Story is king in The Secret World and the quests that lead players along the main arc are some of the best quests as an MMO gamer. It’s not so much that TSW breaks away from the rather formulaic quest experience that most MMOs offer. Rather, it’s the way it’s done that makes it seem, at least on the surface, to be something completely new.
Players can only take on a single storyline quest at a time. Of course, you can have the secret world power leveling to help. Each story quest is nicely fleshed out with cinematics and stellar voice acting. The lore behind each quest is laid out nicely and gives the player a lot of insight into what exactly it is that’s happening in the world around them.
This in and of itself is something completely different than most MMOs. You actually want to listen to what the NPC is saying and to learn more about what it is that they want you to do and why it needs to be done. Generally speaking, you simply don’t want to jet through the dialog to get on with things.
Once the quest has been accepted, players head out with multiple objectives to work through to finish the quest. In that, The Secret World is much like any MMO. There are definitely “kill 10…er…zombies” type objectives while questing. In fact, there are often multiple objectives that are essentially the same “kill 10 zombies just in a different place” which can be somewhat tiresome. In this respect, TSW’s quest system is pretty much more of the same. Still and in fairness, there are few ways around the mechanic and Funcom has done a nice job “masking” the sameness of quest completion. Much better than other games of recent memory have.
Going back to the old way of doing things in any other MMO seems tiresome after just a few hours in The Secret World. I give HUGE props to Funcom for this one seemingly tiny detail.
Investigations
But storyline quests aren’t all that TSW offers to players. There are quests that can be picked up literally just about anywhere in the game. Funcom has taken side quests in a whole new direction with investigation quests with the secret power leveling.
Investigations are a throwback to games like Riven and Myst. Players are tasked with solving puzzles or following clues or figuring out a password or tons of other things that lead to finding more that leads to finally getting to the answer. Players can engage the internet to find answers to difficult questions, find NPCs to help fill in gaps and much more.
Eventually, once you do some other chores for the big burly dude, he'll ask you to see about getting a local radio antenna working. What this ultimately results in is you finding a Morse code broadcast... and having to translate it yourself.
It was the best three hours of my first few days in The Secret World... and the 150K+ XP didn't hurt either.
That’s the beauty of the investigation quests. They give you a reason to think, not just mindlessly mash buttons or engage in combat. It’s a hugely refreshing breath of fresh air in the genre.
Dungeon Quests
Dungeons in The Secret World get a bit of love and attention from Funcom as well. Each one actually has a reason for existence and each fits into the overall story of the zone in which it resides. While the dungeons themselves don’t offer much to the story, the cutscenes that come both before and after give them meaning in the world.
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