My Adventures in The Secret World
I did the free demo for The Secret World. It's free, how can you lose?
There are three factions, the Illuminati, the Dragons, and the Templars. My character is a Templar. Her name is Amber Blue, code name Fidelitas (Latin meaning loyalty, fidelity - I thought it would be an excellent Templar name).
I don't usually do warnings, but there is one pic in here that's mildly NSFW (frontal female nudity, not a close-up). Just in case your boss or easily shocked grandfather is standing over your shoulder.
Amber's name, and to an extent her look and character, are recycled from another character of mine. Before she became a Templar in TSW, she was a paladin in World of Warcraft. She's wearing her Blood Knight tabard here (I did the original quest chain, before they changed it and removed most of the flavor).
I would love to get her the Tier 2 armor, I think she would look totally badass. What she's got on is just some rather plain Wrath leveling gear. But I digress.
Rebooted in The Secret World, Amber still looks badass, but in a real-world way.
There are no classes in TSW, but there are suggested builds, called decks (very useful for newbies) and one of the Templar decks is called the Paladin. Paladins use dual handguns and swords. If I end up buying the game, that's the build I'm going to work toward, hence her choice of weapons. Or I might possibly go the Preacher route instead, I'm not sure. If you want to know more about decks, this article explains them in more detail.
When you complete a deck you unlock a special outfit, too. Yay cool clothes! Here's concept art for all of them: Templars, Dragons, and Illuminati. Each link goes to a gallery and you can scroll through the images on the right side.
This is meant to be a kind of review post for the game, so next let's talk graphics! Because face it, graphics are important. My video card is getting a bit old (it's an Nvidia GeForce 9600 GT) and The Secret World only allows me to use Low and Medium settings, and yes I updated my drivers.
This is Low:
This is Medium, with anti-aliasing (anti-aliasing is not available to me on Low):
It's not glaring, but there are differences. The most obvious being shadows can't be seen on Low. Plus there are some jagged edges. But it's not so big of a difference (unlike WoW where low settings are unbearably horrible). I can live with Low in TSW since I do get better performance.
Besides the graphics issues (which don't bother me much) I get terrible lag sometimes, especially in crowded settings with a lot of other players around. This is distressing and has caused death. >:C The server I was on is a RP server and may be more heavily populated, I don't know. I read somewhere that some servers are worse for lag, and mine was mentioned.
Lag sometimes has unexpected consequences!
At first I thought some players were running around naked, but nope, it's just that their clothes - and hair! - sometimes took a few seconds to load. ^_^;;
Some screenshots from around London. Templar headquarters in light fog:
Amber meeting her boss inside Templar headquarters (cutscene):
There are some unusual inhabitants in London, if you look for them.
He sells tacos. ^_^
Also, I found a probable tribute to Monkey Island's Voodoo Lady! Don't you think?
The quests/missions are what I really like about the game. Some of them are just "kill zombies" but others are puzzles or mysteries and they draw you in, and you actually have to think about them and experiment with solutions. There are clues in the environment, in conversations with NPCs, and in items that you pick up.
I didn't finish the quest line for the above, but I'm sure that page is just full of clues! And probably also with misdirections.
I did finish the "Something Wicked" quest line which was very awesome, though I don't want to spoil it for people so I won't give too many details. But one aspect was that I had to die in order to contact the ghost of this man for information. I had to let zombies kill me, it was very embarrassing and I kept hoping nobody would see.
The ghost guy led me to this clue scrawled on the wall of his jail cell.
And those are the white ravens mentioned in the clue. It was such a great quest and the way it ended had me laughing. I really want to explain it, but I just can't spoil it for you guys. You just have to do it, if you try the game. And like I said at the start, you can't lose, it's a free demo. :D
Overall, despite the awful lag that I experienced at times, I really really liked it. It's truly engrossing. I don't have a whole lot of experience with MMOs, but it feels very different from the others I've tried. I was only able to do quests in the starting area, Kingsmouth (which is heavily Lovecraft-influenced) so I have no idea what the other parts of the game are like, but I'm looking forward to finding out. I'm just holding off for a good deal on it. I think furryjackal got hers for half off, and at $50 full price that is worth waiting for another sale to come along.
Here's a "tips and tricks" guide I found, which is where I got the links to the concept art for the builds/decks' outfits; there's some other good info there. And there are guides and articles and wikis and stuff out there. You can open a browser in-game actually, and look up mission tips. Very handy and faster for me than tabbing out.
