An update, nearly 5 years later: Secret World is still around, however the game has been converted into a free-to-play model and is being run solely by the developer. While this means the game will survive for as long as people are willing to shovel up some money, it also means the game has microtransactions everywhere. You can supposedly still play the original game, but it is of course no longer supported, so you miss out on content, fixes, and adjustments added in the new version. And I don't think anyone has "cracked" it yet, so no private servers. This means the game is still in danger of being lost, particularly the old version, which is surviving only because Funcom has decided to keep the legacy server running.
Also, I actively play both Secret World Classic and Secret World Legends (The new version). So something not pointed out here, the game's combat has been overhauled in the Legends version to be faster and more fluid. Some other things were removed, such as crafting, while others were changed, like how you earn your abilities. A lot of people still play Classic, mainly those that liked how certain mechanics worked before, but the majority of the player base is active on Legends.
Thank you for the update, loved their dreamfall series back in the day but really didn't like their switch to mmo games, but maybe ill give this a shot.
"A single-player game handcuffed to an MMO server." This statement EXACTLY mirrors my feelings about Star Wars: The Old Republic. With the sole exception of the Operation instances and the reworked Flashpoint system, you don't NEED a group to enjoy the game. Though, it IS a BioWare game, and with the exception of Mass Effect 3's ending, their work is pretty solid. Sadly, SW:TOR bears the stamp of death that is EA's logo as well as a publishing credit for them, so I'm sure its time is limited, but I like to think that BioWare won't just sit idle and let them kill what is probably their best game since the original Knights of the Old Republic
Agreed, I went from a lowly lightside Sith Warrior to a Benevolent Galactic Emperor Jesus in that game and had a blast, SWTORS death would kill mmos for me. Either find a way to make it offline playable bioware, or legally allow emulators for it.
Yochanan Ben Yaakov I HOPE BioWare has an end-of-life plan for Old Republic, because there is literally NO reason it needs to be an online-only game. Hell, why not take the opportunity to reprogram it as a single-player game but give it Mass Effect's gameplay and turn it into an Action-RPG where you can actually make better use of the classes? Mainly the gunner-type characters, but the Agent in particular. It's the only class that can use a sniper rifle and you can't aim at ALL with the kind of gameplay the game has now. Sure it would cut down on how many abilities you could use, but Mass Effect 2 and 3 had fewer ability options than the original and they were still fun to play
If I recall correctly, someone was making a 4k remake of SWTOR and they weren't being sponsored by EA or BIoware. But I heard this, like, two plus years ago through a buddy of mine in high school, so as far as I'm aware the project may be dead. Plus the guy half lied like the devil on everything so it may have never existed in the first place, I never bothered to follow up because I will probably never own a machine that could run a 4k resolution. But there's a microscopic pube hair of hope for ya.
Honestly, without the context of the video it sounds more like a motivational question, like you're asking yourself how much chaos can you cause today lol
ross even though you're probably not gonna see this I want to tell you:in California there is a Halloween theme park every year with 5 haunted houses called pirates of Emerson. I went there last night and do you wanna know what one of the attractions was?well do ya?...........CarnEvil , yes one of the best Halloween games of all time was in an actual theme park.
Even after 4 years and a lot of rewatches, I love that Texan guy cooking beans
7 років тому+33
Finally bought the game in a Humble Bundle and it's the first MMO I enjoy in my gaming life. I don't even know why this game is an MMO, it could have been an awesome single player RPG.
EA did not publish The Secret World, Funcom contracted them to print and distribute physical copies of the game in North America only. Funcom self-published The Secret World worldwide.
Yeah, this guy can pump out 40 minute videos in the span of like a week, all of which are just as good as any other review So either other reviewers are being lazy, or they're trying WAY TOO HARD.
+HQDefault This is 100% me being a Halloween freak, it is totally not healthy to do these at the pace I've been doing them. I probably won't be doing this many Halloween ones next year, this month wrecked me a bit.
+HQDefault No reviewer who can put out one or more videos a week is lazy. I think Ross was really doing these reviews and nothing else during this month.
The "pay once, play forever" promise reminds me soooo much of my employer. The company said, "We have no plans for layoffs." Later, they sent out a mass email laying off about 12% of the company. They keep saying, "We have no plans for layoffs," but they will never give any warning before laying people off. They're lying straight to our faces, yet they keep saying that they're trying to "regain our trust." They also claim that they did nothing wrong. Companies truly don't care at all about their employees. They used to be really well known for being great to their employees too.
Been obsessed with the stalker games lately so it could just be me making connections that don't exist. :p It's the shimmering that really does it for me. Anyone who's had to sift through an anomaly field can see a faint shimmer from a mile away, amirite?
Oh hey, this game features Jeffrey Combs two separate times! First appearance in this video is as the Illuminati doc and the second time is as that headmaster guy with the gloves. For those of you that think his voice sounds familiar, but don't recognize the name, he was Brunt and Weyuon in Star Trek DS9 and Shran in Enterprise. He's also done a bunch of other voice acting and regular acting work, but I mostly know him from Star Trek personally.
This is easily the most memorable game I played in the last 5 years. I've played it for just over a year now, but it seems like I've been playing it longer. Anyhow I've enjoyed your review a lot and it's making me want to boot it up right now. I'm not sure why everyone is so hard on the combat. I like it just fine. Also they made combat a lot easier in all the zones (except for Kaidan). Solomon Island especially was made easier. For me it was typically the investigation missions that made me feel stupid a lot of times. That's probably just on me though I do think some are too hard to figure out without a lot of hints. It does seem like something is off with your damage because with blade you can decimate goons quite handily. It shouldn't take you that long to take out just some random Draug. I use Blade and Shotgun primarily and I could drop guys quick. You are right though about it being a single player mmo, even I don't feel confident running high level dungeons or teaming because it just feels so isolated despite adding group finder and stuff. I never beat the Gatemaster yet. I mostly just enjoy running solo though occasionally I'll join a lair or dungeon run if I know what I am getting into and see it advertised in Sanctuary.
