Worst MMO Ever? - Secret World Legends
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 28 ก.ย. 2024
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Have guides ruined MMOs? : • Have guides ruined MMO...
Game Dungeon - The Secret World : • Ross's Game Dungeon: T...
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Careful, they're watching you.
Remember just because you're paranoid doesn't mean you're wrong.
Conspiracies, Global secrets, lag, it's all here in Secret World Legends, an MMO based on espionage and occult myths.
Thanks to the Patreon supporters and Twitch subs for keeping the channel alive.
this game had my fave quest ever of all time. you had to investigate a car crash, find info of the people who got attacked. then you had to alt tab out, check their id against a real website they setup and request a password change, to unlock their electronic device, that had a recording of what happened. took me an hour to figure that one out.
Holy shit, that sounds awesome.
artificial timesink and outright pisstake much
@@calciferlangary well to get to that point was hard. like there wore other false flag clues thrown in where I tried for a password, the name the DOB, employ ID, they had like a page of notes i read though. it was pain and then i was all like fine let me give this other shit a shot.
@@alexreilly6121 Ah yes, best to stick to the tried and true, click thing to do thing until complete eh.
The one in early game that really grabbed me was investigating the town hall, having to actually use google to find out the meaning behind a painting IRL, eventually leading to an underground tunnel where you had to do all sorts of things including decipher Latin. Was rather proud of myself for not having to look up the Latin one. But this was back in TSW, not SWL. Not sure if they still have that puzzle. SWL was such a terrible change, TSW was my absolute favorite MMO and it just hit such a hard 180 where I can't even stand to log in anymore. Thanks, EA. Anymore, there's no more updates, I don't think they even managed to put back in the story as far as it went in the original release before they just stopped doing anything for it. You can still play both and they still have a continuous player base on both, but with nothing new coming to either, it's just kind of sadly inevitable.
Josh: "I had to endure this scene so you do to."
Me: "No Josh, this is the time to fast forward."
You hold no power here TH-cam Illuminati!
17:26 dude I’d be surprised if the writer went for some american psycho shit lmao that was weirdddd
@@DB-pn3yb Very insightful comments about Kirsten Geary... a LOT of people don't get the subtlety and complexity of the story and the characters presented. Kirsten Geary as the "face" of the Illuminati has to be both stodgy, bureaucratic and corporate and at the same time make new recruits feel "special" and seem in touch with the "kids" so to speak, and of course in the process she comes across like a bad guidance counselor or unqualified human resources officer. That's not a weakness in the writing... the writers are totally self-aware that the character they've created is out of touch and the player is supposed to take her over the top dialog and sarcasm with a knowing smirk.
Youtubinatti?
Worth noting that "The Secret World" (the 2012 MMO that existed before Legends) actually had a LOT more challenge in both combat and build complexity before it was systematically nerfed by the "New Player Experience" and finally lobotomized in Legends. The story is, was, and remains, however, amazing, like nothing in the MMO space. The "MMO aspects" of the game have always been its weakest parts from the beginning, however. Probably should've been single player RPG but Funcom got greedy.
1) Theres a movie about that 'The NPC's dont seem to care' and it explains it nicely: 'Free Guy'.
2) Yeah, the game is just randomly rant-listing conspiracys, which is not even 1% of the Fun
that Channels like Creaky Blinder, Sci Man Dan and Professor Dave do.
Debunking and/or pointing-and-laughing (yes, thats 2 different things) is always fun.
3) 'Nen' from HunterxHunter is usually called the Best Magic-System in all of Fiction
or at least Manga-History, but probably ALL of Fiction.
And heres the funny thing about that: There is NO GAME that uses it as a System. None.
I would love to hear what Josh (and his Fans) think about that.
Jon, tbf, as someone who spent about equal time with both systems, the only thing TSW's combat had going for it was build variety. The floaty and unsatisfying feeling isn't something new to SWL, and the added complexity wasn't always a plus. There were also a lot of builds that just straight-up did not work outside Solomon Island, especially if you couldn't parse the byzantine gearing system, making it very unfriendly for new players even after the update you're referring to.
SWL's combat system was hardly a 'lobotomization,' either; it was definitely more approachable, but it wasn't simple. The big issue with it is that it was still floaty and unsatisfying, and because the game shifted from TSW's more typical MMO combat style to something more akin to a 3rd-person action game, that became a much bigger problem. It was also, like TSW's system, very unabalanced, and because there was a much lower degree of build diversity, you quickly ran into the "everyone is running the same three versions of every class" problem.
Re: SWL balance, like... Blood Magic was borderline-unusable in group content for like a month or two because the rewards for being in either of the extreme states were nowhere near sufficient to make up for taking huge damage for using its abilities, and hammer was just so insanely overpowered for the first few weeks that very few people were using anything else.
