The Secret World Online/Legends

[ippollite]

I mentioned this the other day and i guess it's just been bubbling around my head. This post isn't really about anything in particular, but a small space where we can all eulogize on one of the most imaginative, interesting and engaging stories in MMO history (alongside one of the best quest types in any game, period). I still miss it terribly. Im genuinely waiting for the day that i forget places and events in the game so i know im ready to replay it again.

Oh the secret world. Your combat was janky. Your store was a bit too parsimonious, but you captured my little heart in a way few other games have. In the wise words of some singer from some band. You had a lot of things to say. You had a lot of nothing to say. We'll miss you.

That all being said, are there any ways to play the game that would make another play through super fun even knowing the story just pitters out? Its still a few solid months of gameplay start to finish. So its not like the lack of a total conclusion would destroy my desire to play through it again.

[unfilteredJW]

Best questing experience offered by an MMO to date.

[qwerty123456]

The 4th anniversary event is going on now. Haven't logged in to see just saw the steam news. I'm not sure how much the game gets updated cause I remember logging in once and seeing the same lootbox from like 6 months/1year before and no new one on the auction house. If they can't even make new money generating content I'm I doubt the story or anything was updated.

[Koriani]

You can still play Secret World - but yes its the "Legends" version with the remade weapon wheel - not the original. You can only play the original version if you still have it installed on your system as there's no way to buy/re-get the old original version anymore. But I do believe it is still running.

I do still login to Legends to run through the quests. Because yes - this game had one of the most original storylines and settings of any MMO to date. Excellently written stories and lore - almost all by the same person (who unfortunately was not part of the Legends reboot for long so content after that point was written by someone else). I LOVED the weapon wheel mechanic as it was originally - the reboot version, meh.

As someone who played since Beta through the years of live and only stopped really playing regularly when they 'relaunched' it as f2p - still one of my top favorite games. I will never give Funcom another penny because of how they treat their live service games (I played SW and some of AoC at release) and messed up SW in a bid to generate more cash for their new game and then promptly abandoned it again; but I will always love the part of their team that gave us SW.

But the only content that's ever been added after LEGENDS came out was added within that first year I believe - and nothing has been added sense. Its on lifesupport but it is still live and you can absolutely play the entire quest lines without paying anything. You may level slow for it, but its playable.

IF they'd just developed it and supported it after launch properly - it could have been even more awesome. Just so sad how Funcom screwed this game over.

[Edge-]

The 4th anniversary event is going on now. Haven't logged in to see just saw the steam news. I'm not sure how much the game gets updated cause I remember logging in once and seeing the same lootbox from like 6 months/1year before and no new one on the auction house. If they can't even make new money generating content I'm I doubt the story or anything was updated.

The bigger festivities are all fan-run, and they're memorializing a community member who passed away recently.

It's not updated at all. South Africa, which was a few years ago I think, was the last content update to really come out. They've had a few minor things since then but largely the game is in maintenance mode and we're never getting Congo or any of the last bits of the missing content.

I'm still super bummed that Legends was, IMO, an overall step backwards. The game needed more budget/time for a proper relaunch, and needed to come out on consoles at the same time to expand the audience. The reboot seemed going that direction with the shift to the "action camera" (ugh, made even thinking about healing a nightmare), limited action bars, and other tidbits.

It's probably the last MMO Funcom is ever gonna make, especially now that they're big on the survival sandbox train with Conan Exiles and the upcoming Dune game. Even with that Tencent money they've been moving away from MMO's for a while now. At least we have a few games connected to the Secret World universe (The Park and Moons of Madness, which I still need to play the latter), but I remain supremely disappointed that the MMO and IP are functionally dead. It's seriously got some of the best storytelling, atmosphere, world building, and engaging content that I've ever played in a MMO. And I'm a huge sucker for modern fantasy games, which there remain far too few of.

