Preview: Funcom messes with the MMORPG formula with The Secret World.
My first attempt to see a behind-closed-doors presentation of EA’s upcoming MMORPG wasn’t the most successful of outings. While the game was there and I certainly witnessed a live play-through, the presentation was in German, and for those of us who are multilingually challenged (guilty), there wasn’t a whole lot of context to go with the on-screen presentation.
Thankfully, round two was a more up my English-speaking alley. The Secret World is set to hit in April 2012; but definitely won’t be the first of April, as our presenter joked. As tends to be standard fare of behind-closed-doors presentations, they kicked us off with a video, which set the scene but wasn’t anywhere near as exciting as the live solo instance that followed.
Joel Bylos, an expat Aussie developer and lead content director on The Secret World, stepped up to provide a bit of background before the instance. A secret war permeates in a game world where every myth, conspiracy and legend is true, with players choosing to jump into the combat boots of one of three factions: Dragon, Templars or Illuminati. Each faction has a distinct flavour.
The Illuminati believe that glamour and wealth are the true sources of power and that morality is in dire need of a Morality 2.0 upgrade. Templars are an old power that take a Team America approach to sanctifying the evil spreading in the world: they’d rather tactically nuke a populated town that contains a single zombie than risk an outbreak. Finally, the Dragon faction is the most mysterious of the bunch that adopt a from-the-shadows role and believe that an avalanche of change can be enacted by perfect timing and the smallest of changes.
Depending on which faction you choose, ranking story missions will play out differently, with the end goal being that each player’s faction choice will be vindicated by the narrative reveals that, apparently, will make you hate the other two factions.
The live solo instance took place in a parking building in New York. The nighttime setting helped to highlight the advancements made to the DreamWorld engine that powers Age of Conan. Sure, it’s not exactly Battlefield 3 in terms of pretty, but as far as MMOs go, the visuals weren’t of the usual bland variety. In fact, Joel claimed that the addition of dynamic lighting—an inclusion that wasn’t merely limited to the aesthetic realm—was a first for MMOs.
According to Joel, equipping a light will increase the range at which monsters can detect you, but choosing to charge into the darkness without an equipped light can result in you missing important objects or stumbling onto enemies. On top of this, certain enemy types were drawn to the light, while other creatures of the night were repelled by its radiance.
Martin Bruusgaard, lead designer on The Secret World was up next to talk us through an abridged version of the all-important PvP(vP) elements of the game. He informed the group that the three factions are actually united against the common threat of the rising NPC darkness. This translates to the ability for players to team up in PvE sections, but when it comes down to PvP, it’s all for one and the tacit alliance is thrown to the wind.
PvP components are split in two: capturing and holding specific power locations called ‘battlefields’ and fighting for control of locales of larger significance, which the team are referring to as ‘war zones’. The PvP locations are based around existing myths or legends. Some are more renowned such as Stone Henge or El Dorado, while others are lesser known such as the Lost Kingdom of Shambhala. Each location, though, is in a different part of the globe which lends itself to its own unique look and feel. Diversity is, after all, an important component in a gaming genre that usually requires scores of hours of player attention.
The real shining start of the presentation was the Chinese temple war zone that was shown. Over 100 players can fight with and against each other in the war zones of The Secret World, and Martin promised that these would require tactical thinking and team play. The Illuminati were the defenders on this map, with the attacking onus on team Dragon. But it wasn’t as simple as that.
Apparently, the Templars had caught a whiff of this power play, so there was a battle going on between them to capture and hold ‘onoma’ wells that would allow a team to attack the Illuminati-held gate. A group of Dragon combatants managed to sneak around the main fight and capture an onoma well, which eventually allowed them to reap the five explosives required to blow the gate to the Illuminati fortress. To make matters more interesting, the Dragon team had to protect the vulnerable bomb bearers as they made the run from well to gate.
But once inside, the battle wasn’t over. After fighting their way up the steps through the Illuminati defenders, the real threat was a towering automaton that was able to absorb a lot of damage as well as dish it out in turn. Eventually, the Dragon team disabled the automaton and it was converted into their ally, signalling their victory at this particular control point. Best of all, this wasn’t just a new bit of land for them to plant their Dragon flag in; controlling certain areas provides server-wide bonuses for the entire faction. Suffice it to say, it’s well worth capturing and holding as many war zone points as possible.
There was a lot to take in during the behind-closed-doors presentation of The Secret World, but it was sufficiently complex enough to capture my attention. If you’re interested in reading more, you should definitely check out my interview with Ragnar Tørnquist here, where we discussed a lot of the other mechanics of the upcoming MMORPG.
Issue: 137 | June, 2012