Secret World Legends, the remake of the mystery MMO “The Secret World” does not completely reinvent the old game, but makes some changes and ensures greater accessibility. Therefore, after many years, Jürgen has once again engaged with the horror MMO. Just in time for the Steam launch, our preview test appears.
The Secret World was for me back in 2013 a typical Funcom game: A game whose idea I really loved and wanted to enjoy. But I sadly couldn’t enjoy it because it was just too clunky, bug-ridden, and inaccessible.
Similar to the former Age of Conan, TSW eventually annoyed me, and I sought another game that suited me better.
I actually found the atmosphere, the setting, and the story of The Secret World really good. Only the game behind it unfortunately did not appeal to me.
That’s why I often wished that Funcom had made TSW a bit more accessible and dynamic back then. Otherwise, something would have developed between us. And lo and behold, Funcom actually fulfilled my wish and released The Secret World in a way that I enjoy again!
The Secret World Legends – The possibly longest tutorial in the world!
However, the new Secret World starts anything but well. If you played the original back then, you surely remember the endlessly long introduction sequence. Your character sleeps, a bee flies into their mouth, and they develop superpowers. Eventually, someone comes and takes you to your secret organization.
On the way there, you can do various tutorials and wander aimlessly in London, New York, or Seoul for a long time. There are even more tutorials. And as if that wasn’t enough tutorials, Secret World Legends adds one more, namely right before the other introductions, in the middle of the intro cutscene after swallowing the bee.
I hate tutorials, and the longer I have to be lectured like an idiot about how to walk straight or switch weapons, the less I feel like playing. And SWL really exaggerates here.
After all the tutorial nonsense, I was completely bored, and then suddenly the sound was missing in the cutscenes.
So I had to reload the drivers outside of the game, great! That’s why I was already on the verge of deleting Secret World Legends and instead playing a few rounds of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds.
The Secret World Legends – It’s worth sticking it out
Fortunately, I remained stubborn and wanted to at least try the first region again before the game would be uninstalled and give way to boundless battle royale fun. And what can I say? After just a few minutes, I was back into the “Secret World”.
Because as soon as you have gotten through the annoying tutorials, you head to New England, to a remote island called “Solomons Island”.
This region seems to have emerged from a collaboration between Stephen King and H.P. Lovecraft, as it is filled with creepy and mysterious references to horror classics.
The Secret World Legends – The Lovecraft MMO
At first, however, one suspects nothing of this. Instead, the island seems to have become a victim of a generic zombie apocalypse. But soon it becomes clear that much more lies behind the whole misfortune, and one dives deep into the history of Solomons Island and learns about the gruesome past of the area.
Thus, I soon find out that the zombie curse is likely linked to an eerie fog and that a horde of creepy sea monsters has taken over the harbor. Those familiar with the horrifying stories about gruesome creatures from the depths from Lovecraft’s works will immediately spot the parallels.
The Secret World Legends – The forest scares me!
All of this is emphasized when one pays attention to the many hidden details in the game. For example, a street in the town is called Kingsmouth (that alone is already a reference to the creepy place Innsmouth from the Lovecraft work), “Lovecraft Lane”, and a bay is named “Dagon Bay”. Later, we come across a dark forest called “Black Goat Woods”.
Just reading this name gives me chills as a connoisseur of the Cthulhu mythos.
I was glad that in the woods “only” revolting giant insects lived and not the eponymous black goat with a thousand young …
Later I arrive at a university called “Innsmouth Academy”.
In this “Anti-Hogwarts”, young people learned black magic, and since most teachers fell victim to the zombies, various summoned evils roam the campus and wander through the blood-spattered corridors. And I don’t even want to get started on the extremely disturbing horror amusement park in the heart of the island…
The Secret World Legends – It hardly gets more atmospheric
No matter where I go, more creepy details come to light everywhere, building a truly close and extremely immersive atmosphere in harmony with the excellent soundtrack.
There are more mysteries to discover everywhere, especially in the research quests. I solve these tasks not with gun and sword, but with intellect. And whoever at Funcom was responsible for the design of these tasks could also publish the next Dan Brown novel as a ghostwriter.
The puzzles are really challenging and expect you to solve complex number puzzles, effectively apply your knowledge of musical notes, or correctly apply verses from the Bible to the game world based on obscure hints.
In a particularly lengthy quest series, you follow the trail of a mad demonologist, whose Latin incantations you must transfer into bizarre demon glyphs.
Again and again, you find in the game world also websites, email addresses, and YouTube links that you actually have to look up in the real world to solve puzzles.
For example, when you determine the construction instructions for a transmission tower based on the serial number found in the game on the homepage of the (fictional) manufacturing company. One almost gets the feeling that it’s not just a game, but somehow “real”.
There’s just an extreme amount of passion in the quest design of Secret World Legends, and once you’re caught up in the mysterious “secret world”, you can hardly escape.
The Secret World Legends – Combat System – still not good, but better
Well, all the great quests and fantastic atmosphere were already present in the original TSW. But due to the really horrible combat system, the rest of the game – at least for me – was just no fun. This was mainly due to the unnecessarily complicated and clunky combat system. I had never been less inclined to engage in a fight than I was in TSW back then.
No matter how I distributed my points, nothing useful ever came of it, and every fight was boring and yet often deadly. Especially solo instances were hardly manageable for me, and at some point, it became too silly for me back then, and I didn’t want to play anymore.
Meanwhile, I am much further into the game and actually have a bit of enjoyment with the gameplay. Funcom has significantly revised the combat system and made it overall smoother and more dynamic. Each weapon now has clearly defined special abilities. For example, the assault rifle can shoot special grenades, while my shotgun, as a secondary weapon, randomly shoots shells that sometimes ignite the enemy and sometimes heal me.
Of course, the combat system is still not good. So whoever is spoiled by TERA or Black Desert Online will still often sit yawning in front of the screen. But the new combat system of SWL is fast and dynamic enough to take you through the instances without boredom. So you can quickly dive back into new, much more exciting quest stories. A clear improvement!
Jürgen’s conclusion – You have to experience it!
I was initially extremely skeptical about whether I should get involved with The Secret World again. The old version had scared me off too much back then.
But just a few minutes into the game rekindled my passion, and now I play SWL almost daily when I’m not urgently trying out other MMOs for work.
A fascination for an MMO like this has not been elicited from me by a game in a long time. I therefore hope that as many players as possible will engage with Secret World Legends again and give the game a chance at success. SWL definitely deserves it! And since it is now playable for free as a Free2Play title, there’s really no excuse not to take a look at the game!
Here is the link to the Steam page!
