Customer Reviews

Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures

5 star:		(47)
4 star:		(32)
3 star:		(27)
2 star:		(33)
1 star:		(49)

 

 

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.

You may not agree with my review but for those of you who want an honest and objective look into it please stick around.

There are several things wrong with this game that make it generally not quite as great as it could have been.

These issues are: easy of leveling, tedious collection styled quests, massive empty zones, problems with resource skill gathering, lack of voice content, few zones, lack of a decent travel system, ease of travel between starter cities, darkness, generally bland armor, dumb AI, lack of a good faction system, guild creation, instance zones, and weapon selection.

I probably have heated a few of you up so feel free to respond to my comments if you disagree but I'm honestly hoping some of these issues are addressed within the next few months as the game begins to grow stronger.

Ease of Leveling:
One of the most unique aspects of the game, I believe, is the ease of leveling I've found within it. I understand that with 100 possible levels there is room to allow quick leveling but when your character can handle 3 or 4 same level enemies at once he tends to level much faster than he probably should. I don't know but this is my first week (I got it Friday) and I'm already in the high 30s.

Tedious Collection Styled Quests:
I understand I can ignore quests altogether but the game seems to focus in on collection and kill count style quests more so than anything else. Why not kill 50 of a certain type of enemy? How about the same quest in a different zone with similarly level enemies? It's just very very repetitive. Not to mention, for the most part, on non-collection quests, you'll be forced to run through dangerous grounds to light something on fire or break something only to find all the enemies in the area are dead from constant farming. Farming is an issue with newer games but I think when you ask your players to kill 50 of a certain type of enemy you encourage it more than anything.

Massive Empty Zones:
For the most part, when you don't find farmers at every corner, you'll find yourself running alone. The game world is huge! It's just most of the time you'll find yourself running through the huge world. For instance to get to a secondary town in the barbarian area you have to run through a zone that has all of the same level enemies but takes nearly ten minutes to run through. It seems like, yeah, it's much larger than games like WoW but it isn't the size that matters but rather what you do with it?

Problems with Resource Skill Gathering:
Alright so you're allowed to gather resources from level 20 on. The thing is the resources only exist in this barren zone full of no enemies (from what I've seen) so you can spend an hour running around and find nothing at all --- no people, no resources. The good thing though is while you may not find one resource you may bump into a different type. With Age of Conan anyone can gather any of the resource types removing the significance of the gather role of resources.

Lack of Voice Content:
When you start the game on the newbie island you'll quickly be amazed to find everyone has voice content. You'll be equally surprised that when you leave the newbie island no one has it anymore. The developers say they're going to add it in over time but I don't really see their incentive given by the 20th level a higher majority of people are likely to stick around regardless of the sound if that's the only thing that bugs them.

Few Zones:
Again, as a mentioned above, there are massive zones but there are also very few of them. This means that as a level 20, let's say, you're stuck going to any of the level 20 zones setup for each of the different starting cities (3 of them). That doesn't leave people who like to explore (or find a variety of monsters) much to do. If you like the idea of running around endlessly looking for an enemy to fight or camping a certain enemy this won't bother you but I think there is something about variety that this game lacks in general. I also found it unlikely I'd be wandering into the higher level zones until I did hit some barrier level that made it easy enough to handle a few enemies. So I'm stuck with 3 choices (which I stick to one because it takes me a half hour to run to any other through the barren zones).

Lack of a Decent Travel System:
Binding yourself to a main city is allowed but besides that there is a general lack of a travel system. There are way points in the game which, when you die, you spawn at whichever you select so people often get themselves killed to save time instead of running. The death penalty is laughable so it's not worth wasting the time running.

Ease of Travel Between Starter Cities:
One of the strangest things about this game is how easy it is to travel between the starter cities. From the minute you leave newbie island you can quickly jump from one city to the next for free making it possible to explore all the cities in the game with little effort (besides a 20 minute walk through the barren cities) almost instantly.

Darkness:
This is more of my own complaint than something that really should be fixed I guess but the game is way too dark and there are no items (torches please) to turn on the lights. I've known scores of people who actually turn off the game during the night-time parts of it just because they can't see anything. The deserts are the worst with this because it just is so dark. I think it's brighter in the dungeons than it is outside.

