OK folks, the Terr back for another first impressions post!

TSW is one of the games I've been looking  forward too (the two others being Tera and GW2). Now, I've been watching this game since the  first  announcements, got involved with the ARGs, all that. Really been rooting for it. On the other hand though...it's Funcom. Burned me on AO, Burned me on AoC. Are they gonna burn me a third time? Well...

Graphics- Environment 8/10, animations 3/10, characters 2/10

OK look, to start off with, I'm aware the animations are aupposedly placeholders. They said that in AoC too, and we had some of those placeholders months after launch. I don't feel this is a proper way to release a game. Now, on to my opinions.

The environments are GORGEOUS. Lighting and shadows are utterly the best I've seen in an MMO I think. VERY moody, fits the whole "Lovecraftian Horror" thing well. love them. My only complaint is the lack of a "living, breathing world" feel. NPCs kinda just stand there, the environment feels...static. dead. I get it's a horror game  and all, but it just needs more..movement. life. Unlife. whatever. The bleak emptiness is nice, but I jsut don't feel like I'm interacting with a world.

Enemy and player animations? Just...bad. The run animations look idiotic with your weapon drawn. Jumping is bizarre, freakish, and cheap-looking. Enemy and player attacks have no weight...no sense of impact. If it weren't for numbers and life bars moving I wouldn't know this was combat. Weapon lighting effects (muzzle flash on the shotgun for instance just look like they were slapped together in photoshop last minute. They don't merge into the world at all. Again, because people don't bloody read, I'm aware FC says they're all placeholders. This does NOT make it OK. I won't pay for a game full of cardboard cutouts that eventually fall over. 

Lastly, character design. HORRIBLY limited. few choices for anything really. I hope they have dozens more planned for launch.

Sound- ambient 10/10, music 9/10, voice 6/10

Let me start by asking: where the hell are footfalls? I run around, I near nothing. I jump into water, there's no splash. It's like my character isn't even there. That out of the way, ambient sound and music in this game are just phenomenal. THIS is how you capture mood, every other game developer in the world. Little bursts of static, the wind howling between buildings, the distant (and realistic!) crack of a pistol echoing through town. Well done! The music adds to it...mostly. It changes up in combat and seems more standard MMO fare. But out of combar it's just downright creepy.

The voicework sounds like they had a convention to get the most bad stereotypical accents they could imagine. I only played Templar; I can only imagine the horrible Asian accents for the Dragon. And that godawful not-quite-Newenglander accent of the sherrif in Kingsmouth...ugh.

Performance- unnumbered

Performance is the ONE area I forgive in a beta even this late phase. With a fairly decent rig I was usually OK, although the area of Kingsmouth near the Sheriff's was...bad. Admittedly, I maxed eveything out. lower settings would have probably had  OK framerates all around. No isssues with crashes or such. Radeon 5770 if it matters.

Combat/Skill mechanics- 7/10

The combat itself, animation issues notwithstanding, wasn't bad. It's almost like GW2's in that there IS tab targeting, but it does not auto-lock. You need to face your targer, and be in proper range. And other monsters getting in front of your lof will get hit instead. I picked Chaos Magic; because it looked interesting. I also realized quickly there was little need to spam anything but my 3rd attack, which was an aoe whirling claw thingy.

I got a chance to play a little with the vaunted skill wheel, and was disappointed. I was expecting the tons and tons of skills in a game like Skyrim or Anarchy Online; what I got was something less. 9 main skillsets (3 magic, 3 gun, 3 melee), each with 2 disciplines, each with a few (locked for beta) sub-dsciplines that largely all seemed to share many of the same skills anyway.I can see the flexbility of the skill deck system and it's nice; but I was expecting more choices. The skill point and ability point menus, I felt, weren't explained well, but I got the hang of them fast.

