Update: “The Park is absolutely set in the universe of The Secret World,” tweets Funcom creative director Joel Bylos.
I’ve wished that Funcom’s MMORPG The Secret World had been a single-player game instead and it looks like… I’m still not getting my wish. However, the MMO-focused studio have revealed a single-player horror game which seems to have a little of that TSW tone. The Park [official site] is a spook ’em up about a mother who takes her child to a theme park, then terrible things happen. Come check the teaser trailer (but mind the flashing lights):
Funcom don’t have much to say about the game so far, but here’s what we know from that YouTube video’s description:
“Amusement parks are happy places, filled with the innocent joys of childhood and the exhilarating rush of hair-raising, but safe adventure. Balloons, cotton candy and fantastic rides to be dared. Perhaps that is how Lorraine pictured it too when she brought her son Callum to one… just before it descended into the most terrifying nightmare of her life.
“The Park is a single-player horror experience developed by Funcom, set against the backdrop of an amusement park where a dark and sinister secret is just waiting to be uncovered.”
It is also, at the very least, reusing some assets from The Secret World’s haunted theme park. One ride shown in a screenshot is The Atlantic Park’s Octotron, and that ferris wheel design looks familiar too. Still, that might be canny re-use of assets rather than a sign that they’re set in the same world. My dreams are crushed again.
The Park is due to launch this October. Funcom have made single-player games before, of course, but it’s been a few years – their last was Dreamfall: The Longest Journey in 2006. That series has since continued at creator Ragnar Tørnquist’s own studio.
26/08/2015 at 11:35 mashkeyboardgetusername says:
Don’t suppose you could put a slight “horrible flashing” warning on that vid could you Alice? Took me by surprise rather.
Also something something banksy something.
26/08/2015 at 11:53 Alice O'Connor says:
Done-o!
26/08/2015 at 11:47 GameCat says:
How I wish the game would took a place in a running amusement park with crew and customers.
26/08/2015 at 21:59 Rikard Peterson says:
Does Sam & Max count?
26/08/2015 at 12:05 johannsebastianbach says:
Spooky!
Could be the perfect horror game for me, as I do hate amusement parks, even regular ones (stomach- and height-wise).
Love the trailer, cause it evokes the kind of panic I know from many many nightmares containing rollercoasters which keep getting faster and faster.
26/08/2015 at 12:15 Zallgrin says:
Secret World turned single-player? Whoohoo! Amazing news.
26/08/2015 at 12:42 SaintAn says:
Looks interesting. I’d really love more spinoffs set in this world. Especially ones in the first two areas or places like it, or even a complete remake as a singleplayer sandbox game and not a crappy F2P MMO-like co-op game with poor content updates.
26/08/2015 at 12:43 tehfish says:
Crumbs! I haven’t been affected by flashing lights before but that video actually made me dizzy there :/
26/08/2015 at 12:44 Jeroen D Stout says:
Hang on just a breathlessly-sung-ditty-minute, if that is a rollercoaster lift hill, then where is the chain? Are we supposed to assume this driven by superconducting magnets?
That said, strangest Rollercoaster Tycoon trailer so far.
26/08/2015 at 12:54 Hakkesshu says:
They should really just repackage TSW into a much simpler single player game at this point. There was so much interesting story stuff in that game, but it was one of the most boring MMOs I’ve ever played.
26/08/2015 at 18:03 Arkayjiya says:
Why in hell would they do that? Not only is TSW one of their profitable IPs, but on top of that most of the people able to go past the animations and the lack of clarity of the system loves the combat. Tons of people came for the story and stayed for the PVE which is, albeit extremely small, one of the best I’ve ever played in a MMO.
26/08/2015 at 13:00 clearb says:
That amusement park was good stuff back in TSW proper, so I’m pretty interested in where they take this.
26/08/2015 at 13:31 trashbarge says:
atlantic island park!! that was one of my favorite early-game bits, really excited to see them expand on it
that said, i’m pretty sure this trailer is just a spruced-up version of a video from a TSW quest
26/08/2015 at 14:42 J. Cosmo Cohen says:
Guess I won’t be singing that song to my kids anymore. :-/
26/08/2015 at 23:02 Buggery says:
Keen beans. Have been intrigued by the Secret World but haven’t bothered to play it due to my “lol, not gonna play an MMO” policy.
27/08/2015 at 00:09 malkav11 says:
This seems kind of self-defeating considering that TSW doesn’t have most of the MMO traits that usually put people off, like subscription fees, forced grouping, major grinds. I mean, it could be better as an offline singleplayer RPG and I’m very much looking forward to this and any other singleplayer stuff they might deign to put out in the setting, but for my money TSW is the single best singleplayer experience in the entire MMO genre and suffers remarkably little for being positioned in it.