I like it, but not enough to be certain I'm going to buy it. I most likely will, but I'm still not completely convinced. I hope that come Tuesday or Wednesday, I'll be jonesing for it, and that'll make up my mind for me.
Will you like it? Hmm...that's a tough call. There's a lot to like about it, but a lot of it is quite different from most MMOs out there, and some people don't react well to change. Certain things may just plain turn you off.
Perhaps you might appreciate it if I told you what things I think are most likely to pique your interest or piss you off?
Good call bro!
NO CLASSES, NO LEVELS, NO PROBLEM!
Some people's minds will boggle at the mere thought. Most have probably never played a game that wasn't class/level based. Me, I've always had issues with the "level" concept of growing power since I got D&D...so for almost 40 years. Wow...I really have had a problem with levelling up in games to represent an increase in power for that long. I am old. ("You didn't like levels in D&D? Well what DID you like then?" "Take a look at Runequest, noob.")
Anyway, no levels or classes! So how does it work. It has over 500 abilities in an "ability wheel", broken up, more or less, into 9 sections. Each of the nine sections (3 melee [sword, hammer, hand weapons], 3 ranged [assault rifle, pistols, shotgun], 3 magic [blood, chaos, elemental]) has an inner ring and an outer.
As you gain xp you will earn ability points and select abilities from the wheel in a hierarchical fashion, inside out. You can learn as many as you want, but only have 7 actives in your hotbar and 7 passives.
You also gain skill points which allow you some side benefit as you spend those, especially using higher quality weapons and items.
The game's depth comes from the way the abilities can interact and leverage from each other. Maybe 3 of your active abilities are dots. Maybe you've got a passive that everytime you apply a dot, you gain an increased chance to penetrate for 5 seconds. Maybe you've got another passive that gives you a small hot every time one of your attacks penetrates.
With 500+ abilities, you've got a lot of potential interactions.
As far as content goes, however, the classic level-based advancement has one large advantage in that it can inherently "ballpark" what quests you should be doing and what mobs you should be killing. Levelless leaves more wiggle-room, and not necessarily in a good way.
Classlessness also has its drawbacks (being classless myself, for instance, I seldom ever get invited back to people's houses after one party). Putting together a group will be tougher...you can say you're running a heal spec, but it's going to be difficult for people to know whether or not you're actually spec'ed up to the task. A WoW non-shadow priest can probably heal. A TOR sage can probably heal. A shotgun/hammer Illuminati...maybe not.
QUESTS THAT REQUIRE RESEARCH
Sure, the game has some quests that amount to "kill 10 zombies". But not a bunch. And where the game really shines is the quests that make you work...if you want to work as little as possible, you'll no doubt be able to find spoilers...but if you'd rather have FUN (y'know, why we play games?) the research will be entirely different.
You'll be able to Google "Bannerman's password" on day one and get the password to his computer. But...you can do it the "hard" (i.e. fun) way instead. [Minor Spoiler!] He's got a broken holiday picture on the floor that mentions the couple's favorite music. The computer has a hint function (like many actually do) that says "Music of the Seasons". For some people, that might be enough. You can hit the hint again for "1678". You can then use the in-game browser (yes, in-game) and search for those terms to find the name of the composer which is the actual password.
Not terribly challenging, but requiring a rewarding thought process if you choose to follow it.
You start levelling up (after your intro) in the zombie-infested town of Kingsmouth. Need some info on it? Use the in-game browser to bring up the real (faked) website the developers have created. Go ahead, open a tab in your browser and enter http://www.kingsmouth.com/ There are hints and pointers to a bunch of quests there. Is it necessary? Probably not. Is it fun? Definitely.
The quests have a lot of variety and depth...and often take unexpected turns. If you choose to skip the spoilers and work for everything in the game it will take a lot of time and, occasionally, significant frustration. But it really is rewarding when you've worried at a problem like a dog on a bone for a few minutes only to have a "Eureka!"
