The Secret World.

[Cloud Strife]

So did anyone else already know about this game and just decided not to tell me? If so, shame on you. Shame.

This review article (http://penny-arcade.com/report/editorial-article/what-if-every-myth-were-true-the-secret-world-combines-alternate-reality-wi) does a better job explaining the concept and gameplay of the MMO than the official website does. The writer mentions how you need to actually use Google to find answers to some of the quests, that there are no classes or levels, just ability and skill points, and the active dodge mechanic within the combat system. Add on top of that ten years of research into everything mythological, 'shadow government', conspiracy, and other such mediums into the making of the storyline (none of the research was left out of the game, mind you), and you have a game that I really, really want to play. If that's not enough for you, here is a convenient trailer:

7yMIcKmsbzk

In case you're wondering, the song in the trailer is 'This Bitter Earth' by Dinah Washington.

So, anyone else wanna play?

[CABAL49]

EA games have a pattern of taking great ideas and fucking them up badly, but it is a cool trailer and I will at least look into it.

[Cloud Strife]

I may have neglected to mention this earlier, but while there is a standard monthly fee, the first 30 days of game time are free with the purchase of the game. IE, you're actually paying $49.99 to play, not $64.98. No trial accounts that I yet know of, however.

[Aerozord]

I find it sad that because of the cinematography and presentation of every single trailer for this game that my first thought upon seeing this thread was

"Why are you posting about a movie in the gaming forum"

[Aldurin]

On one hand, this looks pretty awesome. But on the other hand, I have not liked a single game made by EA in the past decade.

Definitely worth looking into, but with college starting up again soon for me I might not bother taking the time.

[The Artist Formerly Known as Hawk]

Unfortunately the combat in this looks completely terrible.

[Nikose Tyris]

I know quite a few of the people who made this game! :D They are really proud of their hard work and different things they have contributed to it.

I'm still not getting it :D

[McTahr]

I played around during the closed beta. NDAs don't run over past the release, do they? (Google says I'm safe, first result was Secret World NDA lifted, so eh.)

Style-wise: It's very dark. The story was actually enough to keep me going through the first town. Instead of charging around for quests ABC to raise my numbers, so that I could go to the next area and do quests DEF, I was more interested in finding out the cause of the strange series of murders in the small port town fifteen-ish years back. The narrative occasionally drops off at points, and quests do get occasionally repetitive, but it was perhaps two similar quests per entire area. One minute I'd be running down a siren song through an obstacle course of rigged mines and camera turrets, the next I'd be following Illuminati symbols across town with no real quest direction or hints. Just wits. (There are puzzle quests. They are both fun and super extremely oh my fucking god frustrating at times. One had me using the in-game browser to Google stuff. I'd say what but it'd spoil the quest's most difficult point.

Gameplay: It was the tiniest bit buggy, but I played very early in the beta. I lost internet for a while and couldn't play, then I was going through a breakup and all my friends wanted to "comfort me" (comfort me by letting me play games, damnit!) or play D3 with them. I hear a lot of it got fixed. Everything was fairly intuitive. Most of the things you notice while playing MMOs, those minor annoyances, design hurdles that add no fun or add arbitrary difficulty by making controls limited or arkward, at least for me, seemed to be absent. Some were still present, of course. Since there's no real "level" system to the game, you have no idea if you're ready for an area. Expect to die if you move on too soon. Expect to die at the motel. Even better, FUCK the motel.

I did not test PvP or instances, so I can't comment on those.

Combat kept interesting, but the style I wanted to play was locked for the beta, so sad face. I ran around with pistols and blood magic supporting all of no one, because I don't recall there being any kind of quick-party grouping feature at that point in the beta and everyone was fairly elitist about who joined parties re: their gear. If you weren't QL4/5 at a time when I'd barely found 3, you just didn't get in. Dunno if that's held on in the release. Combat is also meant to be extremely mobile. There were some quirks with character animations in the early beta because they detached top and bottom character meshes from one another to allow this. You move slightly slower during channeling/casting, but if you want to run around in circles waving your katana madly or hop like a bunny backwards shredding your enemies with an assault rifle, you can.