Questing/Levelling Mechanic: 4/10

OK first and foremost...TSW is a by-and-large linear themepark. If you don't like that, you can probably not bother reading on. There is SOME room to explore, but the zones I've seen thus far (up to Kingsmouth, admittedly not far) didn't seem gigantic or have any real out-of-the-way secrets. There's some lore achievements you can get for huntings down hidden nooks and crannies that are not very well hidden.But I mostly felt like I was just shunting from one corridor to another.

The quests themselves were standard fare, but I take that with a grain of salt. Only so many ways to shape a wheel. However, I felt the delivery system was problematic. Some quests I couldn't take without ditching others, not sure why. Near as I could tell I could only have one "active" quest on the map tracker at a time, and so I ended up backtracking a lot because I passed objectives for another quest. 

And clickable quest objectives have WAY too long a respawn; compeition over them was ugly. 

The story wasn't bad..a little worse than ToR maybe. I rarely felt I was doing anything more heroic than shuttling around either killing mobs or clicking things. I don't mind if that's all gameplay is, just make it more fun to do.

Overall- 6/10

TSW is not a bad game. It's just not a good one either. In theme, it's trying to do something different. In practice though, it offers no real originality. combat is MMO standard fare, with the addition that I can circle strafe out of certain attacks, or turn a sword swing into an AoE similar to GW2. However unlike GW2, the world feels flat; and animations worse. I do think some of the combat and skill ideas are cool, and the story is nice when it picks up. I jsut wish there was more of that good stuff, and less of what felt like a fairly generic MMO. I will continue to watch this game to see if FC does what they always do and manage to turn it into something playable about a year from now, but right now it's jsut not enough to justify the box price, much less a sub. 

Originally posted by terrant

OK folks, the Terr back for another first impressions post!

 

TSW is one of the games I've been looking  forward too (the two others being Tera and GW2). Now, I've been watching this game since the  first  announcements, got involved with the ARGs, all that. Really been rooting for it. On the other hand though...it's Funcom. Burned me on AO, Burned me on AoC. Are they gonna burn me a third time? Well...

 

Graphics- Environment 8/10, animations 3/10, characters 2/10

OK look, to start off with, I'm aware the animations are aupposedly placeholders. They said that in AoC too, and we had some of those placeholders months after launch. I don't feel this is a proper way to release a game. Now, on to my opinions.

The environments are GORGEOUS. Lighting and shadows are utterly the best I've seen in an MMO I think. VERY moody, fits the whole "Lovecraftian Horror" thing well. love them. My only complaint is the lack of a "living, breathing world" feel. NPCs kinda just stand there, the environment feels...static. dead. I get it's a horror game  and all, but it just needs more..movement. life. Unlife. whatever. The bleak emptiness is nice, but I jsut don't feel like I'm interacting with a world.

Enemy and player animations? Just...bad. The run animations look idiotic with your weapon drawn. Jumping is bizarre, freakish, and cheap-looking. Enemy and player attacks have no weight...no sense of impact. If it weren't for numbers and life bars moving I wouldn't know this was combat. Weapon lighting effects (muzzle flash on the shotgun for instance just look like they were slapped together in photoshop last minute. They don't merge into the world at all. Again, because people don't bloody read, I'm aware FC says they're all placeholders. This does NOT make it OK. I won't pay for a game full of cardboard cutouts that eventually fall over. 

Lastly, character design. HORRIBLY limited. few choices for anything really. I hope they have dozens more planned for launch.

 

 

Sound- ambient 10/10, music 9/10, voice 6/10

Let me start by asking: where the hell are footfalls? I run around, I near nothing. I jump into water, there's no splash. It's like my character isn't even there. That out of the way, ambient sound and music in this game are just phenomenal. THIS is how you capture mood, every other game developer in the world. Little bursts of static, the wind howling between buildings, the distant (and realistic!) crack of a pistol echoing through town. Well done! The music adds to it...mostly. It changes up in combat and seems more standard MMO fare. But out of combar it's just downright creepy.

The voicework sounds like they had a convention to get the most bad stereotypical accents they could imagine. I only played Templar; I can only imagine the horrible Asian accents for the Dragon. And that godawful not-quite-Newenglander accent of the sherrif in Kingsmouth...ugh.