The issue is like. The same people who designed this system were working on TSW's as well, and it had a host of very similar problems. I think a lot of the people who claim SWL 'ruined' it are remembering the time they spent learning and mastering a not-very-good system to the point where they could put something very effective together, and not remembering all the time they were told/told others not to use a whole host of skills (or even entire weapons, let alone weapon combinations) because they were borderline-ineffective. They definitely don't seem to remember how little guidance there was on actually putting those skills together, or how frustrating it was to try to respec in early-game content.
The game always had problems; SWL's biggest flaw was emphasizing monetization and a more accessible, action-y playstyle over actually fixing most of them.
@@Oops-All-Ghosts Can i ask you something, Ferenczy?
@@loturzelrestaurant Pretty sure you can, yep.
@@Oops-All-Ghosts I've never understood the "floaty" combat criticism... pretty much every MMO has the exact same "floaty" combat so if you're looking for some gory, visceral, survival-style hack and slash game you're in entirely the wrong genre. I was actually too generous describing SWL's combat system as "lobotomized" because that suggests there's still some remaining intellectual potential there. There's none. If you're trying to argue there's even the slightest potential there or any fair comparison to the original Secret World we're operating on two completely different levels of understanding, so...
10:35 That "modern" feeling city actually is a 1:1 recreation of the Brooklyn Bridge area. I was actually a Founder member for TSW. What drew me in was the puzzles (that morse code one at the airport was a pain though), full VO, and the lore. Unfortunately I didn't have the best hardware to run it at the time and by the time I did they already had moved on to Legends. Sadge
Haha, the morse code one is the only one I have fond memories of. There were three of us in a group trying to figure it out, and it was a fun adventure :D
å⁰00
I've heard that it's still possible to play the original secret world if you have your old account/key - obviously there wouldn't be much of a player base, but you could if you want to
I wasn't a founder but in the same boat. I only had the hardware and money to be able to really play it after the transition. I'll still have fond memories of feeling like a detective as well as just killing things. And the in game web browser was so cool to me, but maybe they should've just done something like GTA V where it's preset sites, some you click on and some you have to know what to type in an address bar.
@@MythicByrd did that a few months ago, kind of like wow private servers there is something to change in the Legends launcher to access the old version, still works but I met like 2 players there
I wish this game (or rather: what it was before Legends) would be remade as a singleplayer game or even a trilogy. The setting, quest design and story is too precious to go to waste.
Yes this. +1
@@spompofleks I feel like Funcom could have been solid SP RPG developer and instead chose to be miserable MMO developer.
Even the OG remade in an engine that allowed either actual action combat or Tab targeting with all the fiddly fun mechanics that got dropped early on, like blood mages needing bleed on enemies to gather "mana" for spells or it takes your own hp would be wonderful... Still salty that those unique aspects of weapons got dropped to smooth out the "complicated" combat when people were actually complaining about the wheel of abilities being complicated and confusing.
Also still very VERY salty, that they changed to a "classic" and boring leveling system.
@@mtpaige1361 Yeah Legends is so depressing to play after putting decent time into the original. I did blood/hammer and it felt amazing, plus the quests were the main focus to me, they were INTERESTING, like reading manhole covers for a serial number.
I played the original Secret World and quit because the combat was SOOO bad. One of their biggest promises when they released again as Secret World Legends was updates to the combat system... what they meant by that was improved resource systems for combat... which, while nice, meant nothing at all next to them trying to shoehorn an action combat system and tab target system together. They ended up with the worst of both worlds.
That said, the story of this game is 10/10 EXCELLENT. All of Josh's questions about the intro? They all become VERY pertinent later in the story!
I'm sorry to see that they've let it degrade to this point. A genuine effort to improve the game's combat to make it actually fun and challenging is really all the game has ever needed to make it a truly GREAT game in my opinion, but either FunCom wasn't able to do so, or didn't want to invest the money to get it there.
A truly sad end to a game with the most potential of any MMO I've ever played.
Mostly wasted potential, sadly.
The setting, writing, characters? All awesome. Would make an AMAZING Bioware style RPG. But for some reason the studio was adamant it be a mediocre MMO.
I wouldn't trust BW with this with their track record lately.
They split their resources between Anarchy Online, Age of Conan and this one.
Well, an amazing RPG. Bioware haven't made anything amazing in a long time and even their great works were limited by bizarre, unhelpful design decisions. Like that stupid four choice dialogue thing that seemingly always fails to communicate exactly what it is that you will be saying.
An amazing Larian RPG. I think that's appropriate.
A Conspiracy theory game would be kool , if the game was like Snatcher on the Sega CD as well , or a DC comics of *The Question* had a single player game
One of my tattoos was actually inspired by a Secret World investigation quest, in a way. When my mom passed away I went through...a lot, suffice to say. In TSW one of the investigations had me bouncing around translating some latin, and one of the phrases was "Non Sum Qualis Eram" - I am not what I used to be. So that is now sitting on my inner right forearm.
Sorry for your loss. Many people find different things to get you through difficult times, glad you found yours.
Ok
When I watch this, I get the same feeling I get every time I remember the old Secret World. I just wanna cry for what they did to it.
