The Secret World

whistlelock said:

You know, after Age of Conan and actually playing Anarchy Online, I'm not all that thrilled about a new Funcom game.

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whistlelock said:

Have you been a part of many MMO launches?

The Age of Conan launch (also a funcom game) is now a text book case of what not to do.

Warhammer Online didn't have the majority of its PVP system in place at launch, and pvp 80% of that game.

The "common" wisdom for MMO's is that it takes a year for all the bugs and balance issues to shake out of a game.

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The key movement and combat mechanics seem like very much those of any number of MMOs out there, of course, but it was nevertheless it was remarkably dynamic. For example, laying down a field of fire and then luring enemies through it was totally possible for extra fire damage, and enviromental objects caused things to happen in the world – the slightly predictable example of car alarms attracting zombies made the group quest seem a little closer to Left 4 Dead than to World Of Warcraft. It was impressive stuff. Players were thinking about position and movement, and the difference between a melee character and the one standing at the back with a rifle was really clear. Convincing game design went much further than combat, too, with things like the cues for quests being in the world, rather than being the next NPC, or in the next flashing arrow. Tracking one of the monsters entailed finding flocks of ravens and seeing in which direction they flew off. Follow the flight of the birds and you’d encounter the next battle with your sinister target. Neat. Smart.

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I was also fascinated by the character creation process, which is somehow “circular” rather than vertical. Funcom illustrated this with a “skill wheel”, which showed that while you character gets more skills, and is limited by his faction, he is not limited by class. You will need to progress along certain routes to unlock certain types of skills, yes, but the game is ultimately “flat”. You aren’t levelling up to be miles above newbies in power and hit points, you’re simply becoming a more talented and differentiated character... All that feeds into PvP, of course, which is a domination game all its own, with arenas such as Stonehenge making up fantastical stadiums for the three factions to fight – yes – three way battles for control of the world’s mystical resources. Newbies and experienced contenders will all be able to play together, thanks to The Secret World’s experience structure.

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the most interesting thing about The Secret World are the investigation quests. These are fascinating, leaky game systems that do more than ask you to collect mystery meats from fallen foes. Funcom showed us a group of players taking such a quest and then looking around in the world for clues. In this case it was a series of symbols on buildings, manhole covers and other elements across a town. Tracking these down allowed them to uncover some secret doorways in one of the towns houses and this led… to Google? Outside the game? Of course! Why not? By being set in the real world, The Secret World is able to draw in real-world elements. To solve the quest in this instance the players needed to actually do their research and find out about the characters – real world characters – who are involved in the conspiracy. These fed back into the game’s fiction, and ultimately to the resolution of the quest.

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Not that this stuff is even essential to progress within the game world, either. These quests that require you to do a bit of research and to stretch your imagination beyond the build of your character are simply there for extra colour. You can get along just fine following your own character’s personal story and slaying monsters, if that’s what you want.

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