A beautiful game, but not without flaws. You will love it, or you will hate it. Or you'll be like me and do both...
Now, don't get me wrong, just because I won't be playing this game past my free month, that does not necessarily mean that it is a bad game.
The graphics are very well done. The world, the models, the textures look beautiful. I think my only qualms are with the character models. Whereas the world is richly detailed with a gritty sort of realism, the player models on the other hand seem to clash some, and are lost somewhere between cartoony graphics and realism. It would be like seeing LOTRO models in a next generation game, with better customization options. (note, BETTER is the key word. Not BEST.)
What I do love about the Secret World however, is that it has probably one of the greatest senses of immersion over any MMO I've ever played. I mean, how you're brought into the game. The life you see on the streets in the cities. The richly done cutscenes that bring the game to life... its incredibly well done on a level of presentation. You can not get better game presentation than this... well, not without paying an insanely large amount of money on voice actors. The ones they have though aren't' horrible... there just not fantastic either. And part of me wonders if its at the fault of the voice actors, or just how the dialogue is written.
Some features were implemented that I was originally pretty psyched about, such as no levels and free advancement to build your character to your playstyle... I've found though that the game tends to be very difficult... and the warnings that are there for you to avoid an area at an early stage in the game.... they are there... but not really blatant and this I found kind of annoying. This might just be user preference though.
The story as I mentioned before is very compelling and it falls wonderfully in coherrence with the presentation of the world. The Secret World is about as original and as creative an MMO game as they come... and the way the story is presented is very well done. Which is to be expected from the developers of The Longest Journey.
The combat... This was a huge killer for me... The combat... really is just dull... and boring. It will remind you of games like the Matrix Online or City of Heroes. Its nothing special... its repetitive button smashing... and after a while it just becomes dull and repetitive. Which is expected in an MMO, yes... BUT, after playing a game with rich combat like Guild Wars 2, this game just ends up boring me completely.
Also: Game Synchronization and Optimization. HORRIBLE. Its not just the fact that this game was just launched... I've lagged, I have memory leaks, among other things that have nearly made this game unplayable for me. Might be something to consider WHEN you purchase the game. Might want to give it a few months for them to release some patches and fixes before buying it.
With that all being said, there are some qualms I have about the game, but nothing that exceedingly outweighs the good... (though the combat and game sync comes very close...) So why do I not intend to subscribe to this game? Because it suffers from the SWTOR syndrome far worse than SWTOR did. This game... has little replayability, and less than even SWTOR. Its a story driven MMO... and the world is small and cramped enough, lacking in a whole lot of other content that all the little boons that add richly to this game... just don't seem like they are enough. Do not be fooled by the people who are saying this game takes a 'sandbox' approach to its design. It does not, at all. You are playing in a themepark. And a very tiny one at that. Albeit a gorgeous one. This game really won't appeal to the explorer, or the crafter, or the builder. It was made to tell a story... which to me, does not merit the monthly subscription. This of course is my own personal preferences. I liked SWTOR... but I couldn't subscribe to it... there just wasn't enough to keep me there.
I think with all that being said though, until Archeage comes out, or the Repopulation... there really won't be any games pushing my expectations in the MMO genre coming our way anytime soon. GW2 seems to be the best bet. For those of you who don't mind paying a little extra for a good story and can look past such little things as combat and content, maybe give the game a go and try it for yourself. ;)