I have been so excited about this game, but now that I've played it... wow it's just terrible.

1. The only positive, quests are great.
   • Questing is great. Well, the stories are. Much of it is your standared fare collect 10/kill 20 or whatever but its framed in great ways. There are some epic quests that are tons of fun.. like chasing ravens through a town.
   • Quests do have one massive downside, you're severely limited on the number of quests you can pick up (3 of one type, 1 of another, 1 of another) and it is awful. You'll run past a random npc in the world and not be able to pick up the quest without pausing another. -- You need to go all the way back to the npc you got the quest from to continue the quest.
2. Game's replayability is 0.
   • Now, in fairness, so what? I just wanted to point out that once the mystery is gone from a quest, it's dull to redo. There's not a lot of fun to be had for the altoholic but the game intends you be able to do everything you want on one character (acquiring all skills etc), so this isn't a major negative.
3. The combat is that bad
   • ?They've been touting these hundreds of abilities! Neat! I don't recall them ever saying the key factor.. Most of the abilities are tied to your equipped weapons. The idea of a custom build is not nearly as viable as they have implied.
   • I've never felt so repulsed by combat. To say it doesn't innovate is an exaggeration, it's a step backwards from big players in the tab-tageting mmo world. (I'm not fond of tab targeting anyway, but I knew what this was when I started playing it).
   • Seven active/seven passives is severely limiting. For instance, Smash is the goto ability for hammer-tanking single strike melee. Great! Soon after getting smash, you get a near-necessary passive (otherwise smash is much less useful) that decreases the target's damage when they're hit with smash. Lots of abilities in TSW are like this, you really need the passive to enhance it or it is a pretty dull ability.
   • Kiting? LOL! First time I played, I tried an AR/Shotgun combo. In combat, your movement speed is always slowed to a point slower than the mob's movement speeds. Kiting is near fruitless except for jumping things like the rare fence that mobs don't jump over and instead will run all the way around. Since you can't reliably outrun the mobs, you're better off at melee range and just taking the beating.
   • While kiting, mobs will often inexplicably reset, run back to their spawn, and sometimes still be agroed to you. You didn't get a free refill on health/resources, but they did!
4. For a game with so much content, they cheated
   • ?Oh gosh, I've never run across a map so many times. It's marvelous the first few times, appreciating the scenery. It gets dull very quickly piloting your character through the landscape, to get to the quest npc, only to be sent back to the first guy.
5. "?Zone"
   • ?I don't understand games that use loading screens so much. Private (single-player) dungeons, and small rooms that also requrie a loading screen. There's not even any creative videos/animations to cover it up, but simply a standard loading screen.
   • Now there are people that complain about Loading Screens, complaining that they see a loading screen when they "hearth" or "teleport" (in various games). I don't mean that. I mean that you walk from one zone to the next and you get a loading screen.
   • Some of the loading screens.. at least one.. is clearly frivolous. You take an elevator up a building, and get a loading screen, but if you leap off the edge and fall a few hundred feet (no falling damage at all), there's no loading screen as you head back to the "game world".
   • I don't understand, frankly, how a game like WoW can be approaching 10 years old, and has managed a fairly fluid open world (you only "zone" when moving from continent to continent, besides entering dungeons) and yet so many games (TSW, FFXIV as examples) still fall back on loading screens.
6. One more positive, why not.
   • When you "disconnect" (glitch), the game immediately recognizes it and offers to transport you to a new server, and refills your health/resources immediately. The strange thing, though, is that disconnects can throw you several hundred yards away. I had a few occasions where i'd journey from a quest npc, kill a few mobs (so I know I wasn't linkdead), get the dc message, accept, and be thrown back towards my quest npc. Obviously that case isn't a real disconnect. I'm inclined to think that the server lost track of my character momentairly and perhaps thought I exploited (via terrain or hacking).
7. The graphics are refreshing
   1. Gosh its so nice not to be in middle earth in yet another game.

 return to play your  final fantasy.....The Secret World is not for you.

Hinda reflects my own impressions except the graphics part.  Certainly a refreshing different setting and look.

1.  A few of the quests are really good.  Most are just ok.  At least with SWTOR I could be a smart ass with my replys even if it didn't matter in the end.  

