Age of Conan (PC) Preview

Posted by Rod Oracheski on 06.05.2008

First Impressions: A pair of 411 writers tackle the land of Conan for a week and come away with some initial impressions of Funcom's latest MMO - Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures.

The massively multiplayer online game (MMOG) is a tough category for reviewers. These are massive - as the name denotes - games that take years to create and populate, with game design that's aimed at keeping you playing for hundreds of hours.

To even consider reviewing one is a daunting task, so here at 411mania we're throwing two people at the job: Rod Oracheski and Chris Vicari.

However, even with two people on the job, it didn't feel right to try and do a formal review of Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures after only playing the retail client for a few days. Instead we're offering up our initial impressions, a quick look at what the game offers and how it's faring through the oft-rocky launch period of an MMOG.

For the purposes of the first impressions, Chris and I agreed to try and stick to only a class or two so we could see past the first few levels. He went with the Rogue archetype (the game has four basic types: Soldier, Rogue, Priest, and Mage, each containing three classes) - taking an Assassin to level 26.

For my part I hit the 20's with a pair of classes, a Bear Shaman (Priest archetype) and another class from the Rogue archetype - the Barbarian. Given the different classes we played, it's probably not surprising that Chris and I had different experiences through the game's introductory levels.

Rod: I had a great deal of fun with the Barbarian, a solid class for those who want to concentrate more on offense than defense. The class started out fairly strong, and kept gaining power as I leveled. As I figured out the combat system, using combos instead of spamming attacks, for example, I really started to have fun playing. It never really felt like I hit a plateau through the early levels, something that happened with my Bear Shaman.

Healing classes can be difficult to play as in a solo capacity, but that's not really a concern in Age of Conan. Even the healing classes here can dish out some decent damage, and there's no 'sit in the back and hit a hotkey' gameplay here.

That said, I found myself struggling once I hit level 12 or so, with those struggles continuing through until 17 or 18. Once I hit 20, however, the class really seemed to gain power. Checking the Age of Conan forums, it seems to be a fairly common experience with a number of classes - so stick with it if you get frustrated early on. From 10-15 you might think your class is the worst in the game, but after 20 you'll probably find it gains power and you start to really "get" what it's about.

Chris: The "uniqueness" of the combat wore off, and I felt like I was button mashing. Assassin's attack faster, due to using daggers, and the combos only added a small additional level of depth.

The quests were the same old MMO flair - FedEX, kill, kill, kill, etc... Quests often sent you to new areas just as you were exploring the initial area. While the areas did open up after the initial 20 levels, it was nothing new.

Rod: I have to say that no matter what class you play, the combat is more fun and engaging than in any other MMO - with the possible exception of Asheron's Call. It's not going to equal the combat in an action game, but for the MMO market it's probably as close to God of War as we're going to see any time soon.

Chris: For the type of game that it is, yeah it probably yields the best combat out there.

Rod: What machine do you have? What'd you run it at and how does it run?

Chris: I have an Intel Core 2 Extreme Q6850 and an 8800 GTS. I ran it at max settings. The graphics were nice, with no graphics problems witnessed. It ran quite smooth.

Rod: I have a Q6600 with a pair of 8800 GT in SLI. The game looks amazing at max settings, and runs very well. I used some custom configuration tweaks found on the official forums and was just very impressed with how the game looks and runs.

That said, I was a little disappointed to find that it doesn't support SLI, so that hugely expensive second video card is worthless, and the DX10 client isn't up and running.

Chris: Yeah, I was a bit miffed but I only have XP and can't take advantage of DX10 anyway. Perhaps they'll add support for it in the future, one can hope.

Rod: DX10 is supposed to be in August. SLI? No word on it. I have to hand it to them though, they're patching at an insane rate.

Chris: Yeah they definitely are. They are doing much better than Anarchy Online did. They're playing their cards well, doing all the right stuff.

Chris: The one thing that Age of Conan lacks though, is other stuff to do besides impaling people - although that is quite fun.

Rod: There's a laundry list of that 'extra' stuff that needs to be fixed up pretty quickly. Crafting at 40 - fairly broken at this point. Traders...are they working again? Battlekeeps...unknown. Itemization is bad - not as bad as Dark Age of Camelot was at launch, where entire dungeons had no loot in them, but it's still really lacking.

Chris: Most of the core game is polished, but now they have to work on the other stuff like, as you said, crafting, itemization, etc... If they take too long, players will inevitably drop.

Rod: I'm not very impressed by the item drops at this point. I wish they'd take Asheron's Call's random loot system. The way things work right now, the loot you get 'in the field' is worthless vendor trash. Maybe I've just been unlucky, but it really doesn't feel like it.

Chris: I didn't find a single thing worth wearing. All of my gear was from quests.

Rod: I've heard they're bumping up the blue drop rate on non-instanced stuff - outdoor boss mobs will drop blues.

Chris: It'll help, but that's just a bandaid.

Rod: That's the thing, I've found items off higher-level mobs...and a quest item from 10 levels ago is better. The loot just has to get better. Right now there's nothing driving you to kill mobs in the wild.

I have to say though, that I did like having skills that I could put points into. I was disappointed to see no customization on other fronts, but at least you can customize a bit even if you're usually constrained to putting points into Hide so you can sneak up on things.

Chris: Climbing was one of the things that miffed me. The points for Hide would only really work at night.

Rod: Yeah, it seems pretty hit and miss as to what works, and how.

Rod: That's one of the nice things about an MMO launch, figuring out how things work, but there are some basic things here that aren't covered anywhere. The difference between Strength and Dexterity as they apply to melee classes, for example, or boosts from items and how that's applied.

I'm a Barbarian, for example. Do I want Strength or Dexterity, or does it even matter at this point? At launch you don't necessarily know the formulas behind everything, you can't min/max your item selection, but you should have a general idea what's better for your class or the way you play. In Age of Conan, right now you don't - going by the official forums and website at least. You shouldn't have to hit a fansite to find out the basics.

Chris: Definitely. Explanation would be helpful. At least in World of Warcraft it told you how each stat benefits you.

Rod: My only real reservation about the game at this point is that leveling is going quickly...very quickly. A friend who got into early access is, though playing at a fairly sedate pace, already in his 50's. He's running into a real lack of content that's apparently not in the cards any time soon.

You just don't expect the 'endgame' of an MMO to be fleshed out at launch - but you're not supposed to hit those 'endgame' levels in the first month. I see a large mass of players heading into those levels...and where's that content?

Chris: That's the big issue.

Rod: Would I recommend Age of Conan? If you have the machine to run it, sure. The early days of an MMO can offer up the most fun, after all, and the combat offers up something new. If you're a Conan fan, it's a no-brainer.

Chris: Well if you were a fan of WoW, definitely check it out but when you couple the fact that it lacks midlevel and endgame content with how fast people can level, they may wind up without something to do.

I'd say to wait a little bit but since it's Age of Conan and it has massive hype, people probably won't. If you're a fan of sandbox type MMOs like EVE online, UO etc. then I wouldn't recommend it.

Screenshots
All 8 Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures Screenshots