Generally Bland Armor:
The armor doesn't really stand out. You get a new piece at level 30 let's say and it'll look almost the same way as the level 20 one. The only difference will be a +4 to the armor rating. It just feels like the armor lacks variety and it doesn't have a good way of really standing out. Also 'good' armor pieces fall so frequently from monsters I've come out of a run of an area with 3 or so of the same chest pieces. It's just bleh.

Dumb AI:
I've pulled enemies standing directly next to each other, on several occasion, and watched as the enemies did nothing to alert their friends I was fighting them directly behind them. For the most part there is no real AI and you never really get the feeling it would be all that hard to fix a pull to your liking. Yeah, once or twice a bad pull will happen, but as long as the enemy initially sees you, or walks over to you while you're fighting, they tend to ignore what's going on around them. Doesn't seem realistic.

Lack of a Good Faction System:
I feel like each quest I'm doing is for the few copper they'll give me and not to award myself any form of faction with a group. Just seems like as soon as I kill whatever 50 things they want me to kill next I move on to the next group of 50 things (from the same quest giver) that were sitting next to those 50 things. It's really this tedious and it doesn't make sense why they made it this way. Not to mention most of the different types of enemies look almost identical so there is little variation between monsters besides location and name.

Guild Creation:
There is no real control on the process of creating guilds (which may be alright I guess) so there are tons of one person guilds out there. It just seems like the process isn't as well developed as it should be considering a portion of the game is centered towards it. It just seems like a fancy grouping system as opposed to anything significant --- yeah you can rank people but it seems bland at least so far. Perhaps later on it'll get more interesting.

Instance Zones:
The zones are all instanced including the main cities. This makes the load times really fast, yes, but you rarely see people and it makes group in zone much harder. I tend to group at the dungeon location so I find myself trying really hard to find people with no luck when I need them. You'd think this would stop the camping but it's still there. I can hardly imagine what the world would look like without the instances because the camping would be that much worse. It just seems like to deal with issues like this they need a world with more variety, less collection quests, no instances, and more servers.

Guild Cities:
I've seen that the guild cities are also instances. I'm unsure how this will affect gameplay and will have to keep an eye on it as more people join but it honestly sounds somewhat stupid... Why build a city if it's within a closed environment?

Weapon Selection:
The weapons in the game seem to just get a little better each time and you tend to get rewards with weapons of your level or higher so there really isn't a reason to worry about finding a new one. It just seems trivial.

I don't know the whole game seems like a good idea but it's just nothing compared to some of the others on the market. A little more time developing a stronger system of travel, the trade skills, and other aspects would have made it more interesting. Cutting down on the size of zones in favor of quality of zones would work as well. Hopefully at the higher levels things get more interesting... I just hope Conan doesn't ask you to kill 50 dragons or something tedious like that.

I like the game it's just I don't like it enough to keep paying the fee as it stands now.

Also, one last note, funcom has released mounts with some preorders (or Amazon curved bow from amazon). It also releases other items with orders of things like keyboards and mice... It just seems like it's trivializing its own item system to release items that should be gained by normal processes as a reward for buying from them. It's like they're mixing the cost structures of a pay for play with a pay for upgrade which may hurt the internal game economy depending upon how excessively they continue to do so. Who wants to work hard for an item when you can buy a keyboard and get it that way?

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.

Despite what some people seem to think, AoC or Age of Conan is a well put together, enriched, fun, and diverse game. The great graphics, combat style, character customization, enviroment design, realism are what make this game. The world in AoC is rich and colorful and it looks like a movie almost which is more than I can say about WoW. You can customize your character in many different ways, adding up to literally thousands of possibilites. Everyone can have different combat styles, and combat skills. Now styles are how you fight where as skills are (climbing, hiding, etc) things you invest points into to assist you in combat. For example if someone is chasing you, you can climb up a tree to a cliff and get away from them (provided they can not climb at an equal or higher skill). Your style of combat is also indictive of how you play. Unlike other games (WoW), which is just button mashing and gear. In AoC you can actually use SKILL, and every once in a while you get an automatic or "fatality" kill which temporarily boosts your characters health and stamina. The game is very real, unlike in some games you cannot run through characters, in AoC they can block your path (which is used in some quests) and force you to fight (this is only outside of a city). The world is lush and wonderful, rivers flow and sparkle, winds rip and roar, and snow cools and refreshes (provided your not in a blizzard).

