The Secret World

foxinsocks

Bambi wrote: »

If you equip blood focus (or summit similar I guess), you wind up with a large book glued to your back..it looks daft

Ah I never noticed that. I was having too much fun with the lightning and fire and shotgunning. I managed to mostly resist this beta weekend, I went on briefly to check out crafting, and noseyed into the new zone, but then logged of.

aN.Droid

One more beta weekend starting Friday. Pvp is enabled this time

Attackfish

Limericks wrote: »

One more beta weekend starting Friday. Pvp is enabled this time

Damn! Now I have to cancel all my week end plans:)

I logged on last Friday night at around 18:00 and logged off when I got tired - only to realize it was 07:30 on Saturday morning.

Combat was really nothing to write home about, but really loved the quests and that for the first time I had to pay attention and think about quests.

PvP will be interesting I think, since in most MMO's generally revolves around combat, which I felt was not a strong point of the game, I have not had chance to watch any videos on how they have done it.

Kiith

How big is the download? I got into the last 2 but didn't download it. Might give it a try this weekend.

Attackfish

Kiith wrote: »

How big is the download? I got into the last 2 but didn't download it. Might give it a try this weekend.

If I remember correctly it was around 12GB (not 100% sure though)

Dcully

I got an invite to this weekends offerings, is it worth the download?

humanji

I'm not fully sure. If it's just the PvP section of the game, then I can't see it being worth it since the combat is a bit rubbish. But if it's the area that they had open before, plus the PvP and you haven't tried it before, then it's worth it.

Attackfish

humanji wrote: »

I'm not fully sure. If it's just the PvP section of the game, then I can't see it being worth it since the combat is a bit rubbish. But if it's the area that they had open before, plus the PvP and you haven't tried it before, then it's worth it.

The email suggest it is all previous content plus new stuff:

This marks the first public opening of the massive, persistent player vs. player war zone where over two hundred players clash in adrenaline-fueled battles for power and world domination! Stonehenge and Eldorado are also opening up, allowing smaller groups of players to fight for control over the power held within these legendary locations.

In addition to all these exciting, new player vs. player experiences, all content from the previous Beta Weekends will be available. Your character progress from previous Beta Weekends carries over to this event, so you can continue your adventures in Kingsmouth, The Savage Coast, The Polaris and Hell Raised! You can also visit London, New York and Seoul to enjoy the Templar, Illuminati and Dragon starter experiences.

humanji

In that case, it's definitely worth a try.

degrassinoel

i managed to get into this weekends one too, 13gig client! hope it's worth it

Sephiroth_dude

I haven't gotten any reply yet

Dyr

Sephiroth_dude wrote: »

I haven't gotten any reply yet

I think I have a buddy code if you want it

Sephiroth_dude

that would be great thanks

aN.Droid

I also have a buddy code if anyone wants to try out the beta this weekend.

Gunmonkey

Got sent codes too, decided to give it a spin tomorrow. D/L is around the 13Gb mark, between the 7 or so patches.

Also got a spare code knocking round as none of my friends would be intrested.

Did the big download , it actually took me longer to sort out my password issues. The game, well its a bit Meh ! to be honest. Character creation was poor. The game felt claustrophobic. Alot of MMO's are these days. Its a shame.

foxinsocks

Character creation is poor in the beta, there's no doubt about that.... However they have *PROMISED* that the beta version is not close to the proper version, so I'm hoping.

What do you mean by 'claustrophobic'? (to clarify, I know what the word means, I would just like to know how it applies to your game experience)

Kiith

Early Access starts this Friday. Was tempted, but after looking at some of the combat video's, i doubt i'll get it. Just doesn't seem to have much going for it.

Should have really tried one of those beta weekends though

humanji

Kiith wrote: »

Early Access starts this Friday. Was tempted, but after looking at some of the combat video's, i doubt i'll get it. Just doesn't seem to have much going for it.

Should have really tried one of those beta weekends though

Combat is fairly rubbish, but it's not really a focus of the game. It's more of a necessity that they couldn't avoid.

Although I really enjoyed what I've played of it so far, I honestly can't see it being a success. So they may go free to play after a while, or hand out trials sooner rather than later, which would get people interested.

Dcully

Im avoiding a purchase this time round, im so sick of failed MMOs.
I havent even pre ordered GW2 yet such is the sour taste of wasting so much money on fail MMOs, Tera being the latest :mad:

uncle_sam_ie

Dcully wrote: »

Im avoiding a purchase this time round, im so sick of failed MMOs.
I havent even pre ordered GW2 yet such is the sour taste of wasting so much money on fail MMOs, Tera being the latest :mad:

I know exactly how you feel. A few of my friends want me to play TSW. I'm going to wait it out though and see what people are saying in a few weeks time. After paying a lot for SWTOR, I decided to pay only 4 euro deposit on Tera to get into the beta. I'm glad I did because I found out it was a grindfest and ended up not getting the game. I did pre ordered GW2 and have played the beta's. All I can say is, I can't wait for the 25 of August. It is a fun game.

humanji

So how many people are currently playing?

