UpInFlames' Hype Machine presents The Secret World

First off, check out the awesome (although disappointingly CG) trailer here.

What is The Secret World? It's the third MMORPG by Norwegian developer Funcom (Anarchy Online, Age of Conan), but more importantly, it's directed and written by Ragnar Tornquist - the mastermind behind The Longest Journey and Dreamfall: The Longest Journey. Not much is known about the game, but everything that is known makes it stand out. It has a completely contemporary setting. THANK YOU! FINALLY! Launch day locations are confirmed to be New York, London, Seoul, New England and Egypt. It will have no cIasses of levels. It will have a strong emphasis on storytelling, puzzles and other adventure elements.

Here are some more interesting tidbits from the Eurogamer GDC write-up:

The Secret World will have no cIassess or levels. This, Tornquist stresses, is absolutely not a typical MMORPG design; he describes it as an "action-adventure-MMORPG" with "fast, reactive combat". Although there will naturally be character progression and an incentive to play the game for a long time, "The Secret World begins where other MMOs end," he says. "There's no grind to get to a preconceived place." You take your character from the same, blank-slate "regular person" starting point as everyone else, and develop it in any way you want.

"It's not going to be loot in a traditional sense, but there will be a lot of really cool items you can use to enhance your character. It's going to be a lot about the skills you get, but it's also going to be a lot about the weapons. It's not going to be about armour and things like that, because if you want to wear a tank-top and hot-pants, you can. If you want to wear the trench coat and the combat boots and the hat, you can do that too, but it's not going to give you a different advantage over the person who just wants to wear the jeans and t-shirt.

"[It] will definitely be the weapons and the powers you have, the cool special effects that you have, there will be ways to really see and differentiate - yeah, that guy's been playing this game a long time, and you can tell."

Combat will be conjoined with exploration, puzzle-solving, and what sounds like a much more languid, adventure-game ****of play. "You can choose: today I don't want to fight things, today I want to explore this mystery, I want to find out about this story, I want go and meet these characters, I want to know what's behind that door, I want to know what's behind the legend of this place," Tornquist says. Puzzle-solving will be incentivised with new powers and other rewards, and "exploration in itself is gameplay".

I've never had the urge to play a MMORPG, but damn, if I ever do play one, this is going to be it.

Your thoughts?

This all sounds great in premise, but I have doubts about the end product. Not to bag on Funcom, but we saw how Age of Conan turned out.

This all sounds great in premise, but I have doubts about the end product. Not to bag on Funcom, but we saw how Age of Conan turned out.

Alaris83

I'm interested.

Interesting. Since it's an adventure and not an RPG really, this is the one MMO that I might actually be interested in.

I will not ever play a subscription based game, however if it turns out to be free of any monthly fees I will buy it day one.

But...why a MMORPG? Unless it's free, of course. SteelAttack

I'm not sure I understand the question. They're making an MMO, it'll have group mechanics, a persistent world and all that jazz. I doubt it'll be free.

This all sounds great in premise, but I have doubts about the end product. Not to bag on Funcom, but we saw how Age of Conan turned out.Alaris83

The thing I'm most worried about is the combat system. After the ghastly combat system Tornquist delivered in Dreamfall, I really don't know what to expect.

[QUOTE="SteelAttack"]But...why a MMORPG? Unless it's free, of course. UpInFlames

I'm not sure I understand the question. They're making an MMO, it'll have group mechanics, a persistent world and all that jazz. I doubt it'll be free.

This all sounds great in premise, but I have doubts about the end product. Not to bag on Funcom, but we saw how Age of Conan turned out.Alaris83

The thing I'm most worried about is the combat system. After the ghastly combat system Tornquist delivered in Dreamfall, I really don't know what to expect.

it certainly seems to have differentiated itself from WoW to maybe make a dent in the market. ill be more interested when they release more info on what it is rather than what it is not.

I stopped reading after MMO.. Like someone above said, it would be notable if it's free, but I seriously doubt any big publish is going down that route soon.jjtiebuckle

What's notable is what it's trying to do, not its pricing scheme.

After playing AoC near launch, I'm going to take the wait and see approach to this. AoC had serious problems at launch and for a while afterwards (lack of content, non-existent PVP system(which combined with the lack of content lead to serious griefing issues on PVP servers), advertised and key parts of the game were not accessable, broken items, two very different experiences(best part of the game was levels 1 - 20 in the starting area with all of its missions, voice acting, and characters; the rest of the game seemed extreamly dull compared to it)).

I'm not sure I understand the question. They're making an MMO, it'll have group mechanics, a persistent world and all that jazz. I doubt it'll be free.UpInFlames

Given my erratic gaming behavior, it would be out of the question for me to shell out money on a monthly basis for a game that I wouldn't be able to play for long periods of time, even though I am extremely interested in its basic premise, trying to involve players in a gameworld because of the experiences offered by the game, and not because of amassing loot and gold to raid their asses up to heavens.

So, it's not that I question Funcom's decision of making a MMO, but instead my own inability to commit myself to a game to the degree that most MMOs seem to require.

Conan had a great combat system for being an MMO, so did AO even if it's old by today's standardsinoperativeRS

Oh, I was sort of whining.

Given my erratic gaming behavior, it would be out of the question for me to shell out money on a monthly basis for a game that I wouldn't be able to play for long periods of time, even though I am extremely interested in its basic premise, trying to involve players in a gameworld because of the experiences offered by the game, and not because of amassing loot and gold to raid their asses up to heavens.

So, it's not that I question Funcom's decision of making a MMO, but instead my own inability to commit myself to a game to the degree that most MMOs seem to require.SteelAttack

Ah, I get it. Yeah, I wish it wasn't an MMO with all my heart, but I'm not about to ignore it if it appeals to me and if they manage to pull it off - especially since they're promising to make something that's everything but an archetypal MMO. I mean, a contemporary setting, storytelling, adventure elements, exploration...just make it work and I'm sold. Like I said, if I'm ever going to play an MMO, this is going to be it.

[QUOTE="inoperativeRS"] Conan had a great combat system for being an MMO, so did AO even if it's old by today's standardsRK-Mara

[QUOTE="RK-Mara"][QUOTE="inoperativeRS"] Conan had a great combat system for being an MMO, so did AO even if it's old by today's standardsinoperativeRS

It sounds very interesting on paper, and im rather skeptical of their claims. Chances are it will probably turn out to have some gaping flaws that will make the game turn out pretty lame considering they are being pretty ambitious.

But just on the fact that its a modern day gothic MMO definitely wins some points for me.

GameSpot did a video interview with the man himself, Ragnar Tornquist. Check it out here.

Did anyone else think they were making a Secret Life of Alex Mack game at first?...

I think I'll try TLJ and Dreamfall first (if I can find it anymore). I think this game will bring something new, but the aforementioned complaint of subscription can become a strong voice in these times. If they charge, this game had better be worth the asking price, time, and effort.

Other than that, I look forward to this non WOW game with a more modern setting. :)

I really wish they would release more MMOs in the present. Or very near future.

I'm not sure how this thread got locked, but I'm unlocking it.Skylock00