One of the most anticipated features in Funcom's The Secret World is running through dungeons with other players, dungeons that literally take everyone to hell (and hopefully back again). Our team got some hands on experience doing just that and we've got the full report. Read on!

The Secret World can be extremely hellish. Punishing. Brutal. Full of fire, demons, and pain. Also, it’s oddly exciting and fun… okay, maybe that last part isn’t what hell would really be like, but we can dream. Last night, Rob “Grakulen” Lashley, Mike “I Mod You” Bitton, and myself were able to partake in the first of three dungeons set in the literal Hell with Tor Egil Andersen of Funcom leading the way. This was the first time I’ve been able to taste a dungeon in TSW outside of mere gameplay videos, and I left feeling a great deal better about what Funcom is trying to accomplish in their upcoming MMORPG. Hell was an extremely challenging experience (even with GM cheats) and it’s plain to see that dungeon-lovers will find a lot to love in The Secret World.

Read more of Bill Murphy's The Secret World: Hell Hurts.

Love this game and can't wait for the released. Pre-ordered and hoping there's some Beta weekends upcoming...maybe this weekend? Doubt it as no news yet, but hey one can hope.

So a chained quest linked to three separate dungeons? They better handle this right. Grouping for these are a fucking pain if people end up being locked out of the instance when they aren't on the right tier.

1. Acdc LOL
2. first boss Reminds me of Rage fire chasam :)
3. I really hate Trigger happy lol
4. I can see myself buying the lifer and do these type of dungeons indefinably.
5. Rifle tank, i finally saw one in action and all my planing has not been in vain!

Again, great stuff Bill!!!

I stumbled onto this DayZ mod for Arma II, and have been playing it like a crack head all week. So I put TSW on hold until it releases next month.

Can't wait for release though!! We need to all coordinate servers.

-BC

Like the sound of this :)

For the love of god man, fix that video so we can tell whats going on.

Do some color correction or change your upload format because its 300% too dark (look at the screens in contrast).

Its already turning off people on youtube because they think the game looks like that for reals...

deleted - double post

Originally posted by marz.at.play

Love this game and can't wait for the released. Pre-ordered and hoping there's some Beta weekends upcoming...maybe this weekend? Doubt it as no news yet, but hey one can hope.

 

They did announce, no beta this weekend (so proably the first weekend of June for next one): http://forums.thesecretworld.com/showthread.php?p=807350#post807350

Originally posted by marz.at.play

Love this game and can't wait for the released. Pre-ordered and hoping there's some Beta weekends upcoming...maybe this weekend? Doubt it as no news yet, but hey one can hope.

There's one more weekend coming, they sent me an invite to their final (still to be scheduled) weekend earlier. Not the game for me (at least at launch) though so i won't be taking part. I might look at it again 6 months or so down the line.

Guess what people. "Dungeons Are Hard" If you are looking for a dungeon over lunch, your probably gonna be late. 

The next beta is scheduled to June 1st.

http://www.geforce.com/games-applications/pc-games/the-secret-world/deals-promotions

Originally posted by BigCountry

Again, great stuff Bill!!!

 

It's not Bill.

Anyway, good write up. I completly agree on the no rez thing. I'm also interested in what some beta testers said that you wouldn't need the holy trinity or the specific effects for specific encounters during the normal mode. If this is true, it would be greta:

Normal mode: Take anyone, but keep moving and work together

Hard mode: Bring specific builds and combinations, gets harder

Nightmare: Perfect synq or die.

"You see, there’s no “rez” in TSW. When you’re knocked down in a boss fight, you’re down until the party either dies completely or manages to win without you. A barrier goes up around the boss-fight and you have to wait until either of those two criteria is met before rejoining your group from a nearby respawn point.

The reason for not having a rez in TSW is pretty simple: it would become a must-have skill taking up one of your valuable seven active skill-slots, and every party would have rezzes on hand to get them out of a jam. Instead Funcom wants you to really work together to figure out a good strategy that works for your group."

But isn't that a flaw in the system right there? I mean after having finally managed to d/l the TSW client on the first beta weekend I focused on the assault rifle (and didn't care much for the healing side of it to be honest but it was there so I took it) rather than testing all the different  ability types.

But I would assume that there may be players who would like to fall into the role of healer (and yes, rezzer) in TSW.

