In a genre that thrives on cutting and pasting the best aspects of other games, The Secret World has done something more than a little different. It has taken the MMO and given it a distinctly single-player sheen, concentrating more on the narrative content and open character development than on the more traditional limited role, loot grind model. There are still elements of traditional MMO mechanics in place – the holy trinity of tank, healer and DPS still rules the roost when it comes to instances and the end game still devolves into running and re-running the same dungeons until geared – but for the most part, The Secret World asks players to approach the game in a manner different to pretty much any other by putting the RPG back into the MMO.
You're all but forced to watch the cutscenes and absorb the information contained within. You need to pay attention to the quest dialogue and the frequent books and notes you're tasked to read. Sometimes you even need to think entirely for yourself, deciphering Morse code, translating runes, working out passwords and locations from cryptic clues and generally immersing yourself in a world of conspiracy, ancient magic and intrigue. You're given the ability to adapt your character for any situation you might come across and not locked into the same archetype you originally chose to play. It's a fascinating approach, one that is all but new in the MMO space and hugely enjoyable to boot, but it can be argued that the conventional MMO structure has been successful for a reason. The Secret World tells a great story but how do you keep people interested in a story once the story is over? Let’s take a look.
Brian just wanted to hang out, but he often scared off the other children.
Funcom recently dropped its first content update: a range of new quests dotted throughout the different zones and two new nightmare mode dungeons. As far as free content updates go, it's expansive and most welcome, but it sets a benchmark that is going to be a challenge to meet on a monthly basis - eight new quests and two end game dungeons. As the first free content update it's excellent, offering content to players across the entire game, from the first zone to the last, but aside from the two new nightmare mode dungeons there is little in the update that has lasting value to players and even then the value is questionable.
Up until the end game (or the closing stages of Transylvania, the final zone) the emphasis is placed heavily on story but once that story is finished the game reverts to a much more traditional structure of repeated dungeon runs and loot grinding. Whilst this may appeal to some, it runs kind of counter to everything that came before. This is the problem of a narrative and content-driven game that works on a monthly subscription basis – at some point it has to deliver repeatable content to fill the space until the next narrative content update. The promised monthly content updates will go some way to alleviating this divide, but unless Funcom can create meaningful repeatable content then the monthly content drop will only add a few hours of single use questing, or less for advanced characters, as gear and abilities can make can make lower level combat missions trivial.
Extensions of the story in the form of new zones seem inevitable thanks to the semi-open ending of the main story quests, but the frequency and pricing of these have not been set. A new zone can potentially add a wealth of new content for end game stage players but these will more likely appear as paid expansions rather than regular content updates thanks to the huge amount of work required from artists, writers, programmers, animators, voice actors and the like.
You know what they say about the night of the full moon: 'stay the hell inside, idiot'.
The Secret World gives players the ability to learn all the skills and abilities available with a single character, giving players access to the entire range of experiences from the get-go. It's a hugely malleable system that allows for interesting play-style exploration but it does away with a key player retention mechanic – alts (that's alternate characters for those of you not down with the vernacular). Being able to do everything with one character somewhat negates the need or drive to roll an alternative character to explore different paths or careers. Rift, another MMO that essentially gave players the ability to fill all the roles in the “holy trinity” (tank, healer and DPS) got around this by having two factions with wildly different story lines, ensuring that whilst the experience might be similar, the questing and story was different.
Is The Secret World's system too free-form?
As it stands the factions in The Secret World are purely cosmetic. The narrative tells players that the various factions are waging a covert war against each other for power, but aside from some outfits and voice actors they are almost identical, sharing that same style of faction progression and the same story line quests. The only place in which this factional divide is actually played out is the PVP battlegrounds but, in a general view, the PVP is meaningless. The different factions get stat bonuses for territories held, but the actual battling is segregated from the rest of the game. Players are told that the Templars, Illuminati and Dragon are enemies vying for power, but it never comes up in general play. In fact, the enmity is downplayed thanks to missions that see players from different factions travelling to the home cities of their enemies unmolested and the acts of banking and shopping require two of the three factions to enter the realm of their so-called enemy.
And oh how they danced, the little children of Stonehenge...
A new weapon, something that's “slower, with bigger explosions” has been promised in a future update, with more varied ordnance to come at a later date. Unlike other MMOs in which the addition of new weapons isn't particularly interesting, the addition of a new weapon to The Secret World is tantamount to the addition of a new class. Whilst the weapons will almost invariably fall into the categories that already exist in game (support, DPS, tanking and healing) they will offer a new approach to that role and new synergies for players to experiment with. New weapons will also allow the developers to create new faction decks and outfits for players to strive towards.
While its unconventional approach to MMO design may have limited some of Funcom's options for extending the playability of The Secret World, that same unconventional style is what gives the team the ability to add new weapons, essentially the TSW version of a character class, to the mix. It seems rather bizarre for a game in which the narrative is the driving concern, but at the moment it looks as though it could be a mechanic, such as a new weapon, that will be the easiest approach for retaining players between sizable narrative content updates.
Source : feeds.ign.com
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