Secret World LegendsMMORPGs have always found a place in players’ lives somehow. When there are few good single-player games around, when we have exhausted the possibilities of replaying games we have already finished, at work, in the office or on the move, they have kept us company. In Turkey, though, the change in the audience for online games has a history of roughly five to ten years. Previously, online players were generally teenagers aged 15 to 17; today, adult interest is a major presence in the industry. Facebook’s investment in this field, even writing a client specifically for online games, reflects the strong interest among social-media users. Most of these games, however, are browser-based, Saga-style titles. And the truth is that nearly all are what we call pay-to-win: games where spending money, rather than putting in effort, lets you compete and climb the rankings. As someone who devoted a long time, effort and money to one such game published by Bigpoint, I sadly experienced the unfixed bugs, the increasing sense that “if you don’t have money, don’t play,” and the disregard for players’ complaints. So I began looking into the subject again. I came across a game that was rather underrated compared with the popular, overrated MMORPGs. Looking into it, I discovered that it had originally launched in 2012 and had recently become free after previously being sold for a price. The game is The Secret World, now known as Secret World Legends. So what makes it worth playing, and what sets it apart from other MMORPGs? I will touch on those points briefly. Since I am still new to the game, I won’t go into too much detail yet.
First of all, this is not a conventional slash-and-kill MMORPG. It doesn’t run on the straightforward logic of killing mobs, collecting experience, doing PvP and leveling up. Its structure is more complicated. You need at least some English, as there is currently no Turkish support. That also means it doesn’t have quite the audience of children being introduced to it in internet cafés, followed by the usual crop of cheaters. It is more likely to appeal to players who investigate things and care about the RPG side of a game. Quests are not simply “go and kill this many mobs.” Those exist, of course, but alongside quests that genuinely challenge you. Some are almost impossible to finish without researching them online—unless you happen to have software that can decode Morse code. So far, I have found detailed articles and videos online about all these difficult, complicated quests. I have also come across Turkish and international players interested in the game who make separate videos for individual quests.
I put its lack of mainstream popularity partly down to this complicated, unconventional structure, which for me has been a rare treat. Your level isn’t especially important; the game is not fundamentally built around levels. Leveling brings new quests and new enemies. They have made cinematics for every quest. Between the detail in the quests and these scenes, you feel as though you are following the story of a single-player game. That feeling is priceless in an online game. Then another player walks past right beside you and you think, “Right, this was an online game.” They have put enough care into both the visuals and the quest content that you don’t find yourself missing a single-player RPG. The graphics are wonderful, and a good story gives them substance. The more you play, the higher your expectations rise. The NPCs giving you quests are not soulless artificial intelligences standing stiff as posts. Each has a personality, character and body language. You get entirely different conversations with all of them. And the weapons cover the whole range: swords, rifles, machine guns, mines.
There are three factions and many classes to choose from. As far as I have seen, though, you are not forced to stick to a particular class. You can distribute the points you earn throughout the game among your character’s skills however you like. Besides experience, completing quests and reaching certain points on the experience bar gives you two further resources, SP and AP. EXP levels you up, SP unlocks active skills you use in combat, and AP unlocks passive skills that you do not activate in battle but that improve your combat skills and stats.
There is a place outside time called Agartha that all players use for travel. From there, you teleport to the city you want to visit. I went into this area when I first started. Out of curiosity, I thought I would fire my shotgun once at a player standing opposite me. The level-45 fellow selected the lying-down emote and pretended to die. We had a good laugh. The maps don’t consist of the usual mountains and plains. There are cities, buildings and towns. I have just finished Kingsmouth Town, which every new player passes through. It is a town completely overrun by zombies.
I won’t discuss the factions at length, because I don’t yet know what differences or connections there are between them. All I know is that each follows a different version of the story, which means different opening cinematics. The factions are the Illuminati, the Templars and the Dragon. You have all heard of the Illuminati. Thanks to Assassin’s Creed, we know about the Templars too. The Dragon represents chaos in the game and is an organization based in Japan.
Those are my first impressions of Secret World Legends for now. As a starting point, it is an MMORPG with very good graphics and atmosphere that feels substantial in the variety of its quests. We will see what the coming days bring. Once I understand it better, I would also like to write a detailed review.