Obviously Blood Magic seems well suited for this task. Yet it really just damns the healer to be the guy who boosts his companions - which I seems a bit of a waste as some "DPS" builds can easily have some sort of self (or other) heal in their ability list to take care off themselves.

So, wouldn't - completely on an instinctive level - it make more sense to put all of your team's abilities into dealing as much damage as possible as quickly as possible rather than "losing" one of the guys to the assumption that maybe this will be a drawn out affair meaning he runs around healing his comrades?

I mean of course, the setup isn't new, if you are dead in a boss fight, you are dead, but with no obvious reason why a rezzed character shouldn't be able to get back (other than "A barrier goes up around the boss-fight") this seems a bit thin...

Please understand that I read the whole thing as: "if you die outside a boss fight you just rez a few twists down the corridors of Hell and are back with your group in a sec."

Which may then mean that you still need a medic on standby to boost your health up again as quick as possible?

Why not the same in boss-fights?

Just because then fights will definitely turn into extended fights?

Originally posted by Trol1

"You see, there’s no “rez” in TSW. When you’re knocked down in a boss fight, you’re down until the party either dies completely or manages to win without you. A barrier goes up around the boss-fight and you have to wait until either of those two criteria is met before rejoining your group from a nearby respawn point.

The reason for not having a rez in TSW is pretty simple: it would become a must-have skill taking up one of your valuable seven active skill-slots, and every party would have rezzes on hand to get them out of a jam. Instead Funcom wants you to really work together to figure out a good strategy that works for your group."

But isn't that a flaw in the system right there? I mean after having finally managed to d/l the TSW client on the first beta weekend I focused on the assault rifle (and didn't care much for the healing side of it to be honest but it was there so I took it) rather than testing all the different  ability types.

But I would assume that there may be players who would like to fall into the role of healer (and yes, rezzer) in TSW.

Obviously Blood Magic seems well suited for this task. Yet it really just damns the healer to be the guy who boosts his companions - which I seems a bit of a waste as some "DPS" builds can easily have some sort of self (or other) heal in their ability list to take care off themselves.

So, wouldn't - completely on an instinctive level - it make more sense to put all of your team's abilities into dealing as much damage as possible as quickly as possible rather than "losing" one of the guys to the assumption that maybe this will be a drawn out affair meaning he runs around healing his comrades?

I mean of course, the setup isn't new, if you are dead in a boss fight, you are dead, but with no obvious reason why a rezzed character shouldn't be able to get back (other than "A barrier goes up around the boss-fight") this seems a bit thin...

Please understand that I read the whole thing as: "if you die outside a boss fight you just rez a few twists down the corridors of Hell and are back with your group in a sec."

Which may then mean that you still need a medic on standby to boost your health up again as quick as possible?

Why not the same in boss-fights?

Just because then fights will definitely turn into extended fights?

You can't get back in the fight once you are dead.  

edit - I see what you mean. Outside of the boss fight.  While running back you wil self heal. When out of combat in TSW you get you HP back quickly. You can dip around a corner get out of combat and be full healed in about 10 secs.

Originally posted by FredomSekerZ

Originally posted by BigCountry

Again, great stuff Bill!!!

 

It's not Bill.

Anyway, good write up. I completly agree on the no rez thing. I'm also interested in what some beta testers said that you wouldn't need the holy trinity or the specific effects for specific encounters during the normal mode. If this is true, it would be greta:

Normal mode: Take anyone, but keep moving and work together

Hard mode: Bring specific builds and combinations, gets harder

Nightmare: Perfect synq or die.

Nice concise summation there.  Oh, and it IS Bill.  Suzie only posted it....Bill wrote it.

The problem I see with making the hardest part of a boss fight is figuring out which build works best just means that only certain builds will be allowed for a dungeon and once the boss is figured out once the build will be posted.

It kind of throws out the "skill system" and pidgeon holes people into certain "builds" or classes if you will.

the other bosses might have been more interesting but the second one was:

1111111111, 2, 111111111, 2, 11111111111..... Seriously.

About the ressurection. It's a cool idea I guess. In GW you were forced to bring res signet and we were left with 7 skills afterall.

Originally posted by QSatu

the other bosses might have been more interesting but the second one was:

1111111111, 2, 111111111, 2, 11111111111..... Seriously.

on top of that he was clicking!!! haha I saw that too. I think it was a case of him just holding lol. GM powers help ;)