I'm still salty that Funcom gated the faction missions behind power walls. I just wanna have Dame Julia scold me more, damnit. She's the absolute freakin best, Templar 4 lyfe.

[Fkiolaris]

I believe you can get the original TSW install from the Legends installer, it's an option somewhere there. Beyond that, I absolutely hated the way they changed the weapons and the way you build and progress your character in Legends, which is why I gave up entirely on the game. Which is a shame, since this game had stories, writing, acting, atmosphere and questing to rival any single player RPG during this time, never mind MMOs. Only ESO came anywhere near close for my taste with some of the quests (and I am not an Elder Scrolls fan).

[Rustedsaint]

Played the original and loved the rifle leech healer builds.
The storyline/environment was always top notch if only the combat wasn’t so jaggy

[oplawlz]

The story and environment were truly inspired in that game. It's the only MMO in which I've genuinely been eager to engage in the story. The class/talent system was pretty dope too. Shame they didn't have a better engine to hold it all together, or a publisher with the sense to play the long game in monetization.

[ippollite]

Just to bring back the feels:



I really wish they'd mass effect this, fix up the combat a bit and turn it into a single player RPG.

[Koriani]

Yea, I look at the "Torghast" and "Mage Tower" designs of WOW and can only think back to how much fun the "Corporate Tower" in Toyko actually was compared to the 'repeat content' version we get in WoW.

That Tower in Funcom was the ONLY 'repeat' mechanic in a game I actually ENJOYED and made a POINT to do all floors, on purpose - simply because of the writing/lore tidbits throughout the employee computers. Blizz's 'repeat floor' mechanics are bland and boring and I barely did them once because of how frustrating and boring they are. Whereas the Toyko Tower I was actually willing to do AGAIN for Legends - I just didn't end up questing as far in the 'new game' as I'd fully completed the 'old game' for some time before they tried the re-launch.

I just wish they never re-launched it to begin with. Would have been better off staying the way it was with the old weapon mechanics, etc. if they were never truly going to do anything with it. Instead of dividing the community that was there by the negative feelings for being 're-launched' and then dropping development of the game anyway.

The only really 'different' storied MMO out in the last ten years - and the company face-planted it.

[Witchblade77]

for whatever reason events broke for me (as in I couldn't claim any event specific daily rewards), so i stopped logging in. the story bogged down for me in Tokyo. I know I'm almost at the end, but I've been trying to do side stories as much as main stories and I just.. burned out a bit. something about Tokyo also just... I don't know wasn't really working for me.

unpopular opinion. I freaking LOVED Egypt. my favorite questing experience in the entire game, as well as some of my fave characters. and Last train to Cairo is one of my favorite content packs in the entire game. only other one that I liked as much was "A Dream to kill"

edited, another unpopular opinion. I do own original game and all the content packs, but.... I've never gotten past Kingsmouth back then. made some mistakes when building my character and got completely stuck. could not get past later quests. I LOVE it that they relaunched it. not only did they integrade various content packs into the story much smoother but they made combat a lot more forgiving and as a baddie that I am, that made all the difference. I've gotten to Tokyo in Legends. not original.

P.S. huh... looks like event rewards are working for me again. although I don't think I logged in in time to get the bike. ah well.. not like I've been playing it recently and still not sure if I'll get past the last part of the story, just wasn't enjoying it anymore. but still kinda want to go to South africa. but I also hear its super grindy? ah well.

[Fkiolaris]

for whatever reason events broke for me (as in I couldn't claim any event specific daily rewards), so i stopped logging in. the story bogged down for me in Tokyo. I know I'm almost at the end, but I've been trying to do side stories as much as main stories and I just.. burned out a bit. something about Tokyo also just... I don't know wasn't really working for me.

unpopular opinion. I freaking LOVED Egypt. my favorite questing experience in the entire game, as well as some of my fave characters. and Last train to Cairo is one of my favorite content packs in the entire game. only other one that I liked as much was "A Dream to kill"

edited, another unpopular opinion. I do own original game and all the content packs, but.... I've never gotten past Kingsmouth back then. made some mistakes when building my character and got completely stuck. could not get past later quests. I LOVE it that they relaunched it. not only did they integrade various content packs into the story much smoother but they made combat a lot more forgiving and as a baddie that I am, that made all the difference. I've gotten to Tokyo in Legends. not original.