One big advantage of this sort of questing is that it kind of self-corrects. If you're finding a quest too frustrating, you can always use the Internet directly to track down a spoiler, and then continue on the old-fashioned way.
One disadvantage is that if you want to earn your advancement, you'll probably need to turn off general chat (not a big loss in most games) because for every 20 people willing to offer a hint, there's bound to be one halfwit griefer keen to shout the spoilers.
If I had to pick TSW's biggest strength, it's the questing system. It's got a lot of awesome ideas.
COMBAT
Here is where things might get a bit dicey. It feels kinda clunky. As mentioned above, the skill system works pretty well, but at least throughout the Kingsmouth area (and slightly beyond) most combats have the same dynamic: use a ranged skill, the mob or mobs charge you giving you time for maybe one more ranged skill, then sorta dance around in melee range until they die.
There don't seem to be many mobs who stay at range or skip around a lot (there are a few). Now they do have skills that show an induction bar you can interrupt and other big-hitting skills where you get a ground animation showing you where you probably don't want to stand, so that adds a nice dynamic element, but it's a lot of circle-strafe in-close action. And I'm not even sure the circle-strafe gets me anything.
It also has the double-hit a movement key to dodge mechanic, but except in the case of an induction/ground-effect I don't think you gain much there. GW2 does it a lot better.
Also a lot of the character/mob movement and animations are, well, again...clunky. At least in solo play combat doesn't feel like it flows, like you have a firm command of what you're doing.
I don't find it terrible, or even bad...just...clunky.
GRAPHICS
Definitely a mixed bag here.
Character creation options are dreadfully limited. The devs have said there'll be more options at launch, and there'd better be because right now it's pretty awful.
The characters themselves, PCs and NPCs alike, aren't great up close. The quality just looks a bit dated, like it's from a last-gen game. Maybe two gens ago. And compared with, say, GW2...they look like crap.
And a lot of the animations are a good match to the character graphics...old-looking and clunky.
So what's the "mixed" in this bag? The scenery, buildings and the like are much better. Mind, they still look a touch dated, but overall I am satisfied with these much more than the character models. Perhaps it's because it's set in the modern day, things looking a bit more dated feels fine. If everything looked pristine, it wouldn't feel right.
THE SETTING CREATES A MOOD
I've described the setting as "The X-Files" meets the old "Call of Cthulhu" paper-and-dice RPG, set in the modern day.
The old CoC game had a lot of investigation and poking around, punctuated by occasional (usually horrifying lethal) combat. TSW obviously has a lot more combat, but still embodies the investigation and poking around.
"The X-Files" connection is (barring aliens, I think) that everything you've heard of is real. Monsters, magic, mythology, mystery, m-words I can't think of, all of it. Let's see, in Kingsmouth alone we have zombies, draug (water zombies), a boatload of Lovecraft references, Witch Trial victims, ancient Illuminati symbolism everywhere, Black Helicopters with their concomitant Men in Black...oh, and you get there via the Hollow Earth and Agartha.
I like the setting A LOT. Of course part of that is just that I'm so goddamned sick of high fantasy, elves, dwarves, gnomes, and dragons that I could just barf. Seriously MMO devs, can we please try something else?
PLAYER VS. PLAYER
When aren't they? Oh, in-game PvP, sorry. I don't know, I didn't try it. I am concerned that it will turn into an arms race between players trying to come up with degenerate ability combinations and devs trying to keep things balanced. 500+ skills sounds manageable when everybody's got 7 each passive and active, but start grouping up and the numbers of combos get astronomical.
DUNGEONS
Do gateways to hell and shipwrecked supertankers count as dungeons? Close enough. Like PvP, I didn't get a chance to try out the first couple that are available, so I don't know. I mentioned above the somewhat loose definition of roles from the classless system of advancement. Got a tank? Got a healer? Need either one? Not sure, but it could be an issue going forward.
USER INTERFACE
Here's that word again: clunky. I'll make no bones about this one, the UI in the beta is functional, for the most part, and not one hair better than that.
