Editor-in-Chief Darryl Gangloff watched a live Secret World demo at the Game Developers Conference. Here's what he found out about this upcoming modern day horror MMO.

Fighting at the sheriff's department

The sheriff's department, as Bylos puts it, is the last bastion of defense for the people of Kingsmouth. Players will begin to get a feel for what's happening in the area, and they'll learn more about the zombie invasion as they move through the missions.

Talking to Deputy Andy gives us a mission to kill Draug, a slimy species of monster that have overtaken the beach. As the group kills the pod eggs littering the beach, it's important to note that all of the characters are using different attacks. Our blonde female is shooting with her dual pistols, while another character shoots arching fireballs at the enemies. Even more characters are running around encased in glowing red circular bubbles. Throughout the fight, the words “tier complete” flash on the screen to remind us of the dynamic aspect of the missions.

The group turns its focus to killing the female Draug, who have been infecting zombies with their seed to turn them into pod incubators. This leads into another boss fight as a huge tentacled monster, also known as the Draug Lord, rises from the water. Again, the various abilities of the players take down the boss after a short struggle.

Later, the team emphasized the importance of multiplayer combat by showing the sheriff's department under attack by wave after wave of zombies. As the police siren blared, a number of players joined in to fight through the waves and locate the source of the disturbance, which happened to be a massive world boss. Everyone was able to jump in to help defeat the beast.

The skill system and progression

Lead Designer Martin Bruusgaard took this opportunity to explain the game's skill system. As previously mentioned, there are no levels or classes in the game. It's all about the skills, and there just so happens to be more than 500 unique skills in The Secret World. Bruusgaard emphasized that this number doesn't include separate ranks of skills, since they'll scale with the gear you have equipped. You will never have an obsolete skill for your character.

Bruusgaard explained that there are two types of skills: active and passive. Active skills are located in a bar at the bottom of the screen and include actions such as casting spells and using a weapon. Passive skills always affect a character and generally increase attributes.

Of course, a single character can't run around with 500 skills at a time. Instead, players must choose a build comprised of seven active skills and seven passive skills. You can swap out various skills whenever you want, so you can be a healer in one battle and a tank in the next one.

While there may not be levels in the game, there are experience points. Players can earn experience through many different actions, such as killing monsters, completing missions, doing tasks for your society, crafting or participating in PvP fights. When the blue bar at the bottom of the screen fills up, you'll get a skill point to spend in the skill wheel.

The skill wheel is currently a work in progress, but it allows you to purchase skills related to ranged combat, melee combat and magic. While players can customize their characters any way they choose, they can also select a template for a suggested path. Bruusgaard compared templates to starter decks for Magic: The Gathering. For example, you could pick a healer/melee hybrid and then tweak it slightly to match your playstyle.

Investigations

One major aspect of The Secret World is its puzzles. Current fans of the game have actually been solving game-related riddles for quite some time through an alternate reality game that's playing out in the official forums and Twitter posts.

These types of puzzles will be found in-game, as well. We were shown an investigation mission where players needed to follow symbols of the Illuminati in town, which led them to two names: Charles Hanson Towne and Frans Hals. Since their last names are Towne and Hals, it's safe to say you should head over to the town hall.

But now what? The developers want you to think outside the box and do some research, so a quick Google search will tell you that Hals was a painter and Towne was a poet. You'll have to interact with a painting of a poet in town hall to get your next clue. I won't spoil the rest of the mission, but that should give you a good idea of the type of investigations you'll find in The Secret World.

We were also shown a mission where players need to follow ravens to find another boss. The team emphasized that there was no dialogue and no hand-holding in the mission. Instead, it encourages players to work together in an outdoor mission that anyone can stumble into and tag along.

PvP maps

To end the presentation, we were shown a brief video that outlined three PvP maps. Tornquist explained that the secret societies want to take control of these areas to harness their power. The societies may be united against the rising darkness, but they're still divided in their competition for resources.

We were shown the following three maps:

• Stonehenge: This is a Domination / King of the Hill type of map.
• The Lost City of Shambahla: This massive map is located in the Himalayan mountains and is a ranked team vs. team arena.
• El Dorado: This is the biggest of the three maps. It's Capture the Flag with a twist as 30 players battle for control of ancient magical idols. Capture as many idols as you can to accumulate points, and be sure to pick a base near a choke point.

As The Secret World presentation drew to a close, I asked if the alternate reality games that patient fans have grown accustomed to will continue once the game is live. “We'll definitely see the real world and the fictional world mixing post launch,” Tornquist said. From what I saw in the demo, I'm looking forward to it.

To summarize the entire Secret World experience, here's a new dev diary trailer from the team, as well as some new screenshots: