The Secret World

[TheTomG]

Hey all,

Just started playing this on the early access and it's pretty interesting.

First, I did pick Templar due to being a European and their home base being in London. I had an unexpected literary connection for me as I waded through London finding bizarre lore comments, and talking to a librarian who discussed ancient societies and taking hallucinogenics to unlock mysterious writings or patterns in the layout of buildings etc, which was that it reminded me of Jerry Cornelius.

It also has a great sense of humor about it all, and again that put me in mind of Moorcock's Cornelius series, so that was quite a treat to get that sort of a feel to it from the experimental-type prose that was being thrown around in the lore.

Which is why I thought I would mention the game here, as so far (and a brief so far it is) it has managed to be more "literary" than most games I have played, let alone an actual MMO. It will also draw on Lovecraftian type elements it seems, plus it has all the lovely myths and history to draw upon, which it seems quite ready and able to do with various mentions of ancient cities and civilizations.

Now I am terrible at history, so perhaps the game is getting it all wrong, I don't know, but so far I am enjoying the whole feel of that. It's certainly refreshing, and indeed inspirational too as it gets the imagination flowing (well, does for me.)

I also had a bit of a sense of Neverwhere (though do note I've only seen the first two episodes from the TV adaption, so, my views may not hold up there!) The sense of a "London beneath" though is similar, and something I think we could use more of in gaming.

Quest-wise it is a bit more interesting than usual, or so I hope - there is even a built-in web browser as some investigation quests involve you going looking up information about people, history, places, etc.

Thought I would pass those initial impressions along as it may prove interesting to those here on the Chrons who exist in the crossover realm between gaming and literature

As a for-instance on the Templar lore, here is one entry, with the sort of thing that put me in mind of Moorcock and Cornelius and general experimental-literature that New Worlds championed (it's easily found, but just so as not to have a spoiler, putting it in as white text)


Our wisdom flows so sweet. Taste and see.

TRANSMIT – initiate Babel signal – RECEIVE – initiate phosphorous prayer frequency – DOWNLOAD – initiate John Dee lexicon – AS SEEN ON TV – initiate pillar of salt protocol – DELIVER US FROM EVIL – initiate the Molay Curse cadence – MUST REDEEM BEFORE EXPIRATION – the red spectrum – WITNESS – The Templars.

[Rahl Windsong]

I tried their 3 day free trial and while I did like the story aspects to the game I tried crafting on my last day and I have to say it was without a doubt in my mind the worst example of crafting in an MMO I have ever seen. It was enough for me to make a decision not to sub to that game...

The thing is Secret World is a game designed by Ragnor Tornquist and I am not sure if anyone here has tried any of his games from the past, like The Longest Journey, probably my all time favorite adventure game, an amazing story and excellent voice acting by the female PC.

His games always have amazing story elements and Secret World was no exception from that, in fact it was almost enough for me to sub to it until I tried the crafting.

[TheTomG]

Yeah the crafting was a bit of a stinker. The story and plot and characters were excellent though. I have quit my subscription mind you, and gone for Guild Wars 2 as I love the no monthly fee, but its back to the traditional MMO trappings there, nothing to make it stand out story-wise.

[nubins]

I found the gameplay very repetetive. Good use of story and interesting mission structure, but it just didnt do anything diferent after you had played the game for a couple of hours. I also balked at the fact you had to buy the game, pay a monthly sub and it STILL used microtransactions. It's just greedy and they deserve the fallout of that.