"It's simply true freedom of progression!" Ragnar Tornquist exclaims in a new interview with Gaming Nexus. After giving a broad overview of The Secret World's structure, Tornquist spends time discussing just what will make this upcoming MMO so appealing.
According to him, just because TSW is lacking levels doesn't mean that you'll soon run out of ways to advance your character: "Collecting powers and building these decks of seven actives, seven passives, is a large part of that, and it'll take players hundreds and hundreds of hours to create enough decks to tackle most of the content in the game -- and that doesn't even take into account PvP."
Because players will be locked into a faction, Funcom is working hard to keep the balance of skills similar between all three secret societies. Even so, there will be abilities unique to each side.
Interested in Funcom's use of alternate reality games (ARGs) as part of The Secret World's experience? It looks as though these will be a bigger part of the game than we previously thought: "In fact, with our investigation missions, players will have to go outside the game in order to solve intriguing puzzles based on real history, myth, legends, conspiracy theories, and they'll also need to cooperate with other players via forums or chat in order to basically solve these really deep and complex ARG style problems. Some missions are designed to take weeks to crack, even with the help of the entire community."
Reader Comments (28)
Posted: Apr 19th 2011 11:12AM Nerves said
Seems like we're getting a lot of chatter about this, I expect a beta announcement very soon. Nothing really new here in this article, except I wonder what the "Unannounced PvP modes" are. Could this mean open PvP in the agartha underground zone? /crosses fingers
Posted: Apr 19th 2011 11:39AM epilepticemu said
@Nerves
But I'm very glad to hear that they're choosing the Guild Wars style of a finite "deck" of powers to use at any one time. For instance, I'm really loving RIFT, but I hate that some specializations make you work with 20 powers at once to be effective.
Reply
But I'm very glad to hear that they're choosing the Guild Wars style of a finite "deck" of powers to use at any one time. For instance, I'm really loving RIFT, but I hate that some specializations make you work with 20 powers at once to be effective.
Posted: Apr 19th 2011 12:59PM (Unverified) said
@Interitus
I read somewhere that closed beta starts in May, starting small and gradually opened up to more people.
Reply
I read somewhere that closed beta starts in May, starting small and gradually opened up to more people.
Posted: Apr 19th 2011 11:38AM Tyrang said
There are two things that I need to see addressed before beta:
1. Character movement in combat seems choppy, or rather un-smooth. They should try to achieve Vindictus level of movement if it is action based.
2. I wonder about the decks system. You know in Elder Scroll series, eventually everyone get ALL the powers? I hope there will be some contraints, otherwise everyone will be the same, using the similar deck under different situations. Ex. Everyone switch to the same Fire deck to fight ice monsters and Holy deck to fight vampires.
Look forward to this game, I hope it will be really good.
1. Character movement in combat seems choppy, or rather un-smooth. They should try to achieve Vindictus level of movement if it is action based.
2. I wonder about the decks system. You know in Elder Scroll series, eventually everyone get ALL the powers? I hope there will be some contraints, otherwise everyone will be the same, using the similar deck under different situations. Ex. Everyone switch to the same Fire deck to fight ice monsters and Holy deck to fight vampires.
Look forward to this game, I hope it will be really good.
Posted: Apr 19th 2011 12:56PM Nerves said
@Tyrang
You only get to use 7 active and 7 passive at the same time - plus, there has been some info about 'states' - meaning that your skills can gain a bonus if the mob is under the influence of some other damage type - ie, if you shoot a mob with your shotgun that someone else has set on fire, it does more damage. I assume that will encourage players to mix it up a bit while grouped.
Reply
You only get to use 7 active and 7 passive at the same time - plus, there has been some info about 'states' - meaning that your skills can gain a bonus if the mob is under the influence of some other damage type - ie, if you shoot a mob with your shotgun that someone else has set on fire, it does more damage. I assume that will encourage players to mix it up a bit while grouped.
Posted: Apr 19th 2011 2:40PM Tyrang said
@paterah
I know you can only have 7 actives and 7 passives at a time, but that doesn't stop ppl from all using the best build in certain situation. Imagine PVP everyone use the same wep and same deck. Maybe a way to do it is to have expertise on the wep type that you use a lot. It will allow ppl to work to get the right deck for their build.
And I know it is hard to get Vindictus level of movement polish-ness. But then Tera's moving is looking pretty good too. Just be better than now please, cuz the movement looks unbearable for an action MMO.
Reply
I know you can only have 7 actives and 7 passives at a time, but that doesn't stop ppl from all using the best build in certain situation. Imagine PVP everyone use the same wep and same deck. Maybe a way to do it is to have expertise on the wep type that you use a lot. It will allow ppl to work to get the right deck for their build.
And I know it is hard to get Vindictus level of movement polish-ness. But then Tera's moving is looking pretty good too. Just be better than now please, cuz the movement looks unbearable for an action MMO.
Posted: Apr 19th 2011 11:38AM BGExorcist said
Puzzles.. yeah I cannot imagine a way to put that in an MMO, even if there are some quests that dont have pointers on the map, will probably take a day for the whole dal. Sweet talk all the way.
Posted: Apr 19th 2011 11:38AM Snichy said
I love the idea of going "outside" the game to solve riddles and puzzles. Dont know why more games dont do this.
Posted: Apr 19th 2011 11:43AM Lateris said
This game sounds like a challenge. Count me in.
Posted: Apr 19th 2011 11:48AM Quarlo said
Very intrigued by this game. I love the Lovecraft Mythos (and other conspiracy themes) and have hoped for a modern dark MMO for a long time (I'm burned out on fantasy MMOs).
Posted: Apr 19th 2011 1:09PM (Unverified) said
This game wasn't really on my radar until I started watching the recent videos, and now I'm looking forward to it.
I also think Ragnar Tornquist is a tremendously awesome name.
I also think Ragnar Tornquist is a tremendously awesome name.
Posted: Apr 19th 2011 1:58PM Vegetta said
This game really has piqued my interest. I like the puzzles a lot.
Posted: Apr 19th 2011 2:12PM Krayzjoel said
This is one of the "out of the Box type" MMO's I've been waiting for.
Posted: Apr 19th 2011 2:58PM Seldra said
Besides GW2 I'm really hoping this game delivers, it's nice to take a break from the usual fantasy setting once in a while.
Posted: Apr 19th 2011 3:32PM Ghostspeaker said
I reeeeeally want to be excited about this game, but I've been burned so often I just can't anymore. We'll see how things turn out. I have high hopes for this one, they've got lots of good ideas. But they'll stay cautious hopes for now.
Posted: Apr 19th 2011 3:58PM Triskelion said
Anarchy Online - horribly borked at launch, unplayable for 6 mos.
AoC - excellent leveling experience from levels 1-20, after that the game fell flat.
Secret World - ??????????
AoC - excellent leveling experience from levels 1-20, after that the game fell flat.
Secret World - ??????????








