Alot of people seem to be using the user score as some sort of vindication for the reviewer score.

I'd like to remind thoes people that 600-1000 is a poor sample size for an MMO.

What this tells me is that only people with a strong positive opinion of the game cared enough to vote. While most others found the game to be "meh".

Not offensive enough to spur the masses into a downvoting fest, but not good enough to pull in a large amount of positive votes.

Great thourough review by Suzie. MMO discussion sites should have the best MMO reviews (duh!) and this is a good one.

And I happen to agree with all the strengths and weaknesses highlighted.

There are others out there being harsh with their numerical scores of TSW even though, when you read the text, they are mostly full of praise. I guess game review sites still have some egg on their collective faces after the over-enthusiastic reception SWTOR got: low numbers are the FOTM in review circles... I'm happy to see MMORPG buck that trend and give TSW a very fair score.

I was in closed beta for a while before the BWEs started and at first, I was kind of horrified at the character graphics, clipping, animations, etc. But over time, things got tweaked and fixed and improved. And by July 3rd, there were so many things different between the closed beta version and the game at launch that I knew anyone who had only played the beta would not know the game today.

TSW isn't for content locusts. Neither is it for hardcore endgamers, as its endgame starts at the beginning, which is so odd as to be nearly impossible to wrap your mind around. And just about every time you think you have things figured out, there's a whammy making you rethink what you think you know.

This is a great game for the thinking player looking for immersion. That doesn't diss the non-thinking player, but they might find it irritating because it won't fit their expectations.

Originally posted by MidBoss

Alot of people seem to be using the user score as some sort of vindication for the reviewer score.

I'd like to remind thoes people that 600-1000 is a poor sample size for an MMO.

What this tells me is that only people with a strong positive opinion of the game cared enough to vote. While most others found the game to be "meh".

Not offensive enough to spur the masses into a downvoting fest, but not good enough to pull in a large amount of positive votes.

 

 

1000 people out of 10,000,000 gamers yields a magin of error of 3% 

So if you want more than that, idk.

A fair and balanced review pretty much in line with my own impression from playing the game. I don't find the pvp lackluster though - have had some great times in Fusang!

I'm not too sure on what kind of score I would give TSW, I thought SWTOR was about a 7.  I bored of SWTOR after about 2 weeks and that was playing with a friend.  I am playing TSW now, have been since the 5th I think and I'm still interested.  I do take breaks from it and do other things, unlike a lot of people who are done with the game already.  I'm currently in Carpathian Fangs, messing with different build optimazations and building decks for healing/dps/tanking.  All I can say is, most mmo's in recent years I have played I ended up growing bored of within 2 weeks I'd say.  I'm currently not bored of TSW (though again I take breaks from it and don't play obsessively) and plan to pay for another month.  So I suppose I'd rate it higher than a 7 in comparison to what I thought SWTOR was.  I'd say 8-8.5 is fair with some sway in opinion.

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no review, nothing anyone else here says really means squat.

It all comes down to, am I enjoying playing it?  Yes

while at work do I think about builds, missions, where I am heading next?  Yes

for me right now the game is a 10, I am having a ton of fun, and not even searching the web for the next game of the month (gw2), which is something I was doing 2 weeks into SWTOR, RIFT, TERA and others

Originally posted by bcbully

Originally posted by lifeordinary

Originally posted by bcbully

Originally posted by lifeordinary

I still can not wrap my mind around 8.0 score for longevity. I think WOW and SWTOR should get 10 in this department since all these three MMOS end game is dungeon grind for purple.

 

I can't believe such a generic end game gets 8.0

/facepalm

 

The pve'rs in TSW think the end game is awsome. The dungeons are raid quality in terms of challenge and there are raids on the way. As a person who used to be about 50/50 pve/pvp and it now 90% pvp, I really like doing the TSW dungeons, and can't wait for the 10/20 mans.

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Well and good but i am talking about longevity...and not the  lore and story delivery. Since TSW end game is as generic as it gets, i can't agree with that score however i mostly agree with rest of the ratings.

If this game really can put out Monthly content consistently then I think it'll be the MMO game that can most justify a sub price.

I agree with a lot of people here that I find the review score a bit high.  Though obviously we are talking about the reviewer's opinion here, I can't really understand how you can say combat in the game is good, it's far inferior to even WoW in my opinion.  The rest of the gameplay aspects are good (except PvP which was mentioned to be pretty bland by today's standards).

The open skill system is a facade.  Amongst problems is passives are way too specific and strong (forcing certain builds), the resource consumer/building system which forces you to use a single builder and a spammable consumer in your build and reserve the other actives for more longer cooldown skills tends to pigeonhole you to specific builds.  Though there are plenty of build options in the game, they are far more limited than what they could have been with a better designed system.  One person focused on Blood/Fist healing for example likely won't have a very different setup than someone else focused on the same thing where in Guild Wars 2 which actually has less options on the surface has far more deeper viable options like setting up something specific as Condition specced DPS Ranger my build could vary greatly from someone doing the exact same thing.

