Gaming Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures

[Da Dego]

http://www.bit-tech.net/gaming/2008/...n-adventures/1

Age of Conan has finally landed and this is one MMORPG which really looks like it could stir up the genre a bit. It's about time too. We take a close look at the DirectX 9 client for Eidos' new Cimmerian MMO to see if it's got the guts to match the garters...

[MessiaH]

I like it.

[Rebourne]

It takes a nose dive after 20 and another one after 50. They did the first 30 levels very well, most likely in an attempt to fool reviewers.

[bahgger]

GOD BLESS CONAN! I doubt this will topple WoW, by its good to see a contender regardless!

[Toka]

At this point, anything is better than something run by SOE.

[naokaji]

the combat system is dumbed down too much (screw them for trying to copy wow (if i wanted wow i would go play that)) wasd isnt working properly and half the options in the settings are greyed out and cant be changed, also the amount of gear and spell upgrades is far below what for example eq2 offers.
grinding? well, every mmorpg has that, every mmorpg also has the go kill x numbers of mob y... cant really fault aoc for that.
It's definitly one of the better mmorpgs, if the endgame is good enough to keep players in the game for years remains to be seen though.

[will.]

Are there any free demos?

[naokaji]

Originally Posted by will.

Are there any free demos?

not atm, everyone who bought it can get a buddy key, they can give to someone to let them play it for a limited time, however, those buddy keys arent out yet.

[Toka]

Originally Posted by naokaji

half the options in the settings are greyed out and cant be changed, also the amount of gear and spell upgrades is far below what for example eq2 offers.

Well, how about EQ2 pre LU13 or KOS? Do you remember how completely borked T5 raiding was (yay troubadour MT groups...)Anyways you cant really compare whats available in game from a 4 year old mmo, to one that has been live for a few weeks.

And I stand by my previous comment that AOC will continue to enjoy strong numbers because it doesnt have SOE shafting the customer base, passing QA notes to live raid guilds, handing out free server transfers to their 'valued testers,' having devs boasting about exploiting bugged content on live servers to obtain end game items.... the list goes on.

If you have good customer support then I believe that you have a huge chunk of what it takes to maintain a sucsessful mmo. AoC appears, so far, to have this.

[Christah]

holeymoley...
"Unfortunately, these early stages of the game are incredibly dull and players will find themselves doing more grinding than that ninety year old great-grandmother trying to climb a spiral staircase with two broken hips. It’s combat after pointless combat for the first hour or two at least and it isn’t until you actually make it to Tortage that you’ll actually get to do some real role playing."

Did you even play the game? The first grinding of the game is meant to let you get comfy with the new way of fighting. It took me 45 minutes to get through the learningphase(lvl 1-6) and after that i have not grinded at all (currently lvl30).
Really don't understand how you could find this alternative to a tutorial boring...

[Denis_iii]

SOE?

When there is a pay as you go option I will try my hand at a MMO. Don't want to pay for a months access when I'm only going to play a few hours a week. Rather buy say 10hours, and when thats up buy 10more. Is this currently an option in any MMO's?

AOC looks good fun and will develop over time. Was WOW so great when it was first released?

[CardJoe]

Originally Posted by Christah

holeymoley...
"Unfortunately, these early stages of the game are incredibly dull and players will find themselves doing more grinding than that ninety year old great-grandmother trying to climb a spiral staircase with two broken hips. It’s combat after pointless combat for the first hour or two at least and it isn’t until you actually make it to Tortage that you’ll actually get to do some real role playing."

Did you even play the game? The first grinding of the game is meant to let you get comfy with the new way of fighting. It took me 45 minutes to get through the learningphase(lvl 1-6) and after that i have not grinded at all (currently lvl30).
Really don't understand how you could find this alternative to a tutorial boring...

It's not an alternative to a tutorial, because while you play the tutorial menus are still popping up on the left hand side. Sure, i can understand it eases you in slowly but it isn't complex enough to require a 45-minute bout of it all (literally just pressing number keys randomly beats all the enemies for that entire section), so what's the point? It isn't pushing you to learn new skills or approaches, all it does it just pit you against a load of faceless, boring enemies for the entire first section of the game. I was two hours in before I felt I was really playing properly, and for anyone who hasn't decided to love the game blindly that's a fairly hard lump to get over.

As I said, once you're past that bit the grinding is lessened, but the early sections are soured by this pointlessly long run of identikit battles.

