We've heard rumors and tales about the game for years, now we've finally taken a look inside. What have we found? Read on to find out!

As it was explained to us, each of those abilities was selected and/or purchased by that particular player during their character’s progression through the game. There will be literally hundreds of powers throughout The Secret World, from martial arts to magic to gunplay. Players will be able to fully customize the supernatural elements their characters carry into battle. All of the abilities will be available for purchase from the very outset, but the more advanced abilities will have prerequisites and be extremely costly to purchase, thus making it something that players could eventually achieve rather than buying the abilities early in their character's development.

But here’s the kicker… only seven active abilities (at least at the time of this article’s writing) are allowed to be taken with you into combat at any one time. While players can certainly pick any of the dozens of powers that they’ve accumulated, the decision to bring in the particular powers or spec their character for a different role in group play is entirely their choice.

On top of the active powers being described, a slew of passive powers will also be available – and seven of these will also be selected by the character to bring into combat. While the active powers might be the direct way players interact with the world around them, the passive powers are used to enhance those active abilities or help players fulfill a certain role in their party. These are the powers that enhance the damage you dish out or help deflect the damage that you do take. One example that the Funcom developers used was that of a heal spell that, when augmented by a passive ability, allowed for the caster to resurrect the target.

Speaking of combat, again the Funcom developers are going out on a limb and trying to change the style of MMO gameplay again, this time by taking on an even more active style of combat. Rather than continue to run the same simple, click, press 1-2-3, rinse and repeat, the Funcom devs are literally aiming for a combat style more akin to what players might find in a console shooter; aiming, strafing and reactivity are key to succeeding in this particular game.

And frenetic is certainly the right word to use for this title. In the scenes we showed, players are constantly moving and adjusting where they are and how they attack. You still have your tank, DPSer and healer, but those characters are constantly on the move either trying to get away from a nasty baddy or wading into combat to draw the monster’s attention. While some MMO players will shy away from the sheer amount of activity found in TSW, there will definitely be some early adopters who truly crave this sort of play experience.