The Secret World is a massive multiplayer online role playing pay to play game developed by veteran developer Funcom. The game’s publisher is Electronic Arts (EA). Funcom has been responsible for such titles as Dreamfall, Blood Champions, and Age of Conan. The Secret World sets itself apart from other MMO’s currently available by doing away with classes, and leveling, and putting you in a modern world setting where you play as humans battling creatures the world for the most part considers to be myth.
We first heard about the game almost three years ago via the below teaser trailers released around the same time.
Pretty sweet huh? These trailers peaked our interest so much that we put the game in our “Games to Watch” list, and were itching to find out more about it, but a funny thing happened. Little to no word of the game was heard from after the release of the teasers. The information about the game was so scarce that we were lead to believe the game had been cancelled. Our theory on the game being cancelled turned out to be false as about a year ago new information, along with game play videos, developer walkthroughs, and the announcement of a closed beta, started to surface on the web.
But even with the closed beta being completed, and the game having been up, and running for about two months now, many people still have little to know knowledge of what the game is all about, or that it even exists. The lack of advertising for the game maybe part of the reason along with other highly anticipated games in the genre like Guild Wars 2 grabbing the MMO spot light.
Today we try to shed some light on those who seem to be in the dark about the Secret World with our take on the game during our time with it. Is it a game you should give a try, or is it something that should remain hidden in the shadows?
System Requirements
Thought we’d get the system specs for the game out of the way from the start. Below are the minimum, and recommended system requirements.
Minimum System Specifications
OS: Windows XP SP3, Windows Vista SP1, Windows 7 SP1
CPU: 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo or equivalent AMD CPU
RAM: At least 2 GB
2GB RAM for Window XP / 3 GB RAM for Windows Vista and 7
CD/DVD ROM drive required for installation only
8x or faster CD/DVD drive
HDD: At least 20 GB of free space
VIDEO: nVidia 8600 GT / 512 VRAM or better
DIRECT X: DirectX 9.0c compatible
Recommended System Specifications
OS: Windows XP SP3, Windows Vista SP1, Windows 7 SP1
CPU: 3.0 GHz 2nd Generation Intel Core™ i5 processor (or greater), or AMD equivalent
RAM: At least 4 GB
Windows 7 64-bit
DISC DRIVE: CD/DVD ROM drive required for installations only
8x or faster CD/DVD drive
HARD DRIVE: At least 20 GB of free space
VIDEO: nVidia GTX 460 / 1024 VRAM or better
DIRECTX: Direct X 11.0 compatible
As you can see you are going to need 30GB of hard drive space. Not too surprising for a MMO. The specs for the most part are pretty reasonable so you won’t need an uber set up to run the game at decent frame rates. What enthusiasts will no doubt notice is that the game can be run in DX 11. With DX 11 support comes tessellation which of course will make owners of AMD 6000, 7000, Nvidia 400, 500, and 600 video cards smile a bit. I mean lets face it. You didn’t buy a GTX 680, or an AMD 7990 to run DX9 only games : ).
One feature supported by the game which is suspiciously absent from both of the system specifications is the ability to play the game in 3D. Currently only Nvidia 3D Stereoscopic vision is supported. AMD HD3D is not currently supported, and no word on whether it will be supported in the future has been announced to date.