Its funny how all the parts Josh liked were part of what made the original game special. Then they ripped some of those parts out (how leveling etc worked) put a weak "action" combat system on it and so we got this mess.
I also don't remember the game regularly crashing for me.
I really want The Secret World back, I really miss it.
I play the The Secret Wolrd daily ... the real one ... it's still alive
@@Alien1492 How? I'd love to try it out, but can't find any way to get it.
@@octav3k the only way to get the original game is to buy someone's account from one of those mmo marketplaces
Wait, what did you had before this combat system? There was no combat?
The original still exists, he says it very early in the video
I have to admit that I have a soft spot for Kirsten Geary from my time playing the original Secret World. I mean, she's a little cringey, but I thought it was charming. It came off as deliberate to me, that she was an upper-management corporate type who was vaguely out of touch with real people.
Yeah I feel like he completely misses the point of her. She's supposed to be a corporate creep 'Yeah I am like SO hip and SO smart.' She's..supposed to be that kind of person.
I always read her as 'that boss you hate whose job you're gearing for'.
@@WereScrib I suspect you may be missing the reviewer's point, actually. ;) What he's saying is that the dialogue and character is so ridiculously corny that no secret society--let alone the vaunted Illuminati--would ever have someone like her on their staff. Real life corporate executives wouldn't be caught dead acting that immature, so why would a member of the Illuminati? It's almost like a child's caricature of how they think an adult would act. What they should have done is have your handler be someone old, severe, and no-nonsense.
I think there are two big problems with the graveyard tutorial vs. the subway tutorial, beyond the fact that they're both dreams--one with the actual layout of the game and one with the way it affects the story. The events of the subway section do fairly clearly connect with some of the stuff that's hinted at in the first set of semi-prophetic dreams you have, and the idea that the Illuminati and Templar are using a dream sequence as a sort of tutorial is kind of neat (I'm not giving the Dragon version credit for that).
Problems are:
1: In Secret World Legends, it's the second tutorial you're dumped into. And while it served a useful function in TSW, in SWL it's basically just re-exploring a bunch of stuff that the first, new tutorial now already covers. And because the subway tutorial was designed for a complete different combat system (old one was much more complex and MMO-y, although it was still not very good IMO), it ends up feeling a lot less effective at covering what it needs to to get you understanding the game.
2: In Secret World Legends, almost all the interesting story concepts that the subway tutorial *hints* at are explicitly stated in the graveyard tutorial. Even the characters you meet in the subway are people you have already encountered in the Manhattan fakeout fight. The space teaser at the end of the Subway is not an effective hint of something great and terrible because you've literally already seen Cthulhu burst out of the center of New York, so why would you care about a few planets?
Like TSW, if you go rewatch that whole opening sequence up to the subway, it definitely still has a problem of taking like. 10-20 minutes to get to actual gameplay, and that's if you don't get lost trying to find the right NPC in your hub city. That was why they introduced the graveyard section; they wanted to break up the series of opening cutscenes by giving you something to do. But the issue is, like... Just inserting all these big setpieces completely undermines any attempt at subtlety in those cutscenes or the subway section. Like on one hand you've got these two strange figures in black and white giving you diametrically opposed instructions in a clear effort to sway you to their side, and then on the other the one who was saying it "wasn't her place to intervene, even if this is merely a dream" is handing you a shotgun and telling you to go ham on a zombie. And who cares what that big British voice trying to bribe you by offering the choice between losing everything and becoming a god is? You literally just fought Cthulhu.
Again, the fact that there were so many cutscenes right off the bat was something that needed to be fixed, but they didn't really fix it; they just sort of jammed another thing into that sequence without adjusting anything to make it fit. Kinda just broke everything else around it.
Dragon is the best. You get head and have a flashback
Playing The Secret World back in like 2012 was incredible. It was unlike anything else ever released, it was puzzling and intriguing, just a perfect mix of MMO and Horror...Too bad they ruined it.
I'm glad I got to experience this game properly 'before' they ruined it at least.
I played the original TSW probably about the same time and it was REALLY fun. It was different and not just your standard fantasy mmorpg.
The moment you mentioned the quest not updating correctly, I thought to myself: "Oh, so that's why there's a pause quest option, so devs don't have to fix the quests that are buggy. You don't need to fix it, if the players can just redo it, hoping it doesn't glitch out this time".
Also super misleading to call it a pause lol
The combat revamp killed the game for me. Had a pretty good time playing the original game before that, the haunted carnival and that forest with the monster moths were pretty memorable and quite suspenseful.
Looking forward to this one. This was the first game that made me really want more skill based progression systems in mmos.
If only this game was made by a better studio. Love the concept though.
I've got fond memories.
Dragged a friend in to this game blind about two years ago. It was fantastic. Gameplay grievances aside, we were both very much focused on the lovecraftian experience. There's one point where you go on a very trippy, incredibly well designed dream quest type experience in what I believe is the second zone that still stands out as one of the best quests I've ever played in an MMO.
