The Secret World

[DalekFlay]

I don't see any chance for that. It would need a lot of work, redoing the quests, monster population, balancing.

Not really, you can completely solo both as it is. Well you can for TOR I know 100%, and I hear the same for Secret World.

I don't like the idea of such story focused games dying forever. Other MMOs have been brought back like Earth and Beyond. Star Wars especially would have the fanbase for it. It's possible.

 

[J_C]

I don't see any chance for that. It would need a lot of work, redoing the quests, monster population, balancing.

Not really, you can completely solo both as it is. Well you can for TOR I know 100%, and I hear the same for Secret World.

I don't like the idea of such story focused games dying forever. Other MMOs have been brought back like Earth and Beyond. Star Wars especially would have the fanbase for it. It's possible.

Yeah you can solo Secret World, but it needs a lot of grinding. As a single player game, I think it would be better to change this to make it more interesting.

 

[DeepOcean]

What really kills Secret World for me is the floaty,unresponsive and clunky combat with attacks that auto-aim making position almost irrelevant (characteristic of all WoW clones), if this game had a combat system like Tera, it would still be a popamole MMO but at least the combat wouldn't be so mind-numbing boring. The skill system needs a little work too because things like evasion, defense, block, penetration rate, crit rate, magic and physical resist are barely explained in the game and when I was forced to read their forums to understand how shit worked, I discovered that they work in a highly unintuitive manner and only really start making a difference at really high levels, making soloing with a low level character a pain in the ass. The starting area is kinda okay but when you get to the second area and beyond the enemy HP bloat and damage start to ramp up so fast that you need a really good build and a little grinding is recommended, that is why getting at least one person to play with make a world of difference in the enjoyment of the game. Soloing is possible but boring as shit because if you can defeat the monsters it become an exercise o clicking on the hot bar to damage the enemy health bar for 15s on an enemy that can't defeat you or being murdered by some really powerful zombie that can kill you very fast, auto-hit you and can't be out runned so any tactic is irrelevant.

 

[DalekFlay]

Yeah you can solo Secret World, but it needs a lot of grinding. As a single player game, I think it would be better to change this to make it more interesting.

Well I don't expect a lot from it. Basically I would want either EA or a dedicated group of modders to remove the server shit and plop you in as-is, just to preserve the story and game world. WoW has unofficial servers and that would work as well, but still time limited. I wonder how much work it would be to literally just rough-shot it out there as a historical piece, not a real new game or anything.

I was always fine with MMOs vanishing because they were so focused on online interaction and such, but now that they're so story-heavy and everything it seems like a real shame to let them die.

 

[Zewp]

I should actually get around to finishing the story in SW. I doubt it's going to be around for much longer than another year, if it's even up that long.

 

[Night Goat]

I should actually get around to finishing the story in SW. I doubt it's going to be around for much longer than another year, if it's even up that long.

Same here. I'm interested in the story, but the combat is so tedious that I can't bring myself to play anymore.

 

[Hoaxmetal]

Yup, me too. With all those 500 skills it's still dull and simplistic.

 

[J_C]

You guys definitely have to team with a bro, the game is much more enjoyable that way. The combat is still a tedious grind, but it is bearable with a teammate.

 

[Zewp]

If I can just cut down the time I have to spend on combat, I'll play a lot more. Right now, due to shit skill allocation my fights take extra long because I'm underpowered for the area I'm in.

 

[Drakron]

You guys definitely have to team with a bro, the game is much more enjoyable that way. The combat is still a tedious grind, but it is bearable with a teammate.

You cannot team up on solo instances and there are a lot on this game and they are the worst, I quit this because at some point (likely at start) I made the wrong choice and my choices were hellish grindan to get points or force my way to continue.

I taken option to wrap this up as a bad decision on my part, I gone into Egypt and its not going to get better ... just worst.

 

[chestburster]

The writing is well above, miles above, anything else I have seen in a good, long time. .

Fuck yeah. The writing in the lore is on par with Lovecraftian mytho fan fiction of the highest caliber, like Neil Geiman, Charles Stross and Clive Barker.

And the stand-alone stories of several dungeons are among the best Lovecraftian/weird-tale stories I've read, e.g.:

"Darkness War": Indians and Vikings team up to fight Mayans that worshipped inter-dimensional gods and domesticated Byakhees.

"The Facility": Soviet trained "cosmonauts" that delve deep into the human mind in order to open inter-dimensional portals.

"The Hell Saga (three dungeons)": a human warlock leads an revolution in Hell.

I actually think Funcom did a really lousy job selling this game's strength in story writing. But on the other hand, a lot of the stand-alone stories in this game are so "out there" that they're really difficult to explain to the average Joe.

 

[Rahdulan]

The writing is well above, miles above, anything else I have seen in a good, long time. .

I actually think Funcom did a really lousy job selling this game's strength in story writing. But on the other hand, a lot of the stand-alone stories in this game are so "out there" that they're really difficult to explain to the average Joe.

This is especially apparent when you hear reviewers singing praises about Bioware's writing in TOR and completely overlook the same in TSW. It also has great VA to complement it where, you know, VAs actually emote in their line delivery instead of just switching up accents.

 

[DeepOcean]

"The Hell Saga (three dungeons)": a human warlock leads an revolution in Hell.

Jesus beard on fire! I always wanted to know how this story ended, I never guessed the guy would go that far, my bros abbandoned me and I didn't wanted to play with strangers. I hate MMOs and their damn boredom between me and my storyfagness!

 

[chestburster]

"The Hell Saga (three dungeons)": a human warlock leads an revolution in Hell.

