ZAM Peers Into the Darkness of The Secret World
This article originally appeared on ZAM on March 10, 2011.
Editor-in-Chief Darryl Gangloff watched a live Secret World demo at the Game Developers Conference. Here's what he found out about this upcoming modern day horror MMO.
The San Francisco Children's Museum may seem like an innocent location, but dark forces were at work behind its walls during the Game Developers Conference. It was at this venue that I had the opportunity to watch a live demo of The Secret World, Funcom's highly anticipated modern day horror MMO.
“Today we're going to showcase The Secret World,” said Ragnar Tornquist, senior producer and game director, as the lights dimmed. “It's currently in alpha, which means it's running on live servers in Europe. We're going into closed beta in two months. We're entering the final phase of development.”
And with that comment, a video began playing on the screen that set the stage for this world full of secret societies, urban legends and unspeakable evil.
An introduction to The Secret World
During the short introductory trailer, dozens of sentences flashed on the screen that gave members of the press a taste of the game's setting. Here are the ones I was able to frantically type before they disappeared:
“In The Secret World, everything is true. Every urban legend,” Tornquist said at the end of the video. He explained that players will be able to join one of three secret societies: the Illuminati, the Templars and the Dragon. These groups fight united against the darkness while they compete for ancient resources.
“It's a game without levels and classes. It's completely skill-based,” he said. “It's not a single-player game. It's an MMO through and through in every sense of the word.”
We'll get to how players progress without levels in the overview of the live demo. First, Tornquist outlined the four key tenets behind The Secret World throughout its four years of production:
"This is an MMO. It's a game about a living, vibrant world,” Tornquist said. “It's solo-friendly, but you'll always be with other players. You'll never be alone. It's open and chaotic.”
Starting the live demo
To showcase that open and chaotic world, Lead Content Designer Joel Bylos took us on a tour of the game that started off with a zombie attack in the town of Kingsmouth. A cutscene begins with our character, a blonde woman holding two pistols, talking to a man in a cowboy hat as he picks off zombies with a rifle.
"This forest crawls. Gets my fingers itching for two matters. One,” the man says as he shoots a zombie in the head. “The other, to figure out a way to keep 'em down. It ain't right the way the dead walk the Earth. They deserve their six feet, the same as everyone else. Now I'm sworn to keeping guard here, and you've got places to be. Nothing's stopping you from culling the herd as you go. Hell, figure out what makes them tick and how to make that ticking stop and I'll buy you a beer at the Apocalypse. So go on, kid, saddle up! The end of the world waits for no man.”
The cutscene ends and is followed by Bylos giving us some details on the game's mission mechanic. “What are missions for? They're for guiding players to content and teaching players mechanics,” he said. The team wanted missions to have a dynamic feel to them, so they're comprised of tiers. If you complete a tier and abandon the mission, you can always come back and pick it up at the same tier. You won't need to replay content.
As our group runs down a two-lane road while battling random zombies, Bylos shows off some environmental mechanics by jumping on an abandoned car to set off the alarm. Drawn by the noise, zombies run out of the woods. Our character then shoots a gas can to set the enemies on fire. The beginning missions teach players about these mechanics, which are used throughout the game.
The group then takes on an early boss, which happens to be a huge, mutated zombie called Corpsegorger. Further missions will explain his origins, which demonstrates that storylines are an integral part of The Secret World.
A waypoint then pops up on the screen to point us toward our next destination. Bylos explains that some missions have waypoints, while others don't. Many missions will require thinking and deduction, which means players will need to do a bit more work than simply running toward a marker on a map.
Fighting at the sheriff's department
The sheriff's department, as Bylos puts it, is the last bastion of defense for the people of Kingsmouth. Players will begin to get a feel for what's happening in the area, and they'll learn more about the zombie invasion as they move through the missions.
