Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures (PC)

...are over a week since Age of Conan, one of the mostly highly anticipated MMO's that has ever probably seemed like a dream since the days of 'Pong' has hit our shelves. Now if your not up for reading a long review.. all i have to say is this game is AWESOME! If your looking for a bit more carry on reading.

I among many other eager gamers was brought in to Beta test this game a couple of months prior to launch. Now as much as i adore ...
...back. There is something about Age of Conan that has me pulled in maybe its because I was a fan of the books, maybe its the stunning graphics.. and maybe, just maybe its because of the mature language and blood splatting on my screen as I take an axe to another one of my unfortunate foes for the 100th time today. All I can say though is you will always have the World of Warcraft faithful but if your looking for a game where your not running round ... more

::INTRODUCTION::

So here we are over a week since Age of Conan, one of the mostly highly anticipated MMO's that has ever probably seemed like a dream since the days of 'Pong' has hit our shelves. Now if your not up for reading a long review.. all i have to say is this game is AWESOME! If your looking for a bit more carry on reading.

I among many other eager gamers was brought in to Beta test this game a couple of months prior to launch. Now as much as i adore this game there are a couple of setbacks that maybe should of kept it in development for a couple more months, but what i can say is that the public are submitting anything they find to funcom to make sure anyone new or unsure can jump in a few months down the line and have a fantastic gaming experience.

Now what I will say is that I never used to be a fan of MMORPG's i played World of Warcraft for the 30 day trial.. got bored and never looked back. There is something about Age of Conan that has me pulled in maybe its because I was a fan of the books, maybe its the stunning graphics.. and maybe, just maybe its because of the mature language and blood splatting on my screen as I take an axe to another one of my unfortunate foes for the 100th time today. All I can say though is you will always have the World of Warcraft faithful but if your looking for a game where your not running round like the fed ex man taking this letter to this NPC or sitting around while your avatar attacks an enemy with about as much passion as a stone, then this game is up your street.. even if there are glitches the first few months this game has been in development for over 4 years and there's only some things you can fix once its been released to the mass market.

Anyway with that introduction aside lets get in to the meaty goodness..

::CHARACTER CREATION::

So I enter the game.. hands shaking, pure excitement just wanting to burst out of me, and what do I get greeted with? A character creation screen that blows my mind. I find my avatar on board a slave vessel you can hear the crashing of ferocious waves against the ageing boards, the roaring of thunder, whipping winds and rain slapping up on the deck. So with all this energy being thrust at me through my headphones I get to create my character that I think will best fit in the world of Conan. Unlike World of Warcraft the only characters you can create are human.. (which is fine by me, no elves and dwarves here) and you get to choose from three races. The Stygian, the Aquilonian and the Cimmerian. The only obvious benefit from choosing a certain race is the different classes you have the option to choose from. There are four classes (soldiers, priests, rogues & mages) that are then broken down in to four further classes. So in total you have 12 different way to start of your character.

Just to break it down you can be an...
- Assassin
- Barbarian
- Bear Shaman
- Conqueror
- Dark Templar
- Demonologist
- Guardian
- Herald of Xotli
- Necromancer
- Priest of Mitra
- Ranger
- Tempest of Set

Each one having special skills and attributes to start the game off, my personal favourite is Demonologist, able to give away his soul to release devastating attacks with the beasts of below!

Now you can start off by shuffling it up picking a random looking guy or girl and a class naming them and getting straight in to the game. Although for those of you who like to create your own looking individual you can spend a good 30 minutes playing around with all the different character customisations. The first stage of customization allows for a variant in your characters body size, there voice, tattoos (separate ones fore the body and face), skin colour, eye colour, hair styles (including facial hair). Now.. to be real your looking down third person on your guy.. so the ability to change the eye colour is no biggie.. but hey its there for you to change. There could be more skin and hair colour options but that is just me being picky.

So.. now we are done with the first stage, on to the second!!