 

Performance- unnumbered

Performance is the ONE area I forgive in a beta even this late phase. With a fairly decent rig I was usually OK, although the area of Kingsmouth near the Sheriff's was...bad. Admittedly, I maxed eveything out. lower settings would have probably had  OK framerates all around. No isssues with crashes or such. Radeon 5770 if it matters.

 

 

Combat/Skill mechanics- 7/10

The combat itself, animation issues notwithstanding, wasn't bad. It's almost like GW2's in that there IS tab targeting, but it does not auto-lock. You need to face your targer, and be in proper range. And other monsters getting in front of your lof will get hit instead. I picked Chaos Magic; because it looked interesting. I also realized quickly there was little need to spam anything but my 3rd attack, which was an aoe whirling claw thingy.

I got a chance to play a little with the vaunted skill wheel, and was disappointed. I was expecting the tons and tons of skills in a game like Skyrim or Anarchy Online; what I got was something less. 9 main skillsets (3 magic, 3 gun, 3 melee), each with 2 disciplines, each with a few (locked for beta) sub-dsciplines that largely all seemed to share many of the same skills anyway.I can see the flexbility of the skill deck system and it's nice; but I was expecting more choices. The skill point and ability point menus, I felt, weren't explained well, but I got the hang of them fast.

 

 

Questing/Levelling Mechanic: 4/10

OK first and foremost...TSW is a by-and-large linear themepark. If you don't like that, you can probably not bother reading on. There is SOME room to explore, but the zones I've seen thus far (up to Kingsmouth, admittedly not far) didn't seem gigantic or have any real out-of-the-way secrets. There's some lore achievements you can get for huntings down hidden nooks and crannies that are not very well hidden.But I mostly felt like I was just shunting from one corridor to another.

The quests themselves were standard fare, but I take that with a grain of salt. Only so many ways to shape a wheel. However, I felt the delivery system was problematic. Some quests I couldn't take without ditching others, not sure why. Near as I could tell I could only have one "active" quest at a time, and so I ended up backtracking a lot because I passed objectives for another quest. 

And clickable quest objectives have WAY too long a respawn; compeition over them was ugly. 

The story wasn't bad..a little worse than ToR maybe. I rarely felt I was doing anything more heroic than shuttling around either killing mobs or clicking things. I don't mind if that's all gameplay is, just make it more fun to do.

 

 

Overall- 6/10

TSW is not a bad game. It's just not a good one either. In theme, it's trying to do something different. In practice though, it offers no real originality. combat is MMO standard fare, with the addition that I can circle strafe out of certain attacks, or turn a sword swing into an AoE similar to GW2. However unlike GW2, the world feels flat; and animations worse. I do think some of the combat and skill ideas are cool, and the story is nice when it picks up. I jsut wish there was more of that good stuff, and less of what felt like a fairly generic MMO. I will continue to watch this game to see if FC does what they always do and manage to turn it into something playable about a year from now, but right now it's jsut not enough to justify the box price, much less a sub. 

I was going to write my own review from 50+hrs of closed beta (which i can actually talk about given the NDA has lifted for the parts i wanted to talk about). However the OP does a good job of encompassing the game as is.

What you should take away from TheSecretWorld is that it is, in fact, a "Linear Themepark" similar to SWTOR but with a MUCH better story, and the ArtStyle of the game is something we actually WANT to play in.

In short, if you like any of the books TheSecretWorld is based off you'll love the game as it's 90% story. HOWEVER, if you like gameplay & game mechanics MORE than story you'll get bored VERY quickly. Combat in TSW is not a centerpiece, and because of that is VERY boring.

However, the "Mix & Match" skill system is something the genre should pick up on for ThemeParks in the future. It's a good twist on sandbox elements, but meant for ThemeParkery :)!

My personal score for TSW: [6.1]

The animations and models will be updated.

