Secret World Legends

 PC
  • Release Date: Jun 26, 2017
User Score
5.3

Mixed or average reviews- based on 51 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 24 out of 51
  2. Mixed: 4 out of 51
  3. Negative: 23 out of 51

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  1. Linsy
    Jul 12, 2018
    0
    A medicore game by a horrible company that disrespects its costummers. I highly recommend to look for another company that actually cares about its costummers without randomly banning them.

    I must admit, TSW was quite good but funcom these days are just greedy and evil.
  2. jseph1234
    Nov 3, 2018
    2
    This is the worse version of The Secret World. The Secret World didn't give you any chance to influence the world at ALL!! Just kill stuff, investigate stuff, solve puzzles and report back to some unknown person for a reward.....THAT'S IT!!

    Very sad that it took me $30, a lot of questions and about 100 hours of playing that that is all you will get with it. Secret World Legends just    This is the worse version of The Secret World. The Secret World didn't give you any chance to influence the world at ALL!! Just kill stuff, investigate stuff, solve puzzles and report back to some unknown person for a reward.....THAT'S IT!!

    Very sad that it took me $30, a lot of questions and about 100 hours of playing that that is all you will get with it.

    Secret World Legends just adds a cash shop and rng loot boxes to make it even more shallow.    … Expand
  3. mikecraz
    Jul 31, 2017
    1
    This game is a chop off release of The Secret World. They basically took the original 2012 version which was working on an ancient game engine (and still does lol), polished it a bit without even optimizing the game (expect 2-3 crashes on average per day) and then they try to monetize everything. I'm not gonna talk about p2w here cause competition isn't like in any other MMORPG you'veThis game is a chop off release of The Secret World. They basically took the original 2012 version which was working on an ancient game engine (and still does lol), polished it a bit without even optimizing the game (expect 2-3 crashes on average per day) and then they try to monetize everything. I'm not gonna talk about p2w here cause competition isn't like in any other MMORPG you've experienced so far but improving gameplay and quality of life sadly needs a ton of bucks to be spent. You also get next to nothing by buying a monthly subscription..… Expand
  4. tjohobbit
    Jul 7, 2017
    2
    They dont answer support issues so now even though I bought the orinigal I cant make a accaount so I did not get the downtime bonus as many other becaseu it was impossible to make a accaount.

    They dont answer any of all the players that had issues on any forum I have looked like steam and their FB page. I have bought it but now they screw me over because they want to milk new ppl.    They dont answer support issues so now even though I bought the orinigal I cant make a accaount so I did not get the downtime bonus as many other becaseu it was impossible to make a accaount.

    They dont answer any of all the players that had issues on any forum I have looked like steam and their FB page.

    I have bought it but now they screw me over because they want to milk new ppl.

    Resetted all chars so everything you have done is worth almost nothing.

    its a big scam and probably they will put a end to it as soon as they have gotten some mroe money in their pockets.

    Worst thing for me is the non support so last time I buy anything from funcom.
    Yes I should have learned but could not resist becasue they had intressting worlds with this and Conan.    … Expand
  5. Brandy1570
    Jul 16, 2017
    0
    Their support doesn't answer and apparently, they suspend people from their discord whenever you ask why their phone number is unavailable. Even though the game is good (And a money-grab since the relaunch). I would not recommend the game due to their corporate policies. Besides, they stripped my old subscription benefits away in favor of a huge PR campaign. Plus they treat people whoTheir support doesn't answer and apparently, they suspend people from their discord whenever you ask why their phone number is unavailable. Even though the game is good (And a money-grab since the relaunch). I would not recommend the game due to their corporate policies. Besides, they stripped my old subscription benefits away in favor of a huge PR campaign. Plus they treat people who bought the boxed version as freeloaders.… Expand
  6. meru
    Aug 5, 2017
    3
    Same game as "Secret World", this time as a cash grab.
    Endless grind (or endless payments).
    Were the many problems of Secret World fixed? LOL, no - what are you thinking.
    Realistic evaluation of a beta player: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DiEKJ0_K9nY
  7. runqz
    Jul 5, 2017
    0
    The original secret world was an ok game that suffered from outdated, bad performing engine that didn't look that awesome. Regardless of that, the storytelling and voice acting was really nice and also the combat system was nice and had a lot of configuration to do to get the most of it.