@GeorgeMonet VTM:Bloodlines is fine for the first half. Eh. We could still boot up both games. But as Ross would say someone in the head several times in the head. VTM:BL that's is your only play later and I was a Brujah I think. I never fucking remember now. I scratched and went primal most of the time.
This travel through the hollow Earth thing sounds so much like "A gamedesigner had to come up with an idea of fast travel, and he was given only a single morning to do this".
+Dmitrij Bugajev Well... there aren't many original ideas around for fast travel. Most games just have a player pay for it in in-game money or they just use portals... this is at least a little more original than that. Any examples of fast travel done right in your opinion?
sheogorath19 I don't have enough MMO experience to tell. Just having planes in this game would do, since the main locations are not connected, as far as I understand. EVE online has a good system of _slow_ travel, where large corporations actually have players who specialize in logistics.
That voice actor is the prolific Steven Jay Blum! He holds the world record for being the most prolific video game voice actor. He's also real big in English dub animes as well.
Man, it’s a shame you don’t like turn based combat, Ross because I think you’d LOVE Darkest Dungeon. The last location (the titular Darkest Dungeon) is one if the most metal locations I’ve seen in any game ever.
Wait, is the white-haired doctor from the Illuminati intro voiced by Jeffery Combs? The headmaster is too! Oh my hecc it is! That's cool. Jeffery Combs makes total sense in a game with so many references to Lovecraft. :D
I can only imagine how awesome this game would be if it had a single player mode like dark souls 2. This game is a blast solo and really you would only need to summon other player for those high level dungeons.
The guy who did the Gametrailers videos was basically a mouthpiece for all the writers on the site. Other people wrote the actual reviews, while he basically read them out loud.
Trent Reznor made an alternate reality game for the release of his Year Zero album, he hid tapes with fake recordings, fake letters, clues to fake websites. It was the most elaborate album release of all time and nobody knew about it. It almost spawned a TV show.
Uh, the "parallel world" puzzles. That's the thing that killed off Fez for me. Once I encountered the first QR code, I stared at my screen in disbelief for a few seconds, then closed the game and never returned to it.
So...I started to play The Secret World. And this game not only alive, but free on Steam and they made combat easier (after watching the video again I may say that combat is very different now)...or at least I don't feel like a lumberjack killing mobs there. They changed some other things, and older players think it is for the worse...but it look fine for me. Can recommend trying it. So far I like the story, not all of it though. And...other points from video are still present. Though I have not seen everything. UPD: Ross was right about the Egypt. First part of it not too interesting, but passable, second part suck. A LOT. At least Transilvania is actually good (not without some BS though). And next location, Tokyo...is...flat...
no wonder the headmaster in that level is oddly charming in a game like this, he's played by legendary horror actor Jeffrey Combs.. (who also played Ratchet in Transformers Prime, so extra good boy points from me).
Ugh, I LOVED this game. Bought a lifetime subscription which, I assume, has like 6 years of unclaimed monthly rewards waiting for me as I type this. I certainly have no idea how, but I feel like with a few different design decisions it could have been a genuine classic. Probably not being a MMORPG and having related grind mechanics (even if much lighter than most games) would be a good start
Also I came to the opposite conclusion as you for similar reasons; I joined the Dragon because it was abundantly obvious we stood no chance fighting -literally Hell and Cthulhu et cetera- so the best course of action was to at least try to be so confusing and cryptic that we could hide while holding them off. Anyone choosing the Illuminati is clearly a sociopath though
I swear that amusement park is based off of one in Chernobyl, that's why it goes greyscale and static harkening to S.T.A.L.K.E.R-esque radiation spookiness
+Jordan Iceberg You're kind of right. It's been a year or so since I played the game but from what I remember of the park's story, the parks original creator (who is now the Bogeyman and was the quest givers father) had some deep-rooted issues and his own evil kind of 'infected/corrupted' the park. There are a lot of child deaths bought up in the mission dialogue and though it's never fully addressed, there are lots of subtle references to paedophilia - especially during the final mission and confrontation with the Bogeyman. I always saw the greyscale/static as a visual representation of the oozing corruption in the place.
+ARCANA I'm pretty sure the guy deliberately designed the park to siphon some shit from children and make himself immortal. You have to use coloured lenses to see the Anima Circuitry that flows through the park, and I believe one of your objectives is to find the blueprints so no one else can reproduce it.
got this game on humble bundle and i'm having a pretty good time with it. thanks ross for putting it on my radar. also, its been over a year and its still running along with a decent sized player base.
12:54 Oblivion had some interesting characters, but mostly with minor characters. Such as the cheese loving athletics trainer, most of the Dark Brotherhood targets, the runaway necrophiliac, and the indiscriminate nature exploding destruction magic master which come to mind.
Not really. They were one dimensional at best and practically none of them had dialogue that actually felt like it was spoken by someone with a personality, it was more like they were just reinforcing their one or two traits they had. The characters Ross is talking to in game could have their dialogue written out on a piece of paper and you could reasonably guess what dialogue came from who, whereas in Oblivion the only giveaway that dialogue came from a certain character is if it includes their one personality trait like "this character likes cheese" or whatever. I'd be curious what Ross had to say about some of The Elder Scrolls games, I know he doesn't really like them that much though and I can only assume it's because Bethesda generally aims for quantity over quality which doesn't seem to interest him.
@@slavinib6857 It's trash though. Combat and skill system is even worse than it was. Now it's impossible to motivate oneself to get through the game anymore.
The fact that the first "evil" town is in Maine is a reference to Steven King, as according to Kings writing the center of evil in the universe is in small towns in Maine.
Umm, Ross, do you live in Kraków by any chance? Because TSW is an abbreviation of one of the local soccer clubs (Towarzystwo Sportowe Wisła) Also, great review. BTDubs - There already exist Secret World private servers.
Ahh.. I really loved the game. Almost didnt want to watch the video, because I knew it would hurt. I replayed the game when it became Secret World Legends... But both times I gave up on it eventually. Its so good in a way.. but I guess a fatal flaw is fatal..
