I'm surprised no one has come in here and said "You're playing the game wrong" yet. That seems to be a common explanation for issues with The Secret World. Players need to learn how they're suppossed to play, they aren't suppossed to play their own way.

Originally posted by Kaynos1972

Combat is ackward.  It feels cluncky, it is slow, targeting is bad, running is bad, moving is bad.  How come you can make a game like Conan with top notch controls and fight mecanics and end up with somehting like that.   It is such a shame, this game is certainly not ready for launch.

Combat is awkward? tbh it doesn't feel any different than WoW to me, I tab target, I press button 1 corresponding to the hotbar 1 ability, it hits/misses/glances/penetrates etc and the mob then comes towards me, i then use the other various abilities to destroy the critter, how is any of that different from any other MMO?

Targetting is tab targetting just like any other MMO, ie it selects the nearest or if you wish to be lazy let the one that hits you select themselves and so on, infact the targetting has been very easy for me, is tab targetting new to you?

As for the running, yes seen better, seen worse, and the movement does seem a little stiff at times, but again I've seen better and worse, not game breakers.

Originally posted by FredomSekerZ

Originally posted by convict

Have to agree, animations are terrible, movement is very bad, and combat is terrible. The idea is perfect, the execution was bad. For this game to succeed it would need to have all models, animations and combat redone, which will not happen. The game will go free to play and do worse than AoC.

That's pretty funny. 2 weeks ago everyone said there was no way in hell they where going to improve the sound effects, lack of impact, etc, and yet, it happenedthis BWE.

I wonder why people think they can't improve character models and animations too. Nobody even knows if they're not even prepared already and just need to be patched. Will it happen? I don't know, but i'd say we're not in the position to claim facts.

Improving models and animations is a lot more involved. Besides the actual redesign, which takes time, the new models and animations have to be tested against everything else in order to make sure that there are no issues. Also, redesigning the models would mean that they have to redesign the weapons, armor and clothing.

Basically, you got 2 weeks until release. Funcom may tweek the animations and the combat a bit but a complete overhaul is out of the question.

Originally posted by IAmMMO

Originally posted by FredomSekerZ

How far did you get into the game?

flawed response. If a game don't grab you from the start, it's doing something wrong. The start is the most important moment to grab players attention or they walk with all the choice they have today.

For initial sales I do agree with you.

For an MMO, the initial sales means close to nothing. Just look at games like SWTOR, EvE Online. Sure, SWTOR is probably the fastest selling MMO so far, but is it successful? Not in my eyes. What about EvE? Is it a game you can just jump right into and enjoy? I really doubt it. Is EvE successful anyway? Yeah.

I dislike some things about TSW, I feel that the start is pretty slow and I am no fan of cut scenes in games and there are a lot of them to start with. On the other hand it grows on me as I play. I start noticing small things in the cutscenes that make me grin or laugh. I find quests that sooo reminds me of when I was a kid and daydreamt. The game touches something in me with it's atmosphere and.. Yeah I hate the kill x quests. 

Anyway, in TSW there are very few of them and they have even made the action quests amusing in their own way. Just try joining the League of Monster Slayers and say you didn't like all the props they have used to make it an epic quest - if if you strip away all the furnishing, is pretty darned simple. It's an art making something simple and mundane fun. It's something they have done an epically good job of in TSW.

Regarding combat I can sort of see what people are saying when they say they dislike the animations, but further into the game, I have no idea what they are talking about if they say they find combat simplistic and boring. TSW's really awesome build system where you customize your character down to the last poing of penetration rating makes it possible to customize your character down to very fine details. Sure it takes some AP/SP to get where you want, but the journey is half the fun - even more so with the really well written and thought out quests - for the most part. ;)

Originally posted by heartless

Originally posted by FredomSekerZ

That's pretty funny. 2 weeks ago everyone said there was no way in hell they where going to improve the sound effects, lack of impact, etc, and yet, it happenedthis BWE.

I wonder why people think they can't improve character models and animations too. Nobody even knows if they're not even prepared already and just need to be patched. Will it happen? I don't know, but i'd say we're not in the position to claim facts.

Improving models and animations is a lot more involved. Besides the actual redesign, which takes time, the new models and animations have to be tested against everything else in order to make sure that there are no issues. Also, redesigning the models would mean that they have to redesign the weapons, armor and clothing.

Basically, you got 2 weeks until release. Funcom may tweek the animations and the combat a bit but a complete overhaul is out of the question.

