Tag Archives: The Secret World

TSW’s Hide and Shriek Seems Underwhelming

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We have at last gotten an official announcement for The Secret World’s second spin-off, and huge TSW fan that I am, I should be over the moon about it… but I’m not.

A screenshot from Hide and Shriek, the new spin-off of The Secret WorldThe new game is Hide and Shriek, a 1v1 PvP game where players attempt to literally scare each other to death with various traps and surprises.

I can’t help but see this all as a waste of potential. If you ask people what makes TSW special, I really don’t think a lot of people are going to answer, “PvP,” and those that do would cite the build system as the reason for that, and Hide and Shriek won’t have that.

The appeal of The Secret World is its story and ambiance, and it seems like Hide and Shriek won’t have either. It’s still horror in a sense, but it’s horror based entirely on cheap jump scares, and the whole reason I admire TSW’s take on horror is that it doesn’t lean on cheap scares.

When I heard they were doing another spin-off, I was overjoyed, because I thought we’d be getting something like The Park — something to expand the story of the universe. The Park was an amazing experience. But instead we’re getting something closer to a TSW version of Overwatch — a mindless competitive arena that has only a tangential relationship to its own backstory.

I don’t even see it being a good marketing tool for TSW because they’re such different games. Despite the obvious mechanical differences between a combat-focused MMORPG and a combat-free walking simulator, The Park still ended up feeling a lot like TSW. If you played The Park before trying TSW, you’d find a lot that’s familiar to you in the style of story-telling and overall feel.

I can’t see that being the case for Hide and Shriek. If someone played Hide and Shriek and then tried TSW, I think they’d just be confused by how different they are. An intentionally cheesy, jump scare based PvP arena versus a subtle, ambient PvE RPG.

I’ve generally been of the opinion I’d be willing to throw money at anything with the TSW name, but that theory is about to put to the ultimate test, I think.

The only possible silver lining here is if they do a tie-in mission like they did for The Park. Given Hide and Shriek apparently uses Innsmouth Academy as one of its settings, this could be an excuse for new Innsmouth content in TSW. And that is always a good thing.

TSW: Tales! From! Agartha!

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iTunes is taking its sweet time posting Dark Matter again, so in the meanwhile, enjoy this post I wrote back in June (yay backlog):

Every MMO has a place where players end up congregating, the main social hub of the game. For The Secret World, that’s Agartha — Hollow Earth, Yggdrasil, the Immaculate Machine.

Cramming dozens of bored players into a small space inevitably leads to some silliness or odd moments, but for whatever reason, Agartha seems a bit more… colourful than its equivalents in most other games.

Click the images to view them full size.

Gangnam Style!This is impressive, but as you’ll see, Gangnam Style flash mobs are far from the strangest thing you’ll see in Agartha.

Yo dawg, we heard you like horses, so we put a horse on your horseAgartha: Yeah, it’s kind of like that.

The usual strangeness in Agartha in The Secret WorldIt’s also kind of like that.

An average day in The Secret World's AgarthaAnd it’s sometimes like that.

The sass is real!Of course, sometimes I’m the oddball in Agartha.

What is this I don't evenThis is quite possibly the weirdest damn thing I’ve ever seen in a video game. Might have been the weirdest thing I’d seen period, but I used to live in Parkdale.

A bunch of players, all in Atenist garb, /worshipping a girl in a bikini and chanting “ATEN! ATEN! ATEN!”

Aten! Aten! Aten!The thing about this is that their emotes and chanting and positioning were all synced very well. This must have taken some significant effort to organize so seamlessly. It was probably not a random gathering.

I asked around in general chat to see if anyone could explain what was happening. No one offered any insight. It mystifies me to this day.

What happens in Agartha, stays in AgarthaThese two were engaged in what appeared to some sort of strange ERP. Every time I logged in over a period of at least twenty-four hours, they were still there. I’m just impressed by their sheer endurance.

More ERP in The Secret World's AgarthaAs you can see, you get a lot of that in Agartha.

The holiday hug pile in The Secret WorldThis is what we call the “hug pile.” During holiday events, people will smash themselves together in the hopes of having people dump loot bags for them for the achievement. It’s a subject of some controversy in the community. Personally I think it’s terribly boring, but if people want to get their achievement that way, then fine.

For my part I prefer to be more creative or social. Usually I’ll round up a gaggle of newbies in Kingsmouth and dump the loot on them. One time a person who was on their free trial got an epic zombie polar bear pet from one of my bags. That felt good.

Players attempt to clean the Filth from Agartha during the Whispering Tide eventThe Whispering Tide event added its own special flavour to Agartha.

After a few years of living with this endless weirdness, Agartha has become almost as much a selling feature of TSW for me as the incredible story or unique character progression. People watching in Hollow Earth never quite gets old.