The Secret World Review

WaysideMaze

The Butcher On Your Back
Apr 25, 2010
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I really am tempted to give this a try, I'm just currently bored of a lot games, even ones I've just bought, so I may leave it a while. Still, I'll keep my eye on it, may come back to it later.

As a side note,
Archibald said:
There's one, and one thing that kept me from buying the game. 15 dollar a month sub + cash shop + 60 dollar game purchase.
Has anyone else noticed how all 4 of this guys posts on the forums (so far at least) have just been copy/pastes of another users from earlier in the thread? With some faulty .gifs thrown in for good measure.

I can't tell if he's trolling, a really bad spambot or just really confused.
 

Hungry Donner

Henchman
Mar 19, 2009
1,369
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Huh, this game isn't listed in Russ' IMDB profile - either they've slipped up or that's a good impression.
 

Filiecs

New member
May 24, 2011
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Riobux said:
Filiecs said:
Riobux said:
The final crunch point was, as said in the review, how the game seems to shove character back-story onto you to full pelt in monologue rather than SHOWING personality, back-story and character.

Reread my first sentence in the paragraph you quoted. They didn't show that the deputy had family issues nor do it imply, it told you flat out in a monologue that had such an inappropriate tone that it was more annoying than anything else. If to solve the puzzles I have to be handed the pieces, instead of me noticing them, and then told "go solve it" like this, then I don't care for the puzzle at all.
Well you've obviously missed the puzzle pieces.
You were complaining as to why you weren't being shown what was happening in the world. What you were missing was the answer right in front of you.
You were wondering what gave you those superpowers and why? All you had to do was analyze the seemingly insane lore of "The Buzzing" that is one piece of the puzzle.

Yes, Andy told you about how his father took a bunch of bunch of kittens out to see and drowned them, while he was still alive, that it. At the end of the story he remarks how he still misses those kittens.
If you want to know why he wasn't all sad and depressed over losing his father it's because he obviously cares less about his cruel father than kittens.
You want to know something else about the world? Why no one is freaking out about zombies?
Andy also tells you. He says that Kingsmouth has had it's share of witchburnings. This, when compared to what some of the other residents tell you about occult happenings in the past, leads you to believe that Kingsmouth has had its share of occult disasters and strange murders in the past. To them, zombies is just another strange happening that's going to blow over. Just with a lot more people dead.
 

arcade109

New member
Jul 7, 2010
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MMO's just are never what I am hoping for. The only one I ever got into for a while was World of Warcraft and then it was only because my girlfriend played at the time. I keep trying different ones but now they are all just WoW clones and it doesn't do it for me. This is something with unlimited potential but no company wants to risk losing that kind of money.
 

Sartan0

New member
Apr 5, 2010
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arcade109 said:
MMO's just are never what I am hoping for. The only one I ever got into for a while was World of Warcraft and then it was only because my girlfriend played at the time. I keep trying different ones but now they are all just WoW clones and it doesn't do it for me. This is something with unlimited potential but no company wants to risk losing that kind of money.
I can understand that point of view and TSW is still an MMO. It's PvP does have issues but luckily I am not much into PvP. However, it is pushing the genre forward in my opinion.

I like the lack of levels and the skill based system. I like the more coherent world where the quests make sense and don't feel tacked on. I like the more interesting characters and the fact that this is not just yet another high fantasy game. (Hello lovecraft) I like the less flashy but fitting art style. I like the fact that the second instance in the game was much more challenging then the first one. I like the quests that actually make me think and the fun of working out a build. I like the more hard edged more adult setting and world.

This is the game for me and I will happily keep paying a subscription if they can add the content to keep it rolling. (And the signs are good in that they already have stuff in the pipe line.)

If that at all sounds interesting I say give it a shot. That said, mileage will vary.
 

Jabberwock xeno

New member
Oct 30, 2009
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I've been waiting for this game since it was announced, and can't wait till the price drops, as with every other person in this thread.
 

Riobux

New member
Apr 15, 2009
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Filiecs said:
Well you've obviously missed the puzzle pieces.
You were complaining as to why you weren't being shown what was happening in the world. What you were missing was the answer right in front of you.
You were wondering what gave you those superpowers and why? All you had to do was analyze the seemingly insane lore of "The Buzzing" that is one piece of the puzzle.

Yes, Andy told you about how his father took a bunch of bunch of kittens out to see and drowned them, while he was still alive, that it. At the end of the story he remarks how he still misses those kittens.
If you want to know why he wasn't all sad and depressed over losing his father it's because he obviously cares less about his cruel father than kittens.
You want to know something else about the world? Why no one is freaking out about zombies?
Andy also tells you. He says that Kingsmouth has had it's share of witchburnings. This, when compared to what some of the other residents tell you about occult happenings in the past, leads you to believe that Kingsmouth has had its share of occult disasters and strange murders in the past. To them, zombies is just another strange happening that's going to blow over. Just with a lot more people dead.
He apathetically said he misses the kittens, to say he remarked on missing the kittens is to apply more emotion and care that the entire town has in total. Everything is done with so little emotion and care that it's hard for me to be invested in a puzzle where to everyone else it's "just another thing waiting to blow over". There is just nothing to invest in. You can't even pull a House MD moment of "hate the patient, love the puzzle" because at the end of the day the puzzle isn't presented in a manner remotely interesting. There's just no atmosphere.

