The Secret World

[Lachrymose]

The Secret World is an upcoming modern day fantasy-horror MMO made by Funcom (I know, I know... but different devs than AoC). Leading the dev team is Ragnar Tørnquist, the director of The Longest Journey and its sequel, Dreamfall, as well as the futuristic MMO Anarchy Online. The game features a skill based system, which means no classes and no levels whatsoever. Players will learn skill/spells and they will be able to upgrade their weapons, so there will be character progression involved, but from the sounds of it, it won't be focused so narrowly on "progression" (aka grinding).

Ragnar: I think that's really important to me, because I'm sick and tired of games where you have to play for hundreds of hours to get to the point where you actually 'start' playing the game, I don't have time for that. I prefer to sit down when I get home, sit on the couch, grab a controller, and play to have fun. That's the kind of game I want to work on. The beauty of this game is that, yes, you can play for hundreds of hours, and yes, that is going to make you more powerful, you're going to have a lot more choices, you can spec your character any way you want. But you can also play the game for a few hours here and there, and you're still going to get enough powers to be able to join guys who have played for two hundred hours. You can still join them in the world for a little adventuring, and you can go PvPing, and you can still contribute to the game. Everything you do in the game actually matters, it's not just about grinding, grinding and grinding. You get something back from sitting down for an hour, you get a new power that you can use the next time you go out, or you can upgrade your weapon and use that. Even if you can't have the choices and the amount of damage that other players might have, you can still contribute to a team. So it's entertainment value that's important to us. It's not a game that's designed to be 500 hours of linear content before you reach the 'endgame.' It's more about going out into the open world, taking on missions, jumping into PvP a little bit, doing some crafting, and enjoying that for what it's worth.

from The Secret World is Secret No Longer :: ZAM News


PvP
The game is supposed to have a pretty big focus on PvP. It's largely faction based, which sucks imo, but there will still be individual and guild warfare, it just won't be FFA. There are 3 known factions (which is better than many MMOs which have only 2), and they're each associtaed with a secret society: the Illuminati, the Templar, and the Dragon. From the sounds of it, the PvP will be more like a 3rd person shooter than a traditional MMO.

Ragnar and Martin treated us to the first in-game footage from TSW, which was very combat oriented, and while it's clear there is more than run-and-gun style gameplay here there is an undeniably strong combat element (as evidenced by the onscreen reticle). The combat that was shown was very visceral, with more tangible reward for striking a death blow than you find in a typical MMO. Playing like an action MMO, the camera is more like GTA or Fallout 3 than anything I've seen before in an MMO.

from http://www.ztgamedomain.com/8299/PAX...ss-Secret.html

Before they ended their presentation, we were shown another video, this time of actual combat gameplay. The video showed a player gunning down some zombies and it actually looked more like a third person zombie shooter than an MMO. You get a reticule on the screen with which to aim your weapon and you can shoot while running around and strafing. No button mashing and then sitting back to watch the animation. However, Ragnar is quick to point out that your character's powers and gear matter as well. There will also be a greater variety of weapons as well as magic spells. He describes the combat as an action-oriented RPG-driven system.

from IGN: The Secret World Preview

The release date is still unknown, and it looks like it might be a while before the game actually comes out. Definitely something to keep an eye on if you're interested in skill based games where PvP is a high priority (like MO ).

Trailer 1: YouTube - The Secret World (Game Trailer)
Trailer 2: YouTube - The Secret World PAX 2009 Cinematic Trailer [HD]

Website: D A R K * D A Y S * A R E * C O M I N G
Forums: The Secret World Official Forums <-- go go, start trolling ;p

[Bartillo]

<3
im so excited about this ^^

hope beta starts soon.

[Knowing Crow]

The Initiation Test requires a newer version of flash. Your version is:

10.0.12

The minimum required version is:

10.0.22

Please click here to upgrade your flash player to the latest version.

I get this error whenever I try to take the test. Anyone know how to fix it? Besides the stupidly obvious answers of course. :P

Updating doesn't work. I use Vista 64, Firefox. Tried on both IE 32 and IE 64, nothing works.

[admiralnlson]

I registered for beta a few weeks ago. Apparently I'm an "Illuminati". I'm afraid this kind of game will dumb-down secret societies myths too much for my taste though. I used to play the pen&paper RPG Nephilim, and this game dealt with secret societies in an epic way so I may very well not like Secret World.

Originally Posted by Knowing Crow

I get this error whenever I try to take the test. Anyone know how to fix it? Besides the stupidly obvious answers of course. :P

Updating doesn't work. I use Vista 64, Firefox. Tried on both IE 32 and IE 64, nothing works.

That "click here to update" thing on Firefox just never works. I don't know why, it's been so for a long time now (maybe since Firefox 2.0 or even before).

You need to go to the real website and do it old school. Adobe - Adobe Flash Player

Make sure you uncheck the "Free McAfee Security Scan (optional)" checkbox before clicking the big yellow button.

[Knowing Crow]

Excellent, thanks admiralnlson.

I got "Dragon".

[norealskill]

I too am Dragon.

[Eldritch_Song]

I took the test a while back, and I was a dragon.

The game looks interesting, but then again, it also looks somewhat linear. I'll wait for more information.

[LightsabeR]

Lachry's a noob.

[Hinder]

I'll take a walk in hell over another Funcom game. It is proven that even if this game is as well founded as any of the major MMOs, it will fail due to Funcom's horrid dev team and customer support. Spending money on one of their games is like throwing it in a trash can so instead, Paypal it to me. You can pay my bills instead of their horrible devs.

[mikesanimation]

Originally Posted by LightsabeR

Lachry's a noob.

I was going to post this but you beat me to it.


Looks interesting though.