    Apparently, it was too "confusing" and "difficult" to some people, even if the official forums were    The original secret world was an ok game that suffered from outdated, bad performing engine that didn't look that awesome. Regardless of that, the storytelling and voice acting was really nice and also the combat system was nice and had a lot of configuration to do to get the most of it.

    Apparently, it was too "confusing" and "difficult" to some people, even if the official forums were full of help regarding the matter. Also the game didn't make enough money and the updates were always very late.

    To combat these "issues" and to fix the game, Funcom decided to reboot the game. In order to get better graphics (only faces and animations are revamped) and to gain more revenue they went for F2P model, where you "can" use real life money to get more things that you would normally get just by playing. Funnily enough, the engine remains the same so all the problems it had are still there. Also worth nothing that the issues (that were not fixed) reported on the testlive forums, were completely wiped just before announcing The Secret World "Legends" so those bugs never got fixed and they are in the "Legends" for obvious reasons.

    The combat system was revamped or one could say massively dumbed down as well, so instead of really configuring your stats, actives and passives you have your usual ADHD can't concentrate action rpg controls instead, with mouse reticule targetting. Gone are the days when you could just tab-target an enemy and keep firing and/or hitting it.

    The funniest thing of all of this is, that the original game had 15 issues. It consisted of 8 classic dungeons and 2 kaidan dungeons with aegis, or 3 if you count the first kaidan mini dungeon. The game also had 3 different raids, that were later released also as "nightmare" difficulty.

    At the moment you have access to elite dungeons, nightmare dungeons are nowhere to be seen. Neither are the raids, let alone the nightmare raids. Also Kaidan content is also completely missing from the game. Apparently there are promises that these things will make into "Legends" at some point, but seeing Funcom's track record on being able to deliver, these might be the things you have to wait for a long time. Also there is the fact that they promised continuation to the story, IF the game succeeds, which I highly doubt.

    This is not all I have to say about the game, but there is one more thing. This re-release basically almost completely resetted the progression of the characters that were in the original TSW, excluding some outfits that they so genorously let you carry onto the "Legends". All this in order to give players 1) improved face graphics 2) less "confusing" abilities and passives and 3) action rpg combat system with new animations.

    None of these things make the game better, it is still tech from 2012 with the clunky engine that was broken and had performance issues and you have only partially the same content as you had with the old game and now you have the micro transactions on top of that to boost you up.    … Expand
  8. Aulus
    Jul 12, 2017
    0
    Secret World Legends is the result of a failing game development firm rehashing its flagship title, The Secret World, which was an amazing game in its own right and which its developer Funcom drove into the ground through poor decisions. The problem is how they implemented it, and it's not just veteran players they've screwed over in the process - let this review serve as a warning toSecret World Legends is the result of a failing game development firm rehashing its flagship title, The Secret World, which was an amazing game in its own right and which its developer Funcom drove into the ground through poor decisions. The problem is how they implemented it, and it's not just veteran players they've screwed over in the process - let this review serve as a warning to those considering paying money into this game.

    Over the years TSW was actively supported by Funcom, the company encouraged intense grinding of thousands of mobs through their achievement and museum (housing) systems, sold RNG crates for real money with chances to get pieces of end-game gear, not to mention a piece of gear sold directly to players as a promotional item for a decent chunk of cash. In releasing SWL, they not only erased every achievement, the entire museum which players worked for months to complete, but also the entire fruits of their cash-grab RNG boxes and the gear they sold to players. All that for what was essentially a big patch - SWL is the same game as TSW with new combat and gearing mechanics. The reason they keep the original servers up - where it's nigh-impossible to find a group now - is so that they can claim they didn't delete the old characters or steal anyone's money with false promises. Sure, everyone knew the game would end some day, but looking at the industry's and this company's history what was expected was years of maintenance mode after the development cycle was complete, where you still had everything you worked and paid for until the game was too unprofitable to even keep the servers running - and importantly, where the developer isn't actively trying to convince you to stop playing their game.

