The Secret World is a massively-multiplayer online world with a unique modern-day setting and unparalleled storytelling. Imagine if every myth, conspiracy theory and urban legend was true--a world where you align with secret societies and face the looming darkness.
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This review contains spoilers
This was the experience for me: none of the other MMORPGs I had played until that point and the ones I played after ever came close to the same hype and love I poured into this game.
The story was unique and seasonal events built upon the overall lore of the world while establishing canonicity to some of the larger speculations (take "The Seven Silences" or "The Meowing"), reinforced the presence of entities we had only glimpsed at before.
It's such a shame it ended how it ended. It was janky and poorly maintained but it was my neglected child.
The story was unique and seasonal events built upon the overall lore of the world while establishing canonicity to some of the larger speculations (take "The Seven Silences" or "The Meowing"), reinforced the presence of entities we had only glimpsed at before.
It's such a shame it ended how it ended. It was janky and poorly maintained but it was my neglected child.
It's jank but it's my jank. It really was an absolutely insane experience and watching the devs run it into the ground was just indescribable. It will forever hold a special place in my heart as I followed it from day one.
One of the best MMOs i've ever had the pleasure of playing!
The secret World was a supernatural thriller and at times horror MMO with a large emphasis on mystery and exploration. The game in a contemporary setting where every myth, conspiracy theory, and legend is true. In late 2012 a supernatural disaster takes place that sends the world into chaos, and you, just having been granted supernatural powers by the earth herself, are recruited by one of three secret societies to figure out what is going on and how to sop it, or control it.
The game was an urban fantasy addicts wet dream and had some of the best quest design I've ever played in a tab target style game. Quests were broken up into 4 categories: Action Missions, Investigation Missions, Sabotage Missions, and Side missions.
Action Missions were a more or less standard quest format. Go here, kill thing, do task, come back. But unlike other games it managed to give you a since of progression and urgency. Each action mission always had a purpose, Hold off a horde of zombies while the police rebuild the compound, Study monster parts to figure out what makes them tick, blow up a monster den to keep them from reproducing, etc. Rather then the typical "I know you're trying to save the world and all, but bring me 5 bear asses so I can make a rug." They had purpose and went the extra yard to give you a verity of tasks that weren't just mindlessly slaughtering lower level enemies to get XP.
Investigation Missions were interesting, they were a mini mystery, find and click game, and an ARG wrapped up into a single package. In an investigation mission you were given a task or a riddle that you had to solve, usually this would lead to a series of riddles, or bits of info the game expected you to go onto the internet and look up. There was even an in game browser for your convenience. Funcom would even go and make several ARG websites and blogs so that you could look up in game info on the web. There was one mission where you had to look up the serial number for an in game book, and a blog belonging to an NPC in the game is floating around out there on word press that has a log of the in game author's works. They were clever, fun, and took a considerable amount of time and mental effort for those that enjoyed them.
Sabotage missions were typical spy stuff. Mostly running around and completing tasks while avoiding hazards with very little combat involved. These were often given as information collection quests in game, or cat and mouse type missions where you were chasing down an individual or group with enough resources and death traps the game encouraged you to sneak around them. Often avoiding Laser traps, mines, security cameras, and other hazards while hacking into computers and grabbing data for your faction leader.
And Side missions were mini missions that included a little of the above depending on the mission, while taking significantly less time. Usually these were to give little bits of XP and lore to make you ponder your next major story beat and lead you to the next part of the path in the world. The best thing about these side missions is they were often not attached to a quest giver, they would be on an item somewhere remote, or a set piece. You had to go looking for them and they were staged as your character investigating the soundings and making these decisions rather then someone just having you go run errands. I wish more MMOs would do quests like this, as well as add more story beats into their main quests like the Action Missions did. This was great game design for an MMO and one that thankfully carried over into the reboot Secret World Legends.
Ontop of all this, you had the combat system. This game was classless, and you made your character build out of a set of 7 active, and 7 passive abilities from a series of ability trees in 6 diferent weapon catogories. You picked 2 weapons that each had their own damage type, range, effects and role abilities, and as you progressed through the trees you picked abilities that synchronized with each other and with your party members to make your build. It was easy to mess up, and like the rest of the game, you had to experiment and figure out how your build was going to work, and with the ability to repeat quests and continue to gain points to your character build and change weapons any time you wanted, you could do this to your hearts content.
Figuring out how your build worked and changing your build was a big part of the games combat, something certain youtubers and MMO vets didn’t seem to like much, and couldn’t quite wrap their head around. They also gave the ability down the line to add an additional supplementary special weapon which made for more build variety.
On to things I didn’t care for in TSW:
While the combat was fun once you incorporated the frequent build changed, I admit it was a little tedious going back and fortieth between spamming the builder abilities to build resources, and abilities that used your resources. An issue shared by most of the players of the game. Unfortunately Funcom’s response was to make an even more spammy addition to the combat in one of their updates, which basically just added a second health bar that you had to get rid of by switching out an item. It would have been much better if they allowed for 1 to 2 more abilities and created synchronized combos that build resources or added additional effects to a monster (like knocking opponents down or parrying them, like you can in the game Blade and Soul) without spamming your bloody builder ability.
The character customization was a bit lacking. While the game had an extensive clothing selection, the hair, beards, body options, and to a small extent facial features were rather limited.
