The Secret World

[Kem0sabe]

Does this game have a trial version or guest passes? I would like to try it, but I'm not sure. I got bored quickly with other MMOs like Neverwinter, Age of Conan, Star Wars...

I don't think they have the body key system active anymore, might be wrong tho. That was the only trial the game had.

Considering the low price it is now from. Bundlestars, it's worth it for the single player content alone, especially if you enjoy urban fantasy, cthulhu mythos, etc.

The voice acting and writing is top notch in a lot of quests, and it's an extremely solo friendly mmo with a very nice and helpful community.

 

[Vilos Cohaagen]

Does this game have a trial version or guest passes? I would like to try it, but I'm not sure. I got bored quickly with other MMOs like Neverwinter, Age of Conan, Star Wars...

"The buddy invite system in The Secret World is no longer available. We may reintroduce a trial system in the future, but for now if you want a 3-day pass to the game, please go to http://help.funcom.com/ and write in for it. One key per address, please! "

 

[Rahdulan]

Yeah, I think they took it out. Just checked on my account page and buddy key option isn't there anymore. It was a 48 hour trial form what I remember.

 

[bozia2012]

Does this game have a trial version or guest passes? I would like to try it, but I'm not sure. I got bored quickly with other MMOs like Neverwinter, Age of Conan, Star Wars...

I don't think they have the body key system active anymore, might be wrong tho. That was the only trial the game had.

Considering the low price it is now from. Bundlestars, it's worth it for the single player content alone, especially if you enjoy urban fantasy, cthulhu mythos, etc.

The voice acting and writing is top notch in a lot of quests, and it's an extremely solo friendly mmo with a very nice and helpful community.

I can't stress this enough. Unless you're alergic to "mmo combat", the solo content (which is arguably 99% of the game) is worth the full price - great production value, great writing, creative quests.

 

[Zombra]

Does this game have a trial version or guest passes? I would like to try it, but I'm not sure. I got bored quickly with other MMOs like Neverwinter, Age of Conan, Star Wars...

Pick it up cheap and stick with it until you get to your first Investigation Mission. Investigations are what really set TSW apart. After that you will know whether it's a game for you.

 

[Rahdulan]

Does this game have a trial version or guest passes? I would like to try it, but I'm not sure. I got bored quickly with other MMOs like Neverwinter, Age of Conan, Star Wars...

Pick it up cheap and stick with it until you get to your first Investigation Mission. Investigations are what really set TSW apart. After that you will know whether it's a game for you.

Which is really why a buddy key or trial is great for a game like TSW.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

i'm not the sharpest tool in the box, so i enjoyed only the first 2-3 maps' investigation missions, and not even all of them. i found them to be often needlessly convoluted.

 

[Kem0sabe]

I think they tuned down the amount of mobs in the map, to make traversal better, since last time I played, or at least that's the impression I'm getting now that I started back again.

I think my biggest gripes continue to be the fucking horrible engine they have, completely and uterly in optimized and broken even on the highest grade hardware, and the quest log limitations, that often force me to return back to areas where I found a quest but didn't have any space to take it.

3 side missions and a story mission are just too few for a content heavy game of this type.

 

[Zombra]

I think they tuned down the amount of mobs in the map, to make traversal better, since last time I played, or at least that's the impression I'm getting now that I started back again.

Yes. They instituted an "enhanced player experience" overhaul last year, designed to cut down on the game's annoyance. I haven't tried it myself but I like the sound of it. Basically it sounds like they cut down on filler shit; since they abandoned the subscription model there's little reason for them to pad out player time sinks. Full patch notes

I think [one of] my biggest gripes [continues] to be the quest log limitations, that often force me to return back to areas where I found a quest but didn't have any space to take it.
3 side missions and a story mission are just too few for a content heavy game of this type.

I hated it at first, but after a while I came to appreciate it. In a way it's nice to not have a huge list of 40 things I need to do. Helps me stay focused. Maybe it's decline but it works for me.

