The Bored Geek: The Secret Whirled


A castle in the park.

Making friends

The Secret World had it's public beta this weekend and I got to check the game out. I first saw it at PAX East, and thought it was interesting. After playing, I think it's breathtaking. The setting is eerie and creepy. I'm not big on zombie (I think they're overdone) but this is an interesting take on it, and let's face it, you need bad guys to fight.

The game is set in the modern world. The world is secretly ruled by a few secret societies, chiefly The Templars- an ancient order dedicated to ridding the world of evil and making the world pure, The Dragons- an Asian organisation who thrives on chaos and strategy, and The Illuminati- a group who seeks power and influence by any means necessary.

This weekend's beta was limited to the opening campaign of the Templars. I don't want to give too many spoilers, but one night while you are sleeping you somehow manage to inhale a bee and inadvertently set your shirt ablaze with blue flames. Ok, your backstory is a bit slapped together, but that's ok. So then a representative of the Templars randomly shows up and recruits you.


I see two Lovecraft references and a possible reference to Murder She Wrote.

Your fist mission is to investigate Solomon Island, a tiny town off the coast of New England. The accents place the town in northern Maine or New York (NY is not part of New England, by the way) and bothered me. But I don't want to get into my opinion on accents and voice acting here. It seems a thick fog has rolled in essentially making the town into New Silent Hill. Many of the street and place names got a laugh out of me as most seemed to reference something or other. Your job is to uncover the dark secret behind the fog and zombie invasion. Thee are other later for more content.