Nice write-up and not much of a surprise for me except the part where FunCom said the game would be a special kind of ThemePark where you are more flexible in the sense that which rides you take but from your preview it seems, not so much. So yet another ThemePark, pity. And PvP I guess is just tacked on?

Originally posted by Indol

The animations and models will be updated.

I love when people don't read. In the graphics segment, I added both at the beginning AND the end I was aware of that. Did you miss that part?

Vitriol aside...look. This game is weeks from release. I tend to laugh at the phrase "unfinished game" in an MMO since they constantly evolve over time, but really? Basic combat animations missing or gimped weeks from release? That's poor workmanship in my eyes. That's someone in a boardroom cutting corners to push a fast release before other titles bury it. It's a bad design decision all around.

And once again, it's not even the first time FC has done this. Age of Conan had placeholer anims for months after release. I understand that MMOs are constantly improved, upgraded, and changed, but you do not release a game with entire subsystems missing or broken. That's all there is to it.

Now, they very well COULD get them out in time for release. So many in a few days it will all get better. but for now I am disappointed.

Pretty close to my experience so far.

I don't mind the animations that much games ike LOTRO are much worse. One thing was I did find the variety in quests little better than you marked. There's the one you get all the differn't ammo like mines, gasoline in a bottle, napalm and mess up some zombies that one was good fun. The raven quest wasn't bad either. It seems they tried little bit in adding some variety to them.

Character creation is pretty big deal to me and right now options are really bad,  I know they said more will be added but how much more? cause right now it's worse than most F2P games. Also lack of variety in clothing I don't like. I been playing for couple days now in CB and I'm still wearing my starter outfit.

Still need to put some more time into the game to see if I will play it when released.

I kinda like how they implemented questing.

It's not up par with GW2 but it's certainly better than all the other themepark games quest systems.

There are some quests you can find by exploring, I like having quests in chapters instead of killing 10 of x go back to npc and he tells you to kill 10 of y now, the combat looks good imo i especially liked the random alarm when zombies are coming to attack the camp, it's easy exp.

I'll probably reroll as i started with assault rifle and I don't really like it much, I'll either start with shotgun (I love it's aoe possibilities and non target skills) or start with magic and get a melee/shotgun for when I'm near.

Ps. I was checking out the skill tree and some of it is locked for beta it says. Now I don't know if it will be all ingame when it launches but when I pressed on the outer circle of the skill tree when I hovered on the other parts of the shotgun tree it said locked for beta.

Originally posted by terrant

Originally posted by Indol

The animations and models will be updated.

I love when people don't read. In the graphics segment, I added both at the beginning AND the end I was aware of that. Did you miss that part?

 

Vitriol aside...look. This game is weeks from release. I tend to laugh at the phrase "unfinished game" in an MMO since they constantly evolve over time, but really? Basic combat animations missing or gimped weeks from release? That's poor workmanship in my eyes. That's someone in a boardroom cutting corners to push a fast release before other titles bury it. It's a bad design decision all around.

 

And once again, it's not even the first time FC has done this. Age of Conan had placeholer anims for months after release. I understand that MMOs are constantly improved, upgraded, and changed, but you do not release a game with entire subsystems missing or broken. That's all there is to it.

 

Now, they very well COULD get them out in time for release. So many in a few days it will all get better. but for now I am disappointed.

I'd be surprised if they fix animations before launch, maybe not at all.

Once they grab all the pre-order cash, their drive to fix things will put animations low on that list of things to do.

Originally posted by terrant

Originally posted by Indol

The animations and models will be updated.

I love when people don't read. In the graphics segment, I added both at the beginning AND the end I was aware of that. Did you miss that part?

 

Vitriol aside...look. This game is weeks from release. I tend to laugh at the phrase "unfinished game" in an MMO since they constantly evolve over time, but really? Basic combat animations missing or gimped weeks from release? That's poor workmanship in my eyes. That's someone in a boardroom cutting corners to push a fast release before other titles bury it. It's a bad design decision all around.

