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Secret World Legends: The Secret is out (but keep your credit card in your wallet)

The Secret World is an awesome game with a great setting and a fantastic story.  Seriously, it has some of the best NPCs and villains of any game, let alone any MMO.  Recently, they underwent Yet Another Change and rebooted as Secret World Legends, a free to play shared world action RPG with modernized combat and streamlined story.  I cannot let their flubs with the billing system get a pass, but there is already way too much about that on the official Reddit so I won't go into much detail aside from saying, yes, I was one of the people who got utterly screwed by HiPay and as someone who has worked in financial services back when I had a job, I can say that their screwups are completely inexcusable and it is only happening because Funcom was being cheap.  Or their CEO is dating the CEO of HiPay.  One or the other.  Aside from that, Secret World Legends is pretty awesome and I hope they follow through on their upcoming plans.

I am a competitively casual player.  I like good gear, killing monsters, and exploring.  I don't mind doing it in large groups, but I keep really weird hours these days.  I am no longer qualified to be part of an elite raid team in any game, as far as I know.  I'm much more interested in story and lore, and Secret World Legends encourages players to explore and watch cutscenes and read (yes, reading).  SWL also fills in that sweet spot of playing dress up with your character.  I've been playing with a friend (every wannabe tank should have a pet healer), and the two of us have run the first two story dungeons together.  We've finally managed to get every single piece of lore available in the dungeons without worrying about being rushed or making other people wait on us.  It is nice, really nice, to be able to do that.  Being able to experience all the content at your own pace is nice, and Secret World Legends does a fantastic job of bringing that to the players.

While some of the combat animations are dull, the revamped combat system is really easy to get into.  Sure some specs are overpowered (Blood DPS!) and some mechanics are just bizarre (suicide by grenade), it's overall a very sensible and accessible system.  I'm holding out hope that some modders will fill in the gaps and make upgrading weapons easier (my poor bag has 7 items in it waiting for upgrades) and give mods like we had in TSW.  The creation of addons has already started, with offerings such as Icarus' fantastic and almost essential Effects UI: Legends (RUN AROUND! YOU'RE ON FIRE!) and the undoubtedly essential SWL meeehr Pack, featuring an auto sprint toggle, a friends and cabal online counter, and both ingame and real life clocks.  I know some people don't like mods, but since SWL is focused on quality of life changes, I think it is justified to mention ways to make the game even better and more fun to play.  Play for the story.  The story is fantastic.  That is still true, no mater what Secret World you are playing.  Secret World Legends is worth a try.
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