Osharan Tregarth wrote on May 2^nd, 2012 at 2:29am:


Any pic is good pic
So I took what I could get mmh,...♫♫

Closed Beta access starts tomorrow at 5PM!  Got my key in the mail and downloading client now

got mine too, but may be without internet acess so I may not be needing it... I should know shortly

Secret World Closed Beta is running right now; I just got an invite yesterday (I honestly thought I was not accepted in the Beta Program; turns out its just really; really late in sending invites).

Huge freaking download; but it is going to be an awesome game! I see they also have pre-orders up; if the beta plays well, and the game lives up to its hype; I might be tempted to drop the 200$ on the lifetime subscription. After all ;at 15$ a month; if your playing long term; it pays off in the end I suppose as being considerably cheaper.

I've been playing it for about a week now, and like it quite a bit. Very different from DDO, I guess it's kinda WoW-ish (no clue, never played another MMO).

The story is really good, and the quests are interesting. Not the typical "Kill X amount of so-and-so", there's actual research involved, and puzzle solving.
My initial thought was  - It's a lot like Alone in the Dark, mostly the same setting, as well.

Got a "Buddy" beta key as well, if anyone wants, hit me up by pm - first come, first serve and all that jazz.

I might have a buddy beta key for this weekends beta...

12,7GB+ download 

I like it. And since the beta NDA is down i might aswell explain a few things.

The Lovecraftish story/setting got me hooked from the beginning, the music, the mobs, the NPCs, it just fits.

You're free to go everywhere on the map, if you can survive the mobs in that area.
Sometimes it's a good idea to not wander off too far into the woods...



Character progression
Characters can be built however you like, there are no character lvls or classes.
You get SP (skill points) and AP (ability points) for every full bar of xp.
Then you spend your SP on skills (much like proficiencies), like blade, shotgun, talisman, etc.,
and your AP on abilities (attacks and passive abilities) for your chosen weapons.

Your skills determine which QL (quality level) items you can use.
If you found an awsome QL3 sword but only have sword skill2, you can't use it.
Same goes for every other item you pick up, except potions.
I think skills also determine your chances to hit an opponent.


Combat
Combat isn't too bad, although it took me some time to get used to the clicking, watching counters, my health, special attacks, etc.
Whenever a mob starts a special attack, the affected area gets marked, so you have 1-4 seconds to dodge it.

You can equip two weapons, and in combat you can swap from your blade to your shotgun fluently.
For each weapon you'll get builder attacks, to build up charges (up to 5), and finishers, that deal damage depending on your charges.

The system reminds me of the assassin in diablo 2.

Some builders build up points only for the used weapons, some build up points for all weapons.
So if you use the right builders, you can build up 5 charges for your sword and 5 charges for your shotgun, and release a finisher for each weapon in 2 consecutive attacks after debuffing the enemy.
There are also attacks to debuff mobs, attacks that heal you and attacks that buff you.

You only have 8 slots for active and 8 slots for passive skills (called a 'deck'), but you can save different layouts (including gear, weapons, deck) for quick adaptation to different situations.


Appearance
Clothing seems to be entirely cosmetic, all the gear stats are on accessories like talismans, rings, bracers, etc and those aren't displayed.
From what i've read on the forums you can buy new clothes with ingame money, or unlock certain uniforms by building certain 'decks' (combinations of 8 active and 8 passive skills).


Quests
Quests are tiered, for each part you complete you get seperate XP, and the final quest XP when you finish it.
Some quests are purely 'seek and destroy that kind of mob over there' or 'collect those mushrooms over there'
But there are also 'investigation' quests, where you have to find clues and solve puzzles, and sabotage missions, where you have to be stealthy and find your way past traps, guards and cameras.
There are only pointers to the general location of a quest, the only other hint is a yellow border around quest items.

To get some of the clues you may even have to use the inbuilt internet browser, for example to google the name of the composer of a certain tune.

There are also dungeons, which you can only enter with a party, but i haven't tried one of those yet.
They seem to be housing the 'end boss' for an area, i'm sure there are videos out by now.

The good thing about all quests is, you don't have to go back to the quest giver.
Once you're done you get a phone call with the reward attached and you can move on to the next quest.
You can only have the story quest, one dungeon and 3 side quests in your log at one time.


Crafting
I haven't tried crafting myself, but from what i've seen it looks grindy (who would've guessed).
You basically disassemble loot and combine the pieces into higher tier pieces and use those higher tier pieces to build higher tier weapons.

Example:
Deconstruct QL0 shotgun, get 7 pieces of QL0 (quality level) metal.
Combine 5 pieces of QL0 into one piece of QL1 metal.
Repeat until you have 7 pieces of QL1 metal.
Combine those 7 pieces to create any QL1 weapon.

And then you can add glyphs for special weapon properties, like extra attack, extra crit power, etc.

Glyphs can be made in the same way, but using runes that randomly drop from certain mobs.
Glyphs can also drop from mobs.

It looks like you can craft everything, as long as you have the materials. No crafter lvl required.