#4 The Secret World
If nothing else, The Secret World offers the most compelling premise of any MMO in recent memory. Set in the present day, the game centers around the notion that all those myths and conspiracy theories floating around are all based in fact. You'll team up with one of three secret societies — either the Templars, the Illuminati, or a Korean group called the Dragon — to save the world from the sinister beings that lurk in the shadows. With locations that range from the realistic (London, Seoul, New York) to the fantastical (El Dorado, Shambala), The Secret World promises a mix of freedom and linear storytelling that lets you move through the game at your own pace.
Combat, with its three-pronged focus on melee attacks, firearms, and spells, falls into the standard MMO style of targeting enemies and then clicking to use skills, but in a rather interesting turn, The Secret World won't feature any classes or levels. Instead, the game will allow you to continually add to a huge arsenal of skills, with no restrictions on what combinations you can employ. So long as you keep earning the experience to unlock them, you can equip whatever skills you see fit, effectively allowing you to design your own classes from scratch. Of course, you're more than welcome to stick to what's comfortable and build a standard tank or a healer, but where's the fun in that?