 

[Kem0sabe]

Yes. They instituted an "enhanced player experience" overhaul last year, designed to cut down on the game's annoyance. I haven't tried it myself but I like the sound of it. Basically it sounds like they cut down on filler shit; since they abandoned the subscription model there's little reason for them to pad out player time sinks. Full patch notes


I hated it at first, but after a while I came to appreciate it. In a way it's nice to not have a huge list of 40 things I need to do. Helps me stay focused. Maybe it's decline but it works for me.

Very interesting read, thanks for the links. It's nice to see that funcom finally took steps to make the gameplay as enjoyable as the content.

Would love to see an complete engine overhaul, or at least their Ui system, which I think is one of the biggest resource hogs (/reloadui is still the most effective way to fix fps slowdown), but with the Financials of current funcom, I doubt that will ever be in the works.

 

[KevinV12000]

TSW is still by miles and miles the best MMO on the market right now. There is more wit and intelligence in Kingsmouth alone than is all other MMOs' complete zones and quests.

 

[Kem0sabe]

TSW is still by miles and miles the best MMO on the market right now. There is more wit and intelligence in Kingsmouth alone than is all other MMOs' complete zones and quests.

Once I'm finally done with transylvania, I'm gonna go back and start from kingsmouth and start doing every quest and lore but I missed, working through the extra dlc issues as I go.

It's a fun game if you intent to play it solo for the story. Not the best group mmo tho, that title is still with final Fantasy XIV by a very big margin.

 

[Stokowski]

I wish the story wasn't quite so broken up though. With all the various non-story missions taking up so much of the gameplay it's easy to end up with important story elements shoved to the back of your brain. The option to replay the story missions would be very handy.

 

[Zombra]

I wish the story wasn't quite so broken up though. With all the various non-story missions taking up so much of the gameplay it's easy to end up with important story elements shoved to the back of your brain. The option to replay the story missions would be very handy.

Yeah. Once again, it should have been single-player. Probably much easier to comprehend over 30 hours than 300. I paid attention to every cutscene but honestly I had no fucking idea what was going on in that game, ever.

 

[bozia2012]

I wish the story wasn't quite so broken up though. With all the various non-story missions taking up so much of the gameplay it's easy to end up with important story elements shoved to the back of your brain. The option to replay the story missions would be very handy.

Fanboy apologia incoming.

The chopped up story/lore is a feature of the game and a more engaging way to learn about its world.

The main quest in the beginning is mostly inconsequential as it deals with very local events (the mist, excalibur, mayan invasion, black pharaoh etc.). It serves as a conventional way to walk you through all the subplots which are the meat of the game - faction bullshit, The Host, Orochi, Morninglight, Gaia Engines etc. It also dumps a gad giant of lore which adds to confusion.

All those non-story missions and various bits of lore hidden in them the most important. Rarely you get information outright, usually you have to actually read the diary you found or listen carefully to that NPC.

The further into the game, the closer the local events get to the main main story - they totally catch up in Tokyo.

 

[J_C]

I was thinking about getting back to the game, and altough I have a character, I was thinking about starting over. I want to solo as much as possible, so maybe someone could give the the quintessential uber solo build, which would provide the smoothest solo experience. Is there such a build?

 

[Cromwell]

I was thinking about getting back to the game, and altough I have a character, I was thinking about starting over. I want to solo as much as possible, so maybe someone could give the the quintessential uber solo build, which would provide the smoothest solo experience. Is there such a build?

The build I used is Chaos / sword Chck here for some builds http://www.tswdb.com/builds/solo. Also works in tokio later. The Build is about building afflictions on the enemie and heal you everytime you hit an afflicted target with your sword attack. Theres one quests I was not able to solo in transylvania, and I did not solo dungeons but pretty much everything else.

 

[Stokowski]

Fanboy apologia incoming.

Yeah, I get all that. There's almost nothing that isn't related, to some extent, to the core events, their effects, and the actions of the various factions, both local and global, sticking their noses in. In a sense, for all its wide reach, it's very taut, focused world-building. It's great.

On the other hand, by the time I've finished running around dealing with the fallout, I get muddy on first causes. Why did that dude want the sword? What side is that chick on? Was the mist directly caused by x or was it a side-effect of y? Fuck it, I need more coffee.