    Now that sucks for veteran players, who are rightly very upset, but why should new players - who are Funcom's real target audience with this reboot - care? Because this company has shown what it thinks of the time and money investments made by its loyal customers, and now you're a customer. They have no principled objection to deleting everything you've worked for, including things you purchased in their real-money shop, in what amounts to a large patch to the game. While they're working hard to offer new payment methods, it's no accident that they started off with a contract with High Pay, one of the least trustworthy payment companies in the business - birds of a feather.

    In closing, I'll mention that the game is free to play, and there actually is a lot to enjoy in this game for newcomers, with two caveats: Firstly, the story, missions, zones, everything is ripped off directly from its predecessor The Secret World. Secondly, and I can't stress this enough, it's a highly risky venture investing any amount of real money into this game, and I advise strongly against it. The company simply does not value your business and is willing to erase whatever you've bought whenever it suits them.    … Expand
  9. crisoliv
    Jul 12, 2017
    2
    Story/Lore: Good
    General PvE (missions): Ok
    Dungeons: Mediocre Raids: So far none OR Mediocre (if SWL receives the same raids from TSW) PvP: Terrible (only 1 lackluster minigame) Graphics: Outdated/Bad Combat: Bad F2P Model: Bad (paywalls everywhere + lackluster premium option) Customer Service: Bad The game can be worth just to check its story and missions, ONCE. Everything    Story/Lore: Good
    General PvE (missions): Ok
    Dungeons: Mediocre
    Raids: So far none OR Mediocre (if SWL receives the same raids from TSW)
    PvP: Terrible (only 1 lackluster minigame)
    Graphics: Outdated/Bad
    Combat: Bad
    F2P Model: Bad (paywalls everywhere + lackluster premium option)
    Customer Service: Bad

    The game can be worth just to check its story and missions, ONCE. Everything else is wasting of time.    … Expand
  10. CarpeSangrea
    Aug 2, 2017
    2
    I really wanted to like this game. I went into SWL as a huge fan of the universe, but unfortunately the pros are far outweighed by the cons. The overall lore and feel of the atmosphere still seems to be there, but I can't stand the new combat system at all. The new visuals are cool, but they went completely overboard with oversimplifying everything.

    If a game that by it's core design    I really wanted to like this game. I went into SWL as a huge fan of the universe, but unfortunately the pros are far outweighed by the cons. The overall lore and feel of the atmosphere still seems to be there, but I can't stand the new combat system at all. The new visuals are cool, but they went completely overboard with oversimplifying everything.

    If a game that by it's core design encourages using two weapons, while at the same time effectively penalizing you for building around both of them, then it is already broken. This isn't something they can tweak with numbers...they would have to redesign everything from the ground up. They should have never removed the skill wheel.

    Sure you can be driving around the most gorgeous countryside, but if the car is an old smokey Pinto that won't get out of 2nd gear it's still going to be a miserable experience.

    None of this even takes into account the extremely heavy-handed nature of the f2p monetization. It's in your face with literally every aspect of the game, and even subscribers don't get adequate compensation.

    Then there's the shady tactic of using the original game page's reviews to make the game's reception look way more positive than it is.

    The atmosphere and story are top-notch(only reason I gave this 2 points), but the aforementioned issues just kill the game. I can't in good conscience recommend this to anyone.    … Expand
  11. blizzard5314
    Jul 5, 2017
    0
    It's no secret that Secret World Legends is a desperate cash grab. There's no other way to describe taking a game with graphics and an engine from 2011, release it again with the only difference being questionable control changes and a more profitable cash shop. If they were really so intent in finding a way to get their fantastic story out there, they would have just written a book at this point.
  12. iozay
    Jun 28, 2018
    0
    The secret world was a great game and I loved it, the costummer appreciation has dropped completely since the relaunch. Every patch the launcher broke which required me to get a launchersetup.exe from another website, login in is impossible and their costummer service is unreachable (I mailed them at the launch but there still isn't any answer).