Talking to Deputy Andy gives us a mission to kill Draug, a slimy species of monster that have overtaken the beach. As the group kills the pod eggs littering the beach, it's important to note that all of the characters are using different attacks. Our blonde female is shooting with her dual pistols, while another character shoots arching fireballs at the enemies. Even more characters are running around encased in glowing red circular bubbles. Throughout the fight, the words “tier complete” flash on the screen to remind us of the dynamic aspect of the missions.
The group turns its focus to killing the female Draug, who have been infecting zombies with their seed to turn them into pod incubators. This leads into another boss fight as a huge tentacled monster, also known as the Draug Lord, rises from the water. Again, the various abilities of the players take down the boss after a short struggle.
Later, the team emphasized the importance of multiplayer combat by showing the sheriff's department under attack by wave after wave of zombies. As the police siren blared, a number of players joined in to fight through the waves and locate the source of the disturbance, which happened to be a massive world boss. Everyone was able to jump in to help defeat the beast.
The skill system and progression
Lead Designer Martin Bruusgaard took this opportunity to explain the game's skill system. As previously mentioned, there are no levels or classes in the game. It's all about the skills, and there just so happens to be more than 500 unique skills in The Secret World. Bruusgaard emphasized that this number doesn't include separate ranks of skills, since they'll scale with the gear you have equipped. You will never have an obsolete skill for your character.
Bruusgaard explained that there are two types of skills: active and passive. Active skills are located in a bar at the bottom of the screen and include actions such as casting spells and using a weapon. Passive skills always affect a character and generally increase attributes.
Of course, a single character can't run around with 500 skills at a time. Instead, players must choose a build comprised of seven active skills and seven passive skills. You can swap out various skills whenever you want, so you can be a healer in one battle and a tank in the next one.
While there may not be levels in the game, there are experience points. Players can earn experience through many different actions, such as killing monsters, completing missions, doing tasks for your society, crafting or participating in PvP fights. When the blue bar at the bottom of the screen fills up, you'll get a skill point to spend in the skill wheel.
The skill wheel is currently a work in progress, but it allows you to purchase skills related to ranged combat, melee combat and magic. While players can customize their characters any way they choose, they can also select a template for a suggested path. Bruusgaard compared templates to starter decks for Magic: The Gathering. For example, you could pick a healer/melee hybrid and then tweak it slightly to match your playstyle.
Investigations
One major aspect of The Secret World is its puzzles. Current fans of the game have actually been solving game-related riddles for quite some time through an alternate reality game that's playing out in the official forums and Twitter posts.
These types of puzzles will be found in-game, as well. We were shown an investigation mission where players needed to follow symbols of the Illuminati in town, which led them to two names: Charles Hanson Towne and Frans Hals. Since their last names are Towne and Hals, it's safe to say you should head over to the town hall.
But now what? The developers want you to think outside the box and do some research, so a quick Google search will tell you that Hals was a painter and Towne was a poet. You'll have to interact with a painting of a poet in town hall to get your next clue. I won't spoil the rest of the mission, but that should give you a good idea of the type of investigations you'll find in The Secret World.
We were also shown a mission where players need to follow ravens to find another boss. The team emphasized that there was no dialogue and no hand-holding in the mission. Instead, it encourages players to work together in an outdoor mission that anyone can stumble into and tag along.
PvP maps
To end the presentation, we were shown a brief video that outlined three PvP maps. Tornquist explained that the secret societies want to take control of these areas to harness their power. The societies may be united against the rising darkness, but they're still divided in their competition for resources.
We were shown the following three maps:
Editor-in-Chief Darryl Gangloff watched a live Secret World demo at the Game Developers Conference. Here's what he found out about this upcoming modern day horror MMO.
The San Francisco Children's Museum may seem like an innocent location, but dark forces were at work behind its walls during the Game Developers Conference. It was at this venue that I had the opportunity to watch a live demo of The Secret World, Funcom's highly anticipated modern day horror MMO.
“Today we're going to showcase The Secret World,” said Ragnar Tornquist, senior producer and game director, as the lights dimmed. “It's currently in alpha, which means it's running on live servers in Europe. We're going into closed beta in two months. We're entering the final phase of development.”
