Not seeing a whole lot of positive feedback here, which is surprising to me.  It's not that I view this game as good, it's just that there seemed to be a cult following at start, which has probably been extinguished by time.

Interesting.

My own time with this game is only from the beta experiences, of which I wasn't a fan.  It may be that I was hoping for too much with the game, as I was keeping track of it since 2008 when funcom sent me an email since I had a AoC account.

Though the biggest con of all is perhaps the dreaded three -- Box price, subscription, in-game microtransaction cash shop.  This saddened me a great deal; I would've been fine if it were some pets or an occassional mount that was exclusively on their website (and especially if some income went to charity!), though having the eye sore that is a cash shop inside a game that I pay monthly for is absolutely unforgivable to me (especially since it feels like I don't get the content I pay for with the box price/sub fee since so much is available via the cash shop).

Sad face.

For one, this was not right up there with GW2 in anticipation lol. Far from it, but it was up on the list at least. 

It's going to do okay coming out of the gates but it will have a quick and sharp decline not to long after. It offers a lot of unique ideas but it's not near polished enough, unique enough, aesthetically appealing enough, or mainstream enough to have much longevity or significant impact on the MMO genre. We know it, you know it, they know it. 

The ante for MMO's has been upped, not because of GW2 or anyone game but by a string of bad unfinished, unpolished games to come down the assembly line. 

And for the record, Polish does not simply mean getting all the bugs worked out. It's about fluidness and smoothness aswell. TSW still feels a bit overly clunky to call it polished. It's in good working order, but it's not exactly what I would label polished just yet. 

Originally posted by dougmysticey

Originally posted by Ambros123

Originally posted by tkoreaper

Originally posted by cyress8

Originally posted by vtravi
 

 They are? I must be playing a different version of TSW. I am well into Egypt now and while there are quests that are like that there are plently that are not.  Even as early as Kingsmouth there are plenty of quests that are no like that. Examples are: Something Wicked, Men in Black Vans, The one where you follow the crows, the one where you have to figure out how to fly a remote plane with a web cam over a location, the list goes on.

There are missions where you are searching for clues in total darkness trying to sneak around enemeies, there are missions where you need  to tail someone and listen in on private conversations or sneak into a hidden lair, there are missions were you have to avoid and disarm traps.

So, ulitmately, thare not all as you say, not even close.

While there might be a few quests that are intresting and unusual buy by far and large the follow the same quest mechanics.  And no, Kingsmound was not drastically different in quest mechancis.  80-90% were go here go there, kill this collect that to the point where it was giving me flashbacks of SWTOR.

Great story, tiresome mechanics.

Though I agree that TSW has an amazing story, world, and lore as soon as I read the rating and review of Game Play...: 

"What I found is that the longer I played The Secret World, the less I noticed any combat weirdness. Since movement is integral to success in battle, I quickly came to appreciate what Funcom did for my girl. As time went on, I discovered that combat was both fun and thought-provoking. It’s not enough to stand and fire. You need to get on your roller skates to bring down monsters. Having to think is refreshing (and thinking is pretty much the only way you'll survive all TSW has to offer)."   

I quickly realized this review was extremely bias and not worth continueing to read a drooling fanboish/girlish write up.    If you watch akamikeb's video of the game you can see that Character animation as well as combat animations are a HUGE.... HUGE pile of crap in this game and for a gigantic amount of gamers a even bigger problem and are not by any means overshadowed by the great things in this game.   I feel Suzie Ford is misrepresenting how bad this really is and mitigating it which to me is extremely bad for a reviewer to do and those of us who know better can see straight through it..  This in my eyes and I'm sure in many discredits not only Suzie Ford but also MMORPG.com for allowing such reviews.

The thing you spend 90% of the time doing in any video game, moving , combat and such is the worst part of this game.   You feel as if your character is pulled out of a late 90's grand theft auto video game and placed in an amazing world.... Absolutely breaks immresion.    To watch someone review the game and mitigate such a horrible character game play is going to become a laughing joke.  

I don't care if promises are of how they will change the combat animations and movement animations, they also made those promises in Beta by saying they are removing the "place holders" and NOTHING changed so please take off the rose colored glasses and write a true review without mitigating the bad...  Though this seems to be a common problem here because the same thing happened with the review of TERA. So maybe we just can't take reviews seriously from MMORPG.com anymore until some changes are made.

i dont know what to tell you guys - this is just another SWTOR clone to me and i will explain -

you go and do your quests. Yes - you can have limited amount of quests at a time - but still the same. This is exacly like WOW or SWTOR (which is WOW with a story twist).

Horrible combat mechanics (animations, and everything actually related to combat).

You cannot roll an alt - WELL actually you can but then you are doing the same game all over again (SWTOR again???!!!)

and once last thing about the "weel" - YES there are manay manay combinations - but you still have the "trinity" to think about (DPS, Tank, Heal) and most combinations just suck!!!!! So what happens is you play around with it a bit and find "your" best combination and stay with it without the need to change it ever after that point....

and dont get me started on the "dungeons" - which bear no impact on anything else happening in the game...

