Still have the best presentation in mmorpg term
2 years ago I play a lot of SWTOR and The Secret World (TSW), now I am mostly stay in FF14 and occasionally try out some F2P games, and lately I have been itching for mmorpg with modern settings since I am really bored with fantasy stuff now, then I remember this game.
TSW is your usual wasd movement mmorpg, nothing is new in term of gameplay, you pick quest, finish it, learn skill, get new equipment and so on. What make it different is how this game is presented and how the quest work, those 2 factor is enough to make the game stand out among other mmorpg.
It's 2012 game, be reasonable
First thing first, the game has been out from 2012 so I am not going to say much about it, to this day the game still hold well, the graphic is not high end like TERA or Witcher stuff but good enough to make casual guy like me to say "not bad, still pretty for 2012 game", you will find some graphical glitch if you have up to date driver series but all of them is not game breaking and can be easily fix by playing around the option (set it to DX9, it fix most the graphic glitch)
The population is what I can say dwindling? below average but still active and spread throughout the game world meaning you still find people run around in most area in the game. Community is very friendly from my experience, just make sure you join a chat channel or you start asking why nobody chatting in this game.
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| Somewhere between average and good |
Combat and animation is clunky and probably the weakest part of the game
Even back in 2012 when the game is still the hotness, both the animation and the combat is really clunky, this give even more "meh" impression if you come from mmorpg with high animation quality like FF14 or TERA.
Movement feel off and stiff, everything you do from melee weapon, cast spell or even just a simple sprint, everything feel floaty as if there is no sense of weight in it. Firearms is the only weapon that feel okay for me, the sound is real, the way your character holding it is convincing enough, and some of the animation even give you a kickback to give a similar feeling of recoil, overall the firearms is the only one for me that feel allright compare to others.
As for combat, your character only allowed to have 7 active and 7 passive skill, you can switch around whenever you want if your character already learn the skill, this give the impression of abundant skill and talent but, because the majority of the skill is pretty much the same only with different weapon, everything just end up feel "samey"
There is a lot of skill and talent to play around (more than 300 both active and passive skill), but the core of the combat will always look like this, use ability that earn "power" then use ability that spend that "power", basically the combat is all about generator and spender skill, with some long cooldown ability in between.
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| This is your sword stance, any sword from a katana, short sword even 2 handed sword, your character will always hold it like this |
Gimmick, aesthetic and presentation however is the best part
Clunkiness aside. This game has amazing gimmick and aesthetic from all mmorpg I have played, the setting and atmosphere is top notch especially if you are into stuff like X-files, Illuminati, ancient mythology, pop culture, urban legends and any similar things like that. Common fantasy stuff like Templar, vampire, werewolf, and so on is still there but everything is clasp and fashioned in today modern setting, there are no fancy garment like in FF14 or oversized equipment like in WOW, everything is ranged from your usual hangout jean and T-shirt to standard business attire to your typical emo goth fashion to weird wacko stuff.
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| Everyone dress like they're ready to hit the most ridiculous nightclub ever |
If you know Funcom then you know Dreamfall and The Longest Journey game, amazing adventure game with a lot of depth, lore and background, and this game is going all out in that department. Lore is scattered around the game world giving you a little explanation about what did happened before, the story quest is where the meat of the story will play, while normal quest can give you a different view from someone perspective or a more in depth explanation. Basically there is no quest that throw you out from the story, if you are in the area that centered around zombie and Cthulhu mythology then all quest will be based around it everything is connected, you won't find npc that suddenly give you "I am hungry, fetch me an apple" quest like.
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| There is a lot of info dump in this game |
Then you have one type of quest that make TSW special, unique and set apart from other mmorpg.
Investigation mission - this is what make TSW a unique experience in questing. In short this is a puzzle quest but, we are not talking about simple puzzle like click the correct object or avoid red area, nope. This quest will have you solve a literally brain squishing puzzle segment which test your real life knowledge and education in order to solve it, the game even give you an option to open a web browser within the game itself, here is some of the puzzle segment that strike me most at that time...
- Solve a Morse code
- Check a real (fake) website made by the developer itself in internet
- Solve an advanced quiz test (math, physic, logic, etc)
- Literally learn and translate a foreign language
And finally, all mission in this game is repeatable, except for story mission, this is why you still see people roam around in starting area, they are there to farm exp because the game can be very grindy if you want to learn all skill and talent, once you finish the mission there will be a cooldown timer next to it, once it reach zero you can replay that quest again with no penalty, same enemy, same progress, same story.
Parking garage is hell in disguise
I'll keep saying this, if you like stuff like X-Files, thriller and horror, this game is totally worth it, yes even for the horror aspect, the game maybe an mmorpg but some of the segment can be very scary, the developer actually manage to make stuff really creepy and spooky in some part, I've lost count how many times I said "not this shit again" every time my character enter a segment or instanced then suddenly shit went all creepy, especially when I reach Tokyo area, at first I was fine because I still see people run around help each other and the general chat is there to humor me, until I reach that part.
Enter a parking garage, just your typical parking garage building, and that segment scarred my life, I venture inside expecting the usual thriller and scary stuff... I was not prepared for it, I am not joking because by the time I finish that part I steer clear from any parking garage especially at night for a whole week!!! that segment traumatized me so hard, TSW magic and charm really showed when you reach an area where you feel most familiar with, I lived in Asia so I am more susceptible to eastern urban legend and ghost story.
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| Creepy alley and slender man behind me, welcome to The Secret World |
Still the most atmospheric mmorpg to this day
The Secret World overall is an enjoyable game for me, and I really recommend this for anyone who like to play game for the adventure and exploration part, the combat might put you off a bit but the presentation is something else, the atmosphere, setting, the deep lore, for me there is no mmorpg up until now that can reach TSW level, the player base may dwindle now but it's still populated and most of them are active and the community is very friendly, just make sure you enter an active chat channel and join the fun =)
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| Seriously, buy the game it's very cheap now |
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