Jesus beard on fire! I always wanted to know how this story ended, I never guessed the guy would go that far, my bros abbandoned me and I didn't wanted to play with strangers. I hate MMOs and their damn boredom between me and my storyfagness!

Well,

Spoiler

In the end you help Wicker defeat the "angel" Ebilis, who is now the overlord of Hell. Turns out Hell was a big experiment built by people from the First Age and Angel Ebilis was one of its architects, who has since been running Hell as the boss. I especially love that one of Ebilis' ability is "entropy". Really makes me feel that Hell is actually the once Paradise eaten away by time itself.

Random pub game can be fun. Just treat the other four player guys like AI-controlled companions (and unlike Biotard companions, their dialogues can be completely ignored and are occasionally entertaining to read).

 

[Horus]

I started it today and frankly i like it even thought it belongs to the genre i hate most. But while story and setting is great the VA seems pretty below par for the character i met. I normally don't bother with that kind of thing but it becomes a bit annoying to hear VA that destroys the atmosphere most of the time. I hope it will improve later on.

On another note, what do you guys recommend for solo build? I choose blade/blood at the start but i could change it if it's weak.

 

[DeepOcean]

I started it today and frankly i like it even thought it belongs to the genre i hate most. But while story and setting is great the VA seems pretty below par for the character i met. I normally don't bother with that kind of thing but it becomes a bit annoying to hear VA that destroys the atmosphere most of the time. I hope it will improve later on.

On another note, what do you guys recommend for solo build? I choose blade/blood at the start but i could change it if it's weak.

Blood is kinda weak, most healing skills in it are kinda weak as you do half of your healing as hit points and the other half as shield points, but as shields don't stack, you will heal less than other skill trees that offer healing and blood dps isn't all that great. If you are going sword route, I really recomend chaos as secondary, blade already has decent healling abilities and that +30% extra blade damage you get from chaos is really great.

 

[KevinV12000]

This game just keeps getting better and better. Setting it alongside another story-focused MMO, SWTOR, and it really shines as very, very superior to that. The MMO aspects of it still bug me, it's just not my thing, but the quests and the stories/locations/people really make it worthwhile.

 

[Minttunator]

I have to agree with that one. TSW absolutely slays SWTOR in all the important categories - which is remarkable, considering its much lower budget.

 

[KevinV12000]

I have to agree with that one. TSW absolutely slays SWTOR in all the important categories - which is remarkable, considering its much lower budget.

If there is one thing I've discovered over the course of my life, from working for companies as large as the Walt Disney Company to giant law firms and now with a huge government department.....there is a point at which sheer scale kills creativity. Witness Pixar pre- and post-Disney acquisition, for example. As a former corporate drone, I can just *smell* the meetings, all calendared on Microsoft Outlook, which killed SWTOR.

TSW, on the other hand, speaks of a lean, hungry team.

 

[Horus]

This game just keeps getting better and better. Setting it alongside another story-focused MMO, SWTOR, and it really shines as very, very superior to that. The MMO aspects of it still bug me, it's just not my thing, but the quests and the stories/locations/people really make it worthwhile.

Cthulhu setting >>>> Star wars setting everytime. I just wish MCA Obsidian try their hands on this setting, this could work very well with their talents and save us from suffering through MMO mechanics to see a good story.

 

[Name]

Never into MMO/Online gaming, is this game worth the $30 for the story and writing?

Can I solo it at my leisure? I'm a casual newfag.

 

[DeepOcean]

Never into MMO/Online gaming, is this game worth the $30 for the story and writing?

Can I solo it at my leisure? I'm a casual newfag.

You can solo, but you are going to need a good build. You will love this game depending how big your tolerance to terrible MMO combat is. Think MMO rotation based combat with clunky, floaty animations and weapons that fail at generating that sensation that you actually hit something with them as enemies don't react to damage and they make very unsatisfying sounds when used. You don't feel like you are punching the enemy in his face with each hit. The skills just make a few underwhelming special effects a few times and the enemies suddenly fall dead,the sword can generate red circles, while claws generate green circles, that is a fucking huge difference.

Enemies takes forever to kill when soloing and repawn very fast, over and over, sometimes even in your face. For some reason you are really limited on the amount of active quests, that lead to backtracking tha reach insane levels. The gameplay is this way: pick quest, get to region of quest, fight monsters in the way, fight monsters to complete quest, fight monsters that respawned on your way back, pick another quest repeat the whole process again. Did I mentioned that you didn't had a single drop of enjoyment out of the combat in this whole process? It get's worse as the areas after Solomon Island aren't as good and some grinding maybe required. Get some people to play with as the dungeons offer the best storylines available in the game anyway and having someone with you really cuts the tedium, so the glorious stoyfaggness of the game can shine without you having the equivalent of fun that is banging your head on concrete.

 

[Night Goat]

^ This. Good gameplay can make up for a bad story, but a good story can't salvage bad gameplay.

 

[Humppaleka]

Actually there are a lot of quests to be done without killing mobs, sure you have to do that every once in a while but I don't remember a single MMO where you could avoid combat as much as in TSW. The build part is true though, grab one from the forums or something to save you from frustration (like my blood/assault -deck, takes a ton of time to become useful soloing).

 

[Horus]

I generally use /reset command to suicide my character to born from respawn points to avoid backtracking. I don't know if it does have any repercussions besides damaging your gear though.

Never into MMO/Online gaming, is this game worth the $30 for the story and writing?

Can I solo it at my leisure? I'm a casual newfag.

I think encounters in this game is mostly designed for soloing. It's becomes too easy when you found even a party member and most of the spent is waiting monsters to respawn in the missions if you have a teammate with you. You can probably complete the story all by yourself easily with the right build but making the right one is the trick.(I'm at the second map)