Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures

by Square Enix

• First Mature Rated MMORPG - Savage, bloody, violent and sexy; delivering the true essence of Robert E. Howard's original vision. Team up in battle formations and command others in epic multiplayer battles and massive sieges in real time.
• Player vs. Player and Player vs. Environment - Crush the skulls of other players in arena fights, drunken brawls and sieges. Build cities, craft unique artifacts, explore a fantastic world, befriend others and master the use of magic, steel or bows.
• True Conan Experience - Explore King Conan's amazing universe and roam in the brutal footsteps of the world's greatest fantasy hero. Battle terrifying demons and defeat devastating monsters known from 70 years of Conan lore.
• Conan's World - Enter a gigantic and savage world spread across the three nations of Aquilonia, Cimmeria and Stygia. Explore jungles, deserts, mountains, valleys, dungeons and cities.
• Advanced Technologies - Optimized for DirectX 10, Multi-core CPU and featuring Advanced Artificial Intelligence; AoC takes advantage of the Dream World, MMO Technology, delivering extremely detailed environments and real life physics. Works with DirectX 9.

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B000RZPW9W
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5.2 x 1.5 inches ; 10.2 ounces
• Media: DVD-ROM
• Release Date: May 20, 2008
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (189 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #20,435 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)

Product Description

Edition: Standard

Amazon.com

Based on the events and characters of Robert E. Howard's Conan the Cimmerian stories, Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures is a fantasy themed massively-multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) that immerses players in a dark, expansive universe filled with ground-breaking brutal combat, dangerously intoxicating magical abilities, and the social and cooperative game features that MMORPG players crave.

The MMORPG finally matures

A troubled King Conan on his throne. View larger.

Test your metal in close combat. View larger.

Straddle War Mammoths & Killer Rhinos. View larger.

Lead your guild in player vs. player battles. View larger.

Explore the pleasures & pitfalls of the Hyborian Age. View larger.

Set in the later years of Conan?s life, after he has famously become king by his own hand, the game centers around the fragile state of Conan?s rule in Aquilonia. Surrounded by enemies and hostile nations, Conan?s rule hangs by a thread and in the end, it?s up to players, either singly or backed by their guilds to turn the tide for or against the embattled king.

Massively Multiplayer Gaming for the Adult Player
One of the most highly anticipated MMORPGs in recent years due to the strength and familiarity of the Conan franchise across a variety of major media, Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures is the first of several releases planned for the franchise, all of which are aimed at an adult audience. Firmly rooted in the savage, bloody, violent and sexy Hyborian universe, players can expect a graphically beautiful game blended with gritty gameplay that is true to both the barbarian hero from Howard?s writings and the Schwarzenegger influenced version from books, movies and comics.

Available Cultures and Classes
Although Age of Conan contains a wide range of peoples, its playable cultures are currently limited to Aquilonians, Cimmerians, and Stygians. Within each of these players can choose from a selection of archetypal character classes, although available classes and subsequent subclasses are not necessarily the same within each culture. For example, archetypal classes for Aquilonians and Cimmerians are Rogue, Priest and Soldier, while Stygians are represented by Rogue, Priest and Mage. Further differences exist within subclasses for each. See the basic breakdown of all three cultures below:

Aquilonians: Internally divided, but united against their barbarian neighbors, the Aquilonians live lives on the edge. Their kingdom, with its prosperous cities, enlightened culture and religious freedom, is known as the "Flower of the West." Yet for all this and despite the power of King, Conan I, it is a land where culture clashes and unrest are always a threat.

Cimmerians: As the Hyborian Age comes to an end the northern barbarian clans of the Cimmerians know that the end of their time is drawing near too. King Conan I of Aquilonia is himself a Cimmerian, though not typical of his people. Although his life has been filled with wanderlust, his Kin care nothing for what occurs outside their clan territories.

Stygians: Masters of the magical arts and ruled by their consuming worship of the serpent-god Set, the Stygians excel at occult and diabolic lore. They learned long ago that true power lies in knowledge and in pacts with dark powers. This single-mindedness has allowed them become the only culture to harness the secrets of the Mage class and power that comes with it.

Modes Singleplayer as well as Multiplayer
Unlike most MMORPGs, Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures includes a significant singleplayer experience as well as deep overarching multiplayer gameplay. This is an atypical MMORPG feature, but one that has a purpose. Players enter the game as a lowly galley slave with no memory of his/her past, and over the first five to 20 levels of singleplayer action build the skills necessary to survive in the game's multiplayer levels. During this time you will traverse a variety of rich environments including jungles, deserts, mountains, valleys, dungeons and cities packed with NPCs, beasts and monsters, before eventually leveling up and moving back to your chosen culture?s homeland. Because the only character-related choices that players have to make at the game?s opening are their looks, clothing and culture, this singleplayer mode is important in deciding what class and subclass to pursue and thus the level of impact your character will have in greater multiplayer portions of the game.