And with that comment, a video began playing on the screen that set the stage for this world full of secret societies, urban legends and unspeakable evil.
An introduction to The Secret World
During the short introductory trailer, dozens of sentences flashed on the screen that gave members of the press a taste of the game's setting. Here are the ones I was able to frantically type before they disappeared:
- Some secrets should remain forever buried.
- This is how our end begins.
- Dark conspiracies converge.
- As a hidden world is finally revealed.
- We are in the fourth age. Powerful cabals rule the world.
- The hosts were here before us.
- Eleven days are missing.
- The Earth is hollow.
- There are portals in time and space.
- The bees are returning.
- The old gods are awakening.
- The Ark of the Covenant is an engine.
- The end of days are here. Everyone must choose a side.
- There is a secret world.
- Everything is true.
“In The Secret World, everything is true. Every urban legend,” Tornquist said at the end of the video. He explained that players will be able to join one of three secret societies: the Illuminati, the Templars and the Dragon. These groups fight united against the darkness while they compete for ancient resources.
“It's a game without levels and classes. It's completely skill-based,” he said. “It's not a single-player game. It's an MMO through and through in every sense of the word.”
We'll get to how players progress without levels in the overview of the live demo. First, Tornquist outlined the four key tenets behind The Secret World throughout its four years of production:
- The game's present day modern setting infuses everything. “It's a world where all these myths and legends are brought into our present day,” he said.
- Players can build their own characters through freeform progression without levels or classes.
- The secret war and backroom dealings between the secret societies are a major factor in the game, including PvP. “The knives are drawn under the table with smiles above the table,” he said.
- The story is “embedded in everything in this game.” It's told not only through the cinematics and dialogue, but the missions as well.
"This is an MMO. It's a game about a living, vibrant world,” Tornquist said. “It's solo-friendly, but you'll always be with other players. You'll never be alone. It's open and chaotic.”
Starting the live demo
To showcase that open and chaotic world, Lead Content Designer Joel Bylos took us on a tour of the game that started off with a zombie attack in the town of Kingsmouth. A cutscene begins with our character, a blonde woman holding two pistols, talking to a man in a cowboy hat as he picks off zombies with a rifle.
"This forest crawls. Gets my fingers itching for two matters. One,” the man says as he shoots a zombie in the head. “The other, to figure out a way to keep 'em down. It ain't right the way the dead walk the Earth. They deserve their six feet, the same as everyone else. Now I'm sworn to keeping guard here, and you've got places to be. Nothing's stopping you from culling the herd as you go. Hell, figure out what makes them tick and how to make that ticking stop and I'll buy you a beer at the Apocalypse. So go on, kid, saddle up! The end of the world waits for no man.”
The cutscene ends and is followed by Bylos giving us some details on the game's mission mechanic. “What are missions for? They're for guiding players to content and teaching players mechanics,” he said. The team wanted missions to have a dynamic feel to them, so they're comprised of tiers. If you complete a tier and abandon the mission, you can always come back and pick it up at the same tier. You won't need to replay content.
As our group runs down a two-lane road while battling random zombies, Bylos shows off some environmental mechanics by jumping on an abandoned car to set off the alarm. Drawn by the noise, zombies run out of the woods. Our character then shoots a gas can to set the enemies on fire. The beginning missions teach players about these mechanics, which are used throughout the game.
The group then takes on an early boss, which happens to be a huge, mutated zombie called Corpsegorger. Further missions will explain his origins, which demonstrates that storylines are an integral part of The Secret World.
A waypoint then pops up on the screen to point us toward our next destination. Bylos explains that some missions have waypoints, while others don't. Many missions will require thinking and deduction, which means players will need to do a bit more work than simply running toward a marker on a map.
Fighting at the sheriff's department
The sheriff's department, as Bylos puts it, is the last bastion of defense for the people of Kingsmouth. Players will begin to get a feel for what's happening in the area, and they'll learn more about the zombie invasion as they move through the missions.