Once hitting the customize button again you can change sizes on different parts of the body. Heh i will keep this review as PG as possible but I shall say this is a good opportunity to make your perfect woman I personally went for breasts and booty set at maximum..WHAT?! I am a red blooded male! This option continues down to arms, legs, hips, and so on. You can also play around with the face change cheeks, nose, chin angles/depth/length etc. With a nice amount of time spent your character will be his own in the vast lands of Hyboria. So you click to finish and the next thing you know your slave boat is sent flying.. in a torrent of sounds and epic details.. the story continues and the screen fades to black.

oh no!!

::GAME SETTINGS::

After a few moments of playing the game your will find that one of its strongest attributes is the story and how it is told. Once you have created your character you are thrust into the vastly colourful sprawling world of Hyboria, set 10,000 years BC. The fantastic Dreamworld Engine is by far one of the most advanced game creation engines ever made and from the character creation to your awakening on the beach you will be captivated. After watching the developers video blogs and then playing this game myself you can clearly see that they wanted to put you inside the books and not drift away from them.. you will find yourself meeting many of the main characters from the offset and funcom have not ceased to amaze me. For ever quest there is a fantastic face to face chat with the NPC and not just text to read. Many of these non playable characters have voiced dialogue allowing you to hear and feel there emotions that go with the task in hand. It is truely a refreshing way to go through the game instead of the dreary text boxes that i was offered in World of Warcraft.

For those of you that have not read the books, Age of Conan is full of dark magic and bloody scenes that in your own mind may seem a little bit controversial but just captivate you even more in to the story. What funcom have done here is taken the soul of the books and magnified them ten fold so you are no longer imagining these scenes, they are displayed before your eyes in gritty colours and amazing story telling. As in the books you will find yourself thrust in to a world of torment and conflicts, you will see hanged corpses, heads on pikes blood on the streets... but saying that step in to the wild and you will be thrust in to a world of colour with vast mountain ranges, sprawling forests where the wild flowers grow in masses. Another great thing about this game are "fatalities" these are finishing moves that happen about 10% of the time. What you are given is something along the lines of "FINISH HIM" from the mortal combat games, where your avatar releases an epic animation which.. well finishes off your opponent. As it says on the back off the box "heads will roll" oh and they certainly do, resulting in blood being splattered on to your screen. This game isn't for the faint hearted.. but your not a sissy right?

The sound effects and music in this game is excellent and very appropriate.. from the soft symphonies of walking in the wild forest to the hearty bellowing of warriors in the battle scenes.. truely captivating and perfect for this game! Once in the cities you will hear the talk of the towns people, in the wilderness the whistle of the wind.. and in the local tavern the belching of a drunkard. Good fun!!

::GAME PLAY::

Okay, now by no means is Age of Conan the most perfect game ever invented.. but then what is. At this early age in the game you will find a few glitches and bugs, like being able to walk through a certain wall.. or resell a certain item to gain more money. All i can say on behalf of funcom is that they have guys working night and day to make sure these issues are not permanent and in my eyes do not effect the overall game play all that much. Even World of Warcraft had its issues on release.

PVP servers, (player vs. player). Are not my favourite servers to be fair and in AoC that hasn't been improved. Most of the time you will find yourself walking around in stealth which if your not a rogue will drain your stamina a lot, to be fair its not as slow as most games and you can make it to certain places relatively quickly, but.. the bread and butter lies in PVE servers.. captivating game play and the ability to choose when you feel like taking on a real life foe. Build and break alliances as you choose, as this game is free for all.. which shows more in PVP.

::SUMMARY::

Age of Conan is by far one of the best games to come out in recent times.
Age of Conan is a better PVE game than PVP.
The immersion and storyline is unparalleled in any game of recent times.
The character creation, gameplay, and feel of this game is epic.
The Combat System is a breath of fresh air.
PVP servers are hard.. join at your own peril

As for the system requirements... aim for the recommended and not the minimum.. or you have no chance.

Thanks for reading this.. I am sure I could of written a lot more but I hope this helps you understand the game better! <3

-Kebza 27th May 2008 

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