Maybe it's a design decision to go minimalist, but I don't find it a successful design if so. I like a character window to fit my expectations. It should have the stats and a paper doll (with representative picture) in a convenient and informative layout. TSW has boxes for your items and tiny little click-arrows to bring up other information. It's difficult to read and not like what I'm used to in a jarring and unpleasant way.
The quest UI is a bit better (and definitely improved over the previous beta weekend I took part in) and works acceptably well. But there are problems here too in that the quest "glowies" are often vanishingly small, occasionally stuck in scenery, and seem to always require multiple clicks to activate. Overall, still not great.
Certain expectations are in place because they work and there's no reason to change them..."Escape" should ALWAYS close windows, front to back, and bring up the game menu if all windows are closed. I consider this to be mandatory. And missing, in the case of TSW. Really annoying. Left-clicks and right-clicks for whatever reason don't always feel appropriate in their game functions in TSW. That one I'll put on me though. YMMV.
CRAFTING
It has a couple of odd conceits (the product you get out depends on the shape you lay out the components in the crafting window grid. 8 metal in the shape of an elongated "t" gets you a sword. 8 metal in a circle gets you ring. I'm not sure what is really gained by this over a recipe list other than novelty.
Take 40 metal, refine it 5:1 to 8 better metal, get a better sword or ring (yeah, you'll need a "kit" too).
Pretty straightforward once you get the hang of the item-shape input, but functional. You'll be able to emphasize the stat bonuses and such in the final outcome.
A bit weird at first blush, but it seems it'll do. I suppose the shape and material system does open itself up, eventually, to something more nuanced, interesting, and compelling. Let's hope.
MISSING GAME COMPONENTS
Evidently Funcom has said that mail and banks and a couple of other absolute must-haves will be in at launch, but they ain't there now. Some kind of travel other than "run" and "port to Agartha" would seem to be required at some point, but I don't think it's in yet. No auction house either.
These would qualify as "gaping holes" if they're still absent at launch. Nota bene.
THE END GAME
No clue, sorry. Hell, I'm not even sure how much game there is! Because it's got no "levels" in the way that most games do, it's tough to measure. You can play through the Kingsmouth map and most of the questing in the area in probably 4-8 hours if you move at a good clip, double that if you're moving at a more leisurely (and I think, enjoyable) pace. Then it's off to the Savage Coast. Is that all for Solomon Island? I'm not sure. I believe the top-end for skills is 10, so the top-end for gear would be quality 10. By the end of Kingsmouth you're getting a lot of Q3 items, but because skill point costs go up, that's by no means linear.
How long to reach the "end game"? Dunno. What is there to do once you're there? Dunno. Although as long as ability points can still be earned, 500+ abilities could be do-able! Have fun!
SUMMARY
TSW, like a lot of the quests, is a bit of a puzzler. There are things I like a lot, some I'm fine with, some I don't care for, and some holes that I'm worried about.
Will I buy it? Probably.
Should you buy it? It's such an idiosyncratic game, I wouldn't even try to guess. Two of my friends have tried it out. I figured one would like it, and one wouldn't. I was right. I just guessed wrong on which was which. One bought into the questing and setting enough to coast on past the clunky bits and is leaning toward buying the game. The other was a bit put off by the abrupt appearance of Agartha as subway system and really put off by the general clunkyness of various game parts such as the UI and the combat movement (especially compared to GW2), and he won't be buying.
What should you do? If the positives sound intriguing to you, do a little research. Check some videos. Check some reviews. Weigh they hype, both positive and negative. And see if they squeeze in one more beta before release.
Dark days are coming.
-Lens
Addendum: I realized I left out that TSW will be a subscription-based game and will be offering a lifetime sub.
EDIT: Open beta this weekend starting the 22nd: http://www.funcom.com/news/massive_final_beta_weekend_for_the_secret_world_starts_june_22 Try it for yourself and find out if it's for you or not!
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