Rock, Paper, Shotgun gets an inside look at The Secret World

@BigAndShiny
Although I want to add i am still sceptical that it won't be launched it an absolutely abysmal and terrible bug ridden state.

@BigAndShiny
And it is

@Pars18
There's videos of the HUD in action if you want to find them.
The minimap is done in a translucent overlay on the lower left hand corner with a traditional CoH style compass directly below it.

Directly above this is the Chat/Waypoint interface, which is about the same you'd see in any other MMO title, with tabs and the like.

To the right of that, and back to the bottom of the screen is the resource system and health hud for a player. The resource system consists as of now of 3 adjacent circles. (possibly filling up/decreasing). Below both of these is an experience bar that runs the gamut from the entirety of the bottom of the map and is one large bar that fills up before granting a single skill point to spend.

to the right of the health/resource hud is the action bar set up. The passives are hidden until a toggle is clicked to reveal them and they are located directly above the active bar setup.

Up above this point (which is roughly in the center-bottom of the screen), you have your character, but quest dialogue always appears adjacent to the character in a translucent speech bubble with options.

Migrating south again, and to the right, there's the target hud, which also shows a nearly identical interface to the player resource system, which may imply that we'll be able to see enemy resources with the basic UI.

Party interface is located on the far middle right of the screen, and below it seems to be game menu options.

@Figure

Thank you for the information!
I went and searched for some some footage after I read your summary.

I was surprised to find theyd shown something at the GDC, this year.
I wasnt able to keep tabs on the convention due to more pressing concerns, so it seems I'm outta the loop with their more recent developments.

Still, what ive seen and read looks promising. It looks comfortable enough to be familiar, but just dynamic enough to be interesting.

@Skyydragonn

While it's true that there will be websites and guides and such, those only make the game easier for those who choose to use them. For those that choose not to -- and moreover, those who are tasked with solving these for the first time ever -- it will be a very unique challenge that no other game currently offers.

I also seem to recall them saying something about one-time-only puzzles being introduced that will advance the story (though I could be completely misremembering), so these puzzles will be a unique accomplishment for the players that end up solving them.

It's true that almost anything can be made easy by strategy guides and walkthroughs, but just like with a single-player game, that difficulty adjustment is only there for the players who want to use it, while players who want more of a challenge can opt out.

--Matt Daniel (because I'm still not verified!)