In his latest column devoted to Funcom's The Secret World, MMORPG.com Managing Editor Bill Murphy takes a look at the recent location revelations made by the team during E3 2011. See what Bill's got to say about the Innsmouth Academy, Atlantic Island Park and the Accursed Woods.

Recently, though they were absentees at E3, Funcom has been releasing a ton of new info about The Secret World’s many locations. From the Lovecraft-inspired Accursed Woods, to a boarding school called the Innsmouth Academy and an abandoned amusement park on Atlantic Island, there’s a wide gamut of places to see and do things in TSW. In fact, I’m pretty sure that because of the slant on real-world locales, I’m becoming more and more excited for Funcom’s next game than I normally would be so far from release. I love the idea of putting an MMO into a modern-day setting and twisting and turning the reality to make it fit the fantastic. To be able to stalk places which are at once both familiar and unsettling is one of the best things about games set in the “Real World”.

Read more of Bill Murphy's The Secret World: Location, Location, Location.

So first, I'm not a huge fan of Ragnar Tornquist. Second, I never jump on the hype wagon of a game until I've actually played it. That said, it is quite the struggle to not get excited about this game. I sure hope it delivers.

Right now I am liking the lore, liking the locations, I'm just wanting to see how the gameplay runs.  Hopefully it will be good and this company can give themselves a less tainted name, because I kind of doubt another mmo with this premise will be coming along anytime soon, despite how fun it seems it would be.

I too am really crossing my fingers for this. I'm trying NOT to get too hyped up. But I love the idea of puzzles, real life setting etc. I even like the aesthetic (so far as we've seen it). Here's hoping for some proper info soon . . .

Originally posted by Kendane

Right now I am liking the lore, liking the locations, I'm just wanting to see how the gameplay runs.  Hopefully it will be good and this company can give themselves a less tainted name, because I kind of doubt another mmo with this premise will be coming along anytime soon, despite how fun it seems it would be.

 

Tainted?  You seem to forget they made the best mmo ever with AO, and AoC while having a rough start turned out to be one of the best themeparks on the market.

I have no doubts about those locations becoming very impressive and immersive, what worries me though, is how they will be connected. Any word on tha yet?

Will the Secret World feel like a whole, cohesive gameworld or just a series of very separate stunning backdrops?

Personally I wasn't too happy about how they stitched AOC's zones together; dead end zones and striking up npc conversations to trigger the loading screen to travel to other zones, for instance.

Originally posted by Bizzlebuff

Originally posted by Kendane

Right now I am liking the lore, liking the locations, I'm just wanting to see how the gameplay runs.  Hopefully it will be good and this company can give themselves a less tainted name, because I kind of doubt another mmo with this premise will be coming along anytime soon, despite how fun it seems it would be.

 

Tainted?  You seem to forget they made the best mmo ever with AO, and AoC while having a rough start turned out to be one of the best themeparks on the market.

Which still hurt their image, regardless on how the games finally turned out.

The locations are interesting,  From the moment I set foot in The Secret World, on average game time 3-4 hrs a day 3-4 days a week, how long will it take to get to those locations? 1,  2, 6, 12 months.  I remember trying Allods Online.  It's big sell was flying your own ship to various allods, fighting on ships and allods.  Trouble was at level 15 I was still in the beginning zone.  I had no ship.  I was still grinding 1000 kills to earn a larger bag.  I gave up on the grind and the game.  LotR keeps mentioning all these great locations from the books.  I finally with a lvl 18 character have started to pass the Old Forest and Tom Bombadill.  For me it isn't the unique gameplay or the locations each with their own flavor but rather when I can actually see and enjoy the gameplay.

Dalonely

It's Funcom game, Their past two MMOs were close to unplayable for the first year...so third time's the charm!

Originally posted by DarkPony

I have no doubts about those locations becoming very impressive and immersive, what worries me though, is how they will be connected. Any word on tha yet?

Will the Secret World feel like a whole, cohesive gameworld or just a series of very separate stunning backdrops?

Personally I wasn't too happy about how they stitched AOC's zones together; dead end zones and striking up npc conversations to trigger the loading screen to travel to other zones, for instance.

Actually, I expect that to continue for TSW.

While the locations do sound interesting; I think that overall it puts an end to any thoughts that this will be an open world in any meaningful sense. This is clearly going to be the same kind of narrowly defined 'zone' based game and they will almost certainly be the same instanced junk as AoC.

Originally posted by Kyleran

Originally posted by DarkPony

I have no doubts about those locations becoming very impressive and immersive, what worries me though, is how they will be connected. Any word on tha yet?

Will the Secret World feel like a whole, cohesive gameworld or just a series of very separate stunning backdrops?

