Originally posted by Robsolf

A little long winded. My apollojeez...

The game WORLD felt pretty good to me.  I didn't think the animations were horrible, but not great either, though the fast moving zombies were a definite exception; they looked like the Scooby Doo gang guest starring on Benny Hill.  To be honest, the game feels more like "The Longest Journey" than AoC, mechanically, and certainly spiritually.

Gameplay was okay... felt to me like a less polished and slower moving DC Online system where you have loadouts but they change if you change weapons, and most of your skills can be used while moving.  It is nice that you can switch weapons and your loadout will switch automagically; no doubt they developed this in feedback to the AoC system which doesn't do this despite many moves being only compatible with certain weapons.

One of the best things about the game is that that the quests are spread out and not terribly linear.  I found myself running around in any particular direction and finding things to do.  I also found that I had chewed up most of the scenery and side quests before moving on past the 3rd tier of the main quest.  THIS IS A GOOD THING.  But there's a problem.

The quest limitation is the problem.  It was exactly the opposite of the kind of system this game needs.  To have to cancel another quest to pick up these remote quests makes no sense whatsoever.  I know they probably want to keep you focused on a few goals at a time to keep the story straighter, but this isn't the way to do it.  I really hope it's a beta thing. 

Another concern I had... almost every quest was repeatable.  I HOPE this was just for sake of beta testing, which is certainly possible.  Because usually when so many quests are repeatable, it's because there's not enough content.

On the question of this being an MMO... from playing the whole thing(pretty sure I played most if not all the available quests), I have to say that thus far, this is the least group based MMO I've yet to play, including TOR.  It looked like Priest Island might be a MP haven, though no missions pointed me there.  Again, being less than halfway through the main zone quest may have something to do with this.

Based on what I played, I would in no way expect to stay subbed to this game indefinitely.  It suffers from the same issue that TOR has, which is:

Once I've finished Kingsmouth, will there be any reason to go back there?  Not just for some higher level return mission, I mean to actually go there and wander around.  LotRO has this, and it's one of the reasons I've been subbed for over 3 years.  Once completing the Shire content, I still go back there often.  Same for Bree, Rivendell, etc.  Will there be a reason to return to Kingsmouth just for the halibut?  I don't think so.  TOR has this same problem.  See yourself going back to Tattoinne to hang out?  No?  Me, either.  Once you complete the content, it just feels like an empty shell.  Once you've saved the day, I doubt it will feel like home, the way cities in LotRO do.  And I didn't see anything in London that created that feeling, either.

But the content was certainly interesting enough to where I may want to play for a month or 2 to munch through the single player content.  The investigation/puzzle based missions were pretty interesting, though one was a bit too "read the devs mind" oriented(example: when talk of "golden girls" and "white ravens" begin, there's something you have to do that makes little sense outside of the dev's mind.), but still interesting.  I suspect that all factions will have the same path, though maybe their main quest will be different; basically, TOR with only 3 classes.  But that may not be correct.

I do look forward to more beta weekends, and I hope many of the assumed negatives I've considered don't pan out.  I'd love to be proven wrong on some of these cases.

 

X2

Originally posted by Domenicus

Thats a very insightfull negative critic of the game. I tend to agree with most of it. and I would add the poor customization of the character, specially char creation.

 

I dont see myself returning to Kingsmouth neither, however I think London will be the Bree thing... And by that we can assume we will have also Seoul and New york... I just thought it could be bigger.

Thanx!  Though I'd like to say my experience WAS mostly positive, or else I wouldn't have stuck around to finish everything I could, nor would I consider buying it for what I would expect to be just a couple months gameplay.  Hopefully my post didn't come off as mostly negative.

I'll have to take more time to check out London again on the next test.  My recollection of it is one where it feels like something seizmic happened and that the populace is stuck in that static state indefinitely.  I'd have preferred it to be more "business as usual"; this other world IS secret, afterall.  Maybe it was just the other players running around, making me think this?

Far as "fight zone" towns like Kingsmouth go...

