The Secret World Review

It took them quite a while, and that might not be a bad thing by the way, but the folks at PC Gamer have reviewed The Secret World, Funcom’s conspiracy-focused MMO. They praise the game’s setting, writing, art and investigation quests, but also criticize the by-the-book MMO quests which make up most of the gameplay, the combat and the bugs they encountered on their own server, and ultimately award the title a middling 69/100. Here’s an excerpt:

Perhaps tellingly, there’s already a microtransaction store for cosmetic items. Whether that’s a hint of the game’s ultimate direction, or just a sign that people are happy to pay for bunny slippers, remains to be seen. At the moment, it’s not enough to keep me playing beyond the conclusion of the story, and I’d imagine all but the most hardcore of stat-tweakers would feel the same especially with PvP so flimsy. If Funcom don’t apply some serious and quick work to the endgame, then don’t bother renewing your subscription after your second month, when the story and dungeons have run their course.

The Secret World shows a lot of ambition. The story is engaging, the setting atmospheric and the user-friendly core systems are a welcome progression. I’m happy to forgive even celebrate the things it attempts, even when they don’t work as well as intended. But it still feels uncomfortably shackled to familiar MMO compromises, and you’ll spend much of your time trudging through the same tiresome genre filler: the padding of content and lackluster combat are both things done better by other games in the genre. That it’s still worth a look is testament to the quality of what it does get right.