Amazon.com: Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures: PC: Video Games

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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.

'Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures' game logo

The MMORPG finally matures

A troubled King Conan on his throne.
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Test your metal in close combat.
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Straddle War Mammoths & Killer Rhinos.
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Lead your guild in player vs. player battles.
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Explore the pleasures & pitfalls of the Hyborian Age.
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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.

Additional items included in the Collector's Edition

Hand-finished, metal-embossed oversized collector's box with inlay page and individually numbered holographic sticker
Leather map of Hyboria (faux) 14" x 20"
The Ring of Acheronia (exclusive in-game item)
Unique Bonus DVD featuring trailers, behind the scenes, developer diaries, and rich artwork
Official Age of Conan soundtrack CD
Art Book (128 pages)
Five free guest passes giving friends online access to the game for a limited time
The Drinking Cape (bonus in-game item)

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

61 Reviews

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(14)

Average Customer Review

3.3 out of 5 stars (61 customer reviews)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars This would have been a vastly different review, a few months ago, August 8, 2008

By	Terry Mesnard (Bellevue, NE) - See all my reviews (VINE VOICE) (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

Fun:3.0 out of 5 stars

This review is from: Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures Collector's Edition (DVD-ROM)

Below is my review of the game; however, I did purchase the Collector's Edition and I have to say that the CE reminds me a lot of the game. Flashy, beautiful on the surface but ultimately lacking. You're basically spending $90 on 5 buddy passes (which requires your friends to use your discs for installation or they have to pay $3 to download the game), an ingame item that only works up until level 40 and didn't really provide a big boost, a really nice artbook, the soundtrack, the artbook and a map. Sounds like a lot, but I had buyers remorse; and it's $10 more expensive than the Warhammer Online CE which included a lot more items...if you're set on purchasing AoC, I would just go with the standard edition.

On to the review:

The funny thing about expectations is just how much it can ruin or promote a game. As an example, I was one of those annoying people who ended up not liking Fable as much as I'd hope to (and complained about it to deaf ears) because I had followed it from its first announcement to its eventual birth. In the same way, I have followed Age of Conan far longer than I should have. Four years. Longer than most engagements.

Well, after finally "marrying" Age of Conan (and buying it a "fancy" ring by not only purchasing it, but dropping $90 on its shinier Collector's Edition), I can understand why the divorce rate in America is so high. It all falls back to expectations. For me, things started out wonderfully. We had our honeymoon in Tortage and for the first weekend or so, I was in complete heaven. The first twenty levels of the game are perfectly plotted and staged, with wonderment occuring around every bend. The story that plays out is small and self-contained but feels epic and truly feels like the start of something great.

Then the honeymoon ends.

Leaving Tortage, things start to sour. The story takes a complete backseat, with story-centered quests popping up every 10-20 levels or so, and instead you're treated to relatively empty environments that are stocked with creatures, sometimes with incredibly long respawn counters. So, you think..."wow, this is a huge change from the first twenty levels" but you keep on keeping on because new shiny skills keep popping up.

Undoubtedly, you'll start to run into problems. Instances won't work as they should and some won't even let you in (half of my guild couldn't access the 40-80 level resource instances like Frost Swamp where some of the epic gear starts to drop). The ones that do let you in, you realize, oftentimes have quests that only one person per instance can complete. There you go, having to repeat a not-too-inspired zone five or six times just to complete a quest. This wouldn't be nearly as big of a problem, if the zones were interesting. But they're not; some of them are simply windy small passages resembling mazes that open into larger, empty rooms. Very boring.

At about the level 60 mark, you start to realize that maybe you rushed into this relationship a bit quick. Maybe your friends were right and this person you find yourself waking up next to is a complete mystery. From here until the end, you start to wonder if the developers (Funcom, a group I have/had the upmost respect for--look at my reviews for Dreamfall and The Longest Journey) spent their four+ years of development on creating Tortage.