P.S. huh... looks like event rewards are working for me again. although I don't think I logged in in time to get the bike. ah well.. not like I've been playing it recently and still not sure if I'll get past the last part of the story, just wasn't enjoying it anymore. but still kinda want to go to South africa. but I also hear its super grindy? ah well.

Egypt is my favourite one as well, especially the second zone and the quest line with the Black Pharaoh. It was line a paranormal Indiana Jones adventure in Egypt, I absolutely loved (and hated the Orochi for that ending)!

As to not making it past Kingsmouth, I honestly don't feel that the game would punish you that early for a suboptimal build. However, they also nerfed the game to the ground at some stage in TSW (not to the point of Legends tbf) plus they gave QL8 purples via pvp which could easily get you past Egypt. At least that's what I did and I can guarantee you I am no pro and I did plenty of mistakes in my build, too.

Anyway, all this talk about this game and I might go and reinstall it lol

[Witchblade77]

Egypt is my favourite one as well, especially the second zone and the quest line with the Black Pharaoh. It was line a paranormal Indiana Jones adventure in Egypt, I absolutely loved (and hated the Orochi for that ending)!

As to not making it past Kingsmouth, I honestly don't feel that the game would punish you that early for a suboptimal build. However, they also nerfed the game to the ground at some stage in TSW (not to the point of Legends tbf) plus they gave QL8 purples via pvp which could easily get you past Egypt. At least that's what I did and I can guarantee you I am no pro and I did plenty of mistakes in my build, too.

Anyway, all this talk about this game and I might go and reinstall it lol

well I tend to avoid pvp as a rule, but I'm not sure I was still trying when they nerfed it. I'm a potato player, so I'm reasonably sure something that for someone else would just be a little bit of a grinding challenge to get more points to fix the build, for me was "too much grinding the same stuff over and over and still having issues" I haven't even tried again until after they released legends and the experience for me at least was night and day. it probably did help that 1. they added recommendations of which weapon combos were easier to play and which ones were more challenging 2. I could still experiment because import account had all the weapons unlocked by default.

P.S. Orochi are just... the worst. as creepy as Morninglight is, Orochi is just... so much worse... also the stories of the 8 children/gods/statues in City of sun god just broke my heart TBH.

[Coldkil]

I really wish they'd mass effect this, fix up the combat a bit and turn it into a single player RPG.

If they do this, its gonna be an instabuy. The world and story was just awesome. Wound need for a good renewal of the engine though.

[Fkiolaris]

well I tend to avoid pvp as a rule, but I'm not sure I was still trying when they nerfed it. I'm a potato player, so I'm reasonably sure something that for someone else would just be a little bit of a grinding challenge to get more points to fix the build, for me was "too much grinding the same stuff over and over and still having issues" I haven't even tried again until after they released legends and the experience for me at least was night and day. it probably did help that 1. they added recommendations of which weapon combos were easier to play and which ones were more challenging 2. I could still experiment because import account had all the weapons unlocked by default.

P.S. Orochi are just... the worst. as creepy as Morninglight is, Orochi is just... so much worse... also the stories of the 8 children/gods/statues in City of sun god just broke my heart TBH.

I am no hardcore either, but for pvp if I am having fun I can endure a lot. I mean I got the full blue PvE set as Alliance in classic on a PvE server almost exclusively in AV... For TSW it wasn't too bad to get the QL8 set, which is why they nerfed it at some stage because people would get it and bypass full zones in terms of gear.

