The Secret World Legends: Terror and supernatural action
Dare to discover the mysteries and horrors hidden in the darkest corners of reality in an online role-playing game unlike any other.
The barriers between the worlds have fallen and our reality as we know it is in danger. Innumerable hordes of undead, demons, fish-eating people and horrors from the most hidden corners of nightmares try to take over the world, and the only thing that stands between them and total domination is you. Ready to carry the weight of the world?
LOOKING BACK
The truth is that The Secret World has a lot of history behind it. The original game was released in 2012 with the intention of being an alternative experience to other role-playing games on the market, approaching the genre from a much more narrative and deeper perspective than contemporaries such as Guild Wars 2 or World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria.
The original game had a model in which it was essential to acquire the game and pay the corresponding subscription, which together with being an IP without as much hearth as others and belonging to a relatively more modest developer such as Funcom , caused it to pass without penalty no glory for addicts to the online role. Obviously it had its quarry of regular players, but it was always one of the great forgotten by the community.
Five years later, he is reborn as The Secret World Legends to continue on the same path as before, but making things better. The base game continues unchanged, with the same story, same missions and practically everything in a similar way ... at least for a few months, since as we explained in our preview , Romain Amiel(the director of the game) ensured that after the launch, an update will be produced with the content of the last chapter of the original game (that is, the map and history of Tokyo) and from there the story will continue to be progressively constructed. In addition, the game has a new and simplified combat system and skills, and new visuals for them that provide the game with a cleaner and more accessible interface, giving total and absolute prominence to the action, since the data that we will see in screen are the minimum and essential.
Also the old business model of the game has changed, and The Secret World Legends has embraced the free to play system in all its consequences ... but let's go in parts.
THE HIDDEN HISTORY
Probably the most defining feature of this game and what sets it apart from the rest is its history and the way it is told and developed. The majority of mmorpg has a well developed main story, with abundant twists and surprises that captivates us for hours. On the other hand, the secondary missions that we use to overcome the necessary level jump from one to the other tend to be more flat and tedious.
In The Secret World Legends all the missions provided by the different characters will always have a small cinematic that has a great work of dubbing in which we can peek at each of the stories and motivations of the characters who offer them to us before move to action In this way, the npc go from being simple sellers of missions to something more "alive" and that has a reason for being, since in addition to telling us their story, they tell us more about the history of the place where we are, which in many cases it complements the main story, helping us to attack capes. A clear example of this subtle connection we have in the secondary missions offered by the leader of the hippie commune that has been established on the outskirts of Kingsmouth, because if we carry out its chain of missions, we will discover that the founder of this particular and apocalyptic group is neither more nor less than our first antagonist. This produces the curious effect that it costs us to leave an area until we have discovered all its mysteries and missions, which in the end results in a greater number of hours of play.
In addition, we have missions more oriented to combat, exploration or stealth, but the real jewel of the game are its search missions. In these missions, we will have to perform such varied tasks as locating treasures, following the tracks of a murder or locating some ancient Illuminati tunnels ; but the way to solve them is at least unorthodox, since the vast majority of clues force us to search the Internet for the necessary references, go to books we can have at home, dust off our rudiments of Latin or watch certain youtube channels in pursuit of clues. This peculiar way of solving the missions, of making us think in a lateral way, skipping the ways of logic, turns them into a small ARG (Alternate Reality Game ) that helps us make these stories something more of ours, a challenge to our intelligence that ends up becoming personal and that goes beyond the traditional missions of the mmorpg to kill enemies, collect objects or transport them from one place to another.
POWERS AND RITUALS
One of the most important changes introduced with respect to the old game system is the simplification and opening of the combat system.
Faced with the vast amount of skills we had in the past, we now have a skill tree organized by combat disciplines, each of which has an active skills tab and a passive skills tab. In the first, each combat discipline has 3 branches of combat-oriented skills in solitary, group or a more versatile medium and we can equip whatever we want, only adhering to the rule that we must equip a basic skill obligatorily and a maximum of an "elite" type ability; in the second, we have four branches that report different statistical bonuses, with the peculiarity that we can equip ourselves with any passive ability we want to complete the 5 available.
In addition, we can equip ourselves with a second combat discipline that works exactly the same as the first, with the only exception that its energy recharges 50% more slowly. Both abilities have a "discipline bar" that allows us to see in a very visual way the loads that we generate, when we increase the power of our attacks thanks to the heat rise of the elemental magic or if we are focusing on damage or healing while we use blood magic.
The part that rounds off this new combat system is that if at any time we get tired of our abilities or wish to explore new possibilities, we can unlock any of the disciplines by paying a small amount of the coins we get for completing the missions and challenges, being able so to vary our class at any time and create customized professions; which was impossible in the first Secret World.
After having tried the game for a week, we can ensure that the new system is loved. It is a tremendously flexible and active combat system that forces us to keep an eye on the screen at all times, since most attacks can be avoided if we are attentive and use the dodges at the precise moment. In addition, the fact of being able to play at the same time with 2 sets of totally different skills opens up new strategic possibilities that will greatly modulate our way of playing, and the possibility of varying abilities at all times is a great resource to avoid getting pigeonholed and bored and having to make a new character and go through the whole process of raising the level if we want to try something different.