The reviewer telling lifetime subs they'll get their money's worth takes the cake though.  The game has very little content at release.  It took me a week and a half to complete all the missions in game, all dungeons on Elite, and the 3 Nightmare dungeons.  The only thing I skipped was doing all the lair bosses (I did do a few) which are currently setup in such a way that they can only be described as a pure pointless grind.  PvP could be a lot of content, but again you are probably better off finding another MMO if you enjoy PvP and the combat really brings PvP down.

There are loads of pros in the game.  It definitely deserves a 7 or a 7.5.  8 is pushing it.  I think 8.5 and "potential for game of the year" is a bit absurd though.

Originally posted by AtrusHomeboy

 

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Originally posted by Fadedbomb
ADDING LOADS OF BLANK LINES TO MY POST WILL SURELY MAKE MY ARGUING POINTS MORE CREDIBLE

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PROTIP: it doesn't. Not flamebaiting whatsoever, just making a point.

There is a bug  that sometimes inserts a bunch of extra spacing when someone edits a post. I went and edited the spacing.

Originally posted by Skuz

If this game really can put out Monthly content consistently then I think it'll be the MMO game that can most justify a sub price.

Yeah, this is my thought as well. For a fresh MMO I think the content is very good and I do agree with the reviewer that they have made it a good game to continue adding content to, like how they added the 7 new missions and the two additional nightmare dungeons. For once I feel there is a good balance between content for the players that play 24/7 and the more casual players.

I think TSW has plenty of room for improvement, but at the same time I don't think they have burnt any bridges. It does seem like the dungeons were very well received and that they can just build on what they started there. They have stated they are coming with 10 and 20 man raids, which after playing AoC I think will be very good. PvP seems to have missed it's mark, but not by an unfixable margin.

Originally posted by GrayGhost79

Originally posted by Suzie_Ford

Originally posted by toddze

The real reviews of a game come from the players now and only the players. It is not just this site that has stopped giving real reviews of a game all game sites have.

Funny. The average score for TSW on Metacritic with over 600 USER/GAMER/PLAYER reviews is 8.4. Go figure. ;)

See for yourself: http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/the-secret-world/user-reviews

 

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Its what happens with most themepark mmos. The game by itself probably warrants a good score. During the first month or so folks love what they are getting because its pretty good, after a while they have nothing to do and are still paying money thus end up lowering their original thoughts on the game.

I think the review is pretty solid. So many of the complaints are from folks who appear to have very little knowledge of the game, figures...

I enjoyed the guests, the world and the skill wheel. but I didn't like the clunkiness of the combat or the many glitches  I ran into during the time I played. For me this game deserves no better than a 7.0. Fix the bugs, make the combat more smooth, then it will deserve a 8.0. No game this buggy should get high marks. Not in this day and age.

Awesome review its about spot on and what I would have given it..

Best themepak MMORPG to be released for a long time and nothing is going to come close to this for quite some time.. themepark wise that is..

Originally posted by zigmund

I wish reviewers actually played games for a month before reviewing.

The BAD...

Crafting and inventory management - terrible - hate it.

Banking / AH only in London - terrible idea - hate it.

Building 5 resource counters for combat - terrible - hate it.

Gear manager doesn't work, forgets settings.

Open skill sytem - not really - very disappointed.

Interesting skills? - no very disappointed.

PVP sucks.

No lfg tool. LFG Spam is brutal

The Good...

5 mans are awesome!

Quests are awesome!

Skill deck although bland and fairly restrictive, is deep and really makes you think to put together a build with synergy.

Mobs have great AI.

Death system handled well.

Great story.

Verdict - I'll be playing GW2

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is about spot on... I bought this game to hold me over for a month until GW2 comes out and I'm already bored with it four days later... way too many bugs. If you like spamming the same ability over and over with no way to just turn it on Auto-fire, then you'll love the combat. Every weapon set works pretty much the same way, the only difference being some are ranged, some are melee. The character advancement is very short. It doesn't take long to get what you want... it only takes long if you don't know what you want, or want more options to switch between. Just one dungeon per tier which will have you sick and tired of seeing people shout "DPS LFG for 'only dungeon in the area" and then you'll be sick of unsubing the LFG channel because every time you log in the damn thing is back on again...

If you dare ask "Is the Disassembly system working yet?" be prepared to be attacked by a horde of fanbois trying to convince you that everything is working fine even though its officially a known broken feature that, guess what?? Is STILL broken after you went back to town and took the junk from your bank to disassemble it because the fanbois said nothing is broken... I got stuck in the enviroment last night and typed /stuck and I got a message saying "Your character does not seem stuck" and all I could think to myself was "and your game is a piece of shit..." yup they can have this game :)

I really wanted to like this game. I will go as far to say that its a straight up dissappointment. If you are on the fence about buying this... save your money. This WILL be free to play before long... I promise you this. Otherwise it will die like the rest of the "Potentially good  mmos".

After playing the game for the past month and having some fun at it, I would rate the game somewhere between a 6.5 to  a 7. While I won't be playing it anymore, I will keep and eye on it to see where it goes and may play it again at some future date. It does show a lot of promise .