After a mini-vacation, I'm back to my normal routine. It seems that while I was gone, The Secret World NDA came down. For the past few months, I have been a part of the closed beta. That's not to say I know much about the game. There has just been too many other games to play that I never really had too much time for TSW.
I do have some thoughts on what I saw though...
[+] Setting. The TSW setting is what really keeps me interested in the game. It's nice to see some modern locales and equipment. The subject matter is also (mostly) new. The folks at Funcom have definitely made a world that I want to play in.
[-] Enemies. I did not get very far into the game, but all I really fought against were zombies. I hate zombies as enemies, they are just so boring. 'Grrrr, I want to eat you' is not a very interesting motive. They are just over done. I'm sure there will be 'smarter zombies' later on in the game.
[+] Skills. TSW eschews the standard leveling system for a skill wheel. It is pretty big and reminds me of a pie. You can go down whichever slice you want, which adds the appearance of freedom. I chose Assault Rifles, because it gives you a machine gun! Finally, a machine gun in a MMO.
[-] Skills. It could be I have a poor understanding of the Skill Pie, as I did not make it very deep. But it actually felt pretty limiting. A good amount of the skills are either tied to a particular weapon type or the 'builder' for that weapon type. So I can't just choose any skill from Pistols and another from Blood Magic, because the latter has a requirement.
Not all skills have these requirements, but it seemed like a lot did at least at the base skills. Sure, you can switch weapons/equipment but I was hoping to make a custom build without item swapping. We'll see how it goes though.
[+] PvP. It's 3 factions and takes place in large zones. The zones themselves were mostly empty with capturable objectives/spawn points. There is a main objective with a boss to defeat. Winning side gets a global buff. Standard stuff.
[-] PvP. There were 3 zones for PvP when I tested the game. That means it might be very easy for players to actually avoid fighting each other and just play ring-around-the-objective. I never saw more than a couple enemies, so I could not get a feel for how large scale combat will actually work.
I'll play the game for my free month. If it grabs me I'll subscribe. If it doesn't, I will not.
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