    The game is good, but only if you can    The secret world was a great game and I loved it, the costummer appreciation has dropped completely since the relaunch. Every patch the launcher broke which required me to get a launchersetup.exe from another website, login in is impossible and their costummer service is unreachable (I mailed them at the launch but there still isn't any answer).

    The game is good, but only if you can play it. Because I'm unable to play it thanks to the issues I will give it the lowest score.

    Besides of that, if you are able to play the game has some major pay to win issues.

    The game is nothing more that a rebranded TSW version with pay to win and many additional issues. The combat system has been improved with the relaunch and -if- people can play the game I think that they might enjoy it more.

    Last but not least, the company tends to ban people from it services while refusing to give a reason, due to this I consider it a horrible investment to play any funcom games.    … Expand
  13. MadButter
    Jul 3, 2017
    0
    While the lore and the investigations quests are the best part of this game and are really interesting, you still need to do a lot of typical MMO quests such as bring 50 boar butts to an NPC because the interesting missions have level requirements.
    The combat is terrible, the connection issues remind me of World of Warcraft private servers from about ten years ago, the loot system is a    While the lore and the investigations quests are the best part of this game and are really interesting, you still need to do a lot of typical MMO quests such as bring 50 boar butts to an NPC because the interesting missions have level requirements.
    The combat is terrible, the connection issues remind me of World of Warcraft private servers from about ten years ago, the loot system is a joke. The whole thing looks like a game from 2005 but still, all of these negative issues wouldn't matter if the quests were not behind a level wall, which in result makes you grind on some boring quests.    … Expand
  14. Zenren
    Jul 30, 2017
    4
    First, I should mention I felt obligated to give this game an eight, due to all the Secret World fan boi's voting it down, without giving it a fair chance. I have played both games and what I will share with you is my honest opinion about Secret World Legends, not compared to it's predecessor, but as a stand alone game.

    First, the game play is simple and easy to grasp. It's obvious they    First, I should mention I felt obligated to give this game an eight, due to all the Secret World fan boi's voting it down, without giving it a fair chance. I have played both games and what I will share with you is my honest opinion about Secret World Legends, not compared to it's predecessor, but as a stand alone game.

    First, the game play is simple and easy to grasp. It's obvious they intend to port this to consoles and as a result the number of abilities one can use at one time are limited. This can seem like a handicap to many Secret World fans, but the difference is really just a few powers and it didn't effect my view of game play that much. Controls are easy to understand and the game is fairly easy, not just aim and shoot, but aim in the general direction and you still do some damage, which is nice when you're on a learning curve.

    Graphics don't seem to be that much better than before, but they are not shabby by any means. On ultra the details are easily comparable to other main stream MMO's and the lighting captures the atmosphere of conspiracy and horror the game tries to evoke quite well.

    Character classes are a misnomer, since there really aren't any, rather you choice of weapon combinations determines your powers, and this where it gets interesting, because it gives you a plethora of possibilities, maybe not as many as Secret World, but still enough to keep you busy trying out new things.

    My main complaints are the numerous things that cost real world money, from traveling to purchasing keys to opening caches. (Please see my edit notes below for more clarification.) This is where I get a bit miffed and wonder if it will be worth it in the long run. However, with this complaint in mind, keep in mind also that it's no worse than other MMOs such as Terra or Blade and Soul, and better than many. I'm talking to you Everquest 2!

    In the end if you're into horror, especially Cthulhu horror, than you'll probably enjoy this game. If that's not your cup of tea, do you like guns and swords? Well then you'll probably like this game too.

    EDIT: I changed my rating for this game because I came to realize just what a money sink this game is. You have to pay marks to get rid of Resurrection sickness, you can only open a limited amount of dungeon chests a day, The good loot, in caches, costs real money. Everything about this game is a nickle and dime experience that you don't really understand until you've invested time in it. Don't play this game if you don't want to spend real money, even if you subscribe you're going to have to spend real money. They tell you subscriptions are there to make the game more convenient, not remove the necessity to spend more cash.    … Expand
  15. Oldbastage
    Sep 12, 2017
    0
    "It's literally the same game as TSW watered down to accommodate the lowest common denominator and void of just about everything that made the originals gameplay fun and unique. Gone are the cool synergies and the make your own character play style by mixing around different weapons passives, replaced with a Guild Warsish system and even more 'scales' to balance. Great!"