Sorry - this will be F2P once they start losing money - give it a few months and you will see - i give it till Jan maybe Fab 2013... no more

Sorry :-)

Really nice review gives the game what it deservers alot of people are slating it from there impressions from the first beta weekend which lacked the polish it has now. The game is definetly not perfect and funcom have some work to do but this game has such a massive potential one of the first mainstream non-fantasy/sci-fi mmo.

Can't wait to see what the next updates brings and lets hope they squash those bugs :)

Longevity?  Yeah, right.  That's why there's been a slew of "I'm bored" posts all over the general forums the past couple of weeks even from MMO players that aren't "locusts".

It's basically a one and done MMO.  Even TOR has more replayability (shocking).  At least with TOR you have two different factions to play through and different class quests to at least give incentive to replay the game. 

Not so much in TSW.  Each of the 3 factions go to the same zones and complete the same quest lines.  The only exception to that is the occasional mission unlocked from your faction HQ after achieving a certain rank and the missions between each area of the world you travel to.

The skill system really is not that deep despite what some may think.  You can only place 7 actives and 7 passives at a time into "decks" using 2 weapons at any given time.  However the real problem is that it all plays exactly the same.

You spam a builder to get 5 resources then hit your 2 weapon finishers.  That's it.  Now, imagine doing that on later mobs in Transylvania that have an upwards of 20k HPs . . .

You will have a couple other abilities (3-4) that might give you a temporary defense buff or a heal (but a lot of the heals still use build/consume).  Oh, but I can make an Assault Rifle/Fist build or I can make a Shotgun/Hammer build.  Both play the same.  Only real difference is single target vs. AoE damage.

The system, however, does shine when it comes to actually switching roles in the game.  Being able to be a tank, healer, or DPS depending on your mood that day.  You're just going to need a lot more Ability Points to unlock all of those skills to properly do it. 

Not to worry, however, because you can repeat the same missions you have done (most of them, anyway) to get the needed AP.  They do have 18 hours - 3 day cooldown period on repeating them.

The story is pretty good and the investigation missions is where the game shines, but they can also be annoying as well either requiring you to learn Arabic symbols or Morse Code to decipher them (or merely cheat and Google the answer).

I had "finished" the game at about 3 days /played.  The current end game consists of farming instances for purple loot or repeating the quests to grind AP you need for other builds/roles.

You could also participate in lackluster PvP.  I was initially excited about Fusang Projects (a 3 ways 75v75v75 persistent battle ground with territorial control) but that gets boring after a while because everyone just plays "musical keeps" to get quest completion.

A farcry from the hopes of another pseudo DAoC PvP experience that I was remotely dreaming of.  But, hey, that's my bad.

They have promised to release monthly content patches and 1.1 added a handful of quests (some that were already finished in beta but removed from the game prior to launch).

I'll keep my eye on the game throughout the months and years and perhaps one day I will return to it when it is more polished and completed and add more zones to the game to adventure in.  Currently there are only 3 areas in the game world each with 2-3 zones each.

Well they are right in line with their community. Well done MMORPG!

Originally posted by Lugoves

I had "finished" the game at about 3 days /played.  The current end game consists of farming instances for purple loot or repeating the quests to grind AP you need for other builds/roles.

 

 

Maybe you finished the story quest but there's no way you finished the game.

Originally posted by blackhawkzz

Originally posted by Lugoves

I had "finished" the game at about 3 days /played.  The current end game consists of farming instances for purple loot or repeating the quests to grind AP you need for other builds/roles.

 

 

Maybe you finished the story quest but there's no way you finished the game.

 

True, but I didn't want to grind dungeons for purple gear and lost interest in making other builds by that point because it all plays too much the same.  My skill wheel was about 50% completed.

Originally posted by Yaevindusk

Though the biggest con of all is perhaps the dreaded three -- Box price, subscription, in-game microtransaction cash shop.  This saddened me a great deal; I would've been fine if it were some pets or an occassional mount that was exclusively on their website (and especially if some income went to charity!), though having the eye sore that is a cash shop inside a game that I pay monthly for is absolutely unforgivable to me (especially since it feels like I don't get the content I pay for with the box price/sub fee since so much is available via the cash shop).

 

Sad face.

Its called "Business" and knowing your overhead to stay "afloat"... Anet is VERY VERY lucky to have NCsoft own them.. if it didnt, they wouldnt be in business lol :) So many people are spoiled rotten with the F2P model, lest they know that it equals out to the same amount of cash dished out be it f2p (which really is p2w) or the subscription based model which is never going to be P2W..

The game is enjoyable for what it is, but it isn't a long-lasting MMORPG.

The current trend in MMORPG design appears to be to incorporate more single-player game elements into them:  story-telling, platforming, puzzle solving, and so on.  The kinds of things that generally are very single-player in content.  I think that the theory is that there aren't really "MMO gamers" but just "gamers" and people like these mechanics from other games, so will like an MMO that features them.