If they do this, its gonna be an instabuy. The world and story was just awesome. Wound need for a good renewal of the engine though.

If they would add some sort of way to do the dungeons with other players then sure. I absolutely loved the dungeons I managed to do in TSW, I still think they are the best "vanilla" dungeons of any MMO I played for all the reasons that make TSW special in general.

[PACOX]

I'm sad no one tried to turn the concept into a single player game. The atmosphere and quests in this game were amazing, too bad everything else was meh and it released perhaps a year too late. I think I got to Egypt before a better came out/couldn't justify accepting the bad for the good.

The people who worked on the game deserve some sort of industry recognition. Too bad everyone still wants to put fantasy DnD or dynastic East Asia settings. The handful that aren't are looter shooters in the vein of Destiny or Division. TSW occupied untapped real estate, it was just at a bad time under mediocre direction.

[Acidbaron]

Egypt is my favourite one as well, especially the second zone and the quest line with the Black Pharaoh. It was line a paranormal Indiana Jones adventure in Egypt, I absolutely loved (and hated the Orochi for that ending)!

As to not making it past Kingsmouth, I honestly don't feel that the game would punish you that early for a suboptimal build. However, they also nerfed the game to the ground at some stage in TSW (not to the point of Legends tbf) plus they gave QL8 purples via pvp which could easily get you past Egypt. At least that's what I did and I can guarantee you I am no pro and I did plenty of mistakes in my build, too.

Anyway, all this talk about this game and I might go and reinstall it lol

Until the rework you could very much end up getting stuck in the zone after Kingsmouth.

Have to say i still really like the game but having finished things up in Africa and no new content out it is kind of hard to go back there knowing all i would really do is max out skills and find collectibles.

[Fkiolaris]

Until the rework you could very much end up getting stuck in the zone after Kingsmouth.

Have to say i still really like the game but having finished things up in Africa and no new content out it is kind of hard to go back there knowing all i would really do is max out skills and find collectibles.

Savage Coast (the 2nd zone if I remember correctly) wasn't too bad. But Blue Mountain (the 3rd one)? Jesus. Especially with all those charging mini mobs that would respawn in like 5-6 seconds in very tight areas, that was the real wall for the majority of the player base, myself included.

[Acidbaron]

Savage Coast (the 2nd zone if I remember correctly) wasn't too bad. But Blue Mountain (the 3rd one)? Jesus. Especially with all those charging mini mobs that would respawn in like 5-6 seconds in very tight areas, that was the real wall for the majority of the player base, myself included.

Ah yes you could still push through savage coast with the carnival and the academy even though you would struggle, but blue mountain really would grind you to a halt and considering how the game was so story based, many people did not feel like re doing all they just recently did to gain experience.

They should have really promoted the elite areas for grinding more, much like Anarchy Online had hecklers to farm that could have solved some issues even if it introduced people out leveling the content in the next zone. Would have been the lesser of two evils if you asked me.

[Witchblade77]

I am no hardcore either, but for pvp if I am having fun I can endure a lot. I mean I got the full blue PvE set as Alliance in classic on a PvE server almost exclusively in AV... For TSW it wasn't too bad to get the QL8 set, which is why they nerfed it at some stage because people would get it and bypass full zones in terms of gear.





If they would add some sort of way to do the dungeons with other players then sure. I absolutely loved the dungeons I managed to do in TSW, I still think they are the best "vanilla" dungeons of any MMO I played for all the reasons that make TSW special in general.

ah, well I just don't like pvp as a concept. the few times i've enjoyed pvp was honestly because I was playing with people I liked more so then pvp itself. so... yeah...

and honestly as much as i loved the dungeons, they had the same problem for me that ESO dungeons do. I want to see all of the story and explore every nook and cranny but vast majority of people aint got no time for that. though at least in legends, i could go back and solo earlier stuff since you still get to outlevel it (unlike ESO where everything is scaled)

Solo secret world RPG would be incredible, TBH