Over the past decade, I've been a huge fan of Steven Erikson's fantasy masterpiece, The Malazan Book of the Fallen. All three and a quarter million words of it. Most of it is pretty dense, often abstruse stuff, but it's fucking wonderful all the same. There was a time when I could not only quote a great deal of it word for word, but tell you the volume and page number each quote was from, so well-embedded was the writing in my head.

But I think it broke my brain. Badly. So I really do need to review material to stay on top of the core plot(s). And TSW seems to fight me at every turn. ::: sadface :::

 

[Jaesun]

I *still* wish they would just make a single player RPG game done in this setting. *sad puppy dog eyes*

 

[J_C]

I *still* wish they would just make a single player RPG game done in this setting. *sad puppy dog eyes*

We all wish that Jaesun, we all wish that...

 

[Kem0sabe]

I *still* wish they would just make a single player RPG game done in this setting. *sad puppy dog eyes*

Exactly... Then again, considering how 'well' their single player game set in this same universe, the park, was received, I'm not excited about they trying their hand at their first single player rpg and messing it up.

From what I understand about the later content added to the game, the best work funcom did in terms of story telling was in the base game and their first dlc based off kingsmouth.

They have spent god knows how many years dicking around with Tokyo, that I think they lost focus on what made the original game so interesting.

The next issue will finally bring the content back to the west, in particular Egypt.

If they did a single player rpg, they should partner with a more experienced rpg developer and focus the game in a particular lore segment, like the Lovecraft inspired bits in the US, with sequels and expansions continuing the story towards the east.

 

[Cromwell]

I *still* wish they would just make a single player RPG game done in this setting. *sad puppy dog eyes*

Exactly... Then again, considering how 'well' their single player game set in this same universe, the park, was received, I'm not excited about they trying their hand at their first single player rpg and messing it up.

From what I understand about the later content added to the game, the best work funcom did in terms of story telling was in the base game and their first dlc based off kingsmouth.

They have spent god knows how many years dicking around with Tokyo, that I think they lost focus on what made the original game so interesting.

The next issue will finally bring the content back to the west, in particular Egypt.

If they did a single player rpg, they should partner with a more experienced rpg developer and focus the game in a particular lore segment, like the Lovecraft inspired bits in the US, with sequels and expansions continuing the story towards the east.

Nah the later content isnt bad, at least its not worse than some of the stuff earlier. There is of course some thngs I personally dont like but that goes for the main game as well as for later additions, but theres also thngs which are just good (meeting the black frequenzy for example). The only problem I haveis the long waiting time until they gotenough story content together for me to log in again, most of the aded stuff is very short and I still have to wait months for it : (

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

i reinstalled it because you people talking about it again. the magic is lost. the combat is still horrible and doesn't look that faster to me, actually it felt exactly the same and the new extremely long countdown on even the most basic mission is a retarded way to push for the premium subscription.
i also didn't notice all the so called rework of skills, my pistol-chaos build is still the same, works the same, can't really be improved and there are still skills scattered around the wheel that work exactly the same.

i felt a faster xp gain, that's true, but that could be due to the weekend bonus.

 

[Cromwell]

i reinstalled it because you people talking about it again. the magic is lost. the combat is still horrible and doesn't look that faster to me, actually it felt exactly the same and the new extremely long countdown on even the most basic mission is a retarded way to push for the premium subscription.
i also didn't notice all the so called rework of skills, my pistol-chaos build is still the same, works the same, can't really be improved and there are still skills scattered around the wheel that work exactly the same.

i felt a faster xp gain, that's true, but that could be due to the weekend bonus.

did they change anything to the system? I didnt play it since I think issue 12 and the end of season 1.

 

[J_C]

i reinstalled it because you people talking about it again. the magic is lost. the combat is still horrible and doesn't look that faster to me, actually it felt exactly the same and the new extremely long countdown on even the most basic mission is a retarded way to push for the premium subscription.
i also didn't notice all the so called rework of skills, my pistol-chaos build is still the same, works the same, can't really be improved and there are still skills scattered around the wheel that work exactly the same.

i felt a faster xp gain, that's true, but that could be due to the weekend bonus.

Well combat was always basic MMO crap, you had to grow to endure it to enjoy the other, excellent parts of the game.