Personally I wasn't too happy about how they stitched AOC's zones together; dead end zones and striking up npc conversations to trigger the loading screen to travel to other zones, for instance.

Actually, I expect that to continue for TSW.

I doubt all the areas will be seamless, after all they're including locations from all over the known world which is a bit different than emulating continents like WoW does or contiguous regions like LotrO does.

Tornquist stated that he very much favors open-world and dislikes instances, he also stated that the areas would be vast. How that translates ingame remains to be seen, but I expect the areas to be at least the size of AoC's regions in Khitai.

As for traveling between locations of the world, there's 1 traveling system that we know of, Agartha, which resembles the Grid in AO or The Ways in The Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan. You can see it in some of the video footage, but here's an example I googled:

Branching and interconnecting paths hanging unsupported in the air in some other-dimensional space that link various locations with eachother, just like they do in Jordan's Wheel of Time books or Anarchy Online's Grid system. This way all those locations all over the world can be linked to eachother even if they're on separate continents (or maybe even different, nonterrestrial or alternate worlds)

Open world? In modern game? Fuck me, there's London and Tokyo, how do you think the "small" area between London and Tokyo should be represented? Swimming to Russia in 3 minutes, running through Syberia in another 5, and then taking a boat from yakutsk to Tokyo so that it won't take longer than 10 minutes. Is that your idea?

Branching and interconnecting paths hanging unsupported in the air in some other-dimensional space that link various locations with eachother, just like they do in Jordan's Wheel of Time books or Anarchy Online's Grid system. This way all those locations all over the world can be linked to eachother even if they're on separate continents (or maybe even different, nonterrestrial or alternate worlds)

Ah, something similar, then, to Steven Erikson's magic Warrens in his Malazan series.  Could be interesting.  The possibility of fighting for control of the "warrens" is intriguing.

When information for this game first started being made available I wrote it 'Generic Zombie Game' Online. The more info that's been released though, the more excited I am about it, and I'm still determined to try it, even though you mentioned Hogwarts in your article ;)

If I'm not mistaken, each one of these three areas are all in the same region, Solomon Island. This is also the region where Kingsmouth is located. So these areas are within walking distance, from what I understand,

Originally posted by Shoob

If I'm not mistaken, each one of these three areas are all in the same region, Solomon Island. This is also the region where Kingsmouth is located. So these areas are within walking distance, from what I understand,

Innsmouth Academy, the Accursed Woods, Kingsmouth, the Overlook Motel and Atlantic Island Park are all in the same general area. But this doesn't apply to the 3 main areas where the secret societies reside, London, New York and Seoul, or other locations like Egypt and Eastern Europe.

Originally posted by Boldman58

The locations are interesting,  From the moment I set foot in The Secret World, on average game time 3-4 hrs a day 3-4 days a week, how long will it take to get to those locations? 1,  2, 6, 12 months.  I remember trying Allods Online.  It's big sell was flying your own ship to various allods, fighting on ships and allods.  Trouble was at level 15 I was still in the beginning zone.  I had no ship.  I was still grinding 1000 kills to earn a larger bag.  I gave up on the grind and the game.  LotR keeps mentioning all these great locations from the books.  I finally with a lvl 18 character have started to pass the Old Forest and Tom Bombadill.  For me it isn't the unique gameplay or the locations each with their own flavor but rather when I can actually see and enjoy the gameplay.

Dalonely

 I seem to remember Ragnar stating that you'd pretty much be able to go wherever you want from the start. They recommend however that you start at Kingsmouth because that's where they introduce you to some game mechanics, like the "state" system and using the environment.

Well dont hold your breath till this game is released. It might never come to be.

Originally posted by Shoob

Originally posted by Boldman58

The locations are interesting,  From the moment I set foot in The Secret World, on average game time 3-4 hrs a day 3-4 days a week, how long will it take to get to those locations? 1,  2, 6, 12 months.  I remember trying Allods Online.  It's big sell was flying your own ship to various allods, fighting on ships and allods.  Trouble was at level 15 I was still in the beginning zone.  I had no ship.  I was still grinding 1000 kills to earn a larger bag.  I gave up on the grind and the game.  LotR keeps mentioning all these great locations from the books.  I finally with a lvl 18 character have started to pass the Old Forest and Tom Bombadill.  For me it isn't the unique gameplay or the locations each with their own flavor but rather when I can actually see and enjoy the gameplay.

Dalonely

 I seem to remember Ragnar stating that you'd pretty much be able to go wherever you want from the start. They recommend however that you start at Kingsmouth because that's where they introduce you to some game mechanics, like the "state" system and using the environment.

Do all factions start in Kingsmouth then? I would have thought it would just be the Illuminati starting there.