At PAX, the team from Funcom's The Secret World opened the gates a little bit further and gave us some new information about the game. With this new information came some new screenshots and artwork.

Check out the Screenshots and Faction Artwork

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/the-secret-world-pax-preview?page=1

looks nice

Must...not...say...IT'S FUNCOM!
Honestly, if they can pull a good game, then I wouldn't mind the overused instancing and other things. AOC wasn't a bad game, just rushed and they could have keeped 300k+ subs if it had more content, or make the crossing from Tortage to horrible grind leaner.
Plus, the setting is amazing, I always loved Lovecraft-type fiction, it's one of the best ways to bring magic in modern world.

 I'm liking what I see so far, but I don't want to get my hopes up until we see more.

This LOOK GREAT!

BUT it's Funcom... please Funcom do not fukka up this game also! Please! I'm so sick and tired of fantasy games! This one look great! I love Resident Evil type of games and this one seems to be somewhere close to that in one way or the other.

WORK, WORK! DO NOT FAIL AGAIN!

Looks great, just praying Funcom can for once have a successful launch day.

The screenshots have the kind of details level i expected to see in Fallen Earh and  that i'm still waiting for but that we probably will never see.

Switching to Secret World then if  they have at least a decent gameplay and not too much instanciation...

LOOKS UNBELIEVABLY GREAT ! Holy crap i just wish/hope/pray they dont ruin it , i rly want this to be a big success

Looks good but if it's going to be another instance-fest they should delete it now.

did they mention anything about it?

Originally posted by kakarotrage

Looks good but if it's going to be another instance-fest they should delete it now.

did they mention anything about it?

They said that there will be used zoning, but there will be much more vast areas that in AoC, and also that they're working on a way to move smoothly from one zone to another. Instancing isn't quite bad if they implement it right so it doesn't annoy players.

Instancing and Zoning are not the same thing.

Notes from a Funcom fan;

Game is being made by Ragnar Tornquest, guy behind The Longest Journey and its sequel. Funcom has fantastic and innovative ideas but they are a little slow on the 'releasing when it's ready not months before hand' deal ;) Now that the former lead Gaute Godager is gone, perhaps that will chang.e

Game will use zones but not like AoC, more like it's upcoming expansion or Anarchy Online. Zones connect directly and you can see across them instead of just a door in a mountain or talking to an NPC and 'poofing' ala base AoC.

Factions will be 'loose' factions not WoW like where your enemy is your enemy because.. the game says so. 'Oh theres an elf, I gotta kill him cause, well cause he's automatically my hated enemy.' Hurah for that.

Its a sandbox MMOG. YAY!

I am a fan of Funcoms games and have played all of them (some for years, I'm a current AoC subscriber and that game has come a long way.) Funcom makes absolutely fantastic, innovative and genre changing MMOGs. If they can release this sucker when its done and not get over their head with ambition and thus promise features they cant possibly deliver on.. I think this game could be a huge success.

Yep, save your time Funcom if your just gonna use alot of instancing.  WoW did instancing right, EQ2 did instancing wrong.  This game has alot of potential but if instancing is used for more than dungeons and battlegrounds, Im out already.

I never had a problem with the instancing in AoC and IMO the way of instancing is not affecting the gameplay so much, that i have to say "i don't play it" because there instanced citys etc. ...

So.., i really like the screens and the style. And i hope that there will come a beta next year. Can't wait to see the game in action :)

Am I the only one finding the art design too bright? I thought "dark days were coming." The colors are too much alive to make me feel part of a world in turmoil and despair invaded by creatures of darkness. Can someone shut the curtains please? Thank you.

Originally posted by Fion

I am a fan of Funcoms games and have played all of them (some for years, I'm a current AoC subscriber and that game has come a long way.) Funcom makes absolutely fantastic, innovative and genre changing MMOGs. If they can release this sucker when its done and not get over their head with ambition and thus promise features they cant possibly deliver on.. I think this game could be a huge success.

I am with you on that. Sold completely and can not wait for this game to come out! Let's hope for the best. From my side I am ready to give Funcome as many chances as they need to get that jewel.

Looks fantastic.I am happy to see more non-fantasy games coming out.

if there is pvp i am in

According to a lot of gaming sites AoC had the closest to perfect launch to date as far as mmo's go. While I do feel that AoC was a great game with a highly innovative combat system, Funcom rushed to push the game out at a bad time; everyone in the gaming industry knows you don't release an MMO at the beginning of the summer. The beginning of summer is the worst time to release an MMO simply because you need to be on top of your game to keep players happy, which sadly they were not.

We all know that at the beginning of summer that's when everyone gets out from school and with no school there is loads of free time to spend on the computer playing to your heart's content, it was because of this that guilds in AoC cleared content incredibly fast and Funcom was unable to keep up with the player base who by near end summer had cleared all functioning content and some even learned to find a way to down closed content (I know because I was one of them) with nothing to do players became bored with the same old content and began to leave. The smart thing to have done is release the game near a holiday so that though players get maybe a week or so off they still have enough time to play, yet are limited in game time when their vacation is over so that, Funcom has time to work on fixing and adding things while the player base is still tied up with their IRL duties.

However, negative I may come off as please do not assume that I am flaming Funcom because to be honest I have great love for their ability to bring something new and creative to the table. To this day I have yet to see an MMO with as fun as a combat system of AoC, hell even the new Star Wars MMO has nothing really new as far as combat goes and that game isn't set to release till next year. I just really hope that  Funcom learned from their mistake in AoC so they don't make a similar one in this game, which I honestly don't think they will because they did learn from their mistake in AO and didn't repeat it so much in AoC.

This looks interesting

If it has the system that AO had that would make me happy.
I loved tweaking my character out!