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1. Ngaw says

   I played Age of Conan:Hyborian Adventures…after listeng to some people one day talk about it owhen I was playing World of Warcraft….some had good and bad things to say about it, To me it is a good game graphics are good and looks to fallow Conan’s world. I did have one small bit of trouble when exploring I fell into ditch or cannel with water in it that I was not able to climb out of…dispite there was a ramp leading up but when I walked on it, it was not solid..since it was at the begaining of the game just delted the chracter and started over again.

   aside from that small problem the game and story lines Are well done and I was impressed…I recommened this game. to any who wish to try it out.

   January 20, 2010, 5:06 am
2. Diego says

   Okay, I have been playing AoC off and on since just a few months after release, and I have to say that I was shocked when I came on Amazon and saw how low the rating for this game is. Then I read some reviews and realized that most of them are from very early in the games life. You see, being that it is an MMO, content is updated and debugged live. I can honestly say that being a player for a while now, that the game has grown in leaps and bounds. All of the bugs and lack of content that was experienced toward release has all been changed. Reviews on products like these should have a shelf life. The game is was pretty good before, but it is AMAZING now! I hope to see more people back me on this, because it would really be a shame to see people shy away from giving this game a chance because it didnt get a fair review. Hope to see ya in Hyborea : )

   January 20, 2010, 11:10 am
3. O'Rourke says

   I picked it up 3 weeks ago and am currently a level 35 Cimmerian Conqueror. I checked it out at a buddy’s place when the game launched and although I was impressed by some things, the numerous issues/bugs kept me away. I wasn’t going to shell out 50 bucks and a 15 dollar monthly fee – even though I wanted to bodily fling myself at the game.

   Totally different story now. Seriously, AoC has been improved DRAMATICALLY since launch. You just need to be patient for it to go through some collossal updates. Although Funcom can be blamed for not ensuring the current level of quality at launch, I give them kudos for actually fixing the issues and adding new stuff. There can be some minor nuisances here and there but nothing that’ll bring the gaming experience to a screeching halt.

   I’ve long been an avid Conan fan and as such I appreciate the faithful recreation of Hyboria – at least the three regions we are exposed to (Cimmeria, Aquilonia and Stygia). A large part of that is because of the art direction and the game engine (which is the best amongst MMORPGs at the moment – Godrays in DX10 FTW). But other details like the top notch voice acting only make Hyboria more alive. Accents are well played and plausible, given the setting. Minor gripe, but once you leave Tortage, where you’ll likely spend the first 20 or so levels, NPCs become mute for the most part (about 1 in every 10 or 15 will actually speak). Musical score is spot-on and well paced.

   Combat mechanics are awesome! Its actually engaging and more than just click and sit back. You have to carefully observe the enemy for openings (non-shielded areas) to execute some pretty brutal yet satisfying finishing moves. I was blindly button mashing at first until I realized that there was really an art to executing the fatalities. I for one, like something where real-time skill is required as much as stats.

   Multiplayer is a blast. I’ve had the pleasure of playing with very nice and helpful people so far – but then again my experience is restricted to a PVE server. I have heard of at least one PVP server which is chock full of douchebags. Haven’t leveled up high enough to get into the real siege battles but some of the folks i chatted with speak highly of it – a couple of them came back after trying out a year ago and they have been nothing but full of praise for the improvements.

   Just to demonstrate Funcom’s dedication to bringing the world of Conan to the masses, I have to mention that the not-so-subtle homage to H.P. Lovecraft brought a smile to my face. Keep an out for it in Stygia. For the uninitiated, this is fun because Conan’s creator Robert E. Howard was actually influenced, to some extent by his friend H.P. Lovecraft.

   All in all its a remarkable buy. I know FunCom’s made some mistakes in the past and they almost sound desperate what with free 2 week reactivations for old players (think that expires on July 22nd ’09) but its a good marketing effort. The game is NOT what it was at launch. It took them a year but they nailed it. Looking forward to the expansion.

   January 20, 2010, 5:02 pm
4. LaRue says

   I am writing this review because I see all the old 2008 reviews which really don’t do justice to the bonecrunching, blood and gore awesomeness of this game. I didn’t play Age of Conan (AoC) when it came out in 2008 because I was in the middle of my 2 year World of Warcraft (WoW) stint. I have to assume that however messed up AoC was at launch, most of those problems have been fixed because I haven’t encountered any of the problems mentioned in the old 2008 reviews. I really enjoyed playing WoW, but after two years I felt that I’d “accomplished” all I wanted to in that game (in terms of PvP, endgame raiding, flying mounts, armor sets, rep grinds, etc.) and I wanted to try something new. I was scared off of AoC last year because of all the bad reviews. But out of sheer curiosity and because it was free, I played AoC’s free trial this past summer and found it an amazing game with great content for mature players. I really like this game and I’m looking forward to the expansion Rise of the Godslayer. To keep it short and to the point:

