Secret World?

[Martinus]

So, has anyone tried it (I don't see a thread on the first page)? The setting looks mightily interesting, but youtube gameplay video look sorta meh but that could be an early build.

[Razgovory]

Raz appears interested.  I'll have to ask what Brad thinks.

[Barrister]

So, has anyone tried it (I don't see a thread on the first page)? The setting looks mightily interesting, but youtube gameplay video look sorta meh but that could be an early build.

I'm intrigued by the setting.  But I long ago gave up being excited by pre-release MMO hype.  I'll see what the reviews on release are like.

[Grey Fox]

Modern day or  equivalent MMO always fail.

[Razgovory]

Is this the one with permadeath?

[Barrister]

Modern day or  equivalent MMO always fail.

Well, it's set in the modern day, but has plenty of supernatural elements so I'm not sure it qualifies for the Grey Fox Theorem.

Raz - no, not that I'm aware.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Secret_World

[Grey Fox]

Modern day or  equivalent MMO always fail.

Well, it's set in the modern day, but has plenty of supernatural elements so I'm not sure it qualifies for the Grey Fox Theorem.

Raz - no, not that I'm aware.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Secret_World

It does. See : Tabula Rasa.

[Syt]

Holy thread necromancy, Batman! From the PSA thread:

I picked up a bunch of indie games. I also got the Ultimate Edition of The Secret World. I've been interested in its setting for a while and supposedly it's quite lore rich. It requires no subscription anymore, but the "Issues" (content updates) cost over €20 each. The Ultimate Edition is €22 at the moment and includes all issues up to 11, so I would only need to buy 12 and 13 if I feel like I might play this some more.

I've played 28 hours of this so far. Yet I can't say really if I like it or not. It sure does A LOT less hand holding than, say, SWTOR.

I like the setting a lot. It's set in the modern world, but basically everything occult and apocalyptic is real. You can play as one of 3 factions: Templars based in London, who protect the world from evil, the Illuminati based in NYC, who prefer power, wealth, and influence, and finally the Dragon based out of Seoul who are all about anarchy and chaos. Except for a few faction based missions and quest texts, the missions are the same for all factions, though.

Classes: none. The game has 9 weapon types: shotguns, assault rifles, pistols, hammers, blades, fist weapons, chaos magic, blood magic, elemental magic. You equip two weapons at a time. Each weapon comes with its skill trees that you can mix and match. In total this makes for 525 skills in the 9 categories and two small utility trees (about gaining/losing aggro). Each weapon has different roles - one is better for tanking, the other for dps, another for buffing or healing.

You can have 7 active and 7 passive skills at any time, so creating a build that works for the situation you're in is a big part of the game, and you're encouraged to experiment and try new stuff and finding synergies. While Active skills can only be used if the corresponding weapon is equipped, passive skills can be used from any tree (if you purchased them), so you may branch out for additional synergy effects. Skill sets are called "decks," and the game suggests a few starter sets so that you're not completely lost.

On top of that is gear - clothes are only cosmetic, but you add stats through talismans. It's again important to pick ones that match your current skill set. The game lets you define different gear sets, so that you can switch between them more easily, but you can't switch during combat, so it's not something you do on the fly.

Finally, there's skills in all weapons, plus talismans - you get separate upgrade points for those, and you can only use weapons for which you have the skill.

Combat skills come in three flavors: cooldown based skills (often half a minute cool down), resource builders, and resource consumers. You usually spam the builders until your resources are full, then hit with the consumers. Rotation will depend on your build and your enemy (doesn't make sense to start a channeling attack if your enemy is about to stun you). The enemy tells have clear visuals (range and time to fire), so you can dodge in time, and buffs/debuffs are also very nicely visible.

The questing is a bit weird. You can half one story quest (which is the narrative of the questing region you're in). You can have one main quest (typcially from an NPC). And then three side quests (usually from an object or something). If you want to take additional quests you have to drop a current one (it's also the only way to abandon quests). Generally quests are of the "go and interact/kill" variety. What's annoying is that often the first step is to interact with an item after you picked up a quest marker, and I've more than once forgotten to do that, went to the target destination and then realized I had forgotten to pick up the quest item at the start.