Overall AoC is a great game, however due to its mature content it is not for everyone especially children under the age of 16. It contains what most games dare not to do which is require skill, actual strategy, and be at least somewhat real.

After playing and becoming very frustrated with Warhammer online I resubbed to Age of Conan after a six month absence. My wife and I were big fans of the REH books and quickly reserved copies for the game. After a month of broken mechanics and content we left. Now after a few weeks of playing on my level 80 barbarian and my level 30 alts this feels like a brand new game!
Despite the bad feelings older players had I think they should retry the game. The mechanics are smoother, combos have shortened for melee, and I myself have experienced much less lag. I dont get the memory leaks I used to have and dont get stuck on anything so easily.
Hands down this is the most beautiful and intense MMO out right now. The graphics even on low for me are gorgeous and the real time combat always keep me on my toes. The end level instances are fun and beautifully rendered. If graphics are your thing you cant go wrong with AoC. Also Ive found, IMO, that you dont need to grind levels in villas thanks to the new questing area and the new daily instance, a very welcomed blessing.
PVP is extremly fun. Though Im on a PVE server and cannot speak for the PVP servers I find mini pvp games, usually capture the flag, to pop often and are really enjoyable. There are some balance issues like with any MMO especially one thats been out only a year. The siege warfare in the game is twice as indepth than Warhammer for me, no bottle necking or mindless zerging. Its large scale but you need good commanders to get the job done. Siege weapons are important and not just eye candy. To me siege pvp on Age of Conan is the definition of meaningful PVP, you feel the rush of victory and the decimation of defeat.
With any review that has its pros you need its cons as well and though I love Age of Conan it does have them. One stated earlier the balance in the game wher Tempests of Sets, damage dealing and healers, are king though Assasins and Rangers deal death just as good, or bad depending on which end of the knife youre on. But there is a GIGANTIC PATCH on the way SOON, and I cant stress that enough, and the majority of it is class changes, good or bad I cant say since I have to wait myself. Another is for the end level players who only focus on PVE. If youve done everthing in terms of dungeons then youll find little to do until they had the new questing areas even then raiders must wait til Tier Three is released. The only real remedy is to have alts or take your time and enjoy the ride leveling. Both of which I am doing and find it fun. For those who love fluff and social aspects to the game might, though Im enjoying it, might need to wait for the up and coming patch.

I have met many old friends on Age of Conan who have told me all the changes when my old lady and I resubbed like scholars of Hyperborea. Weve met many new players who became allies with us like in Conan's adventures. Were enjoying every minute. Once more with the new patch coming withing a couple weeks time we are very excited about the game

So for the new guys don your hauberk strap on your blade and get ready for a wild ride. For the older players get that new PVP gear, or get a new toon to check out those sweet new areas and take the beauty of Conans savage world in deep. Because this, in my experience is a WHOLE NEW GAME!

I decided to pick up this game after about 8 months of watching to see how it was received, although not a huge success, I wanted to play it. I wasn't disappointed, which isn't to say that the game doesn't have faults...many of them.

Now I've played for about 30 levels, have enjoyed it, being one of the original everquest players I haven't really played an MMO for about 6 years.I stopped playing everquest, and never really saw another MMO to capture my attention, until word of a dark and gritty M rated MMO was on it's way. I was excited, being tired of the toonish and silly material of most, an M rating would be a breath of fresh air, from both younger gamers and "High Fantasy."

The game itself is good, I've read quite a bit of the Conan universe, and always liked the savage world which it was placed. In the game I've yet to be really irked by poor game design or bad quality, however all the rumors of content dropping off at a certain level is true. Some characters after a certain point do not have vocal content, which was just kind of abrupt after Tortage where everyone EVERYONE talks.