But everything you've said is spot on and I can't find any real ground to dispute anything even though part of me wants to give the game some sort of defense.
This game was actually fantastic when it originally came out. I remember having actual nightmares from how creepy it was, the story was brilliant.
I'd really, really like there to be more modern day MMOs. What SWL has going for it is good interesting story, great voice acting, incredible immersive atmosphere all throughout (but fuck Egypt zones), great variety of casual and street wear and great attention to detail. What it lacks is combat and progression, with the endgame being just repetitive dungeon grinding for the ever-increasing gear score.
There is a lot of love put into this game, and even if a lot of missions were cut out in the SWL re-release, the developers clearly put a lot into it. It's a real shame the publisher had no interest in doing anything with SWL but milking it and pouring all the money into their Conan games instead of back into the game to continue the abruptly-ended story. Even the one new zone they added is maybe a fifth of the size of other areas, and is grindy and unsatisfying.
Also the Templars tutorial intro has one of the best lines you could deliver in an MMO, "You're not the chosen one, and you're not the only one. You're part of an army!"
So glad to hear more people sharing Game Dungeon, Ross does such phenomenal work
Such a sadness to see Secret World here, but Legends really is a terrible reboot. Original was one of my favorites for atmosphere alone.
You can still play the original game if you have access to your old account. You just have to download the client. A post on reddit helped me and I've been pretty regular...
I played Legends and still enjoyed it lol it was good, to a point 😂😂😂😌😌
@@xaayer yeah but knowing there's gonna be no content updates kinda puts a dampener on it, Can you even finish the original story on the og servers?
@@jamiehav0k62 im not sure... Still playing
Legends added all the handholding... the original game was really difficult and required a LOT more thinking.
It was devastating to see it become what it had. They did this right after adding a custom museum system where you could get special achievements that gave you exhibits to decorate a museum with.
Oh yeah, and I lost all of my cosmetics that I paid for with the transfer over, so I'd have to buy them all over again...
Being difficult is not a compliment
@@LynnHermione Fans of Souls games would beg to differ.
Being difficult is absolutely a compliment if that's what players are looking for.
Man I remember playing this game and loving it but.... It was for the side quests. The ones that had you decoding Morris code, matching notes to make a specific sequence of song to open a door or literally dying so you can become a ghost to get into places you otherwise couldn't to learn things you then carry back with you when you resurrect. It was neat to play something that took place in the modern world and I really enjoyed the parts where I had to read Egyptian hieroglyphs and turn them into Egyptian sentences and such but those are mostly side quest things. Hidden little gems on the side that make the game interesting and would have been cooler had they been part of the main questlines. So happy to see you reviewing this. I had fun with the game but the fact that I've never gone back to it after finishing all the episodes that were released at the time says something. It was fun but it had problems.
Edit: oof I can see the game has gotten so much worse since I played... I never had crashing issues and it looks like they've simplified some of the puzzles. Sad v.v
That seems like a game world that has so much potential. I can't help but think of how great a game you could have if you took that world, setting and storyiine and designed it as a single player horror experience like a Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines.
i was actually getting excited with him when he started looking at the clues and the map, and investigating the area only to find out his game bugged and it wasnt necessary at all to actually have fun
this game used to be amazing when it came out the storytelling was just soooo good. but they fked it up like all the other
The channel Ceronesthes made a video explaining why the original version of The Secret World was a great game, INCLUDING THE UNIQUE BATTLE SYSTEM, for those it was made for and another video about how the reboot (SWL) is not just a cheap shadow of the original but how it basically screw over and insulted the original dedicated fanbase.
This game had so much potential, the setting, factions, lore and world is like a Call of Cthullu campaign in MMO form.
The 3 main faction cgi trailers did an amazing job of setting up the world and telling you just enough to make you interested but still keeping everything mysterious.
The main story quests are actually pretty well written and the investigation quests where you have to research using the actual internet to find websites made exclusively for the game, learn about obscure historical facts and a lot of the environmental storytelling is stellar and there are a lot of cool easter eggs that allude to horror books and movies, creepy pasta, cryptids and real world mysteries.
It is a shame that this amazing concept and world is locked behind a MMO with very awkward combat, this could have easily been an amazing single player RPG in the vein of Deus Ex or Vampire the masquerade bloodlines.
I really hope Funcom comes back to this IP sometime and make it the single player experience it deserves to be, or that any other developer looks at the general setting and tries to make their own version of this.
About the crashing - set Compatibility mode (on every exe related to the game and it's launcher) to Win7. You'll thank me later. Zero crashes since I did that. For some reason SWL really has a problem with Win10. Also it has a problem with any forced graphics settings. Make sure everything is set to Application Controlled or Off.
