The premise is simple enough: what if all those urban legends, conspiracy theories, and folk tales were true? Well, in The Secret World, rest assured, the farfetched dictates reality and three factions rise up to halt mankind's impending doom.
Consider MMORPG tradition wholly broken and paths previously untrodden now deeply plodded by the galloping boots of change. Instead of employing the typical two faction "us vs. them" system, The Secret World's three faction system promises a slightly more dynamic style of gameplay, though us old time players recognize this is not new teritory, its just Planetside revisited. Granted, not much is known about whether or not the game will even sport online gaming's greatest achievement, PVP, but with Funcom's track record of including this much needed function, it's certainly a safe assumption.
The factions themselves are surprisingly diverse and not relegated to being as cut and dry as month old beef jerky. The game's three factions include the Dragons, the Illuminati, and the Templars.
The Dragons - based out of Seoul, South Korea - will appeal to those who relish subterfuge and espionage. Some may call them the rogues or thieves faction, but that's disingenuous to their style. Their force mostly lies in their political prowess and the fact that they actually engage in shaping the world around them. Of course, that's not to say they're not cold blooded killers; their blood just runs a couple degrees closer to room temperature.
Meanwhile, the Illuminati, America's poster children for every conspiracy theory from the New World Order to the Blue Beam Project, has to be the most ruthless of the factions. Sure, they get a bum rap for basically being the spoiled rich kids of the world, but when they're not burning giant owl effigies, this faction locks, loads, and makes heads roll. Based out of NYC in the good old US of A, the Illuminati's origins date back as far as ancient Egypt. Again, from what Funcom's said so far, this promises to be vastly different from the warrior and barbarian guilds found in traditional MMORPGs.
Lastly, we have the Templars hailing from London, England. This lovely little group's closest known RPG relative is the paladin, but they do the Lord's work in slightly different ways. Namely - they actually do work instead of ensconce themselves in gooey bubbles and swing giant crab claw mallets. The Templars are the least secretive of the groups, but that's not to say they're nearly as forward as the Illuminati in their approach.
For now Funcom has left us to wait and speculate, but if one is really interested in trying out the game, a personality test on their site may just yield a beta key. With no release date as of yet, the only real way to get our hand on this possible gem is to throw some Tesla coils on a boat and traverse all points of time. But, that's probably just a crazy conspiracy theory.
Images courtesy of MMORPG.com from the Funcom PAX media pack.
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