The irony of blogging

Last blog post basically stated that I wasn't not going to be persuaded by others to get involved in playing The Secret World.  During the beta weekend TSW did not excite me at all.  I wasn't remotely interested in picking it up and nothing would change my mind.  I just wasn't addicted to it, nuff said


This post is about me playing and subscribing to The Secret World.


I was bamboozled I tell you.  I was forced and nagged and cajoled into playing.  I had a spell placed on me by those that I follow on Twitter and G+.  They forced me to endure endless ravings about how the game was fun and different and wasn't like any other MMO they had seen or played in a long time.  They posted pictures and video that I could not turn away from and in the end I had to succumb to the peer pressure.


Yes, I am in fact human and I can be seduced to the dark side of gaming... and I am glad for it.


The Secret World is in a word Fantastic.  The setting is great.  The way the game is played is different and unique.. well it is to me.  I will bore you later with details but suffice it to say that I do not regret giving in, to lowering my resolve, to letting peer pressure drive my decision.  Now let me try to convince you.


The games graphics are fantastic.  The setting or backdrop of the game is sort of a zombie apocalypse meets the love child of Stephen King and HP. Lovecraft.  The sound is fantastic.  As your slipping around town trying to either hunt or avoid the zombies, you can hear the gun fire off in the distance or the moaning of a creature so horrible you dare not turn around to see.  I have to say that the launch went really well for an MMO.  I haven't had any serious issues with broken missions or lag.  Mobs respond they way they should and the spawn rate isn't crazy fast or super slow.

The game doesn't force you to group and if you help your the stranger in the street, who's dealing with a bunch of brain thirsty zombies, you get some credit for the assist, especially if its a zombie you need for a mission turn in.  The missions are pretty varied and you have an indicator of what kind of mission your taking by the symbol. Some are walking around missions, where you have to go from place to place, some are simple ones like deliver mail to Mrs. Robinson and some are puzzle missions. You can have one main mission and 3 side missions no more.  If you want to pick up another main mission in the middle of the one your working on, you'll have to drop it, but the mission in effect will be paused and you can pick it back up later from the mission giver, but this time any part of the mission you've already completed won't have to be repeated, if its paused.  You can repeat most if not all of the missions as many times as you like, however they are on a timer, so you can't do them again right away. The missions don't feel tedious or silly like "go kill 10 rats in my basement".  


. They vary a lot in style and what you have to do to complete them.  Your also expected to use the in game browser to help with clues on some of the harder puzzle missions.  Its hard to explain but when I play, I feel more like I'm playing an RPG game than a straight up MMO.  Your quest isn't to level up, but to unlock abilities which give your character options on how to play.  Allowing you to switch up what weapons and abilities you use and give you a variety instead of saying this is "who" you are from the start.  There are choices you have to make as you go along.  I tried one type of weapon and decided that it wasn't for me, so I unlocked another style of play and worked on that for a while.  Nothing is set in stone.  What I get from the game is that the developers don't want you, the player, to ever regret a decision you've made in their game.  The game just has a different feel a different concept than other MMOs.  I don't know if its new and innovative but it is change.


If you want to stay in, as I call it, the stage 1 area, then you can do that till you've done all the missions or repeated all the missions a few times.  I've actually ventured into the stage 2 area or Savage Coast, but I went back to Kingsmouth, that would be the stage 1 area, because I just like it and I'm not finished doing all the missions there yet.  I've unlocked a ton of abilities but I don't feel like the monsters in that area are beneath my skill level yet.  It's just a very open game.  Give me a week or two more and I'll be recommending it but for now lets just say that I'm glad I gave in to the peer pressure.