It also brings about the important question of: Why the hell don't they move on if strange things tend to happen so frequently that everyone just ceases to care about a zombie uprising? So instead of the deputy skipping town in a massive "fuck you" to his dad who I recall being a police officer himself, he not only stuck around but also followed in his footsteps to be a police officer and now spends his day monologuing his head off apathetically to any poor person sent out to investigate this.

Also, on a mildly related note: Kingsmouth? Really? A blatant reference to Innsmouth?
 

Miral

Random Lurker
Jun 6, 2008
435
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TSW is awesome, but it does take a bit of getting used to, especially if you need to break some existing mindsets from other MMOs. Granted, it's not without its share of flaws too, but that's more than made up for with the personalities and stories of the people and places.
 

Quaade

New member
Jun 20, 2010
41
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I tried it in beta since I was intruiged with the concept, alas when I finally got to try it, it fell flat on it's face for me.

Combat was decidedly "meh" not even remotely interesting and in most cases circlestrafing while pressing 1-1-1-2-3-1-1-1-2-3-1-1-1.

And the athmossphere was severely lacking for me.

"go to the small town of Kingsmouth, we've sent several agents and lost contact with all of them, find out wtf happened to them."

Cool, some investigation, people vanishing without a trace, a nod to Lovecraft as well, possible Old Ones involved with that name, that sounds like fun - I thought...

Then I appear there and is greeted by a guy who exposes pretty much everything and ZOMBIES!!!!!
Not just a few zombies, but bloody zombies everywhere like they were ants and with people's reactions to the living dead being indifferent from a pest infestation.

Why didn't any of the agents take a look around say "fuck this noise!" go back trough the portal, alert their respective organisation and say "we have a situation here, I recommend Exterminatus."

Okay I thought, small stumbling aside and killing 10 zombies with the same matter of fact as I kill 10 boars in WoW, this is just a minor hickup, once I get to town there will probably be something interesting going on... ooh a fortified barricade, this looks promising -_- more zombies.

Talking around, speaking with npcs who think their lifestories are more important in the momemt than dealing with the fracking zombies, thinking, "I would be doing the zombies a favour by killing these people myself, eating their brains would be unhealthy."

Finding deputy Andy, speaking to him thinking, okay, that guy has obviously lost it, I should probably feel sorry for him, except I don't as he doesn't sound like someone who's lost it or is denying the severity of the situation, rather he sounds like someone who's phoning it in.

Okay Andy wanted me to go to the beach to investigate some bizare findings. Cool beans, a bit of investigation should be a welcome change to all the zombies.
Strolls to the beach, finds it and see that it's covered from one end to the other in things that looks like Dagon's and the Crab Emperor's unholy offspring o_O "wtf, investigate what????" *bling* "KILL 6 CRABMEN" FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!!!!!!!!!!!

There can be no suspense, mystery or horror when the things you are supposed to be afraid of is thrown right into your face at every opportunity.

Stepping into the Zombieland themepark of Kingmouth is not scary, it's not creepy and there's little to no suspense since a man in a hat has allready told you in broad strokes what's going on and there's WAY too much focus on hitting things with a stick, showing you that they can easily be fought and defeated, and thus removing the need to be scared of it.
 

Slycne

Tank Ninja
Feb 19, 2006
3,422
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Metalhandkerchief said:
MMO of the year, easily. Unless Anet manages to bring GW2 up to this game's level, which I think they're already too far behind to do.
I suspect Guild Wars 2 is going to surprise a lot of people. While I certainly had fun during my Secret World preview a few months back, I continue to be impressed by the deluge of content in Guild Wars 2 and how they are finally making real improvements on many of the now standard MMO mechanics.
 

fealubryne

New member
Jan 26, 2011
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I cannot for the life of me comprehend this "I'll wait until the price drops" mentality. So people have absolutely no issue with dropping $60 on the sixty billionth Halo, or the newest Call of Duty, yet when a legitimately good game comes out they cry about paying full price? And people complain that games are all the same these days. What incentive does it give designers to bother thinking outside the box when they're getting paid shite?

People continue to pay for WoW, its expansions, its subscription fee, and now its pets and mounts store. Yet everybody is stuck on this F2P thing for every new MMO that releases. What happened to supporting a game that's enjoyable? Are we truly so entitled at this point that we demand everything for free or GTFO? Ugh.
 