Main quests come in three flavors. Besides the usual fare there's infiltration and investigation. Infiltration is less combat heavy and usally requires you at some stage in the quest to evade detection of some sort (e.g. make it past laser sensors, avoid security cameras ...). Investigation quests give you clues to figure out. Sometimes it's pretty clear and logical. More often than not it will require you to look stuff up on the internet, including on websites of an in game corporation.

For example, a clue might be: "Time is the province of Kings and Gods. The hands of time point to truths written by kings in the words of God. The path is open to the enlightened." This refers to Kings 10:10 which is about Solomon (a reference to Solomon Priest's house), and the passage mentions "120" which is the code for a keypad behind the house.

Another one is: "To proceed, write as a Learned Man would. Look to Jerome's Work on the two score and first Pslam, the eigth part, the first Darkness." So you have to look up the first word Psalm 41:8 in Latin: ABYSSUS - then you have to spell it on letter tiles (think Indy 3's "IEHOVA").

The next step gives the clue: "Should thy desires be thwarted; weep not for thyself, but for Dolandi" and gives you a music sheet with a section smeered out. So you have to find out that this refers to "Flow my Tears" by composer Dolandi, find the music sheet for it and play the missing section on a convoluted mechanism.

There's wiki pages for this that give you additional clues or the full solution, if you get stuck. A nice change of pace from generic quests. All non-story quests are dailies that can be repeated.

The first story is set in New England. A small island with a penchant for the occult (they have the Innsmouth Academy and a Miskatonic River FFS) has been overrun by zombies. Meanwhile, strange creatures rise from the sea and seem to transform the people. I've made it to the ensuing area (which also has zombies, but also gates to hell next to the Overlook Motel and demonic insects who have taken over the forest, and ghostly aparitions at the university), but it kicks my butt. Turns out I should have skilled my talisman skills more, because I can't use my quest rewards, and my attacks often "Glance" (which means I hit but don't do damage, so I need more hit power), so I'm back to the first are to grind some more experience and improve my build.

There's also crafting, but so far I haven't been able to make any great items, or if I did, I couldn't add a glyph (which is kinda important for stats), because I find no glyph toolkits (consumables, weapons, talismans, and glyphs are created with consumable toolkits, and most items can be broken down into base components.

The skill system reminds me a bit of Hearthstone - you buy skills and try to assemble a deck (which is what your selected skills are called) that fits the situation. I'm currently running with blade/fist which gives me good dps and some self healing. Weapon skills come in basic and advanced. Once you have a weapon's basic skills you can learn the (more expensive) advanced skills. A lot of them are sidegrades, i.e. variants on the basic skills, but with an effect added or removed - e.g. a basic skill might draw aggro, but the advanced doesn't.

I love the world building in the game. There's a ton of lore (often in the form of pick up items), and if you like the occult this delivers in spades (to the point of maybe being a liiiiittle bit over the top ). I also like playing around with my skills, trying to find a build that works for me. Though I guess I wouldn't recomment it if you prefer a gentler experience (though there's plenty of guides online).

The ultimate edition comes with the first 11 "issues" (storylines), 12 and 13 cost EUR 22.99 each, but you won't have to buy them until you get there. And there's no subscription fee anymore (though the store page says it comes with 30 days free game time). From what I see the items on the Funcom Store are mostly cosmetic (and ridiculously overpriced). Ultimate edition is currently on sale for EUR 21.99: http://store.steampowered.com/app/359380/

[Eddie Teach]

Modern day or  equivalent MMO always fail.

Second Life?

[Martinus]

So, at the behest of a friend, I finally tried it - and liking it a lot so far. It's definitely not your typical MMO - it will not replace WoW (or GW2) for me - but it seems like a fun game to play in a co-op mode with friends. Voice acting and cut scenes are excellent and the atmosphere is awesome (the closest analogy I have is that it is to occult/Mage/Call of Cthulhu type setting what Bloodlines was to Vampire setting).