You know Ross, you might wanna check the new F2P varient. The combat is a little more fast paced, and difficulty is scaled down a tiny bit. But the game is STILL going lol
Yeah after not having the heart to start over at first I finally started getting after the F2P variant some six months ago and I hated it at first. I then switched out Blade for Pistols and well I just seemed to enjoy it a lot more. Pistols is quite hands off but I just could not stand the gimmick attached to Sword. Elemental I selected just randomly at first and I like that one. So all things considered I'm just happy the game is still around in some form. I preferred the original still, but the new version is fine.
I've just started playing TSW:Legends, and I must admit, that they've improved combat, a lot. I feel no problem killing stuff during less clever quests, so if someone is scared by Ross nightmare just let it go. Especially if you are like me - don't care much about MMO ambitions, just enjoying story and world :)
When you were talking about how much you like the OCD headmaster at the Illuminati school, I would've thought the fact that it sure as Hell sounded like Jeffrey Combs, which I'd consider more than noteworthy, would've also been mentioned by you.
+Max Because it might not be up next year, it's anyone's guess. I meant to include a line like that, but I was going nonstop to get this out by Halloween.
I hear that carnevil music at the end there, Ross. Funny thing is an arcade not far from me actually had a functioning carnevil cabinet on free play. Sadly, though, one of those guns got messed up somehow nearing a month ago and they never got it fixed because it's a fairly small time arcade in a mall that's pretty much a ghost town except for a KOHL's and a bass pro shop that make up two sections of the building.
I played this game for hundreds of hours in the first years after release. I enjoyed it but I quit for the two downsides: you spend way too long in the handful of zones and the combat is tedious and unsatisfying. both these points drag the entire game down to the abyss. funcom ended up releasing small chapters post launch with more zone variety but the damage was already done. you mentioned it already but really this game should've been released as a single player game with much better combat and we'd be praising it as a horror classic like vtmb.
Hey Ross you need to touch on this game in a follow-up episode, I think. I was checking out Steam and apparently it's gotten really bad? Although a lot of the reviews talk about the combat which could be good or bad, considering the complaints are that it was dumbed-down. Also it's free-to-play, which according to some reviews actually means pay-to-play but who knows. Though I guess it's free so I might as well just give it a shot.
late to the thread and not sure if anyone else mentioned it... i had to look it up to confirm, and sure enough- the creepy OCD headmaster (Hayden Montag) that wears the latex gloves? voiced by Jeffrey Combs. not only does it look a lot like him, but he plays a VERY similar character in The Frighteners (a corrupt detective with OCD who is secretly a practicer of the occult- oops, spoilers.) he also voices Charles Zurn in this game as well. BUT ALSO continuing on to OTHER similar lore in other media, he plays Dr. Herbert West in the Re-Animator/Beyond Re-Animator movies as well as the protagonist in From Beyond, three movies centered around actual Cthulhu mythos stories. just something extra special i thought you'd appreciate.
Alright, so to everyone who is interested in this game still, I checked the Steam store and found out that it is STILL around under the name 'Secret World Legends.' It's free to play, and I haven't got around to checking it out yet. Whether or not it's any better than the original game..I'm unsure, but it doesn't hurt to look at it since it's free.
So the Park barely use any existing assets. TSW got a few more DLCs and other updates. Another TSW based game coming up. Not dying after all it seems. Oh and this game is not even connected to EA. EA just pushed out 20,000 CDs in North-America. Also if you dislike the combat, try playing combat with target mode (T).
I wouldn’t have thought it was the literal Bible passage either. I’d have thought there was a clock in the church that had arms pointing at a book/illustration to read.
10:32 I love this man. 11:19 Perform an exorcism on my sphincter. Expel the ghost of the 1 pound bean burrito. Also, I'm gonna randomly recommend an MMO with a good fighting system. Maple Story 2. I was surprised by how much control I had. Like, "What? I can move and shoot? So I can kite enemies? Or I can get a quick burst of speed to rush into or dodge away from enemies? And I have a total of 18-24 abilities per class, some of which are passive so it's not a cluster of crap? Whoaw..." And the fighting is in real time and doesn't feel slow or clunky. Also I have encountered very few attacks or spells that's animation takes longer than 0.5 seconds. And 0.5 seconds is the higher end. "Wsh wsh" throws some daggers, and you can quickly jump away from enemies. I think the longest animation was my assassin throwing a giant ninja star. Took like... 0.7 seconds I think? I think that's the longest. But even that I like cuz it adds a slight feel of, "You need to THROW this weapon to have it hurt someone, give it a bit." But when the animation finishes on all attacks, you can be back to full movement speed immediatley. It's so good. - Also Maple Story 2 is free.
i know this is an older video but funcom is relaunching this game. According to them, they are completely redoing the combat aspect and doing a new introductory scene.
Oh the park IS related to this. I knew I had watched the whole thing and when I saw that squirrel suit, I was wondering if it was some crossover or something. That game genuinely shocked me with one of the "bad guy" appearances during a ride.
Paused the video to read up on it and I now recall believing "The Park" to be a story of a mother coming to terms with murdering her child. The fact that I watched a Let's Play and the game doesn't specifically mention The Secret World's connection (plus I didn't do the mission in TSW) easily shows why I and a lot of other people including my brother, came to that conclusion. Interesting that it's actually the result of a demonic entity, once human, twisting the park into a magic-generating machine by sucking the emotions out of people, good and bad. Wish I had known the connection before-hand, but it's interesting to know it now.
Sad Ross failed to mention the "delightful" Lovecraftian OCD latex-gloved professor was played by the same actor who starred in the Lovecraft film Reanimator. He's one of my favorite voice actors.
As far as Lovecraftian Elder Gods go, I suppose you could probably outwit Cthulhu, seeing as all things considered he's on the lower rungs of the Great Old Ones. It's ones like Nyarlathotep and Yog-Sothoth you should avoid trying to outwit. You wouldn't be able to outwit Azathoth or Shub-Niggurath though, but that's just because they wouldn't bother with trickery, they'd just obliterate you without having ever even noticed that you were there.