    "Much of the    "It's literally the same game as TSW watered down to accommodate the lowest common denominator and void of just about everything that made the originals gameplay fun and unique. Gone are the cool synergies and the make your own character play style by mixing around different weapons passives, replaced with a Guild Warsish system and even more 'scales' to balance. Great!"

    "Much of the content has been stripped out and much of it will not be returning.

    The grind is based on exponential increases (every time you upgrade something, the next upgrade takes twice as many resources/time/money/effort)... it's so bad that it would make a Korean MMO blush. You have to level up every item by feeding it similar items, and once it hits the max level for its current quality, you have to level up an identical item to the same point and then combine them. You have to repeat this process for each quality increase. To get the highest quality item, you will have to level up 16 matching items, and to get it to max level will take approximately 70,000 items worth of experience.

    The F2P model is oppressive, and even subscribers hit arbitrary pay walls. Veterans are being asked to pay for things they've already paid for before.

    Customer service is a 3 to 4 week long wait just for them to say "you're ♥♥♥♥ed, if there is anything else we can't help you with, do not hesitate to wait another month for the same reply".

    Many aspects of the game have been completely dumbed down, such as the the new ability and skill system which has stripped away the ability to really experiment, and is no longer based on synergy.. it now based purely on "pick this skill to augment this one specific ability" and "your secondary weapon is only there to give you one extra ability and something else to grind for". They have also reduced the number of abilities you can have to six, further limiting the amount of variety of experimenting you can do.

    Even character creation has been dumbed down, with all the various customization sliders being combined into presets (you can't have *this* nose unless you also take *this* chin, cheeks, lips, and eye shape).

    Everything is monetized.

    Monsters only drop lockboxes as loot.

    Itemization is horrible. If you get an item from a dungeon chest that would be an upgrade for you, you have to spend a considerable amount of time and resources leveling that item up before you can use it without it being a downgrade. At level 50, the majority of the items you get as a reward from missions will be the exact same items you got as mission rewards at level 1.

    A character level system was added for the sole purpose of making you outlevel earlier content so that you can no longer return to the earlier parts of the game and still make progress on your character. At max level, experience requirements increase dramatically and to progress you have to grind a very limited amount of content. Everyone knows that the game's story is its strongest aspect, and the level system has made it so repeating the story gains you nothing. Be prepared to do nothing but grind a few dungeons and a few select missions once you reach a certain point."

    The above quotes best describe the current game experience.    … Expand
  16. EldrithDubwa
    Mar 1, 2021
    0
    'The secret world' was an awesome game until they used the cash generated from it to start a lego game that flopped. They took a lone from someone that wanted some changes (from my understanding) and one of the changes was to fresh start every one. If they are willing to do this to their loyal players base then I'm not chancing the loss of time and cash to this co. again.

Awards & Rankings

87
#87 Most Discussed PC Game of 2017

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
76

Generally favorable reviews - based on 9 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 7 out of 9
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 9
  3. Negative: 0 out of 9
  1. CD-Action
    Sep 25, 2017
    75
    I’m glad that Funcom decided to release Secret World Legends and gave me the chance to experience this unique MMORPG after I missed it 5 years ago. [09/2017, p.36]
  2. PC PowerPlay
    Aug 17, 2017
    80
    Writhing out of its niche, slithering, roiling tentacles endlessly grasping for the larger audience it most definitely deserves. [Issue#264, p.64]
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  3. The Games Machine
    Aug 9, 2017
    70
    Secret World Legends simplifies and makes more accessible one of the most intriguing and captivating online worlds ever created. Unfortunately, graphics feel pretty old (which they are), and Funcom never managed to find a good balance between a story-driven experience and the MMO gameplay dynamics. Anyway, a good online action RPG that can be enjoyed with some friends.
    Read full review
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