Review: The Secret World

 The Secret World is a game that's hard to define in a handful of words.  The closest I can come up with is "modern urban fantasy horror MMO", and say it's something refreshing to play after years of grinding in fantasy MMOs.

Concept

Breaks the mold of high-fantasy MMO games, but is still a traditional MMO.

Zombie Yard Sale

The Secret World is a unique entry into the MMO market.  It’s a modern fantasy game with a horror spin, twining together many different themes.  If the old Paranoia RPG were combined with modern horror and had a pulpy exploration vibe, you’d come fairly close to the mark that the Secret World has laid out for itself.  The premise is simple: you’re an unwitting individual who is given very rudimentary superpowers, and is drafted into the ranks of one of three ancient conspiracies (the Illuminati, the Knights Templar, and the H.Y.D.R.A.-like Dragon) just in time to confront a cataclysmic apocalypse.   These three organizations must ally (and backstab one another) to stop this apocalypse, while other conspiracies continue their meddling in the background.  It’s a rather fresh design for a game, and certainly breaks from the stale fantasy MMO environment.

Character Creation

Better than average, but still could use more customization.

Character creation is about as complicated as you’d expect in an MMO.  You pick a faction, create a character, design their wardrobe from a very limited pool, and pick a name.  It’s slightly more in-depth than, say, World of Warcraft, but not as in-depth as many players would like.  It’s modern setting works against it here, because players want to design their outfit with a higher level of detail.  Of note is that there are fewer outfits available than there were at launch, leaving men only with the option of casual attire.  That’s particularly odd, given that two out of the three factions tend to be overly formal.  There’s also an odd bent of the women looking like skinny men.

Combat

Average MMO combat with no-brainer features that should already be standard.  Good group synergy.

Axe Me About Zombies with Chainsaws!

Combat is average for an MMO here.  There’s nothing particularly innovative about the combat in and of itself.  Fights tend to take about the same amount of time as they take in nearly every other MMO.  There are frequent “boss”-mob fights, and you generally pull packs of 1-4.  Combat isn’t terribly mobile – you stay in a small area, and have your fight.  There are two features that stand out in combat that I hope the industry will standardize.  Firstly, when a mob is about to use an AoE attack, you see a white, chalky circle (or cone), showing you where to go to avoid it.  Secondly, there are a very limited number of debuffs that mark “special” attacks, deviating from WoW’s “everything gets its own unique debuff” model.  You don’t need to mouse over a debuff to know what it means, either.  Finally, there’s an offensive and defensive target (not that you’d know it right away, thanks to the minimal UI).

The limited number of debuffs also means that group synergy is high.  If my mechanic involves inflicting the WEAKENED and IMPAIRED states, your abilities may very well proc off of that.  Groups that are good at communicating can tailor their abilities to this situation, and will find themselves  being extremely effective.

Character Development

Well executed and innovative.

The Wheel of the Skills Keeps on Turnin'

This is one of the two places in which the game shines.  The Secret World’s development mechanic is based on the idea that you can create your own character class.  You select two weapons to carry, pick skills that complement them, and go, breaking out of the traditional character classes and letting you truly make a character yours.  This can be overwhelming to a new player, so developers have instituted class “decks” – preconfigured combinations that are rather effective and can guide you in the right direction.   As an added bonus, they unlock an additional outfit for your character.  You only occasionally have to run to town to train, as most of your abilities are unlocked in the field (faction abilities, such as your mount-equivalent, are not).

Content

Wonderfully rich and deep.

This is the other place where this game is exceptional.  Walking through London, you get to see storefronts, all of which have references to literature and fiction the developers particularly found inspiring.  All quests have cutscenes with voice acting in the vein of The Old Republic.  The depth also doesn’t peter out (at least, in the first three zones).  There are tiny details that the player might miss if he’s speeding through as if he’s playing World of Warcraft.  The world itself has tiny surprises built into it that aren’t part of any quest chain per se, but that were clearly made with love. 



UI  

Better than WoW’s stock UI, but with little to no customization and little combat information presented.

The UI is minimalist compared to WoW.   There are some negatives to this approach: the lack of macros and mods makes the game feel clunky, and there’s little combat information displayed other than HP/resources and status effects.  Only one quest shows at a time (leaving the map display a better option for questing, but with no way to keep the map open while you play).   That being said, it doesn’t feel cluttered, and I don’t find myself watching the UI rather than the actual fight.  For all intents and purposes, WoW could have no graphics except UI and be a world full of only stick figures, and the game wouldn’t feel any different.  It also takes a page from Guild Wars and limits the amount of abilities you have at a time, leaving much of the complexities of combat up to combinations, cast order, and procs.

Graphics
Roughly on par with Grand Theft Auto IV.
The graphics are detailed, but not exceptional.  They’re rather average for any game set in a modern environment.  They’re not particularly stylized, and they probably won’t hold up to the test of time.  Again, they rank average for an MMO.  Hopefully, like Age of Conan, they’ll also age decently, and not end up looking like jagged lines as higher resolutions become standard.  Fortunately, the standard in resolutions isn’t going to change for quite a while – 1080p is still well above the curve for the average MMO.

Social Mechanics

Needs a group finder, and needs more chat channels.

I’ll get this out of the way – there is no group finder, no LFG or dungeon finder.  We’re back to spamming trade chat for our groups, the way we did in WoW Classic.  If there was one thing that really gutted The Old Republic, this was it.  Fortunately, it’s not as terrible here, and this is why.

By default, the general chat is game-wide.  You heard me right – people in end-game zones will hear people in starting zones.  That means searching for a group for a particular instance in chat won’t be a terrible experience.  However, that does mean that spam is a lot more noticeable, and the “Barrens Chat” effect follows you until the end of your days.  The game needs more channels enabled by default, including an LFG, a zone chat, a guild finder, and so on.\
 Pricing Model               

Standard for an MMO at launch.

Hypno Puppet Compels You!

The game is the standard price of an MMO, for all intents and purposes -- $50, +$15/month.  There’s really nothing new here, and I do expect the pricing model to change significantly in a year due to the limited number of players trying it and the upcoming releases of Guild Wars 2, Mists of Pandaria, and Firefall.  Additionally, they do have an item shop, very similar to Age of Conan’s, which lets you fork over a bit more money for items that either have some benefit at low levels or are simply cosmetic adjustments.  This leaves it again about on par with where Blizzard is taking WoW.  It’ll likely eventually be free to play in the same way Conan is, with premium subscriber perks and more reliance on the item shop.

    

 Conclusion

Average for an MMO, with exceptional depth and character development.

If you’re interested in taking your time with an MMO and truly exploring a game, this is a much better choice than World of Warcraft.  It doesn’t particularly feel grinding, and it has a few rather refreshing mechanics to it.  Where it really shines is in the love given to the game world.  If you’ve read the novels of Stephen King or H.P. Lovecraft (or both), the first three zones will be a beautiful reminisce of worlds you’ve already explored in book format.  It’s clear that most of the game’s development has been a labor of people who love what they’re making, and it really shows.  You’d be doing yourself a significant disservice if you skip cutscenes, rush from quest to quest, and don’t take the time to simply absorb the world’s depth.  This game is not one where you should be rushing to the end.  Take the time to stop and savor it, like you would a fine wine.