14 DAY TRIAL // The Secret World is one of the more ambitious MMO projects set to launch during 2012 and the developers at Funcom have chosen to highlight the concepts behind the Illuminati game faction, which focuses on getting things done no matter the price paid.
Joel Bylos, who is the lead content designer working on The Secret World, told IGN that, “The Illuminati are all about the acquisition of power and if that entails some ethical flexibility then so be it.”
He added, “All of the factions are engaged in the war against the rising darkness. This is the central conflict of the game and the factions will find themselves unlikely alliances as they battle this rising darkness. Even the Illuminati, who are perhaps the most openly selfish of the factions, recognize this threat to their plans for the future and stand firm against it.”
The developers have stated that players who are interested in joining the Illuminati will have to find their New York headquarters on their own and then survive some pretty tough missions that count as the initiation process.
One such mission will see them try and get information with which they can blackmail a rising political star only to find an ambush set by the Dragon faction, with the Illuminati interested in only grading their ability to escape from near certain death.
Players who join the Illuminati will have to be ready to increase their power by plotting against their peers and by sometimes physically eliminating them from the organization.
The Secret World is interesting from a MMO standpoint because the game aims to have a classless system, where each player is free to choose which skills he is interested in developing and can mix and match their way to the perfect character build.
The Secret World is set to arrive exclusively on the PC at some point during April.