I haven't really partied with anyone else in the game yet, groups seem seldom, however thats not to say there isn't people to group with, I just tend to lone it, as servers seem less populated than other MMO's I've tried. Which will be a shame if this game ends up not working, as the world is wonderful, and the content is interesting. Eventually the game will have expansions, and I see this game as one that will slowly grow, not the overnight success of the ever present WoW.

However something that this game has that others don't is truly graphic content, and a truly intense world were brutal fights and savage slaughter are as much a part of it as anything else. I really do look forward to more content to be added, and hopefully new races as well as worlds. It's a good game, with a lot of potential to be great, all it needs now is some more time to become polished.

**************************************************************************

Wanted to update everyone:

The game has continued to hold my attention and I've almost reached level 60. I must say that none of the game has been grinding and just mindless leveling. All my experiences with group combat has been extremely fun. As a one time EQ player I know all about grinding. This game has good pace, a fairly mature community and an excellent company whom seems to be interested in making a better game.

I've reached certain points that were difficulty solo, almost to the point of being impossible, and I opted to get a group. The great thing though, is you don't HAVE to group. If you wanted, you could level by yourself the entire game. It's amazing the balance this game has.

Overall the content has seen improvement even since my purchase, which to me is awesome. The game has only further improved, and more and more of the NPC characters have vocal content. So theres a lot less abruptness to your leaving Tortage.

In short the game is going to go from fun and overall a good experience, to one of the best immersion MMO's I've gotten to play.

EDIT: I'm editing my review after over a month of playing AoC. This is mainly because the higher in level I get and the more "content" I've explored, my opinion of the game has dropped.

After reading and waiting for months for Age of Conan (AoC), I finally was able to get into Early Access (EA) on Saturday, May 17th.

On Saturday morning, imagine my disappointment when Funcom delays opening the servers by 3 hours! 3 hours?? What am I supposed to do now? Well, I got over my delay disappointment and on the specified hour, I promptly logged in, chose my server (Set) and started creating my character. I had no idea what I should choose so I went with a Stygian Ranger. The character customization is OK in AoC. I spent about 15 minutes constructing facial features, tattoos, scars, hair, and body type. Unfortunately there is a limit to the body and hair styles and there are some of the ugliest facial defaults I've ever seen in my life with one good looking one. Guess which one most people will be choosing? There is a lack of a color palette to choose from as well.

As the intro played, my poor Ranger washes up on the beach of Tortage and is greeted by a creepy old man. Here is where I learned the basics of fighting and interacting with the environment. While combat is tricky at first, I eventually got the hang of it. The main thing I like about combat are the fatalities. I've already had the pleasure of gutting and cutting off the heads of my opponents. I've also gotten some sweet fatality deaths from my bow and arrow. It does my heart good to see enemies fall with an arrow in their throat and blood spewing from their mouths!

This leads me to the "mature" content. Granted, by the end of the weekend I was just level 21 but the mature content is really negligible. The most risque stuff I witnessed was in general world chat (or OOC). Sure, the blood and decapitations are cool and the half-naked women rock, but AoC would get a PG-13 rating instead of an R if it were a movie. EDIT: After a month of playing, there are some topless women and toons which would earn this game an R-rating.

Back to my first day, it was tough. While I had no problems with lag, fps, or any of that stuff (I have a relatively top shelf computer), dealing with so many people scrambling for slow spawning mobs became a chore. Imagine trying to gather 40 hides of crocodile leather and you are competing with twenty other players in one small section of an island where maybe 15 crocs spawn. Remember when I wrote "slow spawning" well, yeah, there you go. I eventually completed these tasks as well as my destiny quests and moved on to my homeland starting area.

As for the environments of Tortage, they are rich and detailed. There is a lot of eye candy and you can move around fairly easily in it though you are limited to specific zones. More on that below. Cons movement wise can be filtered down to a "climbing" skill. I'm not particularly sure why this is here and why it's not user friendly. I have to hit "U" or right click on a ladder or vine to scramble up it. If I don't keep my eye on the chat window and catch the alarm "YOU CAN CLIMB HERE!!" I would have missed climbing opportunities.