Quaade

New member
Jun 20, 2010
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Perhaps people have burned their fingers too bad recently with games that turned out to be less stellar than they ought to be with the advertisement, financial backing, creative team and empty promises from the developers lately.

For me personally I got burned bad on Age of Conan by FunCom and I'm sure many others did as well.
 

Sartan0

New member
Apr 5, 2010
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fealubryne said:
I cannot for the life of me comprehend this "I'll wait until the price drops" mentality. So people have absolutely no issue with dropping $60 on the sixty billionth Halo, or the newest Call of Duty, yet when a legitimately good game comes out they cry about paying full price? And people complain that games are all the same these days. What incentive does it give designers to bother thinking outside the box when they're getting paid shite?

People continue to pay for WoW, its expansions, its subscription fee, and now its pets and mounts store. Yet everybody is stuck on this F2P thing for every new MMO that releases. What happened to supporting a game that's enjoyable? Are we truly so entitled at this point that we demand everything for free or GTFO? Ugh.
I know right? People complain about spending $15 a month when they can easily drop that on coffee in a day or two or going out to eat once let alone a movie.

As for GW2- I bet their PvP will rock and it sounds solid but I personally am burned out on the high fantasy setting. Soooo so burned out on it.
 

Malgan

New member
Jun 23, 2009
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If you're looking for an MMO with diverse gameplay, the chance to play exactly the way you want, story and atmosphere, this is the one you want. The initial purchase comes with 30 days of gametime, so if anything it'll be like any other game.

Personally, I'm playing with my magical fists, punching and stunning opponents with chains of chaos. Also have a bit of swordplay on the side, for some extra bonuses. But you could go with a shotgun, with fireballs in one hand and shoot lighting out of the other. Everything depends on you!
 

Funcakes

New member
Jul 17, 2011
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fealubryne said:
First, get your head out of your ass. It's not entitlement. If someone decides the price is not worth it to them that's their business. Deal with it.

And god forbid someone doesn't enjoy this game because you do. God forbid someone hates this game for it's bland combat, or simply does not find the game interesting enough to pay $60+ a subsciription fee. God forbid someone doesn't think you're favorite game is a shining beacon of hope in an industry of bland, indistinguishable titles. That would be crazy talk.

On that note, the people talking about not paying for this are probably not the people buying up Halo or CoD. Consumers being individuals instead of a massive mindless blob? Who would have thought?

Next, the way I see things is this: A 60 dollar entrance fee is, in my opinion, too large for what it's worth(pretty much 100% of the time). No, I'm not asking them to drop it. I just won't buy their product until I feel it's worth the pricetag. That is no different than waiting for a price drop on any product. Hell, if GW2 followed that price model I probably wouldn't have pre-ordered it.

I could deal with a 15 dollar per month fee without that entrance fee. If that entrance fee came with more than a single month of play I would find that reasonable. If that entrance fee was even half of what it was I'd give it thought. That is my preference, and that's what would need to happen for me to risk spending money on something I'm unsure about. I say risk, because no matter how much research you do you can never be sure you'll enjoy a game.

That's how I see things, if you don't then good for you. Have fun with your game, and please don't pity me for missing out on something you enjoy. We hardly know each other after all.

Oh, and that Halo game has resale value. Just sayin'.


ON TOPIC: I may be shooting myself in the foot here, as I only watched the video, but I didn't hear much about the combat. A lot about the atmosphere, the npc's, the puzzles, the customization. But the combat itself looked very bland in that video.
 

deth2munkies

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Jan 28, 2009
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There is absolutely no reason to bother with this game until it goes F2P. It offers very little in ways of innovation (at least in a good way), and plays exactly like the bog standard MMOs of the day. Better off playing a F2P game of your choice.

OK, let's flesh it out a bit:

I played through the entire first area (zombie town) as part of the beta. The game was not well optimized and ran very poorly on my system so I didn't play further.

THE GOOD:

1) There are more cutscenes than the typical MMO that are done in a fairly good way and well voice acted (at least at the beginning.)

2) A few quests aren't just the "Kill X and bring Y back to Z" and actually involve ARG like hunts.

3) The skills system is innovative.

4) The gear system is somewhat confusing, but lets you make your character look however you want.

5) I got a blowjob in the opening scene.


THE BAD:

1) It's WoW style combat and the targeting and other combat interface systems are much worse than any other WoW style game I've played.

2) Most of the quests are "Kill X and bring Y back to Z".

3) The "There are no levels" claim is bullshit. Getting skill points = functional levels. There is straight, vertical, linear progression, that's called leveling up no matter what you choose to rename it as. Given how piss weak the starting skills are and how skills are locked, if you try to dip a bit into everything you'll be fucking terrible, so you're functionally locked into a class with (to draw a comparison) a few talent points to toss in others.

4) It's subscription based and full priced and offers you very little over a F2P title except a bit of polish.