When any developer launches a subscription-based MMO nowadays, it's impossible to avoid the fact that inevitably that game will go free-to-play at some point. You know it, we know it – hell, the developers especially know it. It's one of those unavoidable truths which foreshadows every pay monthly game's emergence. The launch is fine, thanks to the player base's initial excitement overriding their misconceptions about a game's value proposition, but a couple of months down the road and people start asking the question, ‘Why am I paying this much a month?'
This is the climate The Secret World unfortunately finds itself in, an MMO which is genuinely one of the most refreshing we've played for years, with a classless combat structure, inventive quest design and, importantly, a setting which is unique and easy to buy into.
Recently we praised Star Wars: The Old Republic for its commitment to storytelling and characterization, but The Secret World blows it out of the water on all counts. There's something quintessentially Whedon about the way quests play out, with vendors regularly quipping about the ongoing battle between good and evil, monsters invading our dimension and mysterious collectives subtly guiding the future of humanity. Most quests, be they main or supporting, are prefaced by some kind of cut-scene, and while that may bug the more progress-minded players out there, these cinematics help to keep the gamer engaged with what they're actually doing and why.
The Secret World Gameplay 2015
This factor, coupled with a restriction which only allows you to choose a handful of quests at any one time, results in a more focused and engaging experience than the traditional tick-box progression mentality traditionally associated with MMOs. Due to this arbitrary limitation, quests feel less like a means to earning experience and more like self-contained stories, each with multiple tiers and inventive objectives.
To give you an idea of what we mean, we can't remember once being asked to farm for gear in separate areas, but we can remember using a siren's song to guide us to a maintenance tunnel or deciphering morse code from some obtuse blips to hack into a dormant PC. Does WoW or SWTOR prompt you to do any activities like that? Absolutely not, but then BioWare and Blizzard aren't quite as brave as Funcom are when it comes to quest design.
Sure, sometimes that ambition can lead to problems, with occasional glitches and clues appearing so obtuse that searching for answers on a forum is the only way to get past them, but really that's all part of the charm. The Secret World doesn't wrap you in cotton wool, it challenges you constantly which makes quest resolution, even if you have to ask the community for help, that much sweeter. Refreshingly, combat prowess isn't the only factor that governs progression, as grey matter is just as important as well.
HIGH BROW
The finer plot points are all-too happy to rely on the myth and legends angle with magic artefacts, Vikings, Vampires and even the Boogeyman making choice appearances during the main questline, but the way these themes are introduced means that the innate ‘hokeyness' of it all is somewhat lessened – mostly thanks to dialogue which merrily pokes fun at the absurdity of it all.
This is perhaps why playing through The Secret World isn't as scary as it might be, as the game and its characters can be almost too self aware at times. That said, there is some good ghost story fodder in here though, with clues like letters, recordings and newspaper clippings represented in a manner you'd expect adding an unsettling reality to proceedings. These atmospheric little touches are spread liberally throughout the game and you'll come across them regularly in the world – even if you aren't part of the mission they're associated with.
The mission structure is undoubtedly the best part of The Secret World, with Funcom unsurprisingly proving once again that they have great finesse when it comes to storytelling. Combat on the other hand isn't quite so clear cut.
PWNING THE PIE
Rather than forcing players down specific roles, TSW has a skill structure which allows players to invest their Ability Points and Skill Points into any discipline they choose, be it melee, ranged or magic skillsets.
From the outset this system is very intimidating and poorly introduced by a confusing and overwhelming tutorial, which chucks lots of information at the player with little explanation about why this system is preferred over a traditional class-based structure. Taking classes out of the game should make progression simpler, but in truth it just makes it much more confusing. Choosing a second weapon specialization for our character felt more like an exercise in luck than judgement, with the suggested character decks proving perplexing rather than helpful – why would a Warlord specialize in hammers and not swords? They're both melee weapons, so there won't be much of a difference, right? There is apparently, a big one.
For PvP specialists this innumerable amount of choice probably sounds like the stuff dreams are made of, but we can easily see new players getting put off. The fact that gear too is also confusing with three different skill trees of Head Talisman, Major Talisman and Minor Talisman rather than just offering traditional Light Armor and Heavy Armor choices also smacks of being elaborate for elaborate's sake. We do appreciate the ability to switch out your seven passive skills and seven active skills on the fly, even during instances and missions, but even when you're cutting through enemies swiftly there's always that thought in the back of your mind, ‘Am I making the most out of the skills I've unlocked?' That relentless pursuit of the ‘ideal build' will motivate some but enrage others – and we were definitely in the latter demographic.
Perhaps the reason The Secret World's combat is so puzzling is due to the lack of a traditional levelling structure, with a unified rank or number being attributed to a player's ability. Instead the experience required to unlock Action Points and Skill Points never changes. This is as radical as it sounds, but points are still earned in a methodical fashion. Again this system just lacks that immediate comprehension of a traditional level structure.
It's not uncommon for players to question whether they're really ready for the next tier of their main story quest, or whether tackling that boss up ahead is within their capabilities. It's worth noting that all enemies do have ratings you can thumb over to determine strength, but not having it anchored down to an overall level-based ranking makes those ratings harder to grasp than they should be.
Exploration at least isn't as overwhelming, with lots of lore icons to pad out the game's substantial fiction scattered around various real-world locations. The mini-map is easy to understand and the lack of any kind of auto-travel teleporting (aside from killing yourself and reviving at the game's various respawn portals) means that you're encouraged to explore the game world. In most MMORPGs that's usually pretty dull with creatures stopping your travels every few feet, but in The Secret World enemies are liberally sprinkled with item quests that a re usually not far away, even if when wandering off the beaten track. The lack of any mounts being included does raise questions, as locations like Egypt and the Solomon Islands seem ideal for a dirt bike or horse, but we're sure those additions are currently being developed.
Environments are guilty of utilizing atmospheric touches like fog and ghostly ethereal clusters a bit too much, and after a while you will hanker for any sort of color aside from grey, brown and dark green – especially before you get to Egypt – but for the most part the visuals serve do serve the paranormal aesthetic very well.
Overall The Secret World is the perfect example of an esteemed MMORPG developer going out of their way to produce an altogether new experience, with some revolutionary components not proving as successful as others. Sometimes you need to take the rough with the smooth, with the PvP in particularly proving a disappointment as it's merely a carbon copy of Guild Wars 2's PvP with less players and three factions, but Funcom undoubtedly deserves credit for going so dramatically against the grain in every other area of the game. The big question though is whether this experience is worth the current monthly $18.73 asking price $18.73 on top of the initial purchase and the answer is a somewhat trepidacious yes. If you value great storytelling, a novel setting and a combat system which rewards experimentation then The Secret World does excuse its monthly asking price, but only just.
The more time you invest, the more TSW rewards you, and as long as you have your brain switched on when you log onto servers, you'll certainly have a good time. Whether that remains the case after you've enjoyed all the main story beats and conquered all the raids remains to be seen, but by that point you should have enough memories to make the substantial time and money investment seem worthwhile.