Zones. The bane of my existence! AoC is instance/zone heavy. This is a bit disappointing especially since you may find yourself repeatedly going back and forth between them which eats up real time of watching a loading screen. What I would do was gather all the quests I could find and just head to a specific zone (White Sands for example) and stay there until all my quests were complete. I'm sure this is what most people did. EDIT: The more I play this, the more I hate instance/zones. Sometimes they load fast but more often than not lately, they load extremely slow which makes me a frustrated panda and more disheartened.

Anyhoo, toons don't just walk through each other like ghosts but can actually block you. This may prove to be very cool when higher level PVP kicks in as formations would actually mean something. Imagine a bunch of conquerors forming up a shield wall to prepare and defend their battlekeep. God that's awesome. Not to mention that line of sight issues appear to be right on track so far. I can get on high ground and fire down into my enemies without LOS errors or those annoying "evades" you'd always see in WoW. This would make for excellent ambush opps in PVP play as well as full scale battles. I'm really looking forward to it! EDIT: The latest is that full on battlekeep PVP is still borked limiting organized PVP engagements. Another disappointing item that makes it seem that Funcom really did rush this out without completing the Beta.

So far from what I've seen, despite some of the cons I pointed out from my own perspective, this is a fun game. I look forward to discovering more features of AoC as I progress because I know I'm just at the tip of the iceberg! EDIT: As of this date (July 2, 2008), the playability and fun of the game is decreasing for me. Big patches are now being released once a week but some of the updates I've seen, seem irrelevant to the big picture. Fixing the look on an NPC's face over fixing the obvious memory leaks which causes crashing even on high end computers makes me scratch my head in puzzlement.

I'm going to continue to play, but come September, if nothing has significantly changed, I will probably be quitting AoC and moving on to Warhammer Online. If Warhammer turns out to be a stinker as well, I guess I'll head back to WoW and wait for the expansion.

I want to mention I have played many MMO's, a few since launch. As far as the launch goes for this game I would say it wasn't bad at all. That being said the game still needs a lot of work but is still fun to play.

In my opinion:

First and importantly for any parents checking the game out for their children: THIS GAME IS MEANT FOR ADULTS. PERIOD. Adult language, sexually suggestive themes are rampant through out the game.

The UI is big, bulky, in the way and needs to be able to be customized (without having to download 3rd party apps). But it does function decently. I miss being able to change chat text colors to my own liking but I think Funcom will eventually add that ability.

Something that many may not know is that the game is pretty much instanced... in other words you and your friend may be on the same server, same zone, at the same time but in order to see and be able to group together you have to be in the same instance of that zone (which can be done with a click of a button). The benefit to this is that it helps your FPS being that the world is very detailed. The downside is (to me) it seems to eliminate much of the "MMO" feel to the game.

The starter zone is small and intimate and very pretty. The story line is pretty good. However you must complete a series of "Destiny Quests" and reach level 19 in order leave the island. This to me felt a bit extreme and I found myself wanting to leave around level 10. By the time I got to 19 I was desperate to leave. I could not imagine having to go through all of that AGAIN with another toon. I hope Funcom changes things a bit by then.

The fighting is interesting and not your usual point and click. It requires a little thought and skill (which developes with use). The skill trees are interesting and give options so that (for example) "Jane" of the ToS class may not have the same abilities as "Jill" of the ToS class at the same level.

Crafting. I haven't gotten this far so am only repeating what I have heard. You can gather nodes similar to EQ2 and rares are indeed very rare, unlike EQ2. Crafting itself seems to still be in developement. Funcom adds more stuff almost every patch.

Overall, I am liking the game and looking forward to seeing the improvements Funcom makes. They do seem to have decent communication via the forum boards about downtimes and updates. And the downtimes are scheduled with adults in mind... during normal business hours or between 2-6 am.

There are some important things missing from the game such as the Traders/Bankers (they were removed second day of launch due to some kind of duping hack and have yet to be reinstated).

Due to this you prety much have to sell every drop you get because you can only hold around 12 (not positive but is bewteen 12-16) items at a time before having to just leave loot on the ground or running back to town to sell. There are better bags you can buy to hold more items but they are very expensive and from what I hear don't offer a whole lot more storage.