 

And once again, it's not even the first time FC has done this. Age of Conan had placeholer anims for months after release. I understand that MMOs are constantly improved, upgraded, and changed, but you do not release a game with entire subsystems missing or broken. That's all there is to it.

 

Now, they very well COULD get them out in time for release. So many in a few days it will all get better. but for now I am disappointed.

I read it very clearly. You were complaining about works in progress as if they were final. Every beta that rolls around people suddenly forget that every beta is like this.

Funcom have definitely dropped the ball in the past, but they've also made some really fantastic games like anarchy online (i think at least). There's no reason to jump to conclusions at this point. Whatever happens happens, just be open to the idea that the game could turn out excellent.

Originally posted by Indol

Originally posted by terrant

Originally posted by Indol

The animations and models will be updated.

I love when people don't read. In the graphics segment, I added both at the beginning AND the end I was aware of that. Did you miss that part?

 

Vitriol aside...look. This game is weeks from release. I tend to laugh at the phrase "unfinished game" in an MMO since they constantly evolve over time, but really? Basic combat animations missing or gimped weeks from release? That's poor workmanship in my eyes. That's someone in a boardroom cutting corners to push a fast release before other titles bury it. It's a bad design decision all around.

 

And once again, it's not even the first time FC has done this. Age of Conan had placeholer anims for months after release. I understand that MMOs are constantly improved, upgraded, and changed, but you do not release a game with entire subsystems missing or broken. That's all there is to it.

 

Now, they very well COULD get them out in time for release. So many in a few days it will all get better. but for now I am disappointed.

I read it very clearly. You were complaining about works in progress as if they were final. Every beta that rolls around people suddenly forget that every beta is like this.

 

Funcom have definitely dropped the ball in the past, but they've also made some really fantastic games like anarchy online (i think at least). There's no reason to jump to conclusions at this point. Whatever happens happens, just be open to the idea that the game could turn out excellent.

I absolutely am open to the idea. I hope it is. But right now, it is not. And yes, I am aware it's a beta..../sigh. 

Think of a game like a fine work of art. Let's say the Mona Lisa. when it's 11th hour and the painting is about to be unveiled for the first time, you wouldn't be too surprised if the artist wanted to make a few subtle changes to color, or something like that. But if he had not put in Mona Lisa's left eye, just had a quick pencilled caricature of it, and it was that close to showing, it might be a little alarming. That's a MAJOR thing to wait to the last minute to do. You get the big stuff settled immediately, and tweak as you go.

It's an "ok" game. I'm just glad to finally see a game were the developers had some creativity in their minds and didn't ripp off the whole wow idea. The game looks nice. But for me I just found the games lore, and story to be kind of weird and hard to follow, but thats just me. I always like zombies though and killing those zombies in the streets was fun!

The game is worth a shot. It's completly differn't then the mind numbing crap that we have been playing lately. Who knows maybe you might like it. Not my cup of tea though.

Cheers,

-Trash

Excellent review.  I've only played for about 4 hours, but I think I have a good feel of the game.  You touched on a lot of the good and bad points.

The combat for me wasn't as fluid as Conan, but it wasn't horrible.  My disappointment was in the skill deck.  It was touted how many passives from one section would boost another, but  with what is unlockable this weekend we don't get to see any of that.  I choose claw weapons and all the passives in the first wheel only affect claw attacks or heals.  There is no point in mixing and matching abilities.  I can't see further tiers, so I can only assume you have to go deep into a weapon set to get benefits with other weapons.  A little disappointing.  I just mostly spam two abilities.  As others have said, combat is not the hightlight of this game.

Quest wise..., mostly standard fair.  They seem very much like TOR or Rift tiered quests.  Kill 5 of these, which unlocks kill 5 of these, now 2 of those, and finally a boss.  They have your standard courier type quests as well.  So far I only found one puzzle quest and it wasn't really puzzling to complete.  The solution was right at your feet on a note on the ground.  I didn't have to guess or go research.  I was hoping for more research/puzzle quests, but unless they are hidden or just further down the road we don't get that many at the start.  The voice acting and lip syncing aren't as good as TOR.  I haven't played enough to actually tell if the story itself is very engaging.