The problem with that approach is that unlike single-player games, MMOs like TSW require a subscription fee, and therefore people will be interested in playing them for a longer period of time in order to justify that fee.  Single player oriented design elements don't facilitate this at all.  That was what went wrong in TOR, and it's what's going wrong in TSW.  The game is fun to play, for a while.  It doesn't have the staying power of a subecription-based MMORPG -- that is the issue, and the main problem with the review above.  MMOs should be graded substantially down for not having a lot of longevity to them.

Originally posted by Shaike

i dont know what to tell you guys - this is just another SWTOR clone to me and i will explain -

you go and do your quests. Yes - you can have limited amount of quests at a time - but still the same. This is exacly like WOW or SWTOR (which is WOW with a story twist).

Horrible combat mechanics (animations, and everything actually related to combat).

You cannot roll an alt - WELL actually you can but then you are doing the same game all over again (SWTOR again???!!!)

 

and once last thing about the "weel" - YES there are manay manay combinations - but you still have the "trinity" to think about (DPS, Tank, Heal) and most combinations just suck!!!!! So what happens is you play around with it a bit and find "your" best combination and stay with it without the need to change it ever after that point....

 

and dont get me started on the "dungeons" - which bear no impact on anything else happening in the game...

 

Sorry - this will be F2P once they start losing money - give it a few months and you will see - i give it till Jan maybe Fab 2013... no more

 

Sorry :-)

OMG, we have now replaced WoW Clone with TOR Clone? Wow!

A fair review in my opinion, if anything I think it should have got a higher mark for creativity but all the rest seem inline.

I still wonder how SWTOR managed to get a higher review score though ^-^

Eh...I love this game but 8.5 seems high to me. Just too many kinks that still need to be worked out and longevity is questionable with the game due to the story themed element.

I would give it a 7.5 personally. Still that review made some good points about the pros and cons of the game.

Haters gonna hate, fans gonna fan.

If swtor deserve 8.7 and GW2 is hyped to 8.7 i would give to  TSW  9.5. I understand it is not easy mmo like most of them but it is real rpg with amazing and hard quests and with fascinating graphic and ambient. I will spend most of the time with casual mmo like gw2 but i must admit that tsw is rare pearl in mmo world today. It is maybe to hard for wow,gw or swtor fans but not everything must be the same.  And there is no elves (or plant elves:) ) thats oner big + from me

8.5 is exactly where I'd put TSW too (maybe an 8).  I'd also have added a category for sound, which is one area where TSW excels (probably a 9.5 there IMO)

The setting is amazing, but the combat gameplay doesn't feel very deep.

As for replayability, I think the review is too generous - the group content is fairly limited at present, and there's little point in alting, as there're minimal plot differences between the factions (there are some different appearance options of course).  For replayability etc. I'd have given a 6.  That said, Funcom's commitment to release additional missions etc. is good and, if they actually stick to their word, should be positive.

Originally posted by Grakulen

I really enjoyed this game. If they can continue to add new missions on a monthly basis and alternate in new skills and weapons once a quarter I think they are really on to something. I also think they will need a new dungeon or two sprinkled in there as well. Not just nightmare modes to extend the gear grind.



I was really surprised by the game. I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would. Keep up the good work so this will still be relevant a year from now.

 

^^ This for sure. The game starts out slow but by the time you get to Egypt WOW. People who say no reson to group are just WRONG btw. I play with my two boys and it is way better when they are with me vs solo. Just destroy stuff and have almost no down time. Granted there is the option to solo but it takes longer. Thats the trade off. Further more the best gear comes from the dungeons and its not possible to solo those. This game is nothing like the SOLO fest that SWTOR was. I am a big time GW2 fan boy but It has become clear this game is great and its noce to have two solid games to play. There will not be a lack of things to do that is for sure. TSW has all but stopped me from playing Dayz and I love that game lol.

All in all this is a great themepark MMO and one that deserves recognition for being beatiful, fun and innovative.  I'm no fan of theme parks in general, but this one appeals to me.  

This is a good review for the most part.  However, I completely disagree with giving it such high marks for Social features.  The game has virtually none to speak of other than some places for people to RP.  There really aren't any social gameplay mechanis, and even the Cabal (guild) system is little more than a chat tab.  In my opinion, they shouldn't get higher than a 6.0 for Social until they really start focusing on it.

Crafting gear is mostly pointless because of all the good stuff being in the dungeons.  I think this is a problem, because I enjoy crafting and right now I really question why it's in the game.   Sure the crafted buffs are nice, but I haven't really needed those either.

The game is *mostly* polished, but there are some areas with glaring problems that must be addressed.  Chat tabs are still breaking when you zone.  The inventory system is a mess and  nightmare to use, and Gear Management, which is key to gameplay once you get about half-way through the game (earlier for some people) is still very buggy and awkward.

They need to concentrate on these areas, and they will have a very good niche game on their hands.  This game isn't for everyone, but clearly a lot of different kinds of people enjoy it.