2.  Yea replaying though the zones as a different character is pretty bad as is SWTOR in that regard.  Faction quests are just to few and far between to take the edge off.

3.  I really believe that AOC combat is miles better than TSW.  And the synergies thing is really a double edged sword.  On the one hand it adds a degree of depth to building (which is different than depth to combat BTW.) but on the other it turns 500+ abilities into a handful of builds per weapon.  Most people after a while  will end up picking a main hand weapon, pick the off hand weapon that meshes best with it (weapons can be grouped by how well they work together) and take the best active/passive skills to compliment that setup.  

4.  I noticed that to.  Lots of back and forth over the zone with large dense packs of mobs to slow you down.

5.  One can only hope they add more transistion art to loading screens by launch.

6.  I was seeing something simular in GW2 BWE last Friday.  I would get disconnected and reset backwards almost like the server lost my progress and rolled back to a database checkpoint.  I must have redone the first two quests (created a new toon) 3-4 times before I gave up and logged out for the night.  Hopefully it's fixed by launch.

7.  The setting is different.  Graphics and Art style is ok.

Originally posted by Deathofsage

1. One more positive, why not.
   • When you "disconnect" (glitch), the game immediately recognizes it and offers to transport you to a new server, and refills your health/resources immediately. The strange thing, though, is that disconnects can throw you several hundred yards away. I had a few occasions where i'd journey from a quest npc, kill a few mobs (so I know I wasn't linkdead), get the dc message, accept, and be thrown back towards my quest npc. Obviously that case isn't a real disconnect. I'm inclined to think that the server lost track of my character momentairly and perhaps thought I exploited (via terrain or hacking).

It's all come down to personal taste. I like it, and you don't - I don't really bother to argue back and forth. What I do bother is to inform you, that the 'reconnect'-function, spawns you at the closests resspad.

Originally posted by Rightlov

Originally posted by Deathofsage

1.  

It's all come down to personal taste. I like it, and you don't - I don't really bother to argue back and forth. What I do bother is to inform you, that the 'reconnect'-function, spawns you at the closests resspad.

Not in my experience, on most occasions, I'd reconnect (after the dc notification) to the server in exactly the same place I dc'd from, and usually fight the same mob I'd just been fighting.

1 yeah the quests are great, i normally cant stand questing but i found mysef in weird position of enjoying pve in tsw.

2 depends wether your into pvp or doing the harder modes of the dungeons (which require you to fill out multiple decks in the skill wheel).  If your just into playing through the story - yeha, but thats the same with every themepark mmo

3 i like the combat.  i prefer GW2 combat over TSW combat.  BUT I prefer TSW combat over WOW combat.  You need to move though AND you need to plan your builds.  Combat is boring if you try and play it like wow standing there spaming a rotation (big shout out to totalbiscuit on that one) http://forums.thesecretworld.com/showthread.php?t=31494

4 look for quests near where you complete your quest, there is nearly always a quest near by after you use your mobile to send a report, If you keep running back to prior quest givers like its a hub based mmo, you will be disapointed http://forums.thesecretworld.com/showthread.php?t=29419

5 WOW also has 2004 graphics!  Now i dont like loading screens either, but TSW ain't that bad (well apart from first 15 mins or so that IS bad), its no worse a zoning culprit than say GW2, Coh or warhammer.  Its massively better in the zoning regard than the likes of SWTOR or indeed AOC.

6 errr.. theres only one beta server

7 the graphics are good - except for that horrible jump animation, the lack of weight behind hammers and the weird twistyness with pistols.

one other great thing, the music, the soundtrack is superb, possibly even better than AOC.  I love the way the music takes dramitc cues when your low on health or sorounded by mobs.  the ingame music you hear on radios.  Oh and the sirens song if anyone did that quest absoloutley supeb.

Originally posted by udon

1.  A few of the quests are really good.  Most are just ok.  At least with SWTOR I could be a smart ass with my replys even if it didn't matter in the end.  

2.  Yea replaying though the zones as a different character is pretty bad as is SWTOR in that regard.  Faction quests are just to few and far between to take the edge off.

3.  I really believe that AOC combat is miles better than TSW.  And the synergies thing is really a double edged sword.  On the one hand it adds a degree of depth to building (which is different than depth to combat BTW.) but on the other it turns 500+ abilities into a handful of builds per weapon.  Most people after a while  will end up picking a main hand weapon, pick the off hand weapon that meshes best with it (weapons can be grouped by how well they work together) and take the best active/passive skills to compliment that setup.  

