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5/5 |
Superb game!
(June 18, 2008) |
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The graphics are among the best I've ever seen, for all game types! The music and sounds make you feel you're really there - in Hyboria, and the gameplay is really fun. I also like the fact that the quests are much more "alive". In WoW, you don't even bother reading the quests texts, but here you are taking part in the conversation with the NPCs. The combat system is innovative, although I expected something even more groundbreaking. It's Wow - but with a cool twist.
The downside: I had to buy a new graphics card to be able to play it, but then again, I needed a new one anyway ;)
If you're doubting if this is for you - find a friend who has the game, and play 7 days for free. I think you'll opt for getting your own copy after those 7 days!
When FUNCOM manages to remove the bugs, and integrate some of the missing features, this will be a total classic! |
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4/5 |
Brilliant fun even though some improvements to be made
(June 15, 2008) |
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I have been playing this game non-stop since just after release. There is plenty of depth here with the character development available. Each class has a variety of attributes that are great fun to try out. They are then further specialised with 3 different feat trees available for each class. The combat really is great fun and has not lost its appeal even after about 50+ hours of game time. The ability to do adhoc multiplayer as you go through your quests is great. Do not be put off if you have come from say an Oblivion background. (like me) You can solo the multiplayer areas if desired it makes for a greater challenge! The game looks fantastic. The more adult theme is very appealing. The game world is very brutal.
Funcom are patching this game twice a week and have great plans to improve the content. This is my first MMORPG and I am very impressed. Never liked the look of WoW but this is fantastic. |
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3/5 |
Very Poor Customer Service
(June 12, 2008) |
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Warning! The company behind Conan has almost nothing in the way of customer support. If you do not like the game, there is no known way to cancel your subscription. All customer support mail is handled by a bot, so no resoloution is possible! |
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3/5 |
Promising, but incomplete
(June 04, 2008) |
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I've been playing since the start of open beta, through early access and now have a level 76 character on a pvp server, so I have experienced the majority of the available content.
There are things which I love about this game and there are things that I dislike immensely, let's start with the good. Characters and combat are really fun, the combo system works really well, and for spellcasters no need to stop and target, as long as you are facing an enemy your spells should select the target.
The graphics are very impressive, notably in the first 20 levels, White Sands Isle is particularly nice with sun bleached sand and rippling azure water. however later areas lack some of the polish of the early zones. A zone like Thunder River is still impressive, but seems visually to be a bit more rough around the edges. You are given a fair amount of choices when designing your character, and there are more sliders than you could shake a stick at, however a few more variations of skin tone and hair colour would have been nice. I also really like the design of the weapons and armour, they are stained, cut and dented. Even the lower level items look good on your character, I have a level 20 assassin who is wearing flip flops, how cool is that :D
There are three resource zones where the majority of gathered items can be collected by players, I actually found it fun expoloring these zones as quite often mobs of your level will spawn while you are collecting. This leads me on to what you are collecting for...
Guild Cities, this is what has kept me motivated to continue with the game, your guild collects resources and then starts building a city in an instance of one of the resource zones. So far my guild has managed to build most of the fist tier of buildings, you get a good degree of choice in where to place the different buildings, and it is always nice to see them being raised from the ground. When I say a city, I really do been it, these things are big, maybe 2/3 of one of the capitals from WoW.
The clases also seem very fun, I have been playing a Priest of Mitra, which I have found has some intersting and clever abilities and is a real pleasure to play. I have tried out most of the classes at lower levels and they all seem interesting. Also if you enjoy playing a healer type class you should really enjoy the three priest classes, they are all unique and can all also do a fair bit of damage, which is a nice change from other MMOs.
Sounds good so far? Be prepared here come the negatives...
There are alot of loading screens, each zone is a seperate area that has to be loaded, this sometimes gives me an impression that I am playing in a series of, admitedly large, room, rather than being part of a seamless world. I used to play World of Warcraft and looking back I really enjoyed the fact that you could travel the entire length of a continent without seeing a loading screen, Conan does not make me feel the same way.
There is not enough content in the game yet, meaning you will have to spend much of your time in the later levels grinding. To be fair to Funcom they have stated they know this is an issue and are adding additional quests in the next few weeks.
The big selling point of this game for me was the Siege Warfare, this has not been implemented yet alongside many of the end game raids and dungeons.
Ther are many bugs such as extremely long respawns on quest items, mounts going slower than a walking player, quests that cannot be completed, graphical glitches, crashes etc. Age of Conan definitely feels unfinished.
Personally I will take a break from the game and come back in a few months when hopefully some of these issues have been resolved, I do think it has the potential to be a great game, in a few months time.
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5/5 |
Revolutionary, a real treat for the senses.
(June 02, 2008) |
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First off, I'm not some kind of inexperienced gamer who suddenly decides to try out a new mmo because it's something I've never done before. I love playing on any sort of game if they're any good. So, normally MMO's aren't my cup of tea. I've played on almost all the MMOs on the market and almost each and every one of them seem to be identical. I personally own WOW, EQ2, Lotro and Guild Wars. My personal favourite out of all of those would be Everquest 2 because it's much deeper than all the rest. But quite frankly the overall gameplay between all these products remain completely identical and fear to tread new ground. And so now comes the bravest attempt for an MMO of all time: Age of Conan.
Traditional MMO gameplay has been completely removed for this game, and it's about damn time as well. Long gone are the mindless auto-attacks that seemed to ruin the gameplay and the strategic points from WoW, EQ2 and Lotro. Now, combat is fast - paced, bloody and just plain fun. You'll often forget that you're even playing an MMO, and that you're just playing a fantastic RPG.
And that's what's great about Age Of Conan. There's an option for not grinding at all, and just do some cleverly - plotted quests that are so much more advanced than the emotionless text that NPC's gave out when you wanted a quest in WoW. There's an option for almost all the quests if you want to do them in single player, which means if your friends aren't on, you don't have to bring up a pathetic chat window typing in: "LFG to Deadmines".
These little things give AOC a tremendous boost that no other MMO has succeded to achieve. Yes, it has had a generally buggy release, but that's what's to be expected, right? Lotro had a far worse release with framerates going down to their 20fps even on high - spec systems and it still hasn't gone any better.
Fortunately, AOC has managed to have a steady framerate on the medium spec systems and still looks gorgeous. Just look at the screenshots if you haven't done already. Seriously, this stuff is mind - blowing.
PVP is pretty good as well, CTF and siege modes are available and is at least something fresh at the genre.
Put it simply, AoC is the most perfect example ever made of what MMOs should be, breathtaking, fun and grind - free. I reccommend this to even people who don't usually enjoy MMos as well. It's completely fresh and original, sticks faithully to it's lore and it never get's boring. It's even worth it's monthly fee.
Of course, we'll have to wait and see if AoC doesn't get repetetive after a long period of time, but I've got high hopes for this one.... |
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