THE POWER HAS A PRICE<?h3>
As we said at the beginning, perhaps one of the main reasons that contributed to the failure of the first version of the game was the fact that we had to buy it and pay monthly fees to enjoy it. One of the tricks Legends relies on is the free to play model . In the words of Romain Amiel , with whom we could chat a couple of weeks before the launch, his intention is that all players can enjoy the story and have fun equally, both those who decide to invest real money and those who do not. The game will be 100% free and forever and all future expansions of the game, such as maps, stories, additional person classes and new dungeons will be free from the first minute.
Obviously, a game of this type needs to generate income, and in this case, this monetization is achieved thanks to the Aurum and the pattern system . The Aurum is a gold bullion coin that is only obtained with real money, and with which we can acquire all kinds of services: exclusive cosmetic objects (pets, clothes, vehicles), disciplines unlocking, special keys for chests of Agartha, additional character slots or acquisition of extra skill points. In this case, it is important to note that with the exception of cosmetic objects, character slots and keys that can only be acquired by paying, the rest of services can be obtained by playing or investingBrands of favor (that is to say, the money that we obtain by missions), reason why the difference between players who spend their money or not is null. In any case, we can always use the auction house to exchange our money or objects for Aurum , since there will always be a player willing to make this exchange and Funcom are trying to promote this "collaborative economy" to make it a more complete experience for all.
The pattern system is a "subscription" service that gives us certain additional benefits, such as receiving a daily key from Agartha , free teleportation, a small experience bonus and possibly the only black point of this free to play system. , which is the possibility of creating Cabalas , the equivalent to the guilds in other mmorpg . In this case, the pattern system is a simple addition to make things easier for us, but it can be problematic and unpleasant for some of us who, in order to create an association of players, have to pass through the box.
VISUAL FANTASY
The truth is that The Secret World remains in perfect shape to be a game of 2012 visually. Despite not being an extremely ambitious graphic title, get that complicated device that is to get fully into the game, make us feel that we are really there.
It is true that perhaps the modeling of characters is a little simple, but we must also recognize that it is an endemic evil of the mmorpg , since often we only have a few options to personalize our characters. In the rest of the fields, the game remains strong, offering a relatively wide variety of enemies with very spectacular and detailed models of them, huge stages full of details and secrets, a careful setting that will immerse us fully in this "adventure" of supernatural action ", and simple cinemas but results with quite realistic animations.
In the game also, we will find abundant details that will help us to deepen this immersion that the game is looking for, since instead of just giving us information in the form of text through system chat as it happens in other titles, we can often examine the books, photographs, scores or letters that are part of the different missions. There are also many Easter eggs, winks and references to horror and science fiction classics, finding unparalleled details like the Motel Overlook in clear allusion to the omnipresent hotel of the movie The Shining ; or the Kingsmouth stage , which pays homage to Innsmouth , a recurring place in the horror literature ofHP Lovecraft.
A CRY IN THE LEJANÍA
At the sound level, one of the most surprising things is the quality of its special effects. On many occasions, strolling through the dangerous streets of Kingsmouth or the dark valleys of the Wild Coast we have had the occasion to hear the sound of the trees crunching in the wind, of the seagulls gathering in the harbor, of the crows honking in the distance ; getting to the point of having to stop to make sure that it was part of the game and was not an external sound.
The musical pieces are purely instrumental, but again they get the difficult task of taking us to that "horror movie" in which we are immersed; becoming ethereal and vaporous as we explore and discover the secrets of these mysterious places, and becoming ominous and serious in the confrontations with the different enemies, making special emphasis on the monsters of the elite class or the bosses, giving us the sought sensation of danger And fear.
At the level of performance of the different characters that are part of the story, we have absolutely nothing to reproach. The Secret World has countless lines of dialogue of its main characters, its performances are credible and above all, human. In this way, we can perceive the disturbing passive-aggressiveness of Kristin Geary , the Illuminati leader , the fatigue and despair of the old lady of Kingsmouth who refuses to leave home despite the invasion of zombies or the strange mixture of sarcasm and surprise of the fair fortune teller who discovers to have real premonitory visions and dreams.
conclusion
It seems that Funcom has learned from its mistakes and has made a significant effort to change the direction of its MMO. His tradition of telling good stories began with The Longest Journey and part of that strength is appreciated in this game. In spite of not being destined to take the first positions, it is a solid alternative for those who seek an experience different from the more traditional MMorpgs , offering another type of darker fantasy, much more focused in a modern and close world, which at the same time it makes it something more palpable, real and more frightening, since we always have the doubt of whether any part of those conspiracies or supernatural threats can be real.
In any case, in spite of the complaints of the players of the classic version regarding the general descent in their difficulty and of those small chiaroscuros in the field of what is "paid" and what is free, it is a game that It will provide us with enough hours of entertainment. Its nature Free to Play should be a claim to delve into the great ideas of the game and its fascinating world, full of intelligent missions, touches of great narrative and a lot of personality that separate it from other more traditional options of the genre.
The best
- Careful atmosphere that completely immerses us in a world of horror and action.
- It's free and everything can be achieved by playing or trading
- Simple and tremendously versatile combat system.
- One of the few mmorpg games focused on terror and the supernatural.
- Interesting and hooked story.
Worst
- The animations of the characters could be more worked, although they are correct.
- Impossibility to create guilds if we are not subscribers.
- The game is only available in English, French and German, which can throw back many players.
1-6 IMAGECREDIT
THANKS FOR READING, ALSO CHECK OUT MY PREVIOUS REVIEW ON DARKWOOD (PC)