Yeah, I think you are right about this, but wait, has Funcom stated that most of the work done with the character creator over the last three weeks is not in the game yet? Maybe they are actually testing things internally just as you said they would have to do? It's what Ragnar Tørnquist said in a post yesterday on the official forums at least.

Btw, this comment is about the character models, I don't think we will see anything major with the animations towards launch. Personally I don't care about them, I am busy looking at the monster I am fighting, kiteing like hell with an AR/Blade build with jump-backs and dashes. ;)

EDIT weeks, not months. :p

Clunky controls and animation really make it lack luster. I hate using animation against someone but it really does play a big part in making me iffy on it. It would be one thing if it had one or the other (not to an extreme) but having both play effect, it really makes me cringe a bit. I want to try the game but at the same time I'm pushed away by the game itself.

I felt the controls were a bit stiff and not very synchronized with the player's actions. You can spam a skill endlessly, and it would take about a second for it to stop and cast a 3 sec. skill. Animations are a bit stiff and haggard looking. Just watching ravenous zombies move in the first town you go into doesn't look like zombie movement. The big mobs are fine, and for a game this highly developed, I was expecting rolls and dashes, maybe a flip or so.

Originally posted by Kaynos1972

Combat is ackward.  It feels cluncky, it is slow, targeting is bad, running is bad, moving is bad.  How come you can make a game like Conan with top notch controls and fight mecanics and end up with somehting like that.   It is such a shame, this game is certainly not ready for launch.

I loved AoC"s combat.  Why can't devs get it right?  Even GW2's combat doesn't grab me like WoW's or AoC's.  For some reason, those 2 games get it right.

I have to agree with OP the combat is just not good,

I am at the end of Kingsmouth now and having trouble with the combat. On the surface the hotkey/movement setup seems not too different from GW2's. However somehow I'm finding it very difficult to move and use skills at the same time, and my camera is making things even more difficult.

Bonus frustration: cannot use skill of target is moving behind me, despite there being targets right in front of me who also need to be dealt with.

Originally posted by DrWookie

I'm surprised no one has come in here and said "You're playing the game wrong" yet. That seems to be a common explanation for issues with The Secret World. Players need to learn how they're suppossed to play, they aren't suppossed to play their own way.

To be honest it's a pretty fair statement. It happens on a lot of the more unique games--players will come in expecting to play WoW or CoD and fail hard. Half of the players will end up hating the combat (or other mechanics), half will love it. The half that loves it will of course be the half that researched the game ahead of time, followed it, and knew what they were getting into.

The trouble is that even knowing to expect that the combat is going to be more active in TSW, it doesn't help the fact that the combat is still clunky as hell.

Yea the character animations look like they came from a free source and the person who did them did not spend much time on it. The movement and combat feels clunky and that right there takes me out of the game. 

Had someone tell me to get a new computer if my animations are bad.. Yea I hope the devs arn't listening to the fans but the 'trolls'. There are alot of people who want to like this game so much they will PRETEND the crappy parts  " look just fine to me".

The game has some stuff I like but it is not ready. Is NOT ready like star trek online was not ready, like Conan was not ready. My judgment: pass on it until for like a year. Then maybe it will be ready. And may have gone f2p by then.

Terrible animations, clunky unintuitive UI, combat is awful, jerky, slow and laboured, very underwhelming abilities and weapons, hopelessly flawed progression system which will wind up as a 1-spec-wins-all come pvp. The quests were initally quite interresting, but they are lazy and rely on repitition, grind and often dumb luck rather than any real intelligence and/or skill. Cut scenes are like something from 10 years ago, it's all very dated and very badly made.

Unless something major changes before release give this one a big miss and save your money for a decent game. Expect free trials in the second month, It'll be F2P in 3 months and probably giena way for free in 6.

Never have i been so amazed at a game in late beta, nothing about this game appeals and it's irritatingly frustrating as i have followed this game for YEARS, i participated in the original web search fun when dark days are coming arrived (still have my code :))...to think the promise this game had has been so terribly executed is just annoying.

Dark days are coming, oh the irony!

So basicaly rating a game based on what you saw (and didn't read the attached developer's note) is mainstream these days. Everyone's just looking into why NOT to like some new game.

NEWSFLASH: In the first beta devs said that the combat HAS been reworked from what we see, animations have been smoothed out and you are just bunch of illiterate whiny ass spoiled brats.

Thanks for reading this and laughing as hard as I did while I read your whiny posts :)