Still waiting on that "The Park" review. Maybe this Halloween? And I checked, and The Secret World is still available on Steam. Obviously can't say for how much longer, but it's been over a year since this video went up, and over five since the game went live, so it looks like it's safe for now. It's actually turning to a free to play model sometime this year under the name "Secret World Legends". I would totally understand if that sends up some warning flags though for some people. Hopefully Ross mentions this in a future Follow Up video.
Hey Ross, I originally started playing The Secret World ages ago, probably about 6 months before this episode of Game Dungeon came out. Secret World has since gone free to play, but it looks like they uh...I don't want to say they FIXED combat, but they did tweak it. From what I've experienced so far, it doesn't take as many hits to kill trash mobs anymore. The combat system itself is still the same (although the UI for the skillpoints is different), but more tolerable, in case you were thinking about playing the game again at any point.
I bought this a while ago but seeing this video has made me go back and replay it. I agree with all your points Ross, but the thing that impressed me the most were the puzzles, and with the great cut scenes this really does play like a single player MMO. I didn't like the desert so much either, thought there were a couple great characters there, namely Nassir and Said, but Solomon Island was the best set of maps thus far in my experience. Transylvania is pretty good as well though.
Fable 3 had an excellent desert, probably my favorite part of the game. But they did it right, mysterious and unpredictable enemies and a sense that you were constantly being watched by some malevolent force.
I mean, the individual grains of sand had more character and better dialogue than any of the characters did. They had a decent concept with that weird darkness creature, I remember thinking, "Wow, that could actually be creepy in any other title."
Omg this MMO is awesome! Really fresh ideas and not just another generic, Tolkein/WoWesque game. It's a shame you don't like MMOs because this game looks incredibly unique as far as they go. If someone like Mr Btongue is to be believed, this goes back to that everquest 90's design. Every part of this game that you keep poopooing, I'm just getting excited by lol. Obtuse puzzles, cooldown management combat, but the recontextualizing with Lovecraftian elements is pushing it over the edge for me. I definitely wouldn't mind playing it. But... EA.
You're right I *do* like the writing in Max Payne, and I like the writing in TSW for the most part too. Sometimes there's too much corn in it, and listening to Geary talk makes me want to blow my brains out, but it largely strikes me as one huge homage to Stephen King and HP Lovecraft, and that's cool with me.
All MMOs should be backed up and cracked to be singleplayer-playable. Even if an MMO were impossible for anything but a powerful server to run it, just having the code out there would be enough.
An update, nearly 5 years later:
Secret World is still around, however the game has been converted into a free-to-play model and is being run solely by the developer. While this means the game will survive for as long as people are willing to shovel up some money, it also means the game has microtransactions everywhere.
You can supposedly still play the original game, but it is of course no longer supported, so you miss out on content, fixes, and adjustments added in the new version. And I don't think anyone has "cracked" it yet, so no private servers. This means the game is still in danger of being lost, particularly the old version, which is surviving only because Funcom has decided to keep the legacy server running.
Thanks for the update.
Thanks a lot for the update, he is going to play it with fans on october 24, 2020 utc 5 pm
@@KingLich451 Oh, really? I'll put that on my calendar then. Thanks for the notice!
Also, I actively play both Secret World Classic and Secret World Legends (The new version). So something not pointed out here, the game's combat has been overhauled in the Legends version to be faster and more fluid. Some other things were removed, such as crafting, while others were changed, like how you earn your abilities.
A lot of people still play Classic, mainly those that liked how certain mechanics worked before, but the majority of the player base is active on Legends.
Thank you for the update, loved their dreamfall series back in the day but really didn't like their switch to mmo games, but maybe ill give this a shot.
"this is just fighting with time-delayed water pistols"
Goddamn, speaking some truth bombs here.
Yeah I've never heard a better description of tap-target combat.
'Support your local templars.'
I love it
"A single-player game handcuffed to an MMO server." This statement EXACTLY mirrors my feelings about Star Wars: The Old Republic. With the sole exception of the Operation instances and the reworked Flashpoint system, you don't NEED a group to enjoy the game. Though, it IS a BioWare game, and with the exception of Mass Effect 3's ending, their work is pretty solid. Sadly, SW:TOR bears the stamp of death that is EA's logo as well as a publishing credit for them, so I'm sure its time is limited, but I like to think that BioWare won't just sit idle and let them kill what is probably their best game since the original Knights of the Old Republic
Agreed, I went from a lowly lightside Sith Warrior to a Benevolent Galactic Emperor Jesus in that game and had a blast, SWTORS death would kill mmos for me. Either find a way to make it offline playable bioware, or legally allow emulators for it.
Yochanan Ben Yaakov I HOPE BioWare has an end-of-life plan for Old Republic, because there is literally NO reason it needs to be an online-only game. Hell, why not take the opportunity to reprogram it as a single-player game but give it Mass Effect's gameplay and turn it into an Action-RPG where you can actually make better use of the classes? Mainly the gunner-type characters, but the Agent in particular. It's the only class that can use a sniper rifle and you can't aim at ALL with the kind of gameplay the game has now. Sure it would cut down on how many abilities you could use, but Mass Effect 2 and 3 had fewer ability options than the original and they were still fun to play
If I recall correctly, someone was making a 4k remake of SWTOR and they weren't being sponsored by EA or BIoware. But I heard this, like, two plus years ago through a buddy of mine in high school, so as far as I'm aware the project may be dead. Plus the guy half lied like the devil on everything so it may have never existed in the first place, I never bothered to follow up because I will probably never own a machine that could run a 4k resolution. But there's a microscopic pube hair of hope for ya.
SWTOR should of never been a mmo, it should of just been Kotor 3
Mass effect Andromeda, Dragon Age: Inquisition, and Anthem ruined that streak.
"You think you can out-chaos Cthulhu?" I need that quote mounted on my wall.
Honestly, without the context of the video it sounds more like a motivational question, like you're asking yourself how much chaos can you cause today lol
Omg I want that so bad now.
"I ended up finding a witch anyway" *witch skateboards away*
ross even though you're probably not gonna see this I want to tell you:in California there is a Halloween theme park every year with 5 haunted houses called pirates of Emerson. I went there last night and do you wanna know what one of the attractions was?well do ya?...........CarnEvil , yes one of the best Halloween games of all time was in an actual theme park.