IMHO.

[Phil Rhodes]

So you put the slider to 75% and then "got the extra 15% out of it".

What's this, a new definition of percentages that only go to 90?

[Panos]

From the moment that is heavily based on instances is just a WOW with different wrap.

And to comment on something above. Not all MMORPGs have grinding. EVE for example doesn't have grinding. Which is the only true MMORPG out. Single world, real (no instances) with proper role playing your character.

[CardJoe]

Originally Posted by Phil Rhodes

So you put the slider to 75% and then "got the extra 15% out of it".

What's this, a new definition of percentages that only go to 90?

Sssh. Nobody noticed.

[Mister_X]

"Unfortunately, these early stages of the game are incredibly dull and players will find themselves doing more grinding than that ninety year old great-grandmother trying to climb a spiral staircase with two broken hips. It’s combat after pointless combat for the first hour or two at least and it isn’t until you actually make it to Tortage that you’ll actually get to do some real role playing."

Couple of hours to get to tortage? seriously? you can get there in about 15-30 minutes easy, Hardly a grind.
Having said that, an option to skip that bit would be nice If you re-roll or have multiple characters

[Redbeaver]

i like it too. the grinding isnt that bad, and the combat and environment did more than just make up for that.

[rollo]

up to lvl 66 on barb, Grinding is huge at some parts of the game. You can either do instances again and again. Or grind mobs outside. Since the quests drop off at an alarming rate.

up to 33 ish its kinda easy going. 33-40 badly lacks quests, 40-50 once again is find. 50-66 were i am is one huge grind. Hoping they fix this and other things soon

Trader been bugged the main one of those concerns.

Performance wise once your out of tortalage your fps drops in half. Please go visit the first major city you get there at 20. (looks amazing but at some huge fps drops) Not sure if anyone will saintly have this running on high at end game raids / pvp since 60 fps is a necessity.

Id personal have given it 7/10 ( way too many bugs that still haven't been fixed to get it higher) (and the tedious grind at 50+ becomes boring fast) ( played aprox 2hrs a day since release for that lvl. So its not greatly difficult to lvl. )

[jfreak]

I thought it was a good game and played fairly well till they did the final round of nerfing before release.

If you play 1 or 2 or maybe 3 characters, it's not bad. I thought the graphics were good and the quests were ok, just not very absorbing. I'm still looking for an MMO that can do epic quests properly.

This isn't the perfect game by any stretch and it doesn't have anything innovative. Would like to see a crafting branch to have better and more unique items being made.

I did like the class setups but they are a little too rigid. would be nice to have more blurred lines with skill trees. Lets players truly customize to their play style.

For an action MMO I'm still partial to the game structure Cabal implemented and of course Eve has a well matured advancement system, just no content to inspire the unimaginative players.

[naokaji]

Originally Posted by Toka

Well, how about EQ2 pre LU13 or KOS? Do you remember how completely borked T5 raiding was (yay troubadour MT groups...)Anyways you cant really compare whats available in game from a 4 year old mmo, to one that has been live for a few weeks.

And I stand by my previous comment that AOC will continue to enjoy strong numbers because it doesnt have SOE shafting the customer base, passing QA notes to live raid guilds, handing out free server transfers to their 'valued testers,' having devs boasting about exploiting bugged content on live servers to obtain end game items.... the list goes on.

playing eq2 since release, been in raiding guilds all the time, I know it, the point is that eq2 was just the first game that came to my mind when we are talking about ones with a boatload of options what gear you want, also dont forget spell upgrades, choice between crafted / dropped / quested equip. Yes, I am aware that eq2 is far from perfect (also i do remember t5 raids dropping mage equip with no int and procs triggering of melee attacks), the amount of choice you have now is just one of the things it got right. if i would have commented on another aspect of aoc like for example the ui then i would have used another game as a comparison since the ui sucks donekyballs in eq2.

Hehe yep, you are right about soe cusomer service, i have enough horror stories with them (like for example game wont let an entire guild zone into sebilis and 2 days later getting a copy paste email that they coudnt reach you in game (even though you waited more than an hour for a gm to show up) and that the issue is resolved = pls fill survey and plenty other stories, but lets save those for eq2flames).

Just saying, aoc currently lacks content in the horizontal direction, but I'm sure they are allready working hard to get a expansion out soon.

Now they just need to stop messing around with boobsizes