Also because of the missing Trader/Banker there really isn't any in game economy yet and money is slow and tedious to come by. But other than bags and a horse there really isn't anything worth buying atm.

There are the usual quest bugs, "stuck" issues and FPS issues that you can encounter with any new MMO. Funcom does seem to be doing a good job at trying to fix them as soon as they can.

I am going to continue to play for at least another month and hopefully will see the needed improvements that will make this game stand as tall as say, EQ2 and WoW (will probably take at least 6 months for this to happen). It definitely needs a lot of spit and polish before then but is a nice diversion if you are getting bored with your current MMO's.

The graphics are more like Dark Age of Camelot's as opposed to EQ2/WoW. Not so cartoonish. I think Funcom is trying hard to prevent gold farmers via the small bag space issue and no auto-follow.

Overall, if you can handle the usual newly-launched MMO issues, I would recommend you give the game a try. If not, might be better for you to wait 6 months and see how things go =)

Note: (May 28th 2008) The Traders/Bankers are up!!! The banker has 50 slots in which you can store items and/or sell items. Too soon to comment yet on any economy.

(Update to my review: Dec. 7, 2008)

I wish I could change my rating (would reduce to 1 star). Unless this game gets new owners, with a drastically new direction I cannot see it being around very long. I quit playing long ago but my hubby tried it again recently and there are very few players. Except for grinding with endless quests there is little to do. The crafting system needs a complete overhaul, there is practically no in-game economy. I had hoped for much more from this MMO. Unless you can try it during a free trial period to see for yourself, I would stay away from this game... sadly.

I picked it up 3 weeks ago and am currently a level 35 Cimmerian Conqueror. I checked it out at a buddy's place when the game launched and although I was impressed by some things, the numerous issues/bugs kept me away. I wasn't going to shell out 50 bucks and a 15 dollar monthly fee - even though I wanted to bodily fling myself at the game.

Totally different story now. Seriously, AoC has been improved DRAMATICALLY since launch. You just need to be patient for it to go through some collossal updates. Although Funcom can be blamed for not ensuring the current level of quality at launch, I give them kudos for actually fixing the issues and adding new stuff. There can be some minor nuisances here and there but nothing that'll bring the gaming experience to a screeching halt.

I've long been an avid Conan fan and as such I appreciate the faithful recreation of Hyboria - at least the three regions we are exposed to (Cimmeria, Aquilonia and Stygia). A large part of that is because of the art direction and the game engine (which is the best amongst MMORPGs at the moment - Godrays in DX10 FTW). But other details like the top notch voice acting only make Hyboria more alive. Accents are well played and plausible, given the setting. Minor gripe, but once you leave Tortage, where you'll likely spend the first 20 or so levels, NPCs become mute for the most part (about 1 in every 10 or 15 will actually speak). Musical score is spot-on and well paced.

Combat mechanics are awesome! Its actually engaging and more than just click and sit back. You have to carefully observe the enemy for openings (non-shielded areas) to execute some pretty brutal yet satisfying finishing moves. I was blindly button mashing at first until I realized that there was really an art to executing the fatalities. I for one, like something where real-time skill is required as much as stats.

Multiplayer is a blast. I've had the pleasure of playing with very nice and helpful people so far - but then again my experience is restricted to a PVE server. I have heard of at least one PVP server which is chock full of douchebags. Haven't leveled up high enough to get into the real siege battles but some of the folks i chatted with speak highly of it - a couple of them came back after trying out a year ago and they have been nothing but full of praise for the improvements.

Just to demonstrate Funcom's dedication to bringing the world of Conan to the masses, I have to mention that the not-so-subtle homage to H.P. Lovecraft brought a smile to my face. Keep an out for it in Stygia. For the uninitiated, this is fun because Conan's creator Robert E. Howard was actually influenced, to some extent by his friend H.P. Lovecraft.

All in all its a remarkable buy. I know FunCom's made some mistakes in the past and they almost sound desperate what with free 2 week reactivations for old players (think that expires on July 22nd '09) but its a good marketing effort. The game is NOT what it was at launch. It took them a year but they nailed it. Looking forward to the expansion.