In-game levels 20 and above are strictly multiplayer. 20-40 introduce players to guilds. 40-60 deal with large scale combat. 60-80 have the player interacting with King Conan and levels 80 and up represent end-game play. Here gameplay changes as social aspects of MMORPG gameplay take over on a large scale.

Real-time Combat That Takes Queues from the FPS
Traditionally MMORPGs have utilized a mix of auto and turn-based functionality in their combat systems, but Age of Conan dispenses with that, instead drawing inspiration from FPS/action games. Firmly rooted in the brutality of the Hyborian universe, game developer Funcom has devised an action-based system that not only provides the sense of actually being in the fight, but also requires the player to participate in it. That means no simple targeted attacks. Players can attack and defend from nearly any position in real-time, whether on the ground or atop a mount, while standing still or on the move. It?s a recipe for carnage and one that fits right into the world of Conan.

The combat system in Age of Conan comes in three forms: drunken brawling, mini games like CTF and massive Player vs. Player battles, which lets you engage in siege combat to defend or attack a city. All are easy to learn, but difficult to master, providing hours worth of play and replay value and are the core of this new cutting edge MMORPG.

System Requirements:

	Minimum Specifications:	Recommended Specifications:
OS:	Windows XP Service Pack 2 or Windows Vista
Processor:	Intel Pentium 4 3Ghz or equivalent	Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4GHz or equivalent
RAM:	1GB	2048MB Dual Channel DDR2
Video Card:	NVIDIA GeForce 6600 or better	NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GTX or equivalent
Video Memory:	128MB	512MB
DVD-ROM:	Quad-speed (4x) DVD-ROM drive
Hard Drive Space:	30GB of Free Space
Other:	Broadband connection required for online gameplay

 

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 22 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Must have improved since launch October 1, 2009

By Joe

Edition:Standard

Fun: 5.0 out of 5 stars   

I am writing this review because I see all the old 2008 reviews which really don't do justice to the bonecrunching, blood and gore awesomeness of this game. I didn't play Age of Conan (AoC) when it came out in 2008 because I was in the middle of my 2 year World of Warcraft (WoW) stint. I have to assume that however messed up AoC was at launch, most of those problems have been fixed because I haven't encountered any of the problems mentioned in the old 2008 reviews. I really enjoyed playing WoW, but after two years I felt that I'd "accomplished" all I wanted to in that game (in terms of PvP, endgame raiding, flying mounts, armor sets, rep grinds, etc.) and I wanted to try something new. I was scared off of AoC last year because of all the bad reviews. But out of sheer curiosity and because it was free, I played AoC's free trial this past summer and found it an amazing game with great content for mature players. I really like this game and I'm looking forward to the expansion Rise of the Godslayer. To keep it short and to the point:

Pros
* Awesome graphics - they are realistic and can be violent, sexy, or gritty.
* Great storyline and PvE content - the kids won't be patient enough to read through it, but I think that's a plus because it keeps the less mature element out of the AoC community
* No excessive grinding: Whenever you kill mobs or collect stuff, it leads somewhere and you progress through areas to reach a goal while you are killing them. It is not mindless killing and boredom. It feels like quests have a point.
* Fun combat: you can't just mash buttons. You have to pay attention to combos but it is not too complex. It's just very engaging and requires some skill.
* No bots or gold farmers! To me, this is huge. While in the starting area of Tortage, I got about 3-4 pieces of in-game mail suggesting I go to a website to buy AoC gold. They were easily deleted. There's no gold spam in the global chat on my server. I haven't received any spam like that since I left the starting area. Funcom has done a great job with making resource gathering difficult or impossible for bots. Gold farmers ruining WoW's economy is another of the reasons I left that game.

