“Groundbreaking” they say. After a week of playing Age of Conan, I agree. The game is set in the world of Conan as imagined by Robert E. Howard, a year after the events in The Hour of the Dragon.
Character creation is the most complex I’ve seen since EVE Online, and in that game you’re only making a portrait. You can pick one of three races: Aquilonian, Cimmerian, and Stygian. You then get your choice of class, which is limited by your race. Then customize your character with body type sliders, tattoos, scars, face skin, facial sliders, skin/hair colors, and you have a (hopefully) visually distinct character. The developers have said your character can be recognizable by face in a crowd, and I tend to believe it. You’re on a slave ship, being transported before being sold, but something goes wrong and your story begins. This is a good explanation for being destitute in rags with a random piece of wood or a bottle for a weapon – unlike some other RPG experiences.
Combat is manual, down to the direction you swing your weapon, which is an interesting change from standard RPG combat and well done at that. The mechanics are not confusing at all, even given the complexity of attack combos. Spellcasting is simpler than hacking and slashing, but interest is not lost on this reduction. Armor is made of many types and pieces, making for some trashy looking characters at first, which is believable in the storyline.
Leveling (1-80) is simple enough: kill stuff, do quests, *ding*. Skills are earned at level time, not purchased – which simplifies things a bit. There is a complex system of customizing your effectiveness, so don’t expect every decision to be made for you.
The graphics are enough to overwhelm many weak-hearted PCs, but you can turn down the pain significantly. While my hefty maxed-out Dell XPS laptop has issues running at high graphics options, I get decent frame rates with much lower graphics settings – and the game is still beautiful. DirectX 10 graphics aren’t in the game yet, although that was a selling point from day one. DX10 is supposed to arrive soon; I hope it isn’t too much for my hardware.
PvP is somewhat optional, although the real focus of the game is massive PvP wars. PvE servers restrict random PvP to certain areas, but there are PvP servers with random non-level-restricted murder wherever you want.
Bugs can be found all over, which is normal for a new MMO, and not all features are in place yet. Some of the selling points for many are gore (beheadings, over-the-top violence, blood splatter on the screen, realistic corpse props, etc.) and nudity (top only and not pervasive). This may be a deterrant to many prospective players (and their mothers) which could make for a more mature gaming experience. Maybe not.
In all, I give it 8/10 with the score going up as bugs are fixed and promoted features are finally put in place.