   Pros
   * Awesome graphics – they are realistic and can be violent, sexy, or gritty.
   * Great storyline and PvE content – the kids won’t be patient enough to read through it, but I think that’s a plus because it keeps the less mature element out of the AoC community
   * No excessive grinding: Whenever you kill mobs or collect stuff, it leads somewhere and you progress through areas to reach a goal while you are killing them. It is not mindless killing and boredom. It feels like quests have a point.
   * Fun combat: you can’t just mash buttons. You have to pay attention to combos but it is not too complex. It’s just very engaging and requires some skill.
   * No bots or gold farmers! To me, this is huge. While in the starting area of Tortage, I got about 3-4 pieces of in-game mail suggesting I go to a website to buy AoC gold. They were easily deleted. There’s no gold spam in the global chat on my server. I haven’t received any spam like that since I left the starting area. Funcom has done a great job with making resource gathering difficult or impossible for bots. Gold farmers ruining WoW’s economy is another of the reasons I left that game.

   Cons
   * Low server population except for Wiccana and Cimmeria servers: People are probably scared off because of the bad reviews from launch. Funcom needs to come out with another free trial period to make up for their poorly executed launch, apparently. I hope that with free trials and the launch of the expansion, this game will grow into a viable franchise that can survive for a while because it really is good now.
   * Somewhat limited PvP opportunities before reaching level cap at 80 because of low server population, I have not seen a lot of chances to engage in meaningful PvP while leveling up since the mini-games are not running 24-7 like in WoW. I mean they are “running” but not enough people to sign up for them at off peak hours. I really like WoW’s battlegrounds and areas like Wintergrasp and Isle of Conquest. Warhammer also has engaging PvP scenarios (though I think the lack of PvE is why Warhammer is not doing as well as they would like). I had over 14K lifetime PvP kills on my main WoW character, so you can guess that I like PvP a lot. I wish AoC would implement some sort of cross-server PvP system like WoW, but they have a resource problem (apparently) and have indicated that it is not a priority at this time. I hope that with more players each server there will be increased action in the PvP minigames and more siege opportunities, which sound like they would be amazing fun. Maybe some faction based PvP would help. I heard AoC will introduce this in the expansion (but no release date yet).

   Bottom line: This game is so cheap! Try it and you will get your money’s worth. Admittedly, I want more people to play for my own reasons, but I think most mature gamers will appreciate the AoC community and have a lot of fun with this game as I have been doing for the past 4 months.

   Rise of the Godslayer has no release date because Funcom apparently doesn’t want to repeat the fiasco of AoC’s launch last year. That’s a good thing. However, if they want to keep this franchise alive, you would think they will get it out by some time in the first half of next year, the sooner the better. I have not played Aion yet and I may give it a try, but for me, AoC is the best game out there now. I like the blood and grittiness in combat compared to how neat, clean and stylized Aion looks in the preview videos, though. Just depends on what you like.

   January 20, 2010, 10:53 pm
5. Piercy says

   Bought and tried to install and run AoC on my new high end computer late last year. No success. AoC did not support Vista DX10 and it got nowhere in Windows XP mode. Then a couple of months ago I got the Funcom e-mail inviting my return for another try. Big improvements they said. They were right. Runs great in 2560×1600 rez and only a few intermittant crashes resulting from my pushing the performance envelope.

   I’m playing on a PvE server but plan to hunt around for some PvP action (select locations) because once you reach lvl 80, there is not much left to do with your character except PvP or create new characters of different professions and do it all over again with new skills. The AoC map is rather extensive with multiple distant locations and accompanying quests that sometimes make you wish you brought a group with you, if you didn’t, because that dungeon with mobs at your level all fight like bosses. Elite mobs are not identified and you can find yourself in a lot of badly mismatched situations when the fighting begins. Funcom needs to fix this.

   I reached level 80 in seven weeks going about 80% solo mostly with quests. No need to buy weapons or armor because the drops and quest rewards are better than what you can buy. Money is not a problem if you regularly sell your inventory of drop and quest items you don’t need. At level 40 you can buy a horse and do everything from horseback but fight. Having a mount improves on a rather crude travel system that is a far cry from, say, Guild Wars or Oblivion travel. But unlike Lineage II, for example, AoC travel is free.

   I find the game to be a blast with friendly and mature players. The guild I joined was new but can still find fellow guild members in the more populated areas. In some of the more distant areas I’m lucky to run across more than a couple of players. There are always plenty of mobs, however.

   If you’ve been spoiled by fancy Lineage II armor or the wide selection of colorful Guild Wars armor you may find the rather dull AoC armor lacking. All the player characters look like real people as well as the NPCs. No pointed elf ears or cartoonish looks. The graphics are outstanding. The music is tops.

   This game is definitely worth a try.

   January 21, 2010, 5:02 am

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