I should start off by saying that this is my first Diablo game. I had no background or expectations going into this game. Unfortunately, some jerk spoiled a pretty big element of the story for me. But other than that I only knew two things: 1. the real-money auction house was/is going to be a big deal, and 2. I wanted to play a monk.
I’m so glad I chose the monk, because I absolutely love it. I’ve played the other classes a little bit, and the wizard was the only other one that I really enjoyed. Maybe it’s just the animations, but the other classes didn’t feel as powerful or rewarding to me.
So far I’ve mostly played multiplayer mode. My buddy is playing a barbarian, and our classes have a nice synergy. The monk has an awesome healing ability for when things get hairy. Otherwise we just smash faces together. While I play my fair share of single player games, I’m not sure if I’d enjoy Diablo 3 without being able to run around with a friend or two. Maybe it’s because the game feels a lot like an MMO to me. The boss fights have MMO type mechanics; don’t stand in the fire, add phases, etc. The gear that drops resembles WoW gear. There are other elements straight out of World of Warcraft, like an auction house and professions to level (the jewelcrafter and blacksmith are NPCs, but you still have to level them up). The game has NPC party members similar to companions in SWTOR, but I haven’t seen them in action yet because you can only use them when soloing.
I’ll post a lengthier ramble after I’ve had more time with the game. For now I leave you with this question: Is Jennifer Hale going to be in every video game this year?
Sally "Scarla" Walker, my blade-wielding, bubble-blowing Templar
I first heard of The Secret World many months ago. I knew it featured a modern-day setting and three factions, but I didn’t know much else about it. Compared to The Old Republic and Guild Wars 2, this game has received zero hype. Maybe that’s why the beta felt like a breath of fresh air.
I found out that Funcom was doing a semi-open beta this weekend, and I grabbed a beta code from Gamespot at the last minute. I expected to log in and poke around for a few minutes before going back to making crappy Portal 2 levels (more on that in another blog post, perhaps!). But I found myself really enjoying the game. When the beta ended last night, I wanted to keep going.
Combat
The combat system reminded me a bit of DC Universe. You have a grand total of 7 ability buttons, and you can have 7 passives activated. You can combine any two weapons or talismans, which determine your abilities. Skill points are applied to weapon-specific ability and skill trees. There are no pre-defined classes. You can ultimately level any and all abilities on a single character. I had points in 5 different trees because I wanted to try different weapons. The only restriction is that you can only equip two weapons at a time, which in turn limits you to two ability trees at a time. So you can’t grab the best abilities from every tree and slap them together.
Even so, the mix ‘n match approach gives you a ridiculous amount of freedom to fit your character to your playstyle, and to develop numerous offspecs. I spent most of my time in the game using a combination of sword skills and blood magic. I was basically a tank with powerful AOE damage and a bubble that I could put up as often as I needed it. Frankly it seemed a bit OP, which may be why the blood focus was the only weapon you couldn’t get during the weapon tutorial — it obviously needs some tweaking. (Bubble healers are always difficult to balance in MMOs. Just think disc priests and jedi sages.)
I also tried out fist weapons, the shotgun, and pistols. I had the hardest time with the pistols. The only time I died during the beta was while I was using them. Either I was doing it wrong (which is definitely possible), or pistols are one of the weaker weapons. Fist weapons made me feel a little too much like a female Wolverine. The shotgun was probably the most fun, and it looked the coolest.
I’ve heard others describe the combat as “lackluster,” but I’m not sure what they expected. All we saw in this beta was the equivalent of low-level abilities, and in any MMO the low level stuff is “lackluster.” We couldn’t even view the upper half of the ability trees. What was there is fine, and what I saw of the more advanced stuff looked pretty interesting.
Sally takes on some infected mutant zombie things
Questing
All of the quests in this game are repeatable. There are no character levels and no level requirements for the quests. They’re ranked by difficulty. You do earn experience points, but they go toward your skill points, not character levels. What that amounts to is a wide-open approach to advancing your character, and nothing to stop you from grouping with friends who are progressing at a different pace.
The quest system was a bit too limited, so I hope they work on it for the next beta (whenever that is). You can only track one quest at a time, and you can only have a handful of quests in your journal before you have to start dropping them to pick up new ones. I got used to running back and forth after a while, but it’s going to seem unwieldy to most experienced MMO players.
Gearing up
I acquired several commendations from questing, but I didn’t see a matching gear vendor. The only gear I found was from random loot drops. Gear consists of weapons and talismans that don’t generally affect your character’s appearance. Your outfit is purely cosmetic, so you can make your character look however you want and it won’t impact gameplay. I found a vanity gear vendor where I could purchase a pink trench coat for the bargain price of 1.8 million coins. I’m sure vanity drops will be in the game and probably in high demand.
There were only a few stats on the gear I saw: +health, +attack, and +healing. Healing and attack never appeared on the same piece of gear, and tank type pieces with a high health rating always had a low attack rating. My starting gear was white quality, and gear that dropped from mobs was green quality. The character pane has a gear management tool that allows you to create gear sets and quickly swap between them. The tool even saves your ability bars. I could use my blade and attack gear for soloing, and swap easily to fist weapons and healing gear when grouped. Finally, the spec management system I’ve always wanted. Why haven’t other games done this yet?
Grouping
Sally takes on more infected mutant zombie things
The game’s social systems were pretty limited in the beta, but I saw clues of what they have planned. Their guilds are called “cabals,” but there weren’t any guild tools or menus in the game yet. Grouping was a bit cumbersome and buggy due to the phasing (there was a single server that I could see, and I understand that a million players were signed up for the beta weekend, which implies HEAVY usage of phasing). Once we got into the same phase it was pretty straightforward. I discovered the wonders of dual-targeting as I alternately healed my defensive target and attacked my offensive target. It was so much simpler than focus targeting or /assisting.
There were no dungeons or other group content available, so there wasn’t much opportunity to see group dynamics in action. Judging by the skill trees, there are four roles in this game: tanking, healing, attacking, and support. I hope to see some PVP and dungeons in the next beta. Questing didn’t give me much opportunity to see the different roles in action, or how they play off each other.
Story and Atmosphere
At first the cutscenes felt a little forced. The first voiceover character sounded oddly robotic to me. There are times when the dialogue tries too hard to be witty, and after playing so many Bioware games, it’s strange to have my character standing silent through an entire cutscene. But the dialogue style grew on me over time. There were definitely some memorable characters, and the more I played, the more I discovered the importance of paying attention to what people had to say.
The graphics initially reminded me of a 10 year old RPG, but they look great for a semi-realistic MMO. The level of detail in the game is nothing short of astounding once you start to explore. The look and atmosphere was appropriate and drew me in to the game’s universe. Kingsmouth definitely had a distinctive feel to it versus London, but they were still very much in the same world. The music and sound were also subtle but distinctive and enjoyable.
The best thing about this game was the setting. I know I’m not alone in being sick to death of the medeival/fantasy genre. Nor was it a sci-fi or futuristic game, like the other half of MMOs seem to be. Despite the zombies and magic powers, it’s very realistic and contemporary. The setting alone is an innovation in and of itself.
The Verdict
Funcom really impressed me with this beta. Now they have to show that the rest of the game is just as polished as what they presented this weekend. What I’ve seen is great, but it isn’t enough to sustain an MMO. Whether I wind up pouring hours upon hours into this game will depend on how much it has to offer beyond Kingsmouth and London; other zones, PVP, dungeons, and so forth.
Want to see more of the game? Check out the rest of my TSW videos on Youtube.
Update: Another beta has already been scheduled for next weekend! Details can be found here.