Outsmart an Elder God? Didn't someone already do that?
A certain theoretical physicist.
With a gun.
Wasn't that person going to become a 'one free man'
t850terminator and a rocket launcher
Or an internet comic reviewer, also with a gun. twice in fact.
You mean the Xen entity? That's small fry compared to what the power of the Outer Gods.
@@Przemko27Z The outer gods cant beat ye olde plot armor though
Even after 4 years and a lot of rewatches, I love that Texan guy cooking beans
Finally bought the game in a Humble Bundle and it's the first MMO I enjoy in my gaming life. I don't even know why this game is an MMO, it could have been an awesome single player RPG.
Hmmm, EA, Eldritch Abomination? It all adds up now
EA did not publish The Secret World, Funcom contracted them to print and distribute physical copies of the game in North America only. Funcom self-published The Secret World worldwide.
More on this later.
Over a year later and they are still releasing content for TSW. I think it's going to last longer than you feared.
AngelWolfPlays oh, thanks
Yeah, this guy can pump out 40 minute videos in the span of like a week, all of which are just as good as any other review
So either other reviewers are being lazy, or they're trying WAY TOO HARD.
+HQDefault This is 100% me being a Halloween freak, it is totally not healthy to do these at the pace I've been doing them. I probably won't be doing this many Halloween ones next year, this month wrecked me a bit.
+Accursed Farms But we love you for doing it
+HQDefault No reviewer who can put out one or more videos a week is lazy. I think Ross was really doing these reviews and nothing else during this month.
***** At what point did I ever call him lazy.
HQDefault Not him but other reviewers.
18:15 This is the best explanation i've ever heard of the difference between turn-based combat and the shit they put in most MMO's nowadays.
"cooldown combat" describes Blizzard-style RTS combat perfectly. It's also used in the game Sins of a Solar Empire which gives it a really weird feel.
@@Ashalmawia But it works in Sins as Sins combat makes it look like watching an episode of Star Trek.
The "pay once, play forever" promise reminds me soooo much of my employer. The company said, "We have no plans for layoffs." Later, they sent out a mass email laying off about 12% of the company. They keep saying, "We have no plans for layoffs," but they will never give any warning before laying people off. They're lying straight to our faces, yet they keep saying that they're trying to "regain our trust." They also claim that they did nothing wrong. Companies truly don't care at all about their employees. They used to be really well known for being great to their employees too.
Wtf? Ross Lives in Poland, Krakow? I recognize those tags and places, TSW stands for "Towarzystwo sportowe wisła" (Wisła sport association).
yeah he lives there because food and rent an stuff is cheap iirc
+Giovanii Yes, he has mentioned it before.
+Giovanii You mean to say all those Secret World references are just some sports hooligan tags?
+Giovanii I'd have to say he lives near Bialystok, Poland.
+Peter DD Sadly, yes.
28:08 Stalker references? Pripyat ferris wheel, shimmering and static? Cheeki? Breeki?
Get out of here STALKER! Good observation, I never thought of it. Makes me want to play STALKER again.
Been obsessed with the stalker games lately so it could just be me making connections that don't exist. :p It's the shimmering that really does it for me. Anyone who's had to sift through an anomaly field can see a faint shimmer from a mile away, amirite?
To be fair, the title of the game was Where IN the world is Carmen Sandiego.
Oh hey, this game features Jeffrey Combs two separate times! First appearance in this video is as the Illuminati doc and the second time is as that headmaster guy with the gloves. For those of you that think his voice sounds familiar, but don't recognize the name, he was Brunt and Weyuon in Star Trek DS9 and Shran in Enterprise. He's also done a bunch of other voice acting and regular acting work, but I mostly know him from Star Trek personally.
Holy shit! That's Jeffrey Combs doing the latex glove guy's voice!
7:00
It's the guy from Nyet 3!
it more reminds me of Calo Nord from sw kotor 1
This is easily the most memorable game I played in the last 5 years. I've played it for just over a year now, but it seems like I've been playing it longer. Anyhow I've enjoyed your review a lot and it's making me want to boot it up right now. I'm not sure why everyone is so hard on the combat. I like it just fine. Also they made combat a lot easier in all the zones (except for Kaidan). Solomon Island especially was made easier. For me it was typically the investigation missions that made me feel stupid a lot of times. That's probably just on me though I do think some are too hard to figure out without a lot of hints. It does seem like something is off with your damage because with blade you can decimate goons quite handily. It shouldn't take you that long to take out just some random Draug. I use Blade and Shotgun primarily and I could drop guys quick.
You are right though about it being a single player mmo, even I don't feel confident running high level dungeons or teaming because it just feels so isolated despite adding group finder and stuff. I never beat the Gatemaster yet. I mostly just enjoy running solo though occasionally I'll join a lair or dungeon run if I know what I am getting into and see it advertised in Sanctuary.
Oh, god, Kaidan was a nightmare.
Eh I don't think it is as good as VtMB which is an extremely similar game.
@GeorgeMonet VTM:Bloodlines is fine for the first half. Eh. We could still boot up both games. But as Ross would say someone in the head several times in the head. VTM:BL that's is your only play later and I was a Brujah I think. I never fucking remember now. I scratched and went primal most of the time.
I just woke up. I didn't want to say shooting a lot heh but I don't mind firing several shots also on a damn game.
I like how his voice often sounds like a combination of happy/irritated. xD
"This isn't going to be a thorough review"
6 minutes in, 34 to go. Sure, Ross, sure.
Honestly it was just too brief. he didn't bother sith anything.
+eedobaba7726 Most of it was a guided tour and a passionate rant about MMO combat in general.
This travel through the hollow Earth thing sounds so much like "A gamedesigner had to come up with an idea of fast travel, and he was given only a single morning to do this".
+Dmitrij Bugajev Well... there aren't many original ideas around for fast travel. Most games just have a player pay for it in in-game money or they just use portals... this is at least a little more original than that. Any examples of fast travel done right in your opinion?
sheogorath19 I don't have enough MMO experience to tell. Just having planes in this game would do, since the main locations are not connected, as far as I understand. EVE online has a good system of _slow_ travel, where large corporations actually have players who specialize in logistics.
