Exactly 10 years ago, The Secret World was an MMORPG like no other since. A completely new experience that MeinMMO editor Benedict Grothaus gambled extensively at the time. For his birthday he wants to take a look again – and hopefully he can cope with it.
The Secret World was released on July 3, 2012. My account for this is even a few weeks older, because you could register earlier and secure some advantages. The MMORPG simply fascinated me at the time.
In The Secret World, I play in an alternate reality with a Lovecraftian feel. Monsters from the Cthulhu Mythos are real, as are magic and all sorts of conspiracy theories.
As a player, I can join the famous Illuminati, the Templar Order or the Asian “Dragons”. Strange things are happening all over the world and I must solve them together with my fellow combatants.
I’m one of the chosen ones who can’t die so easily, because glowing “bees” always bring me back to life. Dark, wacky, scary and with a good portion of dry humor. Exactly my game!
So why is it an error to install the game? Quite simply: because it failed and for good reasons. I know that nostalgia makes me want to play again. But I also know that I will be bitterly disappointed.
The Secret World is a dream for all nerds and that was the problem
The fresh approach to the genre, the completely fresh setting and the then not so flooded MMORPG market were alluring to many gamers, including a group of friends and myself.
The Secret World also had – or has, it’s still going – many mechanics that are totally unusual for the MMORPG genre.
But it is precisely these that ensured that the game never really caught on with the general public.
MeinMMO editor Jürgen Horn alluded to the relaunch of The Secret World 5 years ago. By the way, there are a number of old MMORPGs that are still played a lot:
5 Old MMORPGs That Are Still Actively Played
Unique quest design with augmented reality
One of The Secret World’s biggest innovations was the “Investigation” quests. With just a few clues, I have to uncover a mystery and discover more and more clues that lead to the solution – like a real investigator.
I follow clues, talk to NPCs, or – which is absolutely crazy – I have to use the fully functional web browser integrated in the game to navigate to the websites of companies in the game that were created especially for The Secret World. Even NPCs have their own Twitter accounts.
There has not been something like that before. I’m not talking about looking up a quest on wowhead. I really had to look up which employees were employed by a company because I was supposed to be looking for their names in some classified files.
Very cool for someone who wants to fully immerse himself in the world. Super annoying when you just want to dabble. Because these quests are also by far the best rewards. Only nobody wants to puzzle for XP and a new weapon for so long…
The “Kingsmouth Code” is the first investigator mission that you get like this. See a walkthrough of the quest here:
Straight guns were also a pretty cool idea. You carried an assault rifle or claws to heal, because what else would make sense, huh? Chaos magic is there for tanking and damage is of course done with pistols.
For me, as a relatively young gamer at the time at 19, it was all really cool. A change from WoW, an interesting world. I played really hard for half a year.
It was pretty darn cool to join the Templars or see what the Illuminati HQ looks like. How the secret organizations work to fool supposed conspiracy theorists.
Or just immerse yourself in a world where Lovecraft’s monsters are real. What would well-known cities look like when suddenly overrun by disgusting creatures? An attractive idea.
But at some point something was just missing. Today I know why The Secret World failed.
The Secret World never wanted to “kill” WoW, but that’s exactly why many other games have failed:
5 MMORPGs That Should Be WoW Killers But Failed
I know I will be disappointed again
All the great systems introduced in the game are only really exciting at the beginning:
In addition, the endgame of The Secret World is quite weak. Raids with few or even only one boss, otherwise mainly dull grind through repeatable quests. The story is the biggest unique selling point, and that’s enough to see it once. The Secret World lacks replay value.
But to say at least something positive about it: The Secret World can be played even if you are short on time. The story is worthwhile, but otherwise the incentive is often lacking.
Actually, I want to play The Secret World again because I want to relive old times. Replay the old build, see the old character again, explore the Templar HQ in London and see what’s up.
But I know that’s a stupid idea. ‘Cause I’m just gonna mourn for the old days when The Secret World felt good. Especially since there will probably be no one left with whom I can even discover the world
Secret World died before
Funcom, the developer of The Secret World, went through a difficult time shortly after the release of the MMORPG. In 2015, the studio almost went bankrupt. However, they also tried to keep 3 MMOs alive: Age of Conan, Anarchy Online and The Secret World.
In 2017, a fresh start was made with Secret World Legends. In the same breath, development on The Secret World was halted. However, Legends can’t really hold its own today, with far fewer than 500 players on average on Steam (via steamcharts.com).
The awesome The Secret World is now 2 dead MMORPGs
Also in 2017, shortly after Secret World Legends, the survival game Conan Exiles finally appeared – another service game that needs support and ongoing development.
As it currently looks, the sandbox game is getting a lot more love. Conan Exiles saved Funcom from ruin at the time and still receives DLCs regularly to this day. Most of this is cosmetic content, but there are also major updates.
Isle of Siptah, for example, almost doubled the playing area and now the biggest update of all is pending, which, among other things, brings magic into play. These are bigger changes than The Secret World got in its lifetime.
In the video you can see the biggest revision of Conan Exiles so far:
Survival MMO Conan Exiles presents the new expansion in detail in the video
With success, because Conan Exile has more than 10,000 players on Steam at the same time (via steamcharts.com). So it’s quite understandable that Funcom is fully focused on development here.
And The Secret World? Well, the servers are still online. For both the Classic version and Legends. But is it still worth playing? Probably not. Nevertheless I will try it.
I will play it again in the hope that I will enjoy it as much as I used to. Then I’ll notice that I can’t find any players for dungeons and the like. That many of the old problems are still there. That it’s just not the game from before.
Then I will uninstall The Secret World again and know: That was a big mistake, because I already knew it beforehand.
But at least I can repeat this mistake again and reminisce. MyMMO demon Cortyn can’t say this:
I never fully recovered from my trauma with the monster game Evolve