I divorced Age of Conan last night. It wasn't as messy as I was expecting. There are some good ideas here. Tortage is amazing (the first few times you go through it, at least) and a lot of kudos should be given to the team as they crafted a story that could be told from four different perspectives. The combat system is an interesting take on a stagnant genre and I've discovered that it makes other MMOs feel slow by comparison. And the graphics are unmistakeably beautiful. But like that dumb model, once you strip away the beautiful exterior and the assets, you start to realize that there's not much depth underneath.

I loved Age of Conan in the beginning. Now, I just feel annoyed. There's a lot more I could have discussed (the lack of customer support, petitioning for issues that took days to be resolved, the horrible online community, the horrible lack of community outreach, the boring zones, the broken content, the content that was originally promised then silently scrapped, etc.), but the point is that Age of Conan isn't what I was expecting. Some people might enjoy it, but there's not enough content here to keep me coming back.

In the meantime, I'm getting back in the saddle. There's another one I have my eye on. I've seen Warhammer Online slyly making eyes at me from across the room. I've been thinking that maybe I'll saunter over and say hi. But this time, I'm going to take it slowly and get to know the game beforehand. This time, hopefully, I won't be burned.

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48 of 58 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Welcome to the 4th Generation of MMORPGs, May 1, 2008

By	M. Nastasi "Maddy" (Grand Forks, ND United States) - See all my reviews

Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars

This review is from: Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures Collector's Edition (DVD-ROM)

Age of Conan is a well-constructed, beautifully-rendered, multi-layered MMORPG that includes features for every playstyle in the genre.

For those adventurers who prefer to explore solo, the world is vast, beautiful, and dangerous! In addition to the creatures, beasties and wild humans providing nail-biting combat with a fantastic AI, on two of the server types (FFA (free-for-all) PvP (Player vs. Player) and RP (roleplaying)-PvP), there is the added danger of edge-of-your-seat combat with player characters. There is, of course, a Player vs. Environment (PvE) ruleset on some servers that will allow the more reticent to get their game on in style without the added fear of being ganked.

Solo gamers who join AoC will find that all of the classes are solo-friendly to some extent. Funcom has included robust potion play for those OMG moments, though it's not so over-powering that it feels like going into god-mode.

Though Solo play is encouraged through many game-mechanic devices (such as the level 1-20 "destiny quests" which are 100% solo), the real meat of the game is in the group and guild play. The character classes compliment each other well - none is so overpowered as to have the proverbial "I Win" button. Healing is mostly over time, so priests can get into the fray and smack it up with the best of them without having to stand back and spam heals. Caster, range, stealth and melee classes round out the options, with choices offered being determined by race.

PvP, in addition to "out in the world" fights, can take place in "mini-games," similar to the Battlegrounds of WoW, but at a much faster pace. The options available in the beta were "Capture the Flag" and "Annihilate Opponents," both of which were engaging and fast-paced. The learning curve isn't too steep - We found with a little organization and an understanding that thr group needed to stay together, we won more times than lost.

There is crafting at level 40 (the cap is currently level 80) but I haven't seen that part yet. Crafting professions include armor, weapons, gemcutting, architecture, and alchemy. As crafting is one of those things that can make or break a game economy, I'm really looking forward to getting involved in it as soon as possible.

Questing is really rich in this game - dialogues are played like cut scenes, and the voice acting is top-notch. The quests include single runs and long storylines. Rewards are appropriate and always helpful depending on your level. The cities are teeming with NPCs, and most will have somethign to say to you or some quest to offer.

All-in-all, a fantastic game with a lot of potential for deep involvement. My final score, heading into launch, is 4.5 out of 5 stars, with .5 off for restricting crafting to the later levels.

****UPDATE****

I received the collector's edition from Gamestop yesterday, and I am overall very pleased with both the presentation and the contents! The art book is not hardbound as advertised, which is a disappointment, but both the artwork and behind-the-scenes storytelling are phenomenal.

