![The Secret World [Online Game Code]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51cIdYcqnaL._SX300_SY300_QL70_ML2_.jpg)
There is a veil over the MMORPG player's eyes for the last ten years. We've been spoon fed quests with mindless kill counts ad nauseum. We've scoured dungeons and battled whatever may have guarded their deepest treasures, over and over again in the name of Epic Gear. Open your eyes and see the secret world. There is more out there that the MMO genre can offer, and Funcom will be your guide...
The Secret World offers a breath of fresh air in a somewhat stale video game genre. Certain mechanics may be the same - sure, there's these things that will define an mmo, but TSW succeeds by adding factors and variables to this formula rather than regurgitating the same old stuff with different models and textures. For starters, this is an MMO based in modern times - a welcoming break from your standard fantasy or science fiction setting. This naturally makes the game world familiar and easy to digest and possibly make your avatar more relateable. Mix in conspiracies, cultural mythologies, and the monsters that lurk beneath the bed, and you have an exciting setting that begs you to come back, much like a siren's song.
As noted above, Funcom introduces unique mission types that have never been introduced in the MMO genre before. Investigation missions put you, the player, right into the shoes of an agent of the secret society of your choice. These cannot be solved by just following waypoints on the minimap. You literally have to open your in-game browser and SOLVE the puzzles. You'll be googling for historic information, biblical references, or even searching for answers on a fictional websites - blurring the line and enhancing the immersion in a fun and exciting way. These missions require some thinking outside the box. No spoon feeding here. Because I'm no Batman, my detective skills were lacking and it took me almost two days to solve my first investigation mission (Not 48 hours of game time, but more like thinking about the puzzle during the day, even when I wasn't playing) - The sense of accomplishment was worth more than the XP rewarded. Sure you could just look up the answers or beg for them in general chat - but then you're missing the point. You'll be reading the cliff notes to a good novel. "But I don't want to think and work hard when I'm playing a video game - that defeats the purpose of a leisure activity such as playing video games!" Then go back to killing 10 wolves and collecting 5 pelts. These missions are truly a test of patience and perseverance. When you don't feel like playing Scully and Mulder investigating the most recent paranormal activity, the game offers your more traditional missions.
The lack of character levels and blatant classes is a welcoming change to your standard mmo from the last 10 years. Quality Level is a gear characteristic that indirectly defines how much progress you've accomplished in the game, so it could be argued these are just like character levels. But when you're wandering the city streets and encounter other players, you won't be able to tell "what level they are" just by looks - clothing has no effect on character progression and is strictly for looks. Long are the days of feeling ashamed and weak as your level 1 thief in tattered leather stands next to a seasoned warrior with shiny exotic armor. You won't have to worry looking like a multi-colored clown as you collect all the items for some gear set. Because the lack of classes, you're free to build the character that matches your playstyle. There's still a holy trinity (tank, dps, heal) for group missions but each player can contribute to each role by offering secondary abilities to the table (ex: a damage dealer doing off heals). If you're a fan of collectible card games, you'll enjoy the way deck/abilities system TSW has to offer.
Another quality that stands out about TSW is how they deal with servers. When you create a character, you're asked to choose a "dimension." This selection matters for pvp purposes only as the persistant warzones will only queue up players from that respective dimension (75 players from each faction, 225 total). This design was used to make for shorter queue times for persistant pvp. The current map (Fusang Projects) is a little lacking when compared to other WvW persistant pvp designs out there - but nothing Funcom can't fix in future patches (or by providing new persistant maps with more objectives/mechanics. This is possibly the only reason I can think of why I'm giving TSW on release a 4/5). The other pvp maps will queue up players across all dimensions. In addition, you could group up with other players from the other servers to tackle pve content or the non-persistant pvp. Essentially, TSW is "one server" (much like Eve Online) which means player's names are unique and global.
These are just a few things that stand out from TSW that I've personally noticed and appreciate. The game officially releases today (03JUL12) but I've been lucky enough to play since early access and have been enjoying it since (Fun 5/5). This type of game seems to attract the more mature player due to content as well as game design which proves to be a plus. If you enjoy X-Files, Dresden Files, Dan Brown, Men in Black, SCP, or love conspiracies: the secret world is waiting. Kudos, Funcom. You've shaken things up in the mmorpg world!
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Update 10JUL12: Still digging the game despite some minor bug issues, barely scratching the surface content wise. My in-game time is approximately 4 days and 19 hours and I'm still half way through the first zone (Solomon Island). A couple of the missions are bugged at certain points but the first patch just went live this morning. Chat is still a little buggy, which can make socializing difficult at times (some channels reset when you zone in/out of areas). These are just minor bugs that don't really affect the enjoyability of the game overall.
Lastly, I'd like to leave this update with an official State of the Game written by Ragnar Tornquist. For those people questioning whether or not this game is worth a subscription or whether or not there'll be enough content 2-3 months after launch, hopefully this answers your questions [...]. Back to the secret world; the spirits trapped at the academy are getting restless again.
Customer reviews
A Refreshing New Take on MMO Gaming
Reviewed in the United States on January 5, 2013
This is a beautifully crafted MMO that has learned from past MMOs and fixes most of what is wrong/stale/old with MMOs. The games quests are wonderfully inventive and mostly avoid traditional MMO quest cliches. Not having character classes frees you up to build your character however you want. You can have several totally different builds and switch between them as much as you like. The game also doesn't have character levels. While this frees you up a bit more to explore the content you want, it does make it harder to get a feel for just how strong your character is (most players use the quality level of their gear as their de facto level).SETTINGOne of the best things about The Secret World is how well it exhudes atmosphere. It has a dark, otherworldly feel but still has some great humor, thanks mostly to some very funny cut scenes with some great voice acting.QUESTSThe Secret World's quests require brain power not button spamming or 'kill X number of monsters' body counting. Quests are no longer a chore but something that are actually fun to complete. My last quest took me through a haunted, abandoned amusment park and I actually got to ride (from a first person view) on a haunted roller coaster! I can't say that I've ever done anything even remotely similar to that in another game.COMBATI have found the combat to be quite a bit more fun then traditional MMO button spamming. While somewhat frustrating initially, I have long since grown to really like the added strategies it allows. In most MMOs, combat is fairly static with little regard needed for where your character is positioned. The Secret World is a lot more dynamic, requiring you to also mind where you are standing in combat and to dodge out of the way when necessary (the dodge is a nice looking forward/sideways/backwards roll).GRAPHICSThe graphics are all first-rate. I was watching a The Secret World promotional video on YouTube recently and one of the comments was someone complaining about how he wanted to see actual gameplay footage and not just cutscene footage. It looked so good that he didn't even realize he was watching gameplay footage (with the GUI interface turned off).OTHER PLAYERSThe game was not a commercial sucess when it launched but it continues to benifit from great word of mouth and substantial content updates. Funcom has said they will try to release one new update every month, though in reality it seems to average every 5 - 6 weeks. TSW has a smaller but loyal fan base, though since they stopped requiring a subscription to play, there has been a big increase in the number of people playing. Most players are friendly and helpful and the game itself has a rather mature player base.CONCLUSIONOverall, I've been very impressed with this game. It manages to deliver an immersive, original MMO experience without a lot of baggage traditional MMOs come with, like tedious grinding or a rigid class structures. Funcom, the company that makes it, has a long history of supporting its games (its first MMO, Anarchy-Online, launched in 2001 and is still going today). There are a few bugs and other issues in the game, but I think that is mostly due to Funcom always being a bit more ambitious than they have the resources for. The Secret World is quite fun and definitely worth trying.
Reviewed in the United States on January 5, 2013
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