The Secret World (2012) (PC) (Funcom Productions)
0I recently pre-ordered The Secret World and now have early access to the full game prior to the game's official release on July 3rd. This purchase of a new MMO has admittedly more to do with the expected lack of new releases during summer than anything else, but since the premise and setting of the game have definitely piqued my curiosity it should be fun to check out what the Secret World has to offer (at least during the first 30 days or so).
My strongest impression so far is that the writing is refreshingly sharp, not just for an MMO but for a video game in general. Few sentences in the main story-related dialogue go by without a clever turn of phrase, some witty wordplay or a thought-provoking hint at what is to come later in the story. The NPC characters themselves seem less multifaceted than the word combinations coming out of their mouths, but I'm definitely getting more of a Longest Journey/Dreamfall vibe out of this game than is to be expected from a massively multiplayer online RPG.
The modern-day setting is a nice change of pace as well, and adds to The Secret World's sense of maturity compared to the endless fantasy and sci-fi nonsense of most games. Generally speaking I'm about as tired of conspiracy theories as I am of zombies (...and this game's got both!) but TSW seems to do a good job of bringing the three factions to life and moving beyond the obvious secret society tropes. I still haven't played much more than what I saw during a brief test of the beta a few weeks ago, but I'm definitely interested to see more of the game.