The leatherette map is a nice touch - it's not really readable for the small fonts, but it's nice looking is a cool piece of Conan memoribilia.

The soundtrack, on the other hand, is the real gem in this collection. Atmospheric, often moving, sometimes even heartwrenching, this soundtrack is fantastic. We've had it in heavy rotation since we got up this morning, and it's lovely.

I recommend this collector's edition for the true fans of the genre - it's a great immersion into the AoC world, and I'm glad I spent the extra cash on it.

Thanks for reading!

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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Age of Conan- Next Generation MMO, May 21, 2008

By	Pipsqueak "Pip" (NJ) - See all my reviews

Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars

This review is from: Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures Collector's Edition (DVD-ROM)

(I posted this review on the regular version of the game as well, so if you are reading it and it sounds redundant, that's why... I did add the part about the Collectors Edition though!)

This game is unbelievable. It is definitely the next generation of MMO's. Beautiful graphics (yes, an upgrade on the computer was necessary in my case) amazing storyline and game play. No lag, and the combat system is fantastic.

The Collectors Edition is an amazing package- from the ingame items that can be given to all your characters, not limited to just the first one you have claim them to the package that you receive. The map, I have to admit, I am not certain what I will do with, but it is a nice addition. The score is beautiful and I can't wait to play the cd that they give to hear it all. The art book is also great value. If you can get your hands on one, I recommend it!

Graphics 10/10: Though they have announced that DX10 will not be released till later on this year, I am extremely impressed with the graphics in their current state, and can not wait to see how much better they get once it is released. The scenery is beautiful, the rendering and overall detailing is amazing. You really FEEL like you are there in the jungles- and the character movement itself is smooth. In this game, you run into actual characters- not like a lot of games out there where you run through them. The collision detection enhances the overall experience, making it seem more realistic.

Character Creation 9/10: Amazing. I can spend hours just doing this part of the game. Similar to EQ2, you are able to customize a great deal- body type and size of certain parts of your body, as well as facial reconstruction. You can even make your nose appear as if it had been broken and healed incorrectly. The only thing lacking in this department is hair styles. There aren't a great deal of them. Also, depending on the race you pick your colors are very limited i.e. Complexion, eye and hair color.

Story Line 10/10: From the moment your slave ship crashes, and you are washed up on an island, the game takes off immersing you in the world of Conan. You have to help escort someone to the major town (a lot easier than other escort quests) and right away you feel a sense of urgency with making certain you get out of the jungle. Once you arrive in the town, you have a series of quests that you need to complete in addition to your own class questline. Once you complete this, you move on to your home area... I unfortunately have not yet gotten this far.

Game Play 10/10: The combat system does take a little bit of figuring out, but once you do- wow. Not only does the AI (Artificial Intelligence) respond to what you do, but its amazing how you are able to effect multiple opponents with a single hit of your weapon. The spell casting graphics are quite impressive as well.

In the game play, when you converse with the characters, you're perspective changes and the camera angle zooms into the conversation, making you feel like you are actually there. I really like this about the game as it incorporates the player right from the start. You do have to listen to the dialog and make choices which I know will not appeal to some gamers who don't really care about the lore of the game, however when I play a video game I tend to immerse myself in it... and this game definitely allows one to do that.

Sound 10/10: The score in this game truly sets the scene. At night as you run around through the jungles outside of town, the music makes you sit on the edge of your seat in anticipation, waiting for something to jump out from around a corner and grab you. The character voice acting is wonderful- the speech inflection makes you believe that you are actually talking to a live person. You CARE about what happens to the characters, versus them just being paper dolls just standing there doing the same thing over and over again.

So as a recap, I definitely recommend this game, however, I suggest if you don't meet the minimum system specs to a T, to upgrade your system to the maximum specs. The minimum will get you there, but if you upgrade, you may as well go for the best of the best. Gaming is my hobby and I have already realized that I have a very expensive hobby. :)

See you all in Hyboria!

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