I didn't get a chance to go too deep into the game during the betas, so this weekend was the first time I really explored the game world and people. I'm still really enjoying it, but it has some niggly bits that bother me.

The combat really doesn't fit in well with the game. It's almost like the developers had a plan for a game that was all story related, but some executive upstairs told them to put in combat for that they can broaden the audience and make more money. It's uninspired and becomes a chore, because you can't really tell if you're a match for an enemy until either you or they are dead. A two minute backtrack can become a 10 minute slog.

Which is a pity really, because when it gets things right, the game is incredible. The investigation missions require you to think outside the box to find the next step in the quest chain, and they really tax you. For example, for one mission I found that I had to download an app on my phone to

translate a Morse code signal as it played through the computer speakers

. Even dying in game isn't as cut and dry in other games. You become a ghost, where you can run off to find your body again, or just resurrect at the resurrection points. But in the ghostly state, the world is different. Bits of the map change. Not in a major way, but in subtle ways like a closed door now being open. All life (other players, npc's, monsters etc) aren't there, but you might find the occasional other players ghost, or an NPC ghost roaming around. It's really eerie, but cool when you need to use it to solve puzzles.

And the storylines are fantastic. As I said before, I didn't get a chance to explore them in detail in the betas, but they're excellently written. I won't go into detail about any of them, for those who may give it a shot, but some are so incredibly sinister and freaky, while others are really mournful and touching.

That's what makes the combat so annoying. Since so much thought is put into the missions and the world, you're forced to endure a really sh*tty combat system. Don't get me wrong, they've put thought into it, and it has it's differences to other MMORPG's. But it just comes across as lacklustre.

As I said in another post, I honestly can't see this being a success. Not because it's a bad game, but more because it's PR seems to lack the momentum needed to get this off the ground. It'll run for a while, but it won't be in the top ten MMO's of all time, or anything like that. It's a shame really, because there are so few MMO's that try something different and this deserves a shot.

Dyr

humanji wrote: »

The combat really doesn't fit in well with the game

Classic Ragnar Tornqvist game so :pac:

Dyr

humanji wrote: »

As I said in another post, I honestly can't see this being a success. Not because it's a bad game, but more because it's PR seems to lack the momentum needed to get this off the ground. It'll run for a while, but it won't be in the top ten MMO's of all time, or anything like that. It's a shame really, because there are so few MMO's that try something different and this deserves a shot.

Maybe I'm showing my lack of MMORPG experience, but all MMORPG combat I've played is just a variant of press-number-keys-until-opponent-is-dead.

humanji

Combat in MMOs can be fairly formulaic, but this just goes back to basics and makes for incredibly tedious battles. You don't have strategy, only repetition. It doesn't matter what type of enemy you're up against, you press the exact same keys in the exact same order. Every fight I have I press 1,1,1,1,1,2,4,2,5 and repeat. Even if I get new skills, they just replace the ones mapped to those keys and don't really do a whole lot differently.

It just leaves you rolling your eyes every time you find yourself in combat, rather than there being any excitement in it. You just want to be done with it so you can get back to the fun parts.

Kiith

It's a shame really, as the setting seems excellent, but is massively let down by the usual boring combat. I really can't wait for this style of combat to be gone, as it is so old at this stage.

Kiith

I'm oddly tempted to pick this up, even with the poor combat. The story/quests sound great, and seem like they've put a lot of work into it.

humanji

It's a tough call. I'm not sure if I can recommend it or not. I'm really enjoying it, but my taste in games is usually fairly different to most. Rock Paper Shotgun and PCGamer have a couple of reviews. The PCGamer one is good as it's written as he was playing, putting down his impressions as they happened.

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/07/03/wot-i-think-the-secret-world/
http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/07/03/the-secret-world-review-as-it-happens/

Both outline the good and bad aspects. I'm not sure if anyone is streaming videos of the gameplay, which might help decide if you can see a full quest being played out instead of snippets.

lostbooks

Now the game is live and the NDA has been lifted I have to say I love this game so much I had to give up beta testing it because I could see it being an enormous time sink in the future and I plan on going back to university this year. I gave up the game purely because I was having too much fun with it.

Ivan

humanji wrote: »

As I said in another post, I honestly can't see this being a success. Not because it's a bad game, but more because it's PR seems to lack the momentum needed to get this off the ground. It'll run for a while, but it won't be in the top ten MMO's of all time, or anything like that. It's a shame really, because there are so few MMO's that try something different and this deserves a shot.

I believe the opposite to be true. The less of a big deal and hype that's made of the launch the less try-anything will purchase the game. Traditionally, if an MMO is heralded as "The next big thing" then a huge player base is formed, play the game and decimate the forums and social media with bad PR (generally because it wasn't their type of game to begin with). GM wages and server costs inflate and the game implodes with devastating effect, never quite the same.

Building slowly and quietly is the best bet, akin to EvE Online.