Why The Secret World's Not Like Other MMOs
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It should be noted that the writer refuses to write a review because he's only a week into it, so this isn't to take as an endorsement of the game:
One Quest at a Time
When I first realized that The Secret World only allowed me to take one main (that is, non-story or side) quest at a time, I was honestly baffled. I mean, every other MMO lets players stuff their quest logs and go on lightning-quick questing marathons, while TSW seemingly felt the need to tie a ball-and-chain to my legs. But, after a couple hours, it all made sense: TSW isn't trying to toss a thin, ratty veil over the level treadmill. Instead, its first objective is to establish a world and tell a story. And I know that was Star Wars: The Old Republic's calling card as well, but TSW actually builds a game around a story instead of a story around a tired, trope-ridden game. In short, if you're hoping to run around constantly balancing a wobbly stack of same-y objectives, you're doing it wrong.
Most quests, then, are broken up into tiers. So, in essence, one main quest actually contains five or more (typical) MMO quest objectives except many of them really aren't typical at all. Kingsmouth (the first real zone) alone yielded everything from hacking into people's computer files, to carving runes into different surfaces to test their effects, to shooting off rockets, to solving a years-old supernatural murder mystery (more on that in a moment). And all the while, most of these objectives were handed out via surprisingly well-acted cut-scenes. Overwrought dialog gave me more than a few (Who actually talks like that?) moments, but TSW's a somewhat clumsily written love letter to schlocky horror, so a bit of camp comes with the territory.
The downside to all of this, however, is that when World of Warcraft-style objectives do crop up, they feel even creakier in comparison. Oh, now I have to kill 10 zombies, you say? And then an entirely different quest wants me to pay those exact same shambling pals of mine another not-so-friendly visit? Unfortunately, deja vu moments like that creep in a bit too often, and they leave TSW awkwardly straddling the line between old and new.
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Genre-bending Instances
Polaris, The Secret World's first major instance, contains what's now one of my favorite MMO boss encounters ever. I don't want to say it's Cthulhu, because the game doesn't call him Cthulhu but it's totally Cthulhu. My first battle against him was also a horrible, horrible disaster. See, at first, everything was going fine. We were hacking and slashing and shooting away, and while the tentacle-mouthed behemoth definitely packed a punch, it was far from unmanageable. Then he went and shifted dimensions on us. In this exceedingly blue version of our craggy battlefield, a single glare from Cthulh-- er, the Ur-Draug meant instant death. You can probably guess what happened next: He glared. We instantly died.
But when we gave the fight another go, it was incredible. During dimension shifts, we all huddled behind giant rocks, frantically shuffling left and right to avoid the Ur-Draug's death gaze. And all the while, we clumsily typed things like (He's right next to you! Move! Move! Move!) It was actually scary. TSW successfully managed to inject an element of horror into an MMO boss fight.
The rest of Polaris, meanwhile, doesn't quite reach the heights of its finale, but it's still impressively varied especially for something so early in the game. And then there's the second major dungeon, the hell-themed Inferno, and it's an entirely different animal with its wonderfully chaotic (Oh god why is everything I know and love exploding and on fire?) final fight. Moreover, in both Polaris and Inferno, trash mobs are basically non-factors. Interesting, oftentimes difficult boss fights take center stage as they should.