4.  I noticed that to.  Lots of back and forth over the zone with large dense packs of mobs to slow you down.

5.  One can only hope they add more transistion art to loading screens by launch.

6.  I was seeing something simular in GW2 BWE last Friday.  I would get disconnected and reset backwards almost like the server lost my progress and rolled back to a database checkpoint.  I must have redone the first two quests (created a new toon) 3-4 times before I gave up and logged out for the night.  Hopefully it's fixed by launch.

7.  The setting is different.  Graphics and Art style is ok.

 

the absoloute best builds use passives from 3rd and even 4th weapons.  While its true you cant have any perm of 14 from the 500+ abilities, what with the limit on (most) active abilities requireing that weapon equiped and the limit of 1 elite of each type,  there are still thousands of viable decks.

Originally posted by ShakyMo

3 i like the combat.  i prefer GW2 combat over TSW combat.  BUT I prefer TSW combat over WOW combat.  You need to move though AND you need to plan your builds.  Combat is boring if you try and play it like wow standing there spaming a rotation (big shout out to totalbiscuit on that one) http://forums.thesecretworld.com/showthread.php?t=31494

You don't need to move that often. Yeah, you can/should move out of conal/full aoe's but you stand there and just take the normal hits, kiting isn't worth the effort. You don't even have to move out of most aoes

I also found, in the scrapyard, that the aoes were too big/fast to bother with as a melee. More often than not, the robots would glitch and reset health if I tried to move out their aoes (staying within their circle on the map).

4 look for quests near where you complete your quest, there is nearly always a quest near by after you use your mobile to send a report, If you keep running back to prior quest givers like its a hub based mmo, you will be disapointed http://forums.thesecretworld.com/showthread.php?t=29419

I was referring to the need to be sent back and forth across the map multiple times, and there is not "nearly always" a quest nearby, but fairly often there is.

5 WOW also has 2004 graphics!  Now i dont like loading screens either, but TSW ain't that bad (well apart from first 15 mins or so that IS bad), its no worse a zoning culprit than say GW2, Coh or warhammer.  Its massively better in the zoning regard than the likes of SWTOR or indeed AOC.

I did think of that, of course, but you know, WoW's graphics have improved slightly better than 04, but more importantly, Wow's been doing the open world for several years. RIFT's graphics are much better than WoW's and they also managed large open worlds. I only played that game's so I can't say if there were ever any sudden loading screens, but it was much better.

6 errr.. theres only one beta server

I know, but I also know what the dialog says. I suspect its reconnecting to the same server (for beta at least) buuuuut it is weird for the mob to be spawned again. There might be a backup server for disconnects or it might be programmed in so that the mob is respawned when the player that killed it disconnects.

7 the graphics are good - except for that horrible jump animation, the lack of weight behind hammers and the weird twistyness with pistols.

one other great thing, the music, the soundtrack is superb, possibly even better than AOC.  I love the way the music takes dramitc cues when your low on health or sorounded by mobs.  the ingame music you hear on radios.  Oh and the sirens song if anyone did that quest absoloutley supeb.

 

Originally posted by Deathofsage

Originally posted by ShakyMo

6 errr.. theres only one beta server

I know, but I also know what the dialog says. I suspect its reconnecting to the same server (for beta at least) buuuuut it is weird for the mob to be spawned again. There might be a backup server for disconnects or it might be programmed in so that the mob is respawned when the player that killed it disconnects.

7 the graphics are good - except for that horrible jump animation, the lack of weight behind hammers and the weird twistyness with pistols.

one other great thing, the music, the soundtrack is superb, possibly even better than AOC.  I love the way the music takes dramitc cues when your low on health or sorounded by mobs.  the ingame music you hear on radios.  Oh and the sirens song if anyone did that quest absoloutley supeb.

it's more like layering, or an instance w/in an instance. the server is simply shifting you to another 'zone' of the same place. much like in DDO, or even in GW2 where they queue you to be moved to a less populated layer than the one you are in currently.