My character is a "port" of my old Mage character - Sebastian "Basianus" Barker, a fresh faced Templar ingenue who specialises in pistols and elemental magick.

[FunkMonk]

So, at the behest of a friend, I finally tried it - and liking it a lot so far. It's definitely not your typical MMO - it will not replace WoW (or GW2) for me - but it seems like a fun game to play in a co-op mode with friends. Voice acting and cut scenes are excellent and the atmosphere is awesome (the closest analogy I have is that it is to occult/Mage/Call of Cthulhu type setting what Bloodlines was to Vampire setting).

My character is a "port" of my old Mage character - Sebastian "Basianus" Barker, a fresh faced Templar ingenue who specialises in pistols and elemental magick.

I played this game quite a bit a few years ago and I had a blast with it. Like you said, the setting and atmosphere are really well done and it really puts you into the story. Glad you're having a good time with it.

[Martinus]

Thanks.

Although it seems like one of those games where I spend 4 hours creating a character.

[FunkMonk]

Thanks.

Although it seems like one of those games where I spend 4 hours creating a character.

I seem to remember spending hours on my character's clothing 

[Drakken]

I remember when I played this game a few years ago, that playing as the Illuminati it needed more Kirsten Geary, the Illuminati handler. I just loved her blazee, vapidly sociopathic Valley-girl archetype.   

I was an ordinary Valley Girl, major in human resources, daddy in real estate who paved our driveways with his gold card and shitty cologne. Rest in peace. Until one night in the Hills, a couple of guys who were up to no good fucked with the wrong girl. Fratboy necromancers. Ugh. The worst, especially when they man up from sacrificing neighborhood pets to abducting undergrads. But they didn't check me for mace, or duct tape, and the next thing you know it's all, "You can't do that to us bitch, we're Illuminati." Now, I got to thinking: A, if you're a member from a secret society, you should keep that to yourself. Even under torture, I mean seriously, cry me a river. And B, only my friends call me bitch. Well anyway, to cut a long and aggravated assault short, I realised Illuminati clearly needed to work on their employee handbook. I had just graduated, just killed a few guys, I was looking for work placement. It was totally serendipitous.

You had better not be having second thoughts, I'm so not the rah-rah girl. Or if you want an Illuminati history lesson, then you need to learn that history is adjustable. It blurs, big time. If we tell people what to think today, what actually happened back then is no big whoop. All that matters is the future, the future we're building. You're going to see that the Earth is up for inheritance and the meek are shit out of luck. Only Illuminati have the capital, the network and the drive for sweet success to really close the deal on this millennium. If you can keep up with the bleeding edge of a future-focused organisation, we can use you in our New World Order. If it turns out you can't, then there's room in history's grave for one more fossil. And no one will remember you. Yeah, that would suck. So work for us, and let us work for you, because we're the conspiracy that's bringing sexy back. Have you seen other guys' uniforms?

If there's one good thing about democratic bodies, it's that they can be rigged. But that is the one good thing. We're responsible adults, we don't need Big Grandfather checking up on us. In writing, actual letters with wax seals, I'm serious. It's... It's like being door-knocked by Renaissance Faire. Venice - the Venetians, Venusians, whatever - they're a power trip with no power. The peace they think they maintain is a joke, it always has been, and they're the last to get it. Even the Templars hate them, and when the dudes in capes and armor say you're out of touch, you know, ouch. The reality is that the modern world keeps shrinking, and none of the societies are big on sharing. We pay lip service to Venice laws because you shouldn't make fun of the elderly. Also they just eat up FUD tactics, then all of a sudden there's an Inquisition or a war in Asia. Any government you can bend is a useful government, but usefulness wears out.

[Martinus]

Thanks.

Although it seems like one of those games where I spend 4 hours creating a character.

I seem to remember spending hours on my character's clothing 

It took me 45 minutes to create my character.