The Secret World

Ok, I'm weak and bought it through Steam and after 6 hours because my internet was being lame,downloaded it and the patch.

parallaxview wrote:

I am still way into the game. But I am more Solo than not and more casual than hard core.

That said, it is the best story telling and game system I have come across in an mmo

Heck, it's some of the best story telling in video games as a whole, let alone MMOs.

Yep. I do wish that they'd gone out on a limb in terms of game structure, but you take what you can get. I'm about done with the Savage Coast now and getting back into playing again.

Be warned that most players find the story to drag a bit through Egypt (the next place you'll be going after Savage Coast) but it picks up again in Transylvania.

As long as there's a minimum of "kill N whatever" quests I'm good.

I'm not very far yet but I'm now remembering that I really dislike the corpse runs in this game, particularly when your options are sometimes 'spawn in a spot where you will most likely die again' vs 'spawn at anima well and have to grind your way through mobs back to where you were'. It gets old fast when a particular mob or group that you need is giving you trouble and requires multiple attempts.

edit: on the other hand that doesn't differ from any other mmo really.

I'm still in Kingsmouth, enjoying it so far. What server is everyone on?

complexmath wrote:

As long as there's a minimum of "kill N whatever" quests I'm good.

In the interests of full disclosure, many of the missions do actually involve killing ten foozles. The story wrapper is much better, though, than other MMOs I've played. Also, killing the foozles is often just one tier of a longer mission and the other tiers aren't necessarily going to involve killing ten more foozles. Most of the red and green-slash missions (called "action" and "side" missions, respectively), however, have plenty of killing.

There _are_ a wealth of missions that don't involve "the killing" at all or, at least, that don't involve grinding (blue, yellow, or light green icons). You can get a lot of mileage out of those. Here's the link to the Wiki page detailing the several mission types: http://secretworld.wikia.com/wiki/Missions

Just to be clear, even the missions where you kill stuff are quite fun, but mostly because of the story and atmosphere. Investigation missions, especially, are the biggest breath of fresh air I've seen in the genre since I started playing MMOs. I wouldn't say that the game has a "minimum" of kill quests, though.

Also, Rainsmercy, regardless of what Dimension you're on, you can group up and be part of a cabal with anyone else on any "server." The only distinction is in PvP, where you can't be in a group with someone in a different Dimension.

I love the game, and I'm really sad that post-release funding has not come up to expectations. I'm a lifetime member, though, so it's fine for me to check back in from time to time and play new content whenever it does come out. My main character is "Orvokki," so if anyone wanted to group up, I would be happy to do so.

Yeah, I suppose I could just skip the action missions. I just have this completionist streak to contend with The investigation missions are awesome though, and the sabotage missions can be quite good as well. And for everything, the writing and cutscenes are really well done.

Finally made it to Transylvania, whoever was mentioning it earlier wasn't kidding about the giant leap in ap/sp gain rate! More than enough to upgrade my hammer/chaos solo build to handle the tougher mobs here.

Hi guys,

pretty new to the Secret World (as in 23 hours new - says Steam) and just left the first area of Kingsmouth.
Really like the world and would the occasional group action - no that sounds wrong...

Is anybody still playing this and if yes, where? The character creator pushed me to "Daemon", but I would guess that this is EU only.

I was on for a while over the weekend. Picked up the latest new content but never got to Egypt; hung around Blue Mountain for a while instead.

Server doesn't matter for the most part. You can group up with people on any server; it moves you to wherever the group is.

There's a GWJ chat channel but I never see anyone in it. I usually idle in the Ventrillo channel when I'm on but rarely see anyone there either.

tanstaafl wrote:

I was on for a while over the weekend. Picked up the latest new content but never got to Egypt; hung around Blue Mountain for a while instead.

Server doesn't matter for the most part. You can group up with people on any server; it moves you to wherever the group is.

There's a GWJ chat channel but I never see anyone in it. I usually idle in the Ventrilo channel when I'm on but rarely see anyone there either.

Ah, there are still quite a lot unfamiliar things as it seems.
I'll see to get on Vent or the chat then.

Thanks!

have the game, and have it installed, but haven't played in over a month, believe I am still in Kingsmouth? The zombie area?

Rainsmercy wrote:

have the game, and have it installed, but haven't played in over a month, believe I am still in Kingsmouth? The zombie area?

that sounds very much like kingsmouth or savage coast (the next area)

Yeah, zombies in Kingsmouth, mummies in Egypt and vampires in Transylvania.

And those stupid cockroach things are everywhere.

I like the game, I have just not played lately. Too much other stuff going on.

What are those of who you have finished the main story line and still playing up to? I gave pvp a shot but it felt like too much of a disorganized blob to be much fun. There are still a bunch of dungeons I've yet to do but much as I've enjoyed the dungeons so far the gear carrot isn't enough to motivate me for its own sake here.

Yeah, my playtime dropped off considerably after finishing the main storyline. I keep meaning to go back and finish some of the sidequests that I left behind but I'm not quite good enough to solo a lot of them and haven't felt motivated enough to track down someone to run them with me.

I'm slowly trying to track down all the bits of lore I'm still missing, some of which is in dungeons, but that's about it at the moment.

Hoping the Tokyo zone is still on track but haven't heard an update on it lately.

I have been in since the beta and have only just made it to Egypt. Talk about causal pace.

Be warned, I thought that Egypt was the least interesting of the three main areas. Though I do like the two British archaeologists you meet there.

Yeah, Egypt has it's moments, but it's a bit of a slog. Transylvania more than makes up for it, though.

I haven't really been playing much lately. This has become one of those games I WANT to play, and think about playing all the time, but can never get around to actually playing.

Transylvania is good, but it's tough. That's what has slowed me down in the game (I'm on a bit of a break from it at the moment), it's where you really need to start thinking about synergy between your skills and probably need to think about getting your gear up to scratch.

To be honest, I would probably still play the game if I had ever grouped up with anybody (besides the dungeons). I think that is why I don't feel interested in any of the next batch of MMOs. I'm tired of playing the majority of the hours solo. Then again, that may be just a GWj guild issue.

I haven't done more than log in to get the latest content in the past several months. My cabal died and Rift Dimensions came out, so I don't have a lot of motivation to play. Glad I have the lifetime though, I'm sure I'll be back at some point.

I've been playing other games recently, but will be back in at some point. Since I've left, a bunch of my friends have started playing as well, so there's that motivator. I did kind of burn out on the MMO-ness of the game though, which has been the real reason I've avoided logging in recently. I stalled out at the end of the Savage Coast.

The thing I like about the game, as well as what I think is its main problem, is that it is so heavily story driven.

The story is great, but once you've run through that there isn't that much to do. They had planned to avoid this by putting out monthly content updates but those fell by the wayside pretty quickly. Players will always burn through contest faster than the developers can create it.

Wow, the more I hear about people playing, the more I'm interested. Sadly, I felt GW 2 rocked from game mechanics but the story was an incredible letdown after the first 30 levels or so.

Does anyone have an estimated time it would take to finish the main storyline? I'm asking because I really liked SWTOR's story but would have prefered to have finished it in less than 150 hours.

There isn't a ton of over-arching story, just lots of little stories loosely tied together by themes and locations. Each of the three zones is more or less self-contained.

Your play through time will be determined primarily by your build as which way you lean will determine the general pace of progression. Whether or not you use walk throughs is also going to be a big factor. The main thread of the launch storyline is probably in the 150 hour range for a typical new player but I suspect you could do it in 100-125ish if speed is your thing. Some parts of said storyline would be pretty rough without the ability points and skill points gained from side quests but here again the extent of this may vary by build.