I'd love to hear thoughts/reviews from others who've played it.
There are three factions, the Illuminati, the Dragons, and the Templars. My character is a Templar. Her name is Amber Blue, code name Fidelitas (Latin meaning loyalty, fidelity - I thought it would be an excellent Templar name).
I don't usually do warnings, but there is one pic in here that's mildly NSFW (frontal female nudity, not a close-up). Just in case your boss or easily shocked grandfather is standing over your shoulder.
Amber's name, and to an extent her look and character, are recycled from another character of mine. Before she became a Templar in TSW, she was a paladin in World of Warcraft. She's wearing her Blood Knight tabard here (I did the original quest chain, before they changed it and removed most of the flavor).
I would love to get her the Tier 2 armor, I think she would look totally badass. What she's got on is just some rather plain Wrath leveling gear. But I digress.
Rebooted in The Secret World, Amber still looks badass, but in a real-world way.
There are no classes in TSW, but there are suggested builds, called decks (very useful for newbies) and one of the Templar decks is called the Paladin. Paladins use dual handguns and swords. If I end up buying the game, that's the build I'm going to work toward, hence her choice of weapons. Or I might possibly go the Preacher route instead, I'm not sure. If you want to know more about decks, this article explains them in more detail.
When you complete a deck you unlock a special outfit, too. Yay cool clothes! Here's concept art for all of them: Templars, Dragons, and Illuminati. Each link goes to a gallery and you can scroll through the images on the right side.
This is meant to be a kind of review post for the game, so next let's talk graphics! Because face it, graphics are important. My video card is getting a bit old (it's an Nvidia GeForce 9600 GT) and The Secret World only allows me to use Low and Medium settings, and yes I updated my drivers.
This is Low:
This is Medium, with anti-aliasing (anti-aliasing is not available to me on Low):
It's not glaring, but there are differences. The most obvious being shadows can't be seen on Low. Plus there are some jagged edges. But it's not so big of a difference (unlike WoW where low settings are unbearably horrible). I can live with Low in TSW since I do get better performance.
Besides the graphics issues (which don't bother me much) I get terrible lag sometimes, especially in crowded settings with a lot of other players around. This is distressing and has caused death. >:C The server I was on is a RP server and may be more heavily populated, I don't know. I read somewhere that some servers are worse for lag, and mine was mentioned.
Lag sometimes has unexpected consequences!
At first I thought some players were running around naked, but nope, it's just that their clothes - and hair! - sometimes took a few seconds to load. ^_^;;
Some screenshots from around London. Templar headquarters in light fog:
Amber meeting her boss inside Templar headquarters (cutscene):
There are some unusual inhabitants in London, if you look for them.
He sells tacos. ^_^
Also, I found a probable tribute to Monkey Island's Voodoo Lady! Don't you think?
The quests/missions are what I really like about the game. Some of them are just "kill zombies" but others are puzzles or mysteries and they draw you in, and you actually have to think about them and experiment with solutions. There are clues in the environment, in conversations with NPCs, and in items that you pick up.
I didn't finish the quest line for the above, but I'm sure that page is just full of clues! And probably also with misdirections.
I did finish the "Something Wicked" quest line which was very awesome, though I don't want to spoil it for people so I won't give too many details. But one aspect was that I had to die in order to contact the ghost of this man for information. I had to let zombies kill me, it was very embarrassing and I kept hoping nobody would see.
The ghost guy led me to this clue scrawled on the wall of his jail cell.
And those are the white ravens mentioned in the clue. It was such a great quest and the way it ended had me laughing. I really want to explain it, but I just can't spoil it for you guys. You just have to do it, if you try the game. And like I said at the start, you can't lose, it's a free demo. :D
Overall, despite the awful lag that I experienced at times, I really really liked it. It's truly engrossing. I don't have a whole lot of experience with MMOs, but it feels very different from the others I've tried. I was only able to do quests in the starting area, Kingsmouth (which is heavily Lovecraft-influenced) so I have no idea what the other parts of the game are like, but I'm looking forward to finding out. I'm just holding off for a good deal on it. I think furryjackal got hers for half off, and at $50 full price that is worth waiting for another sale to come along.
Here's a "tips and tricks" guide I found, which is where I got the links to the concept art for the builds/decks' outfits; there's some other good info there. And there are guides and articles and wikis and stuff out there. You can open a browser in-game actually, and look up mission tips. Very handy and faster for me than tabbing out.
I'd love to hear thoughts/reviews from others who've played it.