+Dmitrij Bugajev I have no experience in EVE, but I see what you mean. Planes would be less original, though maybe more logical.
+Dmitrij Bugajev The Earth being hollow is a theory I found out a little while ago but apparently it's an actual thing and it's not obscure either.
I don't know, I read a book about the varations on the myth of Hollow Earth and some of those are pretty awesome.
I'm glad someone other than me is wary of online only games having a limited lifeline.
I like how Ross keeps sidetracking away from anything to do with the fighting of monsters.
That voice actor is the prolific Steven Jay Blum! He holds the world record for being the most prolific video game voice actor. He's also real big in English dub animes as well.
Man, it’s a shame you don’t like turn based combat, Ross because I think you’d LOVE Darkest Dungeon. The last location (the titular Darkest Dungeon) is one if the most metal locations I’ve seen in any game ever.
Wait, is the white-haired doctor from the Illuminati intro voiced by Jeffery Combs? The headmaster is too! Oh my hecc it is! That's cool.
Jeffery Combs makes total sense in a game with so many references to Lovecraft. :D
I can only imagine how awesome this game would be if it had a single player mode like dark souls 2. This game is a blast solo and really you would only need to summon other player for those high level dungeons.
7 years later.... still love this game.
oh man, coming back to this gem of an episode im excited for this years halloween episode; that being said im always excited for new videos from ross
I've been a fan of TSW and your channel for a long time now. Great video. Keep up the good work.
Still waiting for my candy Ross.
The guy who did the Gametrailers videos was basically a mouthpiece for all the writers on the site. Other people wrote the actual reviews, while he basically read them out loud.
Trent Reznor made an alternate reality game for the release of his Year Zero album, he hid tapes with fake recordings, fake letters, clues to fake websites. It was the most elaborate album release of all time and nobody knew about it. It almost spawned a TV show.
Uh, the "parallel world" puzzles.
That's the thing that killed off Fez for me. Once I encountered the first QR code, I stared at my screen in disbelief for a few seconds, then closed the game and never returned to it.
***** Disgustingly lazy, immersion-breaking design? Yes, it very much impacts me.
I'd been really interested in playing FEZ until I read about the QR bullshit. Like WTF.
+Douglas “Hyde” Cartee The ending is also the laziest, most pretentious non-ending ever.
So...I started to play The Secret World. And this game not only alive, but free on Steam and they made combat easier (after watching the video again I may say that combat is very different now)...or at least I don't feel like a lumberjack killing mobs there. They changed some other things, and older players think it is for the worse...but it look fine for me. Can recommend trying it. So far I like the story, not all of it though. And...other points from video are still present. Though I have not seen everything. UPD: Ross was right about the Egypt. First part of it not too interesting, but passable, second part suck. A LOT. At least Transilvania is actually good (not without some BS though). And next location, Tokyo...is...flat...
no wonder the headmaster in that level is oddly charming in a game like this, he's played by legendary horror actor Jeffrey Combs.. (who also played Ratchet in Transformers Prime, so extra good boy points from me).
Ugh, I LOVED this game. Bought a lifetime subscription which, I assume, has like 6 years of unclaimed monthly rewards waiting for me as I type this. I certainly have no idea how, but I feel like with a few different design decisions it could have been a genuine classic. Probably not being a MMORPG and having related grind mechanics (even if much lighter than most games) would be a good start
Also I came to the opposite conclusion as you for similar reasons; I joined the Dragon because it was abundantly obvious we stood no chance fighting -literally Hell and Cthulhu et cetera- so the best course of action was to at least try to be so confusing and cryptic that we could hide while holding them off. Anyone choosing the Illuminati is clearly a sociopath though
I swear that amusement park is based off of one in Chernobyl, that's why it goes greyscale and static harkening to S.T.A.L.K.E.R-esque radiation spookiness
+Jordan Iceberg You're kind of right. It's been a year or so since I played the game but from what I remember of the park's story, the parks original creator (who is now the Bogeyman and was the quest givers father) had some deep-rooted issues and his own evil kind of 'infected/corrupted' the park. There are a lot of child deaths bought up in the mission dialogue and though it's never fully addressed, there are lots of subtle references to paedophilia - especially during the final mission and confrontation with the Bogeyman. I always saw the greyscale/static as a visual representation of the oozing corruption in the place.
+ARCANA I'm pretty sure the guy deliberately designed the park to siphon some shit from children and make himself immortal. You have to use coloured lenses to see the Anima Circuitry that flows through the park, and I believe one of your objectives is to find the blueprints so no one else can reproduce it.
got this game on humble bundle and i'm having a pretty good time with it. thanks ross for putting it on my radar. also, its been over a year and its still running along with a decent sized player base.
You inspired me to check out this games music soundtrack.. that shit is over 100 songs deep, and it's some of the best game music I've ever heard!
12:54 Oblivion had some interesting characters, but mostly with minor characters. Such as the cheese loving athletics trainer, most of the Dark Brotherhood targets, the runaway necrophiliac, and the indiscriminate nature exploding destruction magic master which come to mind.
Not really. They were one dimensional at best and practically none of them had dialogue that actually felt like it was spoken by someone with a personality, it was more like they were just reinforcing their one or two traits they had. The characters Ross is talking to in game could have their dialogue written out on a piece of paper and you could reasonably guess what dialogue came from who, whereas in Oblivion the only giveaway that dialogue came from a certain character is if it includes their one personality trait like "this character likes cheese" or whatever. I'd be curious what Ross had to say about some of The Elder Scrolls games, I know he doesn't really like them that much though and I can only assume it's because Bethesda generally aims for quantity over quality which doesn't seem to interest him.
So.... any people working on making this game possible to play without the central server? Would be neat to finally check it out.
lucky for you, the game relaunched last year as "Secret World Legends" and it's free to play
@@slavinib6857 It's trash though. Combat and skill system is even worse than it was. Now it's impossible to motivate oneself to get through the game anymore.
