The Secret World is my backburner MMO. When I need a refreshing change of pace in MMOs, it’s where I head. I’ll be honest; it took me by surprise that I became really excited for their newest update: The Last Train to Cairo. I haven’t even been to Egypt yet in the game. But, I really hope Funcom continues to be able to drop updates this way.
The buy-the-box / buy-the-content model is just so good. Funcom presents their episodic updates available for purchase perfectly. Members get early access, a bunch of free stuff, and hey enough free points to buy the entire Issue. I think this is a great move. Players can go the bargain route and carefully apportion out their points, or go the easy route and become a member for the month. I like that. It’s smart. I like when MMO devs offer smart options on ways for me to give them money.
Now, I’m just a dumb tourist. I don’t keep up with The Secret World news. Funcom seems to understand this ebb and flow of many of their gamers because reading the news post on launch and watching the accompanying video was extremely helpful. I know having these big update accompaniments is commonplace, but I feel Funcom did a great job aimed at people who probably don’t know.
The Secret World’s ace-in-the-hole is all the stories they have to tell. Issue 5 had a good story, and Issue 6 seems to follow in quality. I like that the video kind of walks players through the whole story. Sometimes I don’t want to just be completely surprised. I like a little metagame foreshadowing. The narrator (Game Director Joel Bylos) gives an overview of the evil, time-travel, and of course that last train to Cairo.Â
I’ll admit I glazed over about the weapon, PvP, and the raid (which did seem cool nonetheless), but those bits were aimed at the maincore players. They seemed like good additions. They just don’t pique my interest as much as the story. I feel that the Issue 6 would not be the same without these. Core players are going to need more than just-more-missions.
Maybe I am gushing a bit, but it feels good to be surprised. I like where Funcom is taking their latest MMO. It feels right. I’ll be buying that ticket to ride.
–Ravious
TSW is also my backburner MMO, and I’m thrilled about how Funcom is handling this. I’m a lifetime member and haven’t had nearly enough time to play as I’d like, but I appreciate how they’re dropping the information and that I get these nods to my commitment and can take the (extremely) long way around to getting to the content.
Myself and my partner are almost finished with the main game and then TSW will be our backburner MMO. No other game tells a story like The Secret World and I’m not a raider or end-game grinder these days. So this is perfect to pop back in for a few nights a month to experience a new story in this excellent game.