Graphics are nice.  The scenary is top notch.  Character models are a tad blocky in the face, but nothing bad.

Originally posted by Indol

The animations and models will be updated.

If you believe that the game will go through some dramatic transformation, with totally updated character models and animations, then you are delusional.

I agree with the 6/10 score.  The game isn't bad... but its not good game either.  It feels just kind of like a hodge podge of Fallen Earth and City of Heroes mixed together.

The sound and music were excellent excellent, that is what really stood out to me.  Age of Conan had great music too.  But the rest of the game just feels kind of "meh."  There is alot of MMO competition right now and TSW doesn't seem to have anything to pull me into it's side of the ring.

Killing zombies and undead and stuff is cool for a while, but it wears off eventually.

I only played up to a few missions in Kingsmouth so far.  And the game feels alot like a single player game.  Like the way SWTOR did.  It kind of scares me because the problem with a MMORPG having all of its punch in the story/voice acting, makes the replay value not so great.

I know this probably sounds stupid to some people but one thing that I really didn't like about the game was how delayed/slow the character turning is.  Even when I'd have 70+ FPS in areas, it was like I still had terrible mouse lag.  That really drives me nuts, because this game looks like it could be fun to play in First Person View.  And bad turn lag + First person view is a bad combo.

My first impression is, that it's made by Funcom. Nuf said!

Alot of people always use the term this is the beta, things change. More often than not they don't and the beta is used for a Preview to get people hyped up. CLosed betas before the game is released and the NDA has not been lifted are real betas.

Open free weekend, without the NDA betas are really just free trials. And it being so close to release.. 

I love the game but I will be waiting for a little before i buy this one.  

I have been in the beta since earlier in the week, probably put in around 20 hours so far.

- The combat does get better somewhat as you gain more poweful abilities and the synergy between skills kicks in. I am shotgun/elemental right now. Until i unlocked the 2nd tiers the abilities were kinda meh.

- Animations- I can live with them, need work but for me personally not a big deal.

- Graphics- For me on max dx11 at 60+ fps look great. I have a good rig and honestly have not run this game on lower settings so cant speak on them. They IMO do a fine job of atmosphere graphically, not the best, but it works for what they are trying to do i think.

-Sounds- I am satisfied with them. The ambient sounds are decent, the music is very good and goes with the atmosphere.

-Skill system- Very well done IMO, moves along fast enuff to keep your character progression going while keeping the game at a decent difficulty level. I have only just begam the 2nd tiers so dont know how the advances " decks" will be.

Quests- Some are run of the mill and some are a ton of fun. I tend to focus on one major quest at a time and the flow feels right. I dont think this game is made to load up on as many quests as you can and run around doing them as fast as you can. More like follow one or two to compleation and then do another one or 2. Cutscenes are OK, and the voice acting is no worse than usual for MMO's.

Overall I like it. the theme is good, game is fairly fun, i like the setting ( factions). And for me its just something different. It is not the 2nd coming or anything. But If you like theme, setting and differences it may be a game for you. If you dont, and cant forgive a few bugs and whatnot, then may skip it and check back later.

This is just my opinion. Not a game for everyone, but will probably shine for its target audience. I have preordered it because I like it enuff to do so.

In particular, the combat opens up GREATLY as you unlock more and more. Its not wise to judge it too soon.

A brand new gaming getting described with adjectives like "good enough", "ok" and "I can live with it" doesnt sound ground breaking at all. And if you dont break new ground in the present day mmorpg scene, you are basically bound to flop. Flop of course being a relative term, and not the same as closing down shop. Flopping in the sense it will never be game of the year, it will have to do with a fraction of the player base the top tier games have.

You have hard core fans in every game. This is probably going to be a game where casual gamers pop in - and out again.