The original game was pay to win, though I don’t know how much of this was Funcom’s doing, and how much of it was EA being scummy. The game it’s self had a $40 price tag, and you had to purchase the last world separately which wasn’t a good look for the game.
Overall The Secret World was an enriching and captivating experience that I fail to see in other MMOs. This story driven game really had me addicted, only thing bad about it that I can find is the hours that were sucked away from my life.
In 2017 the game was remade and relaunched as the free to play MO, Secret World Legends. It’s still a great story, but not nearly as fun as the original.
The secret World was a supernatural thriller and at times horror MMO with a large emphasis on mystery and exploration. The game in a contemporary setting where every myth, conspiracy theory, and legend is true. In late 2012 a supernatural disaster takes place that sends the world into chaos, and you, just having been granted supernatural powers by the earth herself, are recruited by one of three secret societies to figure out what is going on and how to sop it, or control it.
The game was an urban fantasy addicts wet dream and had some of the best quest design I've ever played in a tab target style game. Quests were broken up into 4 categories: Action Missions, Investigation Missions, Sabotage Missions, and Side missions.
Action Missions were a more or less standard quest format. Go here, kill thing, do task, come back. But unlike other games it managed to give you a since of progression and urgency. Each action mission always had a purpose, Hold off a horde of zombies while the police rebuild the compound, Study monster parts to figure out what makes them tick, blow up a monster den to keep them from reproducing, etc. Rather then the typical "I know you're trying to save the world and all, but bring me 5 bear asses so I can make a rug." They had purpose and went the extra yard to give you a verity of tasks that weren't just mindlessly slaughtering lower level enemies to get XP.
Investigation Missions were interesting, they were a mini mystery, find and click game, and an ARG wrapped up into a single package. In an investigation mission you were given a task or a riddle that you had to solve, usually this would lead to a series of riddles, or bits of info the game expected you to go onto the internet and look up. There was even an in game browser for your convenience. Funcom would even go and make several ARG websites and blogs so that you could look up in game info on the web. There was one mission where you had to look up the serial number for an in game book, and a blog belonging to an NPC in the game is floating around out there on word press that has a log of the in game author's works. They were clever, fun, and took a considerable amount of time and mental effort for those that enjoyed them.
Sabotage missions were typical spy stuff. Mostly running around and completing tasks while avoiding hazards with very little combat involved. These were often given as information collection quests in game, or cat and mouse type missions where you were chasing down an individual or group with enough resources and death traps the game encouraged you to sneak around them. Often avoiding Laser traps, mines, security cameras, and other hazards while hacking into computers and grabbing data for your faction leader.
And Side missions were mini missions that included a little of the above depending on the mission, while taking significantly less time. Usually these were to give little bits of XP and lore to make you ponder your next major story beat and lead you to the next part of the path in the world. The best thing about these side missions is they were often not attached to a quest giver, they would be on an item somewhere remote, or a set piece. You had to go looking for them and they were staged as your character investigating the soundings and making these decisions rather then someone just having you go run errands. I wish more MMOs would do quests like this, as well as add more story beats into their main quests like the Action Missions did. This was great game design for an MMO and one that thankfully carried over into the reboot Secret World Legends.
Ontop of all this, you had the combat system. This game was classless, and you made your character build out of a set of 7 active, and 7 passive abilities from a series of ability trees in 6 diferent weapon catogories. You picked 2 weapons that each had their own damage type, range, effects and role abilities, and as you progressed through the trees you picked abilities that synchronized with each other and with your party members to make your build. It was easy to mess up, and like the rest of the game, you had to experiment and figure out how your build was going to work, and with the ability to repeat quests and continue to gain points to your character build and change weapons any time you wanted, you could do this to your hearts content.
Figuring out how your build worked and changing your build was a big part of the games combat, something certain youtubers and MMO vets didn’t seem to like much, and couldn’t quite wrap their head around. They also gave the ability down the line to add an additional supplementary special weapon which made for more build variety.
On to things I didn’t care for in TSW:
While the combat was fun once you incorporated the frequent build changed, I admit it was a little tedious going back and fortieth between spamming the builder abilities to build resources, and abilities that used your resources. An issue shared by most of the players of the game. Unfortunately Funcom’s response was to make an even more spammy addition to the combat in one of their updates, which basically just added a second health bar that you had to get rid of by switching out an item. It would have been much better if they allowed for 1 to 2 more abilities and created synchronized combos that build resources or added additional effects to a monster (like knocking opponents down or parrying them, like you can in the game Blade and Soul) without spamming your bloody builder ability.
The character customization was a bit lacking. While the game had an extensive clothing selection, the hair, beards, body options, and to a small extent facial features were rather limited.
The original game was pay to win, though I don’t know how much of this was Funcom’s doing, and how much of it was EA being scummy. The game it’s self had a $40 price tag, and you had to purchase the last world separately which wasn’t a good look for the game.
Overall The Secret World was an enriching and captivating experience that I fail to see in other MMOs. This story driven game really had me addicted, only thing bad about it that I can find is the hours that were sucked away from my life.
In 2017 the game was remade and relaunched as the free to play MO, Secret World Legends. It’s still a great story, but not nearly as fun as the original.
Should not have been an MMORPG.
cool mmo
6/10