I loved The Secret World when it came out. Illuminati all the way! Guns and force power. The problem I had with it was that gear optimization for the class system was really difficult to understand, so knowing if you would be good in a raid was hard to determine. Also, it came out during the flood of MMOs around WoW Wrath of the Lich King, so I'm sure it got lost in the noise. Podcasts were also really popular at the time and WoW had really good ones to listen to that built knowledge and community. TSW had a few but were really bad and did not really teach you anything or help explain more difficult aspects of getting into end game content. Those were the only issues I had with The Secret World at the time. When I went back to it a while later I played Legends, and they "fixed" all the wrong things and made it so frustrating and worse. The original version was so much fun, more normalized keyboard/mouse combat control, intent of concept to ambience achieved, and the puzzles were great for me who has a high tolerance for not having to look stuff up. So sad to see it go to this Legends version which I just don't want to play, even though I love the concept and world so much. RIP The Secret World. Good riddance TSW Legends.
Loved the premise, loved the Lore, loved the Setting and most of the Quests. I would be eager to see all this Content realized with a new Engine aka "Secret World 2"
Heck yeah!
I would rather they turn this into a single player RPG with an optional co-op mode to go trough the story with friends.
Original Secret World on release was absolutely awesome. Tough as nails quests with deep lore and complexity. The skill tree was massive so you could make so many different hybrid builds. Dungeons? Holy cow. Some of the toughest I ever played in any game, ever. I think there was like 8 or 9 of them. Basically 3 were impossible on Nightmare mode. Someone always died. One person died, you ain't finishing. I played for months daily and I'm a good player. I never finished some dungeons. When NYC raid first launched it was impossible. I think we cleared 1/40 times. Fun times.
the whoile premise of a world where conspiracy theories are all real was also done in netflix's prematurely cancelled animation "Inside Job". And man... it was such a fun series...
I was wondering when Josh would get to this. I actually love this MMO, so I'm curious to see what he has to say (I'm expecting it to be absolutely crushed, and I have zero issues with that)
In the first version of the game the opening scene along with other points made in the story discuss the insect at the opening was a bee.
23:43 like yahtzee said, fear requires immersion, of which there is ZERO in multiplayer.
I really want to play this. I liked the "cringe" and cliche parts. Is there some class that doesn't have annoying reload mechanics? Maybe the crashes can be resolved with compatibility settings?
So, does Windows 7 compatibility mode work? Downloading now. May report back.
@@hermaeusmora749 I'm assuming you gave up
"Lack of combat variation" he says, while NOT BUYING ANY SKILLS..... Some top tier PEBKAC.
To be fair, he tends to focus most of his attention away from the monitor to write notes. To actually be fair, that's a terrible idea, and there are dozens of ways for someone with his teaching background to adapt and overcome all of the self-inflicted issues in these "it's not Runescape or Guild Wars" reviews.
Hey Josh, have you played the star wars MMO?
It's honestly one of my favorite mmos if it wasn't for one small(giant) thing... EA
The way the game is funded is just ridiculous. There's quest rewards for your big lvl 20 epic quest that your character is not allowed to equip, unless you buy a dlc that has nothing to do with this quest, as that quest was in the game at launch.
I played(and payed) for the game at launch, and got that item then, but can no longer use those items now.
So why do I recommend it?
Honestly every single class in that game has it's own story which is amazingly cool, the characters interesting, and the world is engaging, and the combat is pretty alright.
It all falls off at lvl 20, but I maintain that playing every class to level 20 for free is well worth the time.
We need more modern MMO's like this but better gameplay. I agree with alot of people on Secret World og was more challenging.
Josh: we can't have a horror MMO
Me any time I need to ask people to party up for any reason: Genuine fear and Terror
33:33 "I'm bored, not of the story but of the gameplay." My experience with SWL in a nutshell. It indeed felt like there was the potential for a much better game underneath it all but it was held back by the design choices. I think I stopped playing two zones further (Blue Mountain). I guess I endured longer because I initially played with a friend. From what I remember I didn't persist for because I didn't want to do the grinding I was required to do to again if I wanted to be high level enough to be able to advance the main storyline.
Oh I remember playing this on it's launch day! me and my friends were googling stuff and trying to unravel those puzzles. Loved it! Shame to hear the current state it is in.
i remember ye olde Secret World... played until the very end, even cleared the last damn raid in Tokyo (which gives you a totally new mechanics you had to understand the hard way...) and the game was... incredibly good... i still remember the investigation quests making you search in the net with the in built internet and secret but at most the damn Luna Park and the Haunted House for the most awesome creepy experience ever... but sadly it got down and down until it became free to play... and that killed him at the very end: classes and skills to buy with in game currency and so son and so on... i'm still fond of the "original experience" and i'd love to play it single player... it was wonderful... it was extremely focused on story (and the game creators made also special videos which you could find with scraps of papers in the game and then looking them in the in built browser (like the quest of the theatre if i remember well) and the character customization which was wonderfu, but not friendly at all, but anyway... i'm just remembering the awesomeness of the story and the fact that you could (in a very limited way) choose how to end your story... damn i'm crying... i'm very sad that this game went down to hell... btw watching you play the american "party" made me really sad because every damn "group" had his own intro tutorial (apart from the metro in tokyo... which was a little bit foreshadowing at the time) and the DRAGONS (Korea/China) are incredibly crazy... but anyway it was unbelievably cool for someone that loved story over game mechanics.