Originally posted by Deathofsage

one other great thing, the music, the soundtrack is superb, possibly even better than AOC.  I love the way the music takes dramitc cues when your low on health or sorounded by mobs.  the ingame music you hear on radios.  Oh and the sirens song if anyone did that quest absoloutley supeb. 

 

The siren's song quest was terrific, and I think this is strangely what disappoints me. Sometimes they get it so right. The setting, the genre itself, the engaging main story, and some of the investigation quests are exactly what I hoped to find.

But they were buried in quest system that requires you do do a ton of fedex quest or generic kill x of something, which wouldn't be so bad if the combat weren't so clunky. I like the idea of the skill wheel, but the actual execuition leaves a lot to be desired. I think from a theorycrafting perspective people can dig into this. But in the end you press one button a lot, and the core mechanics don't change as you unlock tiers as most of the interesting synergies come from passives.

If the game didn't have a sub fee, it would be easier to overlook the negatives to enjoy the positives.

Originally posted by Charlizzard

Originally posted by Deathofsage

one other great thing, the music, the soundtrack is superb, possibly even better than AOC.  I love the way the music takes dramitc cues when your low on health or sorounded by mobs.  the ingame music you hear on radios.  Oh and the sirens song if anyone did that quest absoloutley supeb. 

 

The siren's song quest was terrific, and I think this is strangely what disappoints me. Sometimes they get it so right. The setting, the genre itself, the engaging main story, and some of the investigation quests are exactly what I hoped to find.

But they were buried in quest system that requires you do do a ton of fedex quest or generic kill x of something, which wouldn't be so bad if the combat weren't so clunky. I like the idea of the skill wheel, but the actual execuition leaves a lot to be desired. I think from a theorycrafting perspective people can dig into this. But in the end you press one button a lot, and the core mechanics don't change as you unlock tiers as most of the interesting synergies come from passives.

If the game didn't have a sub fee, it would be easier to overlook the negatives to enjoy the positives.

yeah but then again you dont need to do every quest..  Dont like puzzles, ignore the investigations, dont like collecting zombi parts, ignore it.  The only mission you Have to do are the main story arcs (like sirens song), there are way more quests than you need to progress to the next zone.  Theres some cool hidden away ones in that open beta, like that idol in the cave which makes a zombie follow you around btw.

the combat, if you're spamming 1 button your doing it wrong.  also bear in mind this open beta was like 2/3rd of the newbie zone.  How exciting is combat in most mmos below say level 10?

Sure it needs a graphics overhaul, but the game itself is not terrible.

Originally posted by Charlizzard

 

The siren's song quest was terrific, and I think this is strangely what disappoints me. Sometimes they get it so right. The setting, the genre itself, the engaging main story, and some of the investigation quests are exactly what I hoped to find.

Oh gosh, wasn't it?

That quest was beautiful. I loved the music. There are a few other similar tracking/beacon quests I encountered, and they were fun as well but Siren's Song is one of my favorites in game.

---

Originally posted by ShakyMo

---

Originally posted by Charlizzard

---

Originally posted by Deathofsage one other great thing, the music, the soundtrack is superb, possibly even better than AOC.  I love the way the music takes dramitc cues when your low on health or sorounded by mobs.  the ingame music you hear on radios.  Oh and the sirens song if anyone did that quest absoloutley supeb.   

---

The siren's song quest was terrific, and I think this is strangely what disappoints me. Sometimes they get it so right. The setting, the genre itself, the engaging main story, and some of the investigation quests are exactly what I hoped to find. But they were buried in quest system that requires you do do a ton of fedex quest or generic kill x of something, which wouldn't be so bad if the combat weren't so clunky. I like the idea of the skill wheel, but the actual execuition leaves a lot to be desired. I think from a theorycrafting perspective people can dig into this. But in the end you press one button a lot, and the core mechanics don't change as you unlock tiers as most of the interesting synergies come from passives. If the game didn't have a sub fee, it would be easier to overlook the negatives to enjoy the positives.

---

yeah but then again you dont need to do every quest..  Dont like puzzles, ignore the investigations, dont like collecting zombi parts, ignore it.  The only mission you Have to do are the main story arcs (like sirens song), there are way more quests than you need to progress to the next zone.  Theres some cool hidden away ones in that open beta, like that idol in the cave which makes a zombie follow you around btw.

the combat, if you're spamming 1 button your doing it wrong.  also bear in mind this open beta was like 2/3rd of the newbie zone.  How exciting is combat in most mmos below say level 10?

