Any MMO gamer will tell you that most if not all of them are released with bugs. People have become too spoiled on the MMOs they have stuck with, enjoying a game that has been repeatedly polished over a period of years. This game has all the foundations and workings of an MMO that will truly shine, but if not given proper support (by the gamers and the developers) it will not grow to its full potential as the most popular MMOs have done. Most of the broken quests are doable if you join another world instance. The combat itself is basic, but the monsters have many different approaches to defeating them and still manages to remain challenging. The dungeons are very fun. I would at least give this game an 8 out of 10. I've played many MMOs, and not many have engrossed me or drew me in like this one has.
I never really liked putting a number or letter grade at the end of an MMO review. They evolve so drastically in such a short period of time that it makes the review meaningless come a few short months out. I think MMO games should just be text reviews without a score attached.
Anywho, not really going to talk about the review itself since I do not own the game even though I spent quite a bit of time in the beta and it was pretty unique and cool. The reason I decided to cancel my pre-order and not buy it is because I don't see the justification in pay to play MMO's anymore. It's not me being a cheap-o by the way; I've bought and played nearly every major pay to play MMO to come out since WoW. The longest that held my attention were Conan for 2 years and Rift for 6 months.
However, when you look at the amazing quality of all the free to play MMO's (Neverwinter, Planetside 2, Firefall, etc.) and buy to play MMO's (Guild Wars 2) I do not see how paying a monthly fee is worth it. When you have games like Guild Wars 2, Fire Fall, and Planetside 2 with cash shops that aren't pay to win it makes you wonder how ANY MMO dev can justify charging you a fee. Especially one that already has an extensive cash shop. I don't care if they are cosmetics. A cash shop is a cash shop and a pay to play MMO with one just boggles my mind.
Good luck to Funcom though. They have made a very unique MMO and I would like to see it succeed.
Your limited scope for reviewing games is clearly outlined here. There's just far too much you've missed out in comparison with most of the other reviews i've read for TSW. This would usually be overlooked by most if the final score was more fittng in comparison with the others. However, pull a stunt like this and theres no wonder why so many are ultimately questioning your professionalism.
I'm not doubting your intelligence though. Scoring a game so boldly is great for generating hits. It's just a shame that the smaller critics out there resort to measures like this to keep themselves in the lime light.
If youre trying to write a constructive review, it would probably be best to put a little more thought into the scoring or just drop it altogether. Whilst everyone is going to be biased in some way, i just don't see how anyone who has spent ample time with the game could rate it below a 65, perhaps a 60 at a push. Yikes!
Seriously? You take "take a game's business model, interface, long-term player vs player viability, and documentation seriously"? You must be quite the renaissance man, Mr. Chick. However, given that your other reviews (such as perfect score for Darkness II, lol) reveal that you couldn't play your way out of a wet cardboard box and you have all the taste of a three years old with a major brain damage, excuse me if I don't take your assessments at their face value.
You're tugging my turnips now, aren't you.
First, while i wholeheartedly disagrees with the premise of your review and your scoring i'd like to make a few observations.
Broken quests
The MiBV isn't in fact bugged. It is quite doable without workaround. You just need to do the right thing. So strike that one. But yes i spent a long time trying to click birds in ghost shape and it would not work. But that was not due to the quest being broken, it was 25 players on launch day independantly clicking birds and resetting the chain. Noone wanted to work together to get it done. There could of course be a better way to solve it script wise but there it is.
As for soo many other quests i find them intresting, challenging and most importantly, FUN!
The business model.
So how many points did you take off from the game because of a business model that you don't agree with? You know, the VANITY store has nothing to do with performance of your character.
There is no pay to win.
There is nothing in there that you have any reason, except aesteic ones to buy. If there would have been things in there better than things you find or make that would kill player based economy, then i would agree with you on that.
I think you don't like the idea of subscription based business models and while that is a philosophical standpoint it does not warrant the low score.
Broken/working ratio
I would also say that every single MMO out there has it's share of issues at launch. This game though has imo an VERY acceptable ratio of polished game play that led me to quite confidently buy the lifetime sub.
You like free to play, fine. I personally hate free to play because it feeds trolls and asshats in to a game with zero intrest in it.
In the end i think this game, concept and execution simply isn't your cup of troll juice and thats all good. But if you are to be taken seriously, try to live up to your own standards. Until then you are nothing but a glorified forum troll.
Mr. Chick why do you continue play a game which you give an awful score, you must hate it to death and with your score you are pulling down the number of people who could get interested in the game, so chances for further expansions go down the drain. Thanks for nothing. Why a diary then, are you masochist?
QED
So what you now are saying is that (as most of us actually had aready surmised) you in fact haven't played the game.
First line of the freaking review: I love the game that Secret World is supposed to be.
There are 2 broken quests and I'm playing game from 30th of June. This is hater's review. The worst one i've read in my lifetime. Shame on you for this ugrateful words. Go back to WoW.
You need to be online to recieve answer for petition. The time difference between you can make petitions is around 4 hours. Please dont tell me that you played this game to London? Because only for 60-80hrs of gameplay you can get there. If you did, you wouldnt gave it 2. Plain and simple. Because quests works (Beside Something Wicked) and they are damn interesting and bizzare in every way possible. So even the biggest hater must eat his pride and admit that the game is genious in some moments. Im so sad because game will end like Age of Conan just because of people like you and bad reviews of people who havent actually played the game as it should be played. Other quests you mentioned, were fixed in a matter of hours. So please... Stop bitching about that. If you played, you would know, nice and simple. I really dont know how someone can give you a game to do a review if you dont play it over 60-80% of the game at least for objective review (i work in press)
And mate, if you think you're really right. Go into the game and read impressions on general chat, and if you think you're more right than couple of hundreds of thousands of players and great feedback and impressions on official forums, than mate, I must tell you but you have problems. I'm just honest with you.
This review should be taken in context, it's an extreme take on a pretty good game. The score of 4/10 looks more like quest bug frustration venting than an actual review of the game. When looking for games I always throw out the top few reviews and the bottom, this would be the very bottom review and as such be thrown out along with the top most review(s). There will always be those who go to extremes (good or bad) for attention and it often works..this is a good example. We are left with one of two conclusions, either this author is singularly willing/able to define the game is garbage or the review rating is garbage, you pick. Seeing that this is by far the worst rating captured at metacritic, I choose the latter.
Here's the silly thing about this review and I think the flaw in all MMO reviews. Your main complaint is the broken quests early on in the game, and now almost on the day this review was posted a patch has been released fixing all the broken early quests making your complaints outdated and obsolete. As a player of pretty much every MMO that has come out in the past 5-8 years this is something thats been troubling me about MMO reviews, making me wonder if there's really any point to them.
The "majority must be right" argument? Seriously?
I never said that, you understood it as you wish. I just said, look at their great feedback. "its just me against the world" really? argunment "quests not working/game is dah broken"? Please....
Okay, but why ignore all the other reviews?
There are a handful of broken side quests. This review was written to get hits. We all know it and this site has done it several times.
Someone should tell this hack that TSW is largely regarded as one of the best launches in mmo history.
Writing reviews for the sake of getting attention is shameful. I hope you locate your self respect and start actually trying to do real reviews.
But no one reads the reviers, just the extremes- top/bottom. It would appear being over the top gets attention or street cred.