Cons
* Low server population except for Wiccana and Cimmeria servers: People are probably scared off because of the bad reviews from launch. Funcom needs to come out with another free trial period to make up for their poorly executed launch, apparently. I hope that with free trials and the launch of the expansion, this game will grow into a viable franchise that can survive for a while because it really is good now.
* Somewhat limited PvP opportunities before reaching level cap at 80 because of low server population, I have not seen a lot of chances to engage in meaningful PvP while leveling up since the mini-games are not running 24-7 like in WoW. I mean they are "running" but not enough people to sign up for them at off peak hours. I really like WoW's battlegrounds and areas like Wintergrasp and Isle of Conquest. Warhammer also has engaging PvP scenarios (though I think the lack of PvE is why Warhammer is not doing as well as they would like). I had over 14K lifetime PvP kills on my main WoW character, so you can guess that I like PvP a lot. I wish AoC would implement some sort of cross-server PvP system like WoW, but they have a resource problem (apparently) and have indicated that it is not a priority at this time. I hope that with more players each server there will be increased action in the PvP minigames and more siege opportunities, which sound like they would be amazing fun. Maybe some faction based PvP would help. I heard AoC will introduce this in the expansion (but no release date yet).

Bottom line: This game is so cheap! Try it and you will get your money's worth. Admittedly, I want more people to play for my own reasons, but I think most mature gamers will appreciate the AoC community and have a lot of fun with this game as I have been doing for the past 4 months.

Rise of the Godslayer has no release date because Funcom apparently doesn't want to repeat the fiasco of AoC's launch last year. That's a good thing. However, if they want to keep this franchise alive, you would think they will get it out by some time in the first half of next year, the sooner the better. I have not played Aion yet and I may give it a try, but for me, AoC is the best game out there now. I like the blood and grittiness in combat compared to how neat, clean and stylized Aion looks in the preview videos, though. Just depends on what you like.

42 of 55 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Finally an MMORPG not aimed at the teen/tween market May 20, 2008

By Lunacat141

Edition:Standard

Fun: 5.0 out of 5 stars   

I'm glad that a corporation is finially taking note that people over 18 enjoy MMORPG's too. from my experience, most MMORPG's are dumbed down, or are cutesy, like the cartoon feel of WoW or the over simplified Guild Wars. Conan is a bit more complicated. The combat systems feels like an RPG, meaning it makes players pay attention to which physical attacks they use-- unlike the typical auto attack you can get by with in many situations in other MMORPGS.

Thus far, i haven't been to impressed story wise due to Age of Conan using a rather trite plot device to begin the game: warrior with lost memory slowly regains skills. But, then again, most MMORPGS have odd convoluted plot, if they didnt the game wouldn't strech for 80 levels.
The Conan world is vast, and it has been worked on by many authors: [...]

I am looking foward to playing more of this game for the following reasons: it seems to be inovative, compaired to most MMORPGS; it is designed for adults; it is designed to give players more single player options; and finially, who wouldnt want to ride a mammoth that can knock your enemies away with it tusks.

As a side note for those who own/buy this game, the JuLY issue of PC Gamer Magazine has a code in it for a free Age of Conan item.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars AoC Review September 3, 2009

By Joseph S. Massee

Edition:Standard

Fun: 5.0 out of 5 stars   

Bought and tried to install and run AoC on my new high end computer late last year. No success. AoC did not support Vista DX10 and it got nowhere in Windows XP mode. Then a couple of months ago I got the Funcom e-mail inviting my return for another try. Big improvements they said. They were right. Runs great in 2560x1600 rez and only a few intermittant crashes resulting from my pushing the performance envelope.

I'm playing on a PvE server but plan to hunt around for some PvP action (select locations) because once you reach lvl 80, there is not much left to do with your character except PvP or create new characters of different professions and do it all over again with new skills. The AoC map is rather extensive with multiple distant locations and accompanying quests that sometimes make you wish you brought a group with you, if you didn't, because that dungeon with mobs at your level all fight like bosses. Elite mobs are not identified and you can find yourself in a lot of badly mismatched situations when the fighting begins. Funcom needs to fix this.

I reached level 80 in seven weeks going about 80% solo mostly with quests. No need to buy weapons or armor because the drops and quest rewards are better than what you can buy. Money is not a problem if you regularly sell your inventory of drop and quest items you don't need. At level 40 you can buy a horse and do everything from horseback but fight. Having a mount improves on a rather crude travel system that is a far cry from, say, Guild Wars or Oblivion travel. But unlike Lineage II, for example, AoC travel is free.

I find the game to be a blast with friendly and mature players. The guild I joined was new but can still find fellow guild members in the more populated areas. In some of the more distant areas I'm lucky to run across more than a couple of players. There are always plenty of mobs, however.

If you've been spoiled by fancy Lineage II armor or the wide selection of colorful Guild Wars armor you may find the rather dull AoC armor lacking. All the player characters look like real people as well as the NPCs. No pointed elf ears or cartoonish looks. The graphics are outstanding. The music is tops.

This game is definitely worth a try.