Character creation was okay, definitely saw my doppelganger once or twice in the beta. Supposedly tons more options got added to the full release though.

NPCs themselves were actually something that stood out to me. I remember like 2-3 from like two years of WoW because it was "that guy with that quest." I remember nearly every NPC in Secret World I encountered because they were interesting, crazy, or both. From the small town cop trying to hold on to base things like justice and innocence, in a town where'd they'd never even used their guns and were now forced to gun down corrupted residents constantly, to the Illuminati-obsessed preacher holed up in a warded church, who looked more at home nursing ulcers at the IT desk of a community college than behind the pulpit.

tl:dr:
I liked it, would have paid monies for it, but I didn't want to play alone and all my friends flocked to D3.

[Cloud Strife]

Well, McTahr, I want to play. My wife wants to play.

... Heck, everyone I've shown the game to in person wants to play.

EDIT: Huh. Off topic, but I just noticed this is the 46,000th post in Playing Games. Also, Playing Games has more posts in it than GDEU.

[Cloud Strife]

So, I got the game and haven't looked back. I love this game, haven't really played anything else since I picked it up. My wife and my roommate play, I've gotten a couple people at work to play, and they in turn have gotten friends to play as well. All of them love the game. Just saying.

Also if anyone else is playing the game my main character's name is Unreadable and is with the Dragon on the Daemon server.

[Magus]

I've heard people talking about this one quite a bit, glad to hear the gameplay is at least from your impressions sounding close to the same quality as the original concept of the universe.

On the other hand this will have to be REALLY good to get past the wall of freemium MMOs competing with it.

[Overcast]

I am certainly enjoying it. I have two characters so far, and as per my usual fare am concentrating much more on one than the other. Daemon character is Ceveo(illuminati) and Leviathan character is Loveboat(Dragon).

This seems like it may eventually become Freemium, it has a lot of in game elements in preparation for the possibility and does slightly steer people into the possibility of buying a lifetime plan. The fact they even offer a lifetime plan is shaaaaaady.

[Arcanum]

Apparently the game will have a free weekend starting August 3rd. I'll probably give it a shot, but with Guild Wars 2 right around the corner (and my strong dislike of subscription fees) I doubt I will stick with it unless it really manages to blow me away.

[Premmy]

I am certainly enjoying it. I have two characters so far, and as per my usual fare am concentrating much more on one than the other. Daemon character is Ceveo(illuminati) and Leviathan character is Loveboat(Dragon).

This seems like it may eventually become Freemium, it has a lot of in game elements in preparation for the possibility and does slightly steer people into the possibility of buying a lifetime plan. The fact they even offer a lifetime plan is shaaaaaady.

I think lifetime plans are seen as a good way to build up quick money at a game's launch to better fund it, but a long-term loss in the end.

[EVILNess]

I picked it up, been playing it during my downtime on EVE. Got a illuminati on the daemon server named Trebie.

I must say the investigation missions are lots of fun but are kicking my ass and can be frustrating. This game has the distinction of being the only game that has seriously asked me to decipher morse code.

The combat it okay, and the ability to build your own "class" is Neat since there is lot of synergy in places that take some looking.

Npcs are all whacked in the head, but amusingly so.

[EVILNess]

Just so you know, Secret World has a trial now. It lasts 3 days, and I think there are no other restrictions other than time on the game.

You should try it out, it's probably the most polished launch game I have seen. Also, they plan on doing monthly content updates. I am interested to see if they can keep that pace up as a Live team.

For a game that is 2 months old, I seriously expected less polish in the content. Still, some of the nuts and bolts of the game are kind of iffy (The Gear manager is bugged and a bit spotty, the Auction house has absolutely no specific search parameters, and a few other minor WHAT WERE THEY THINKING THIS IS STANDARD MMO SHIT NOWADAYS gripes.)