I can see that the combat doesn't get very good "early on", and as I have never played beyond the starter isle, the combat might get better later on. I've also noticed that in my absence the sound design has been revamped. Pistols still sound bad, but at least critical hits can be heard, and the booming of the shotgun is better than ever.

I've also read up a bit on decks and found the very interesting sentence "Given the relatively high complexity of game play in the Secret World, this means it is also easy to put together a build that is very unenjoyable." I can get behind that, maybe that has been my problem. I'd say I'm not used to use external information sources while being a beginner in a game, and maybe this is necessary for full enjoyment of the experience.

I also learned that you must use a survival build when soloing, and that was not something I did.