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Even more on The Secret World
Jun. 24th, 2012 03:28 amIf the game has a failing (and it does, and currently more than one), it's that the missions that have cutscenes are too overdone. Look, I like the idea of mission cutscenes. It worked well in SWToR, and it mostly works well here. It's more immersive than {INSERT QUEST TEXT BOX HERE} for your World of Warcraft type of games.
However.
Considering that the first combat zone is a zombie-infested island which is pretty much stated/assumed to be in the New England area, could everyone (well, almost everyone) stop talking like a college professor? I don't mean accents. By and large, the actual voices are okay. It's the "Oh, hi there. I'm a local fisherman type, but damn if I don't go on about philosophy or whatever else here." I mean, sure, not everyone in the town is going to be a hick... but damn....
It was almost refreshing to run across the cussing, spitting redneck in the junkyard who didn't quote heavily from a Liberal Arts background. (He also named his junkyard dogs Tango and Cash. So, double-win.)
That being said, if that were the only problem the game has, it could be ignored.
The character creator is, to put it bluntly, in dire need of more options. There's no height/weight slider (yeah, I know, it's still in beta, but it releases in a week and a half.), a lot of the faces need work (although they've resolved what was being called 'monkey jaw syndrome', and the different options for eyes now look mostly normal), and they could really stand to add a lot more starting clothing options.
Now, compared to the relative lack of customization in WoW (all characters of the same race are equally buff, regardless of class), it's still a step up. Looking at it from the amazingly fluid customization of City of Heroes or Champions Online, it needs work. (Although it must be said, for at least Champions Online, getting your character to look the way you want is a task in and of itself... but there's tons of customization.)
Combat is actually fairly fluid. Regardless of what abilities you select (no classes, remember?), you're likely to have a good mix of single-target and AOE damage effects, even if you focus on healing or buffing. (I'm not going to say it's impossible to have no attacks, because I'm sure I'd be proven wrong.) There is no auto-attack though, but that's not as big a deal as it used to be in MMOs. I've actually died more to environmental effects than in combat, including a couple times on one mission where I couldn't figure out a way past the environmental effects and just rez-hopped to safety.
And that brings us to the last major problem, but I want to point out that this is something that really seems like an "it's beta, that's going to be addresssed" thing. Lack of documentation.
For example, I haven't seen anything listing how you're supposed to tell the relative strengths of mobs. If the mob's name is white, is that tougher or easier then red? Or orange? What do those three dots by the mobs name mean? (Well, that one I know. It means that it's part of a mob group.) How does crafting work? (Literally, unless you do this particular mission, which is somewhat easy to overlook, you don't have a clue about crafting. And even that mission doesn't explain everything.) Could I, personally, have overlooked things that would have explained this? Yes. However, at the end of the day, this is something that can easily be remedied by launch. (If it's not.... eh... that could be a problem.)
One last note: Yes, there is PvP in the game. It takes place in specific areas, and when you're in those areas, you're displayed with a costume denoting your faction, so you can't sneak around and pretend to be from another faction. (Given that your clothes offer no stats, it's not like it matters anyway.) The PvP zones are population capped, meaning that at most, only so many of each faction can be in there. There's apparently a 5 vs. 5 vs. 5 zone, a 10 vs. 10 vs. 10 zone, and one HUUUUUGE one that is capped at 100 vs. 100 vs. 100.
And yes, you can earn ability points and skill points in PvP. No idea if it's at the same rate as you earn them by doing missions in the rest of the game world, but it wouldn't surprise me if it was. Some of the very expensive powers practically scream for PvP usage (such as one that makes you briefly immune to crowd-control, and buffs your movement speed and damage.) I fully expect that within a reasonable amount of time after launch will be the first round of PvP nerfs. (What? It happens in practically every other MMO that has PvP.)
However.
Considering that the first combat zone is a zombie-infested island which is pretty much stated/assumed to be in the New England area, could everyone (well, almost everyone) stop talking like a college professor? I don't mean accents. By and large, the actual voices are okay. It's the "Oh, hi there. I'm a local fisherman type, but damn if I don't go on about philosophy or whatever else here." I mean, sure, not everyone in the town is going to be a hick... but damn....
It was almost refreshing to run across the cussing, spitting redneck in the junkyard who didn't quote heavily from a Liberal Arts background. (He also named his junkyard dogs Tango and Cash. So, double-win.)
That being said, if that were the only problem the game has, it could be ignored.
The character creator is, to put it bluntly, in dire need of more options. There's no height/weight slider (yeah, I know, it's still in beta, but it releases in a week and a half.), a lot of the faces need work (although they've resolved what was being called 'monkey jaw syndrome', and the different options for eyes now look mostly normal), and they could really stand to add a lot more starting clothing options.
Now, compared to the relative lack of customization in WoW (all characters of the same race are equally buff, regardless of class), it's still a step up. Looking at it from the amazingly fluid customization of City of Heroes or Champions Online, it needs work. (Although it must be said, for at least Champions Online, getting your character to look the way you want is a task in and of itself... but there's tons of customization.)
Combat is actually fairly fluid. Regardless of what abilities you select (no classes, remember?), you're likely to have a good mix of single-target and AOE damage effects, even if you focus on healing or buffing. (I'm not going to say it's impossible to have no attacks, because I'm sure I'd be proven wrong.) There is no auto-attack though, but that's not as big a deal as it used to be in MMOs. I've actually died more to environmental effects than in combat, including a couple times on one mission where I couldn't figure out a way past the environmental effects and just rez-hopped to safety.
And that brings us to the last major problem, but I want to point out that this is something that really seems like an "it's beta, that's going to be addresssed" thing. Lack of documentation.
For example, I haven't seen anything listing how you're supposed to tell the relative strengths of mobs. If the mob's name is white, is that tougher or easier then red? Or orange? What do those three dots by the mobs name mean? (Well, that one I know. It means that it's part of a mob group.) How does crafting work? (Literally, unless you do this particular mission, which is somewhat easy to overlook, you don't have a clue about crafting. And even that mission doesn't explain everything.) Could I, personally, have overlooked things that would have explained this? Yes. However, at the end of the day, this is something that can easily be remedied by launch. (If it's not.... eh... that could be a problem.)
One last note: Yes, there is PvP in the game. It takes place in specific areas, and when you're in those areas, you're displayed with a costume denoting your faction, so you can't sneak around and pretend to be from another faction. (Given that your clothes offer no stats, it's not like it matters anyway.) The PvP zones are population capped, meaning that at most, only so many of each faction can be in there. There's apparently a 5 vs. 5 vs. 5 zone, a 10 vs. 10 vs. 10 zone, and one HUUUUUGE one that is capped at 100 vs. 100 vs. 100.
And yes, you can earn ability points and skill points in PvP. No idea if it's at the same rate as you earn them by doing missions in the rest of the game world, but it wouldn't surprise me if it was. Some of the very expensive powers practically scream for PvP usage (such as one that makes you briefly immune to crowd-control, and buffs your movement speed and damage.) I fully expect that within a reasonable amount of time after launch will be the first round of PvP nerfs. (What? It happens in practically every other MMO that has PvP.)