The fact that the first "evil" town is in Maine is a reference to Steven King, as according to Kings writing the center of evil in the universe is in small towns in Maine.
Wow... what an episode. I was very curious about TSW and I'm glad you made such a great video about it. Seriously Ross, you did an excellent job.
Umm, Ross, do you live in Kraków by any chance?
Because TSW is an abbreviation of one of the local soccer clubs (Towarzystwo Sportowe Wisła)
Also, great review.
BTDubs - There already exist Secret World private servers.
You know my town actually has a elm street
+Brown Wolf no it doesnt
1323GamerTV Google elm street Winchester VA there's even a elm street hotel
No, there isn't, I can tell
1323GamerTV did you google it ?
Brown Wolf I dont need to, I just know
Ahh.. I really loved the game. Almost didnt want to watch the video, because I knew it would hurt. I replayed the game when it became Secret World Legends... But both times I gave up on it eventually. Its so good in a way.. but I guess a fatal flaw is fatal..
You know Ross, you might wanna check the new F2P varient. The combat is a little more fast paced, and difficulty is scaled down a tiny bit. But the game is STILL going lol
Yeah after not having the heart to start over at first I finally started getting after the F2P variant some six months ago and I hated it at first. I then switched out Blade for Pistols and well I just seemed to enjoy it a lot more. Pistols is quite hands off but I just could not stand the gimmick attached to Sword. Elemental I selected just randomly at first and I like that one. So all things considered I'm just happy the game is still around in some form. I preferred the original still, but the new version is fine.
I've just started playing TSW:Legends, and I must admit, that they've improved combat, a lot. I feel no problem killing stuff during less clever quests, so if someone is scared by Ross nightmare just let it go.
Especially if you are like me - don't care much about MMO ambitions, just enjoying story and world :)
"You're more likely to guess the release date of Half Life 3" -- Too soon, man....
5 Years later , people still wait for their candy to be mailed.
I do wish Secret World was single player offline. My old group fell apart after the secret World legends thing
I wanna see Ross take on Secret World Legends...which is STILL alive.
When you were talking about how much you like the OCD headmaster at the Illuminati school, I would've thought the fact that it sure as Hell sounded like Jeffrey Combs, which I'd consider more than noteworthy, would've also been mentioned by you.
Uh, so why did this episode have to be this year?
+Max Because it might not be up next year, it's anyone's guess. I meant to include a line like that, but I was going nonstop to get this out by Halloween.
I love the Secret World. It is one of my most favorite MMO's. Playing it makes me feel like I'm in a Steven King novel as Constantine.
I hear that carnevil music at the end there, Ross. Funny thing is an arcade not far from me actually had a functioning carnevil cabinet on free play. Sadly, though, one of those guns got messed up somehow nearing a month ago and they never got it fixed because it's a fairly small time arcade in a mall that's pretty much a ghost town except for a KOHL's and a bass pro shop that make up two sections of the building.
That Carmen Sandiego reference just made my day.
Ok, now I need Ross to talk about The secret world legends
8:36
...This is why Ross's Freeman is so convincing. Because Ross thinks like a physicist
The combat reminds me of Star Wars the old republic. Just hacking away at an enemy that’s 5 levels under me for 5 minutes.
I played this game for hundreds of hours in the first years after release. I enjoyed it but I quit for the two downsides:
you spend way too long in the handful of zones and the combat is tedious and unsatisfying.
both these points drag the entire game down to the abyss.
funcom ended up releasing small chapters post launch with more zone variety but the damage was already done.
you mentioned it already but really this game should've been released as a single player game with much better combat and we'd be praising it as a horror classic like vtmb.
Hey Ross you need to touch on this game in a follow-up episode, I think. I was checking out Steam and apparently it's gotten really bad? Although a lot of the reviews talk about the combat which could be good or bad, considering the complaints are that it was dumbed-down. Also it's free-to-play, which according to some reviews actually means pay-to-play but who knows.
Though I guess it's free so I might as well just give it a shot.
if it's any consolation, The Secret World is still up and running as of 2017
The Monty Python lumberjack song should start playing in combat.
Wtf lol why
Oh the tree stump comment, yes let's put on womens clothing and hang around in bars.
A recent decision by the Library of Congress has allowed private servers to continue running games after the parent company shuts down their servers.
+Lessons Learned It specifically doesn't apply to online-only games like this, only games with a simple authentication check.
+Accursed Farms Yeah, I rechecked the PDF and sadly that is true. I also expect that companies will adjust by putting more content in their servers.
late to the thread and not sure if anyone else mentioned it...
i had to look it up to confirm, and sure enough- the creepy OCD headmaster (Hayden Montag) that wears the latex gloves? voiced by Jeffrey Combs. not only does it look a lot like him, but he plays a VERY similar character in The Frighteners (a corrupt detective with OCD who is secretly a practicer of the occult- oops, spoilers.)
he also voices Charles Zurn in this game as well. BUT ALSO continuing on to OTHER similar lore in other media, he plays Dr. Herbert West in the Re-Animator/Beyond Re-Animator movies as well as the protagonist in From Beyond, three movies centered around actual Cthulhu mythos stories.
just something extra special i thought you'd appreciate.
Alright, so to everyone who is interested in this game still, I checked the Steam store and found out that it is STILL around under the name 'Secret World Legends.' It's free to play, and I haven't got around to checking it out yet. Whether or not it's any better than the original game..I'm unsure, but it doesn't hurt to look at it since it's free.
So the Park barely use any existing assets. TSW got a few more DLCs and other updates. Another TSW based game coming up. Not dying after all it seems. Oh and this game is not even connected to EA. EA just pushed out 20,000 CDs in North-America. Also if you dislike the combat, try playing combat with target mode (T).
Jordy not dying after all? it has not been enough time for you to make that claim, wtf?
I wouldn’t have thought it was the literal Bible passage either. I’d have thought there was a clock in the church that had arms pointing at a book/illustration to read.
Personally I really love this game, like a lot. I have played so many mmo's, hundreds of them and this game really stands out as a shining example.