---

Originally posted by Fearum

 

 

You need to get all your talismans and weapons to level 4 for the first zone (zones are very gear dependant) to get to the next zone, good luck staying alive if you don't. Doing quests is the smarter thing to do because you get AP faster and better gear then sitting there grinding. If you are using more then one build you will die fast if you move out of the zone unless you have all the GL4 talismans for each possible setup your using and weapons too.
I still think the game brings nothing of interest to me. Looked interesting until I actually played it, then it just got boring and tidious.

The irony, right?

Honestly levels and everything.. I miss them.. You still have a level basically but it's much less clear.

A comment on some things mentioned in the OP.

Zones: I think it's a design decision, the amount of data that needs to be swapped while traveling from one zone to the next. I don't have a problem with it, but I can see how other people might. But tbh, the majority of the new MMO's, incl SWTOR and GW2 use zoning and/or instancing. What SWTOR does handily though is use phasing smartly. But GW2 has areas that are zones you zone between, there's also instances within an area itself that you zone in and out from.

The limited active skill build, well, that's a matter of preference, I guess. I liked the concept in GW, it adds a strategic layer of deck building. Besides, you can easily swap between your builds outside fights.

Kiting does have an effect. I just stood there fighting and kiting while fighting and there was a significant difference in the damage I took, and that was even without using skills with a hinder or impair effect.

Originally posted by cutthecrap

Kiting does have an effect. I just stood there fighting and kiting while fighting and there was a significant difference in the damage I took, and that was even without using skills with a hinder or impair effect.

Interesting, I had a very difficult time staying out of melee range on most things. Between the seemingly useless effort and mobs' random tendency to reset, it became frustrating and pointless.

Damage intake, for me, was consistent as long as I moved out of bad zones on the ground, but ranged, melee, tank, or healer, you should always move out of the bad stuff, and most indicators of bad stuff coming. Like I said, the junkyard mobs' aoes seemed too big to bother with moving most of the time. You'd move and the mob would reset. Tons of fun.

I'm not a HUGE fan of ranged classes but I know how to kite effectly and TSW's implmentation of movement + mob movement is far and away the worst implementation I've seen.

Agree on most of OP's points - but calling TSW terrible because of that is way too harsh. Say what you want, but:

1) TSW has the most unique MMO setting ever.

2) Story is very good as well.

3) Puzzle quests are nice. Other than that, the quest system is oldschool, but the content is better than most MMOs, anyway.

4) More build variety due to GW1-style deck building. Heck, I wish GW2 was more like that, actually...

Originally posted by ShakyMo

Originally posted by Charlizzard

Originally posted by Deathofsage

one other great thing, the music, the soundtrack is superb, possibly even better than AOC.  I love the way the music takes dramitc cues when your low on health or sorounded by mobs.  the ingame music you hear on radios.  Oh and the sirens song if anyone did that quest absoloutley supeb. 

 

The siren's song quest was terrific, and I think this is strangely what disappoints me. Sometimes they get it so right. The setting, the genre itself, the engaging main story, and some of the investigation quests are exactly what I hoped to find.

But they were buried in quest system that requires you do do a ton of fedex quest or generic kill x of something, which wouldn't be so bad if the combat weren't so clunky. I like the idea of the skill wheel, but the actual execuition leaves a lot to be desired. I think from a theorycrafting perspective people can dig into this. But in the end you press one button a lot, and the core mechanics don't change as you unlock tiers as most of the interesting synergies come from passives.

If the game didn't have a sub fee, it would be easier to overlook the negatives to enjoy the positives.

yeah but then again you dont need to do every quest..  Dont like puzzles, ignore the investigations, dont like collecting zombi parts, ignore it.  The only mission you Have to do are the main story arcs (like sirens song), there are way more quests than you need to progress to the next zone.  Theres some cool hidden away ones in that open beta, like that idol in the cave which makes a zombie follow you around btw.

the combat, if you're spamming 1 button your doing it wrong.  also bear in mind this open beta was like 2/3rd of the newbie zone.  How exciting is combat in most mmos below say level 10?

Hi Shaky"I love TSW"Mo. I'll track Your future posts and see if u still uber-hyping that game :)