We've been messing around in Funcom's The Secret World for days now and have generally been having a great time. There is a lot to like in The Secret World but we have one small request: Make the game more visceral. See why we think that and then leave us your thoughts in the comments.

As I anticipated playing The Secret World this month, I was left all quivery feeling inside just at the thought of getting into an MMO that actually was going to make me think for a change. Knowing how awesome the quest system was purported to be only made me gleefully excited about every aspect of TSW.

But something happened along the way to Nirvana: My character actually had to fight monsters and zombies.

Read more of Suzie Ford's The Secret World: Make It Visceral Please.

Call me a cynic but, the only way they can solve the animation problem is to make some skills move the character's whole body. If they can't do that, then they'll still be in the same place they are now.

They could simply make the animations more believable. Right now, at least for melee and magic, it's somewhere between "Am I tripping?" and "Is this guy drunk?". If they make the movement more natural (heck the zombie looked a lot more natural than characters), then it'll be OK.

And they should add some more impressive (gore-like) effects. The game already has a fairly mature rating, so it wouldn't really matter there.

Originally posted by Zeroxin

Call me a cynic but, the only way they can solve the animation problem is to make some skills move the character's whole body. If they can't do that, then they'll still be in the same place they are now.

I tend to agree with that simply because the upper body movement is jarringly weird. I mean, I get why Funcom did what they did. Movement while "casting" or using skills is great. But the unnatural twisting of the body is....scary. O.o

I have put some hours in and think it's pretty neat how they were able to make the animation feel real. There is no shooting over your shoulder in this game while running away straffing. For example when I first saw videos I though everyone playing were noobs for back peddling. They are not back peddling.

The game takes into account what your trying to do. Your trying to lay down fire while moving away from your target. When straffing and firing while turning away, beyond 180 degrees you get the appearance of how you would do it IRL. Your sideways straff while firing  turns into a crossover back peddle with you gun on the target.  

I really think this is a step forward in mmo combat. It's very FPSish compared to the standard WoW hunter shooting over his shoulder while looking away.

I totally agree, BCBully. It's a paradigm changer to make yourself back up while shooting and something that new players coming into the game will find confusing at first.

Fair comments, I don't particuarly notice it but  I do remember I picked chaos magic and swords because they just felt cool; at a visceral level I didn't like some of the other weapons. I do remember liking the rifles alot though so I'm not sure what to say about that. I feel though that Funcom has a game thjat is fundementally harder than most gamers are really willing to play, whatever they might say; I'm not sure that making the sound and combat better will be enough.

I've been following this game closeli (sorri i have a broken kei...), and i'm veri interested in it,

but i can't help to agree on the fact that some character animations are just no good.

However, from the tons of gameplai that i've seen so far, the game stil looks suprisingli interesting,

especialli love the setting, welcome change.

Also another question, if iou pre-order iou can onli plai the beta in weekends right?

Mostly, I have to agree.

Playing Diablo 3 made me remember how this stuff matters in a game... But then, Blizzard always gets this stuff right in their games; I'm now convinced this is their secret formula: They may not be up there on features or innovation; but the stuff they put in, everything feels right.

The Secret World has an inviting world, beautiful and mysterious atmosphere that makes you want to go around and discover, good voice acting and writing... and even the combat system "features" seem novel, rich, and intriguing... But when it came to hands-on combat itself, it all felt a drudge to me. 

The thing is, despite all that mystery and puzzle-solving, this still seems to be a combat game and not something like SWG, where you could still "play" the game despite ignoring the whole combat sphere... So I can see this lack of "viscera" being bad for the game in the long run.

Still, I'm rooting for it.

The weird thing is that Age of Conan's character creation and combat animations are very good. The two games share the same engine so....

It must have to do with the fact that they 'untied' the upper body. I almost wish they hadn't. :(

In today’s world of short attention spans and throw away gaming, companies have one chance to make an impression on players. It is definitely in Funcom’s best interest to make sure that that first impression is pure win.

You hit the nail on the head with their reputation carrying over from AoC. The game is great, but the combat animation is weird and until they fix it they'll be hearing about throughout launch which in turn will put a negative spin on the game and will push people away from subscribing.

Neat animations v 500 abilities all while moving.

In fairness you don't have those 500 when you start, so all you are left with are the animations to start. I get it.

I agree with the article. For all its flaws, the (melee) combat in AoC always had a very visceral feel to it. Something I wish the TSW team had copied more from AoC, it didn't even have to be better, just on the same level as combat felt in AoC and it'd feel better already.

Generally speaking I'm not a big themepark fan, but I have a certain admiration for this mmo. They have done alot of the "little things" very well.

Hopefully they'll add player housing, etc. in the future.

Originally posted by Suzie_Ford

The weird thing is that Age of Conan's character creation and combat animations are very good. The two games share the same engine so....

It must have to do with the fact that they 'untied' the upper body. I almost wish they hadn't. :(

I get what you are saying Suzie, but I think it is a fair trade-off for being able to move while casting/shooting. I stop noticing after a couple hours of questing and fighting because the world drew me in and made me focus on everything but myself.

It's got to feel as creepy as an H. P. Lovecraft book, because that's what it's based on, for heaven's sake.

I dont agree there not that bad..

People always gotta find something to nit-pick about....

I mean if this is what is gonna keep people from playing that's pretty sad considering the game has many other issues that trump this lol....

Exactly. There has to be cons to go along with the pros in any video game review.

If anmations are the only real con so far, that is REALLY good for Funcon if you ask me, heck they can fix that.

Lag, server drops, netcode issues, dupes etc are REALLY bad lol

As far as the sounds of the AR go, well..they're pretty close to reality actually.  Fact is guns like that don't sound like they do in the movies or on TV.  We're programed by those things to believe that's what they sound like, not until you actually fire one where you go..huh, I did NOT expect that.

The difference is in the volume I think in this game tho, the gunshots should be..louder, not by much, but..just a little I think.

As far as animations go, I'm not concerned.  I'll take some goofy moments of animations over having to stand still to do things anytime.