Age of Conan could be THE example of how underwhelming a new MMORPG can be. A lot of promise a lot of hype ....and simply no delivery.

It begins with the first 20 levels (of which half are played solo in ... solo instances) which are very very nice to look at ... IF you have a hi end graphics card and play on medium settings. If you don't have at least 2 Gigabyte of memory and a sub 7900 GT card. Forget it. The game will play the ON line part at a stuttering 15 Frames per second or far worse.

Problem is ... underneath the good polished beginnings of this game there is absolutely NOTHING but NOTHING in gameplay value.

The gameworld is closed. You do NOT seem to live in a seamless open world, instead you live in an uploaded series of closed boxes. Walking into a door even gives you "loading screens" of about 5 to 10 seconds. Walking into another zone or even a part of a "dungeon" makes you have loading screens of about 20 to 45 seconds (depending on hardware)
Age of loading...

Age of Instances (copies)

Because IN a zone (even open zones like cities) the game creates instances (copies) of that zone. Meaning you only see a handful of players at a time (mostly between 30 and 40). This is a very OLD technique in MMORPG's to handle the stuttering of your character. Why? Because the graphics take up so MUCH computer power (even on hi end cards), MORE players can not be handled without .... loading.
The worst is that each zone has to be entered at a FIXED entry point. That point of course being camped by complete guilds to prevent you to enter that zone. See PvP below.

In an age where LOTRO and WoW/TBC have open seamless worlds to live in, this is a BIG failure as an MMORPG. Even if you would dislike Wow/TBC(2007): in Outland you can fly your personal acquired mount and fly ANYWHERE over the continent (mountains, lakes, forests, cities) you want AND land ANYWHERE without ever seeing a loading screen. Instances in the latest MMORPG's are only being used for gaming purposes (dungeons or balanced battlegrounds), NOT for the open seamless world.

Personal vs Personal Combat play (PvP): simple: there are NO rules at the moment. Everyone can bash everyone even in your own guild. While this may seem fun for about .. 1 hour, it makes the game broken... because there are NO rules. You don't get punished, you don't get rewards. Nothing. The makers said at the end of the 80(!) levels there would be Siege battles, but they didn't include them. And even when included they would be worthless since everyone plays in his own instance of a zone.

Death is a FIXED respawn point nearby, you can't choose to walk up you body. Just FIXED and meaning you get ganked near those FIXED points when your debuff fades.
Age of noobs PvP.

The battles themselves are nothing but bashing the keyboards with certain fixed(!) combos. After 3 weeks everybody knows the trick ! You either bash the keyboards and use (the same) combo's or you .... MOVE. That's right you heard it. FunCOM found a system where you can't hit with combo's and move!! Casters can't move either when casting.
Age of hampered Combat.

Last but not least: after level 20 everything comes down in PVE: no more polishing and .... no quests enough after level 45 to keep going. Meaning you have to grind: killing mindless everything you see to get some experience ... to get to the next level where you do exactly the same...

In the level 55+ that means killing 700 mammouths to just keep playing.
In the later levels you need MILLIONS of points to reach the next level. just by killing beasts. Fun ???

Worse: on PvP servers most FIXED entry zones are being camped by guilds so yo can't even enter the zones with the most wildlife.
Age of Lost PVE.

Next is the loot: would you believe that most players at level 50 have some gear that's the same as level 1's? Even the stats hardly change and some substats are even BETTER at level 1???
Age of broken loot.

Dungeons: since the FUNCOM Director himself said in an open letter after 2 weeks they would change the dungeons, I wouldn't even comment on that part.
Age of broken dungeons.

Interface: How difficult could it be JUST to (right)click on a person and whisper?; Not with Conan! the interface is - next to Tabula rasa - one of the worst seen ever.
Age of hedious interface.


I don't mind the bugs, the broken quests or the unfinished nature of the game. The problem with this game; it had fatal design decisions from the beginning: choosing graphics that aren't suitable for an on line role playing game (hence the loadings and copies of what should be a world you LIVE in) were even MORE important than basic GAME design.

What could be WORSE for a computer game?

Age of lacking ...game design and polishment.