd say that you need to realize you are playing an MMORPG