The concept of this game alone sounds awesome, where you have the Illuminati, Knight's Templar and HP Lovecraft monsters, but for some reason, ends up being broken. It's like their heart is in the right place with the concept, but their programming skills are seemingly elsewhere.
This made me sad, but is a fair assessment I fear. It takes so long to get going most people understandably quit and Legends did nothing to improve this game.
To be fair, I played that game, or rather that game before re-release, for a while coop style with friend. I still remember how we ran around trying figure out crow puzzle.
Josh PLEASE play Dungeons and Dragons online. The dungeon design is phenomenal. Sometimes they go back to generic hack n slash but genuinely about half have lots of fun mechanics, puzzles, traps, multiple paths, alternative solutions and hidden mini bosses, hidden help, hidden treasure. Some requiring skills to spot a lever or disarm a trap, others requiring the exploration and or ability to jump to a ledge. It's crazy. Highly recommend.
This video was definitely interesting to listen to but I'm not sure I'm sold on how it conveyed an authentic secret world Legends experience by crashing Firefox on my phone almost as many times as it crashed on your computer.
Small Indy companies that discover Josh's video about their game: "Oh no nonono"
Yooooo is that the main character from Vampyr as the Templar narrator???
"Look how they massacred my boy..."
In all seriousness, it's a crying shame what they turned this game with SO MUCH potential and cool ideas into. I tried the old version for a bit years ago and it was a much better experience, way more faithful to what it aspired to be. The combat wasn't much better than it is now (it was, nonetheless) but the world, the quests, the story. were all miles above this crap, it was why people were playing the game. And now it's reduced to this. RIP.
Rarely if ever crashs for me. Did you try it on a different computer? good job and thank you for show balance reviews
I agree with almost everything you said about this game. Except the crashing. I have 30+ hours in the game without a single crash. This instantly moves the onus of crashes from the client to you're PC.
"We have stocks in hell and compromising photos of angels"
For me the lag in the game was because they use Dx11 on startup, change it to Dx9 and tweak the video settings to your liking and the game goes faster. I haven't had any crashes at all and I'm using an older AMD PC with a gtx 970 video card. Wish they had a first person option, that would look awesome.
One of biggest criticism of the original TSW (not Legends) and turned new players off was the double dipping with Subscription Fee and a Cash Shop, which is now ubiquitous for MMOs. I'm still sad about the original game.
Id love it if every year or so you made a tiers video showing how you rate all the mmo's youve played.
OMG the combat...I never had the crash issues, but the fail combat made me stop playing. If they made it a single player, or even LAN with friends and fixed the combat it'd be good.
I played this back when it was The Secret World. Actually had some fun with it, and was impressed by the puzzles at the time.
Had one puzzle in some military airfield where you heard what basically sounded like a tone coming through the audio for a second or two. If you listened carefully you could hear it was a SEQUENCE of tones played very rapidly. I ended up downloading a sound recorder and saving the audio, slowing it down, and then running it through a visualizer to decode what turned out to be VERY fast morse code. Like, 20+ tone per second morse code. Was kinda proud of myself at the time for realizing what it was and solving it without any kind of guide.
Edit: And yeah, the combat used to be BETTER (much nicer skill system/freedom) but it was never GOOD. Combat was always the weakest part of TSW.
Thank you for this video. I've been addicted since I started playing and it's ruined all other "mmos" for me
truly a shame what happened to this game, I have 266 hours laid into the original Secret World, and one day came back to play and saw that all my progress, all those hours... gone. Devastating. I had followed this game since the very beginning when I first heard about it back in 2010, promptly life caught up to me and I forgot to play it for a while, roll on into 2017, and it's all gone. Recently tried to getting back into it, to relive the memories I had, but I just find it all so meaningless, it's just a waste of time to attempt to recapture lost time. It's literally hearth breaking, I was 14 when I first discovered it, and now 27, deprived of nostalgia.
I played The Secret World, like Conan the first few levels were brilliant and the opening area was very rich, but it felt like they'd spent all their time on that and forgotten to create the rest of the game.
"The" secret world was a game that I purchased soon after release. At the time I was really getting into White Wolf properties like World of Darkness TTRPG. The game really drew me in with its aesthetics and lovecraftian approach. The combat system was very underwhelming though, and I remember not having a lot of fun questing. Ultimately stopped playing because of this reason. A games combat system has to be at least passable for me to enjoy it, or it has to do almost everything else right. TSW didn't do either. :/
I hope someone will do a game like that one day with good gameplay and everything better 😢
Through the power of being able to pause a video on youtube, I can tell you that the pop-up at 19:51 was a window for your "daily log-in bonus".