Talking to Deputy Andy gives us a mission to kill Draug, a slimy species of monster that have overtaken the beach. As the group kills the pod eggs littering the beach, it's important to note that all of the characters are using different attacks. Our blonde female is shooting with her dual pistols, while another character shoots arching fireballs at the enemies. Even more characters are running around encased in glowing red circular bubbles. Throughout the fight, the words “tier complete” flash on the screen to remind us of the dynamic aspect of the missions.
The group turns its focus to killing the female Draug, who have been infecting zombies with their seed to turn them into pod incubators. This leads into another boss fight as a huge tentacled monster, also known as the Draug Lord, rises from the water. Again, the various abilities of the players take down the boss after a short struggle.
Later, the team emphasized the importance of multiplayer combat by showing the sheriff's department under attack by wave after wave of zombies. As the police siren blared, a number of players joined in to fight through the waves and locate the source of the disturbance, which happened to be a massive world boss. Everyone was able to jump in to help defeat the beast.
The skill system and progression
Lead Designer Martin Bruusgaard took this opportunity to explain the game's skill system. As previously mentioned, there are no levels or classes in the game. It's all about the skills, and there just so happens to be more than 500 unique skills in The Secret World. Bruusgaard emphasized that this number doesn't include separate ranks of skills, since they'll scale with the gear you have equipped. You will never have an obsolete skill for your character.
Bruusgaard explained that there are two types of skills: active and passive. Active skills are located in a bar at the bottom of the screen and include actions such as casting spells and using a weapon. Passive skills always affect a character and generally increase attributes.
Of course, a single character can't run around with 500 skills at a time. Instead, players must choose a build comprised of seven active skills and seven passive skills. You can swap out various skills whenever you want, so you can be a healer in one battle and a tank in the next one.
While there may not be levels in the game, there are experience points. Players can earn experience through many different actions, such as killing monsters, completing missions, doing tasks for your society, crafting or participating in PvP fights. When the blue bar at the bottom of the screen fills up, you'll get a skill point to spend in the skill wheel.
The skill wheel is currently a work in progress, but it allows you to purchase skills related to ranged combat, melee combat and magic. While players can customize their characters any way they choose, they can also select a template for a suggested path. Bruusgaard compared templates to starter decks for Magic: The Gathering. For example, you could pick a healer/melee hybrid and then tweak it slightly to match your playstyle.
Investigations
One major aspect of The Secret World is its puzzles. Current fans of the game have actually been solving game-related riddles for quite some time through an alternate reality game that's playing out in the official forums and Twitter posts.
These types of puzzles will be found in-game, as well. We were shown an investigation mission where players needed to follow symbols of the Illuminati in town, which led them to two names: Charles Hanson Towne and Frans Hals. Since their last names are Towne and Hals, it's safe to say you should head over to the town hall.
But now what? The developers want you to think outside the box and do some research, so a quick Google search will tell you that Hals was a painter and Towne was a poet. You'll have to interact with a painting of a poet in town hall to get your next clue. I won't spoil the rest of the mission, but that should give you a good idea of the type of investigations you'll find in The Secret World.
We were also shown a mission where players need to follow ravens to find another boss. The team emphasized that there was no dialogue and no hand-holding in the mission. Instead, it encourages players to work together in an outdoor mission that anyone can stumble into and tag along.
PvP maps
To end the presentation, we were shown a brief video that outlined three PvP maps. Tornquist explained that the secret societies want to take control of these areas to harness their power. The societies may be united against the rising darkness, but they're still divided in their competition for resources.
We were shown the following three maps:
- Stonehenge: This is a Domination / King of the Hill type of map.
- The Lost City of Shambahla: This massive map is located in the Himalayan mountains and is a ranked team vs. team arena.
- El Dorado: This is the biggest of the three maps. It's Capture the Flag with a twist as 30 players battle for control of ancient magical idols. Capture as many idols as you can to accumulate points, and be sure to pick a base near a choke point.