...if they had a phased version of Kingsmouth after "saving the day", where the town is somewhat back to normal, shops are open, and you can buy kingsmouth exclusive clothing, crafting supplies and whatnot, that might do the trick?  Maybe even do instanced housing, there... where you can buy an old dockside house where you might recieve dailies involving keeping the town "normal"(or have them at Town Hall, the church, etc).  I know phasing and instancing are naughty words on this board(and often for good reason), but still...

Just throwing some stuff out there...

what!?! no mention of the extreemly poor crafting system? yes it was avaiable, overly complicated with no tutorial,  even wepon upgradeing with glyphs was not explained.  after haveing to use the ingame browser (which is very nice) to find out how to craft on the funcom fourms,  ive found that the crafting in game just completly sucks and is completely overthought and overly complicated, this is game breaking for me.

For me, the crappy, dumb AI (is there anything in the game you can't kite?) and clunky combat system were a bigger problem.

But as the previous poster mentioned, the crafting was none too good either.

As to the graphics, there did seem to be some out of sync actions on and off, but overall all not terrible, just nothing special outside the tutorial area.

All in all, it seems like another in a long line of MMOs that could use more time before release, but with only a month left, I doubt any significant changes can be made.

And no... I don't believe in miracle patches.

Not the worst MMO I have played, but very far from the best, and not one I will likely end up playing.

All i have to say is gameplay is greater then all. I would take the crappiest of graphics and sound for balanced fun gameplay. You've already had flashy games and games with great sound,but where are they now? Were they fun once you hit lvl cap? Did they make you want to play or did you feel you had to play and deal with all the crap to see what was at end game?The real base players of mmos probably aggree with me.

All I know is that I wanted to play tsw all weekend long and at no point did I feel like I was grinding. The quests were amazing. You all that played and completed them know which quests I'm talking about : D

Boy, alot of comments, I did the beta this last weekend. I hope the text issues can be dealt with first. I could not even read half of the text.  I have an amd class video card and heard that there was some driver issues yet to be corrected. At first, I found the game a little cold, and bland, but once I got to Kingsmouth the questing and backstory got me really intrigued. I like the idea of bringing thinking back into gameplay. Actual searching for clues, even an in game web browser with Google as the home page ( game hints please). That makes the game really fun. Compared to Tera, which is more about killing and killing more . Sh#t I haven't read the dialogue in the last two areas, however I do like Tera for the game it is. If they can clean up Secret World some --- deal with text, lag, and graphic issues, It will be an awsome game. I really wonder if it is ready to launch in June though. It really needs some delivery help, the game is there, but not really that clean. I mean we were limited to Templar area, and a single quest site this should be a really clean part, no bugs or very few. Oh well, another beta weekend in 4 more days, hoping for some improvements.

I started playing AoC and was impressed by the way it looked and felt. They made mistakes... I hope they actually improve what we already have seen.

As 'believer' i already purchased the whole master/initiate etc. pack becasue i have faith in what they will deliver.  Currently i'm playing swtor.... and that's the standard for me to compare other games (looks, feels, fun etc. - not in gameplay directly)

This TSW game was(is) fun and amazingly it didn't feel like grinding at any point. Not even when i (surprising myself) 'hit' the  smashed 5000 zombies mark.. You just run through them and swipe them away. (and with better animations... it will be more fun even so. I seek them out to gather a bunch and have fun smacking them. how odd....)

the game delivered me quite some difficulties i didn;t expect, like puzzles, riddles and talking to ghosts. Never before I was having that much fun.  Not knowing the solution and searching for things makes you actually look much more to the world and surroundings. Making it much more emerging than any game i have played before.  How many times did you fly a RC plane to check out a location? or actually look up a nursery rhyme to find the clue?

I think for a first public beta i had a lot of fun, almost no problems playing it. (i had some crashes in the beginning trying to log in... but not during gameplay and after updating my up to dat drivers to the latest version the problems where mostly fixed and i run the game at directx11 and 1920x1200 )

I think that when the game gets some improved animations and such (say up to par with AoC or SWTOR) it will be a great hit.