I remember paying for the full on bundle before the release of “The Secret World” and they promised no free to play. It was great. Played awesome, was difficult in some parts, but so much fun to play. Then six months in they went free to play and the servers were so dang bogged down no one could get to where they needed to go in the main hub worlds. Worst $200+ purchase ever made. Screw you, Funcom.
Those intro videos are a great example of how important a good introduction is. I was getting excited before knowing anything about the game
Anarchy Online is single handedly my favorite game of all time, especially in the mmorpg genre. -The game is set in a sci-fi world around the year 29487 and society evolved greatly thanks to the use of nanotechnology. -14 very unique classes that had such well made class identity and abilities that actually made you feel powerful and differentiate from eachother. Some of my favorite were Nano-technician, Meta-physicist, Engineer and Martial Artist. -200 base levels, 20 shadowland levels, 15 Alien levels, 10 research levels - This isnt your standard MMO where you can put a gloves, chest, weapons on etc. No in this you can do all that and even put implants into each part of your body that also give stats, not including a whole other tab that gives more items like a utility belt and something along the lines of jewelry. - This game has the best in terms of making a twink and the things you can put on say a lvl 19 is insane, You can have lvl 100 gear on a lvl 19! -The world itself is the biggest in the genre forsure, you can literally spend hours running from one side to the next and this is just the base game. Each zone is very early 2000s sci-fi, kinda like if Star ship troopers had a more evolved world. -The sheer complexity and deph of the game has kept me drawn for years and have played on and off since 05, still to this day I still am discovering new things and experiences. The game is difficult to play because it literally doesnt hold your hand at all and I understand that can be hard especially for new players and this new generation of gamers. I love anarchy online because you really makes you work for your progressive and rewards you well for getting that new weapon or even ability.
Yes funcom has a bad reputation but Anarchy is without a doubt their best work
Like 99% of what you mention here is... what people usually consider bad.
Being able to heavily twink is something many would argue is a really bad feature.
Overly large maps is also a big issue in a decent amount of MMOs, a big map for the sake of a big map sucks.
Overly complex item systems with layers upon layers is something that fits more on something like a Diablo-style Action RPG where the main loop of the game is to literally just get more loot. The whole "doesn't hold your hand and hard for new players and this generation of gamers" is a weak argument, especially because if WoW had come out at the same time as Everquest (as an example), it would have won hands down, not because people couldn't handle the over complexity of Everquest, but because the fun is not having to figure shit out constantly, and being over reliant on other players.
You are really not selling the game to me. Sounds like an overcomplicated mess that requires an insane time sink to even get basic shit done.
@@SioxerNikita I understand that games need to explain their systems better in order for players to actually give them a try. But my point is the sheer depth and complexity of AO is what makes it fun compared to other mmos on the market(it gives immense customization). If more mmos were made wity those attributes they would be more memorable and have higher replayability. Complexity isn't always the right path and WoW showed us all that, but more than anything depth of a games systems and world is what has kept me playing for decades this is also including WoW.
@@joshfresquez1783 Depth makes games fun, not complexity.
EVE Online is actually surprisingly simple, with a few obtuse mathematically mechanics.
Complexity is often what makes games EXTREMELY unfun.
And again, being able to twink characters is something ONLY end game players love, and it ABSOLUTELY ruins it for newer players. That is arguably a really shit design.
Customization is also not a just "It is good because you have it" kind of thing. That you have multiple layers stat increasing on your gear with implants and shit like that is one of the "Complex, but does it really add anything?"
Look at EVE Online, it has SHIT tons of customization... INSANE amounts of customization... yet the actual systems for customizing your ship is rather simple. Making it easy to understand, but because of how the systems work, it is also really deep.
Anarchy Online might be fun for you, sure, but even badly made games have people that loves playing them.
So you have... 15 gear slots, 13 implant slots...
15 weapon slots...
To me, that doesn't like "tons of customization options", it looks like an overly obtuse item system to try and add "perceived depth"...
Look at games like Path of Exile, Diablo 2, Last Epoch, etc.
Itemization, class and skill selection allows a SHIT ton of customization on how you play... but it also has drawbacks / benefits based on what gear you actually put on...
And they don't have a TON of gear slots.
Usually a main/off-hand slot, Helmet/Body/Pants, Amulet/ring/ring and sometimes an extra slot depending on the game as like a "Focus" or something...
That is 8 sometimes 9 slots... and there is an extreme deep level of customization there.
It rather sounds like the designers of Anarchy Online kept adding systems on top of systems while they initially made the game... and never really cut it down to what they need.
It was so good back then when it released. You would run with a friend and try to solve the puzzles. It was a lot of fun. Now i dont recognize it
Have you looked in to doing one of these episodes on PlanetSide 2? It would be cool to see your review of that that game :D
I could never get this game to work. I have two hours of playtime on steam, I didn't even create a character. It was just testing the client. Then I got tired of forums and threads and support for so much content I'd still have to buy. Dropped it hard.
