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My Rating: 9
Good graphics, good controls, and an incredible story that made me want to play the next chapter even more then the first had.
Basically, if you enjoyed the first episode, then you will enjoy this even more so

With The Secret World, Funcom has proven that years of work and a fistful of new ideas can still result in a miserable game.

The Pros
Huge assortment of quest missions
Brings a new way of thinking to MMOs
There are zombies in one world
The Cons
Offputtingly bad graphics, animations and gameplay
Lack of classes/leveling system is a good idea with poor execution
Weak story and dialogue
The Secret World Review:

The larger a game is, the higher the chance is for mistakes. Tetris had none. Skyrim had quite a few. The Secret World has too many.

The Secret World misses the mark in almost every way. From graphical and animation hitches to buggy quests and piss-poor voice acting, the game features almost no redeeming qualities. Perhaps worst of all is how badly I wanted the game to be good. Im a huge fan of the Supernatural TV series and really anything that needs to be killed with fire or a silver bullet, so The Secret World sounded like the perfect game for me. Unfortunately, even my love of the unknown wasnt enough to make the game even moderately tolerable.






A Weak Foundation

The first thing I noticed when I started The Secret World was just how weak it looked. The graphics consistently fail to impress, even on the highest setting. There are also a number of animation issues, even this late into the beta (every time my character jumped down more than a single story, her knee would clip through her face). All of these visual problems cast a pall over the rest of the game, making it even less palatable.

Not only is it an ugly game, its also a game that at its core isnt fun to play. Movement feels sluggish and platforming feels like its a generation behind. Combat is fairly standard, with one small addition. Certain attacks build resources for certain weapons, while other attacks will require/drain these resources. However, no matter what weapon you choose to use, youll feel like youre using a melee weapon, as ranged weapons are fairly useless. Even attacks designed to slow down mobs fail to keep them at bay for long.
Notice I said weapon and not class. This is due to the games largest failure: a lack of classes or a leveling system. I love when games try new things to break from the norm, and this idea had potential. Unfortunately, Funcom turned this potential into a mismanaged mess.

The story is so weak and tortuous it hardly merits mention. You take the role of a magical agent of one of three factionsthe Dragon, the Illuminati or the Templars. The overall story and mission is unclear, which would seriously not be a big deal if the rest of the game wasnt so terrible. Your character is silent, which can actually work, but does not work here. (I found myself baffled at the thought of my character simply standing there stonefaced while NPCs tell her their life story for no reason.) The writing is among the worst I have heard in a game and even the voice acting is hard to stomach.



Like A High School Dropout: No Class

Its surprisingly discouraging to play a game with no leveling. There is still experience granted, and even an experience bar on the bottom of the screen. However, when the bar is filled, you dont become stronger or even better in any way. Instead, you are granted points used to purchase new abilities or skills. Because you choose weapons instead of classes, you can put these points toward becoming more proficient with a certain weapon.

Ideally when you start out with a limited amount of points, you choose two weapons or magical abilities that complement one another; however, this isnt explained whatsoever and with scarce points trial and error isnt really an option. So, essentially you are forced to choose one or two weapons and stick with thempraying you chose correctlywhich feels a lot like choosing a class without the added benefits. Eventually, after gaining enough points to max out multiple weapons and abilities, it would be possible to experiment and find the best one. But starting out, if youre picking up different abilities that might resemble -- say, a tank -- without extensive forum research you could very well waste dozens of hours plugging points into the wrong abilities.

It is as ugly as it sounds.

Funcom made The Secret World without leveling or classes in an effort to lower the bar for entry. The idea was that if all gamers are always on the same plane, new gamers will flock to the game. Instead, the game is just too difficult to enjoy across the board. Mobs never really become easier to kill because you never really level above them. Your health only increases if youre using certain gear, which is frustrating if you dont obsessively loot everything you can find.



On A Quest To Find A Better Game

The quests in the game are another serious weak point. If you can find a quest that doesnt have at least one bug in it, it still wont be very much fun. Most quests feel like time sinks without the comforting thought that at least youre gaining experience and leveling. One quest I watched a number of people struggle with incorporated following flying ravens that would either clip into buildings or simply disappear. Only by sheer guesswork was I able to find out where the ravens went. Some quests require outside knowledge to solve, like say an obscure bible passage. But who in their right mind wants to exit a game, visit Google and look up a passage? It interrupts gameplay and just feels like lazy design.

With this many bad missions, it would be nice to simply ignore some and get others. However, the game forbids this, as youre only able to have one story quest and three auxiliary quests at any given time. More than once I figured out a convoluted quest, only to realize it wasnt in my list and I had to trek all the way back to whoever gave me the mission. Stupider still, all quests are repeatable, which means you may find yourself accidentally accepting quests youve completed in lieu of quests you are working on.

Even travelsomething extremely important in MMORPGsis bungled. The Secret World simply does not feel like an open world game. In order to travel from one city to the next, you must use an underground network of portals connected by extremely long paths that, once again, feel like a meaningless time sink.



No One Likes Secrets

The Secret World has too many problems to function. When describing my experience to one of my friends, she asked me, is it free-to-play? I replied that even if it were, the cost would still be too high. Even simple things like the inability to hotkey health potions made me raise an eyebrow. And dont get me started on the pathetic excuse for a crafting system. I actually enjoy crafting weapons, but even after reading myriad forums and watching tutorial videos, it was still an utter waste of time.

After playing the game for over a month I havent seen any serious signs of improvement. Quests remain buggy, graphics suffer and the core of the game is still as obnoxious as ever. MMORPGs occupy a crowded market of obsessive and dedicated gamers, and I dont see any of them leaving a variety of much better games for the pathetic softball Funcom has lobbed our way.

Batman Arkham City Review:



This game was rated 9/10 for its amazing new combat moves and the new improved graphics.
Hope to see more Batman games in the near future.

This game is a third person shooter you can toggle right camera angle and left camera angle depending on what you like ...

Now moving onto the game play this game is a much fun to play maybe online with people or even just in co-op with people you may / know.

I personally really like this game as it gives me the feeling that this is a real life situation.

This game is under construction as its only in beta but not many bugs and good game play footage can be got from this even though its a horror based game you can get hours of joy from it but also very scared at the same time

Thanks this review was made by - TTG_CODKID - Ocyle -

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