27:37 witch on a hoverboard. huh.
i've seen this once before payed it no attention after finding out it was a online game.
but seeing your video it is pretty cool.shame its gonna die.
The guy talking about dissolving his predecessors' corpses is actually Herbert West the Re-Animator himself, Jeffrey Combs. I just realized that.
finding carmen sandiego at the end killed me
whats the name of the outro music? I cant find it anywhere :(
+Vordigon1 The Zombie Stare, it's one of the winners of the music contest TSW had.
+Accursed Farms nice, thanks a lot and keep up the good work :)
31:35 I THOUGHT I recognized that voice! That's Jeffrey Combs!
10:32 I love this man.
11:19 Perform an exorcism on my sphincter. Expel the ghost of the 1 pound bean burrito.
Also, I'm gonna randomly recommend an MMO with a good fighting system. Maple Story 2. I was surprised by how much control I had. Like, "What? I can move and shoot? So I can kite enemies? Or I can get a quick burst of speed to rush into or dodge away from enemies? And I have a total of 18-24 abilities per class, some of which are passive so it's not a cluster of crap? Whoaw..." And the fighting is in real time and doesn't feel slow or clunky. Also I have encountered very few attacks or spells that's animation takes longer than 0.5 seconds. And 0.5 seconds is the higher end. "Wsh wsh" throws some daggers, and you can quickly jump away from enemies.
I think the longest animation was my assassin throwing a giant ninja star. Took like... 0.7 seconds I think? I think that's the longest. But even that I like cuz it adds a slight feel of, "You need to THROW this weapon to have it hurt someone, give it a bit." But when the animation finishes on all attacks, you can be back to full movement speed immediatley. It's so good.
-
Also Maple Story 2 is free.
i know this is an older video but funcom is relaunching this game. According to them, they are completely redoing the combat aspect and doing a new introductory scene.
"So once You've joined the Templars" I love Your objectivity right there:D
Oh the park IS related to this. I knew I had watched the whole thing and when I saw that squirrel suit, I was wondering if it was some crossover or something.
That game genuinely shocked me with one of the "bad guy" appearances during a ride.
Paused the video to read up on it and I now recall believing "The Park" to be a story of a mother coming to terms with murdering her child. The fact that I watched a Let's Play and the game doesn't specifically mention The Secret World's connection (plus I didn't do the mission in TSW) easily shows why I and a lot of other people including my brother, came to that conclusion.
Interesting that it's actually the result of a demonic entity, once human, twisting the park into a magic-generating machine by sucking the emotions out of people, good and bad. Wish I had known the connection before-hand, but it's interesting to know it now.
I guess this game really is spooky, look at all the severed heads everywhere! They're even put on porches!
The Park deserves the "What?" award.
Sad Ross failed to mention the "delightful" Lovecraftian OCD latex-gloved professor was played by the same actor who starred in the Lovecraft film Reanimator. He's one of my favorite voice actors.
As far as Lovecraftian Elder Gods go, I suppose you could probably outwit Cthulhu, seeing as all things considered he's on the lower rungs of the Great Old Ones. It's ones like Nyarlathotep and Yog-Sothoth you should avoid trying to outwit. You wouldn't be able to outwit Azathoth or Shub-Niggurath though, but that's just because they wouldn't bother with trickery, they'd just obliterate you without having ever even noticed that you were there.
Half-Life 3's release date: Never.
Secret World is the only MMO I know that actually tries to be different and avoid all the obvious tropes.
Still waiting on that "The Park" review. Maybe this Halloween? And I checked, and The Secret World is still available on Steam. Obviously can't say for how much longer, but it's been over a year since this video went up, and over five since the game went live, so it looks like it's safe for now. It's actually turning to a free to play model sometime this year under the name "Secret World Legends". I would totally understand if that sends up some warning flags though for some people. Hopefully Ross mentions this in a future Follow Up video.
Hey Ross, I originally started playing The Secret World ages ago, probably about 6 months before this episode of Game Dungeon came out.
Secret World has since gone free to play, but it looks like they uh...I don't want to say they FIXED combat, but they did tweak it. From what I've experienced so far, it doesn't take as many hits to kill trash mobs anymore.
The combat system itself is still the same (although the UI for the skillpoints is different), but more tolerable, in case you were thinking about playing the game again at any point.
I bought this a while ago but seeing this video has made me go back and replay it. I agree with all your points Ross, but the thing that impressed me the most were the puzzles, and with the great cut scenes this really does play like a single player MMO. I didn't like the desert so much either, thought there were a couple great characters there, namely Nassir and Said, but Solomon Island was the best set of maps thus far in my experience. Transylvania is pretty good as well though.
I think that fable 3 had a pretty scary desert
Fable 3 had an excellent desert, probably my favorite part of the game. But they did it right, mysterious and unpredictable enemies and a sense that you were constantly being watched by some malevolent force.
calm down, the dessert wasn't that good.
Shadow111111 Desert was the most interesting part of that game.
I mean, the individual grains of sand had more character and better dialogue than any of the characters did. They had a decent concept with that weird darkness creature, I remember thinking, "Wow, that could actually be creepy in any other title."
Jeffrey Combs is all over this game. I love it!
Omg this MMO is awesome! Really fresh ideas and not just another generic, Tolkein/WoWesque game. It's a shame you don't like MMOs because this game looks incredibly unique as far as they go. If someone like Mr Btongue is to be believed, this goes back to that everquest 90's design.
Every part of this game that you keep poopooing, I'm just getting excited by lol. Obtuse puzzles, cooldown management combat, but the recontextualizing with Lovecraftian elements is pushing it over the edge for me. I definitely wouldn't mind playing it. But... EA.
You're right I *do* like the writing in Max Payne, and I like the writing in TSW for the most part too. Sometimes there's too much corn in it, and listening to Geary talk makes me want to blow my brains out, but it largely strikes me as one huge homage to Stephen King and HP Lovecraft, and that's cool with me.
All MMOs should be backed up and cracked to be singleplayer-playable.
Even if an MMO were impossible for anything but a powerful server to run it, just having the code out there would be enough.
20:41 1 look at running animation and immediately laughs. That thing looks like it’s going out for a midnight jog