Damn, Timothy Watson does the intro for the Templars. Quality Voice acting by the guy who voiced my man Uber Danger in FFXIV!
Ok, the Cornetto reference. Bruh I'm smiling now, goated TH-camr
There were so many things about The Secret World, before it became Secret World Legends, that made me think, "cool!".
Great story, some great moments and atmosphere. I think it struggled with endgame. Bugs, slow development, server issues.
Really enjoyed the skills circle though, RIP TSW.
Is that Gideon Emery, the same guy who voiced 'Urianger' in FF XIV at 3:40?
It's been a while I played TSW or SWL but I don't remember having this many crashes.
The athmosphere and worldbuilding is still the best among MMO-s I've played.
In your otherworld review you said it should have been a singleplayer game instead of an MMO. I think that's true for this game too.
"Like how the lunar landings were actually filmed on a soundstage -"
Oh.
"- on Mars."
Oh- w-wait, but...
each faction has different openings, the dragons being the most intense as they kidnap you and you gain your power and see the subway vision through a chick blowing you, the illuminati is the only ones that have the whole "birds aren't real" vibe to them
still this game is mediocre at best
SW was a one of a kind should have been. I can only dream of an upgraded revitalized version with newer graphics, a sharper combat system, and everything else relatively the same.
it could definitely use a review of the skill system, OK allot of interactions need to change, but that would be an amazing MMO. As it was, it almost hurt to see it not work out.
The original Secret World is an absolute Gem and was really good, i hope you can play it somehow and review it. I would like to hear your opinion on it
Oh, yes!
I do remember when they lanuched this thing!
"Like Vampire the Masquerade, but MMO."
If the robot computer voice said "Sneaking done, fighting now" or "do you like me?", would it be more familiar?
X-13 stealth suit, Fallout New Vegas voice
Watching this video reminds me how I would love "Nocturne" - which is not an MMO, I know, but an horror-survival game - to be remade by Nightdive Studios.
"It also ha a necklace attached because this is how texts work" ahahahhaa
It's one of my favorite games (the vanilla version too) I'll never get over the company abandoning it TWICE
The story, the puzzles, and the way it ties everything in is absolute god tier. The combat however, is absolutely horrendous. It hurts me how this game is basically a let-down just because of the combat really... If they would have focused on a multiplayer puzzle world with an intense story (like they already technically have), then this would probably have been still going really strong to this day...
i actually was so into Secret World when it launched. I loved the theme and idea behind it. Sad that it fell through :c
Interesting, I just re-installed this onto two different systems, one a pretty high end running Windows 11, the other a barely minimum capability Win10 machine. Not a single crash on either system. I wonder what was causing the crashes shown here?
18:02 fast forward to 2023 and this is how ALL npcs talk now lmaooo
TSW had some of the most engaging and enjoyable Investigation quests I've ever played, from researching poems for clues to translating Morse code to converting four separate encoded pieces of of a message back to ASCII and then merging them to find out what to do. It may be a dead, boring game now, but I don't think it'll ever be topped in that one regard.
17:17 honestly, it sounded like a corporate that's trying to talk like a youngster because "we're relatable yo". Considering the Illuminati theme I'm pretty sure that's the intention.
I'm actually surprised you crashed that much. Do you have Tesselation on high? I'd say SWL is a typical Funcom game, good ideas, good settings, and bad mechanics. Hmm, did you review the shop or did i miss it?
I played original SW and dont remember crashing. U have to realize that its dated mmo with combat system of that era, and it was damn cool for that time. I remember playing games like Star Wars Galaxies and then step into this, it was like miracle…
I remember the combat always sucked ass lol. It always felt disconnected and weak.
@@CasepbXI think it was fun for a time period... or atleast standard.
As I recall, at least from a few years ago, the constant crashing was/is an Nvidia problem and doesn't appear on AMD cards. I'm not sure what the issue is, but it may not be on Funcom entirely -- Nvidia is sometimes very slow to fix driver issues when they don't affect Nvidia-partnered developers.
i quit after i got to the next area cause all i felt like i was doing was killing something but undead stuff.
Interesting that Funcoms previous game Age of Conan has outlived this by far. Even tho it was neglected and predicted to die already about 10 years ago its still pretty active. Maybe worth an episode.
To me, quest markers have become an active detriment to modern game design. Most games are completely built around them now and as a result quests lack detail in their description, players just walk to the marker without interacting with the world of the game.
TSW has so much potential but like you said what holds it back is being an mmo. Also the crashing is because of Direct X 11 as it also happens in TSW and not just Legends.
11:50 Oh no, it's the Railroad again.
I played at Launch, the original, was so much better in terms of describing what's going on and set up. Just after the first zone, it got very samey
The Secret World had incredible story /athmosphere, and insane freedom when it came to builds, This abomination called Legends is just..sad If the Original Scret World was remade as a single player(with Co-op?) it could Stand with Morrowind or Skyrim such a shame