Apparently it was retry old games weekend around here and Funcom’s The Secret World was part of that gaming experience this weekend. Was it a successful experiment or did Funcom once again disappoint? My past experience with the game was filled with frustration and disappointment, so to say my expectations were minimal is being generous.
The new team for The Secret World has apparently been very hard at work since the game converted from the subscription model in December 2012. I decided to create a new character, not only because I wanted to see if there had been improvements made but because my two existing characters were “tainted” from the bad taste the launch of the game a year ago left. I was floored by the cast improvements in character creation. I was actually able to make a female character I could stand to look at for the first time ever. Hairstyles have been expanded and improved, as has make-up options. I won’t lie and tell you that it’s the best character creator I’ve seen in recent memory but it’s vastly improved from the game’s launch. Also, there is FINALLY a height slider!!!! Seriously this option alone was a significant improvement for me. There is no body size modification slider unfortunately, but I think that is a hard and fast limitation of the game engine being used.
After character creation improvements, my expectations for the game improved dramatically. I was not disappointed. The game still has an amazing atmosphere and creepy feel. I immediately had the spark of excitement rekindled over the different types of quests available in the game. I love not breezing thru quests and having to think in trying to solve a puzzle presented to me. Now that my character no longer looks like a whore and I can stomach looking at her, I’m much more willing to tolerate the issues that still exist in the game.
There are still issues, no sense sugar coating them, but they aren’t deal breaking for me. Combat still feels disconnected, at least against the zombies in Kingsmouth. Zombies don’t react to a hail of bullets or a whack from my hammer, they just stand there and try to hit me while I’m mowing them back into the earth. Now that good be because zombies don’t feel or react to pain or it could be that the engine is incapable of having enemies react to being slaughtered. It is an annoying issue that mildly affects game play but it isn’t a deal breaker for me. Item delivery from the cash shop can also be wonky and slow. This is more annoying since, in theory, real life money is being expended to procure items. But since the cash shop is purely cosmetic and optional, once again doesn’t impact the ability to play the game. The biggest issue with game play I found is that my machine can’t handle certain areas well at all, I can go from 60+ fps to 4 fps in a couple of steps. My machine isn’t bleeding edge admittedly but it’s no slouch either. A couple of tweaks later, frame rate issue was resolved except for a couple of locations and that is something I can live with.
So final verdict? We both immensely enjoyed our time and will continue to play The Secret World. The stories and settings are just too good to ignore.
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