Category: The Secret World

I am sure this is painfully obvious to most players of The Secret World, but it was a new and refreshing mechanic for me. Basically there is a “waypoint” system in The Secret World, but it doesn’t seem like it was really intended to be used that way.

To do so when out of combat type /reset in the console. This will kill you. Then choose the location you want to resurrect to from the map. Like most fast-travel systems you can only go to locations you’ve found. Anyway, at the resurrection point, hit your action button, and choose to resurrect there. This will eat up 10 durability per item, I think, which in a way isn’t much different than paying a waypoint or fast-travel cost in any other MMO. This has saved me so much marathon running along roads or through the much-hated Ak’hab buggies. Continue reading [TSW] The Secret Waypoint

The year of story MMOs: 2012. The three big MMOs that year all had story as a big bulletpoint. Star Wars The Old Republic had a fully voiced monstrosity.  Guild Wars 2 parsed theirs out with the Personal Story. And The Secret World, kind of mentioned it as part of missions and things. Surprisingly, I think The Secret World won as far as narrative delivery of story and lore.

I enjoy the way all three games deliver story content. There are flaws in all three. I don’t like how heavy The Old Republic can feel. I don’t like how disjointed all the arcs and “personal” narration fees in Guild Wars 2. And, I don’t like how the cut scene for a mission in The Secret World can have the barest relation to the forthcoming content at hand. Continue reading [TSW] Narrative Silence

It doesn’t take long to realize that virtually all missions in The Secret World begin with the NPC mission giver talking to… someone. These are not dialogues where the character is involved. My character, still a noob to this shadow world, just watches in stunned silence. I like the “art” of these NPC soliloquies brushing the canvas of the mission to come. It is the poetry of horror. I like it better that my character (somewhat looking like me, much to my daughters’ delight) seems to have the mixed emotion of “what the flock?” and “tell me more!”

Keep it coming, Funcom.

–Ravious

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. Continue reading [TSW] Good Business in Cairo

I had a long post written as an intro to The Secret World, which I picked up as a gaming present for myself this past December (and because Amazon had it marked down to $15), but since that was covered already, I figured I’d write about the recent event TSW had. Considering the impact on the game, it’s well worth a post.

As you may be aware, assuming you have spoken to at least other upright mammal in the past month, the Mayan calendar recently finished a cycle. This cycle lasted nearly 6000 years. Of course, any logical person would point out that due to the many changes to both calendar and timekeeping methods over the years, pinning an exact date out on a 6000 year old calendar would be inaccurate, as well as pointing out that every other cycle on the Mayan calendar repeats, but why get in the way of a good panic? In any case, a rather poor movie and any number of disaster speculations have been made about the end of the world that was supposed to happen in December of 2012. If you’re still reading this, it didn’t happen. However, TSW is a game allegedly set in the shadows of our own world – almost a “what went wrong” version, if you will. If any game out currently had a perfect real-world setup for an in-game event, this is it. And the folks at Funcom knew it. Unfortunately, Casey was at the bat.
Continue reading The Mayans Invaded and All I Got Was This Lousy Bug

The Secret World is my first MMO I bought intending to play the game as a “play to finish” MMO. Unlike even Wizard 101, which I did intend in the beginning to lightly play forever, The Secret World is the first MMO I’ve bought fully intending to be a tourist. And, I feel elated. The game might even be better, in my view, for it.

There are two parts to my impressions: content and systems. They are like twin serpents winding up a staff in The Secret World. Sometimes they intertwine perfectly. In other places they wreathe and gnash at one another. Either way I have found the game to be very entertaining. Buying The Secret World was totally worth it. Continue reading [TSW] First Impressions