No leveling. i'm already sold! Quests with brains... I'm bought! Smart enemies. I'm scared.

So i'm in. and surely hope it will be more alive then swtor. where i see less and less players active.

I played TSW last weekend as well and found it to be quite fun. I think the one thing you seem to be missing and can't seem to identify is that this was a Beta test. Nothing will be perfect. Bugs are expected to be found. Limited resources are put into the game at this stage, more will come with further beta tests. You might want to amend your review to reflect that fact. I got the sense that you were trying to review the current game as a finished game, not what it actually was. I've been a Funcom gamer for a number of years now, started with Anarchy Online. I'm sure the finaly version of the game will meet or beat expectations.

Unfortunately, I missed the first beta weekend, and was super happy when I heard that the 2nd one is already scheduled for this upcoming weekend.  When I played a bit of the game at PAX East this year, the thing I found most intriguing about it was that there are actually clues and puzzles tht you need to use your head to solve.  This is something that is sorely lacking in all current MMOs, and I hope it succeeds -- combat is great, but it's not the only thing I want to spend my time on.  Hey, novel idea -- how about getting experience (or skill buffs) for solving challenges no matter whether it's in combat or not?

Originally posted by gpili

Unfortunately, I missed the first beta weekend, and was super happy when I heard that the 2nd one is already scheduled for this upcoming weekend.  When I played a bit of the game at PAX East this year, the thing I found most intriguing about it was that there are actually clues and puzzles tht you need to use your head to solve.  This is something that is sorely lacking in all current MMOs, and I hope it succeeds -- combat is great, but it's not the only thing I want to spend my time on.  Hey, novel idea -- how about getting experience (or skill buffs) for solving challenges no matter whether it's in combat or not?

Keep in mind that, at least during the earlier levels, these quests are few and far between. I've done about 55 quests total and I'd say that only about 3-5 of them required any kind of puzzle solving. Most of the quests just place a marker on the map.

I did enjoy the puzzle quests. They weren't overly difficult but much more interesting than the usual MMO quests we get. If most of the quests were like those investigation quests, I would actually consider purchasing this game. As it is though, the game has a lot more negatives than positives, in my opinion, uninspired combat and poor character models and animations being the most paramount. Also the cash shop + subscription fee just doesn't sit well with me.

Nice Report, I played this weekend, but it seems you have the closed beta client I only had the pre-ordered beta.

I wasn't able to choose my playing avatar but had been assigned only a choice of male or female version??

I think your assessment is accurate AND if you follow the Funcom beta forum you will see that this first beta weekend appears to be more of a trial run for server load and dynamics then the finesse of the game itself.  So I guess prematurely judging the book by its cover must be taken inconsideration by your readers.

I also believe that because of the problems Funcom had with AoC's launch in the area of technical server issues causing bugs may be why this "presentation" is a little awkward to the casual gamer.

This game is NOT your standard MMO and the overall depth of design I believe is amazing,  I think that those who adjust to the game dynamics will be  a more sophisticated and mature player and not appeal to teenie-boppers who throw out sophmoric quips and may find themselves embarrassed once their mind reaches its next level of development as they look back at their immature posts.  (Lets hope for rapid development anyways).

Also the devs are answering in the beta forums the concerns of players in this 1 of 6 weekend pre release betas and constructive feedback is appreciated and their responce is building an ongoing sense of community to their forums.

Again thanks for the informative evaluation of your ongoing impressions of the game. It is contributing to my confidence of MMORPG as another reliable source for accurate unbiased reviews.

You are probably talking about the post made on TSW forums where Snow said "Making animations for over 500 abilities is quite the task, therefore we have to use some placeholder animations on some of the abilities when showing a game still in production. We are working on it, and it will be amazing " The post can be found at this link here. http://forums.thesecretworld.com/showthread.php?s=90337150a322cc7ded8a0416c32457d3&t=26959 its the 6th post down.

Originally posted by Beyorn

I thought I read something (now I cant find) that all the animations were place holders for other better animations.  That may very well be Funcom double speak but I know the articel I read stated that.  Wish I could find it now ;P.