Age of Conan - Hyborian Adventures (U.S. Version) reviews

Great game amazing graphics, a small amount of bugs in the game but that’s to be expected with a new release. Very mature game , not made for the kids that’s for sure, blood splatters on the screen for the fatality hits is always fun. A different combat system that relies on skill over having the best gear, and an Oceanic server for us NZ’ers allows us to have a low Ping, Gwahlur for those who want to join its seems there’s always people around.

Age of Conan was shocking at release. It suffered from bad ping and an unstable client, but I must say the game has come a hell of a long way. It's combat is satisfying and unique for an MMO, servers are extremely stable and i have a steady ping, around 300. While I haven't played too far into the game (it's my brother's so I don't play it too much) I've seen enough to recommend it to any MMO enthusiast. It's a refreshing change to the tired World of Warcraft formula. I'd also recommend Warhammer Online, that game is outrageously entertaining.

How good is this game?? No good if you want an easy point-and-click RPG, but if you want something with some challenge and want to be blown away by outstanding graphics in the process, GET THIS GAME NOW. I promise the only thing you will regret is not having a 80–100 ping like the Americans. R18 so maturity isn't lacking.

The screenshots posted here don't do this game justice – absolutely epic environment and combat. Far more visceral and exciting than WoW for sure. I'm sold. If you buy this be sure to roll on Bloodspire with the rest of us New Zealanders!

Waiting for the male, real excited its almost here! Courier comes, YAY, stick the discs in…hour later.....half an hour later, next disc.....hour later, disc 1 back in, now to kick some ass.....OK 5mb update thats ok…12mb…632MB??? ON LAUNCH??? Fine, I'll leave it to download while I'm at work, then finally, after all that wait…maintenance, OH COME ON, apart from all the waiting, the launch day patches and the instant maintenance this game is pretty fun, the multi directional choice of attack is an interesting addition which makes you think a bit more than just click on a character and wait for him to fall, a bit disappointed about the Killer Rhino, I bought the Special Edition and it doesn't seem to be working (I get it at level 40 I know but theres suppose to be a belt to use before level 40 that won't appear, the ring and cape I have), the start seemed a bit easy, taking on a mini-boss, his 2 panthers and a minion seemed a bit easy but after that it started getting harder, leveling to begin with is easy but apparently its almost impossible once you get to 40 or 60 (I forgot which but pretty positive it was 60), all in all I think this IS better than WoW, I would prefer this to WoW, but only time can tell if it will truly be better.

Reviewed up to level twenty.

It's hard not to love an adventure role playing game like this. I love these kinds of games so much I can put up with a lot. But this game has just ground me down.

First off I should say I'm not familiar with MMOs. This is my very first one so I've nothing to compare it to. It may be that the things I like and dislike about it are common to MMOs, so take it with a pinch of salt.

When I first started playing I was really pleased. I have a fairly old computer but thanks to the highly customisable engine I managed to get it running fairly well with shadows and grass off and some affects toned down. Even then it's a nice game too look at (even if there's no difference between well lit and dark areas and the nights are nearly as bright as the days). Also, the HUD and user interface is very customisable so you can (thankfully) turn off all the target highlights and damage floaters and crap like that.

I started out on the beach, exploring, killing a few crocodiles and talking to the two characters there and generally being quite impressed by it all, and soon eagerly set off on the first quest. It's here my opinion of the game plummeted as it turned into a tedious grind. There are enemies every few feet. Literally. You just hack your way through one after the other after the other. They made no effort at all to try and space them out in such a way that keeps the action flowing but doesn't get boring and loses suspense. It's kill a few enemies, run a few feet, kill a few enemies, run a few feet, kill some more enemies ect.

I almost gave up here but I held out until I reached the first settlement, the city of Tortage, and things improved… somewhat. Here's one of the main things I like about the game; the quests. There're tons and tons of quests to do. A seemingly endless supply of them. I really can't get over just how many there are. I love quests no matter how basic, which is good because most are simple bring it/kill it jobs, but that's fine with me. Usually. Even I, a self proclaimed quest-a-holic eventually get a bit bored with the collect thirty crocodile skins, or twenty snake venom glands or whatever, but the characters are good and often have little back stories to tell which helps make the quest more interesting. The main story quests are better so I would be prepared to stick it out. But I'm just SO SICK of the endless grind of the combat. Not to mention the respawn. That's the other serious issue, how ludicrously quickly the monsters respawn. I know things have to respawn because other players are doing the same quests I am, but sheesh… it's literally seconds! You haven't even finished fighting them when they start to respawn. Let's say you take a quest to kill some pirates and pick up some gems from their corpses. You head to where they are, kill them and start to loot their corpses, but before you finish they respawn and you have to kill them all again. You can easily find yourself being stuck there… killing the stupid things over and over as they respawn again and again! And if you try to run away they chase you and somehow manage to continue to do damage to you even though they're literally meters away! I was running away from a pirate and turned the camera around so I could see how far back he was, and I could see him swinging his knife and hitting me… and he was about six meters away from me! WTF?! Plus the fact that as you flee you'll just run into more monsters and end up with them chasing you as well. You can quickly have a small army chasing you, all easily hitting you again and again no matter how fast you're running. So in short if you run you die.

I literally got sick of doing quests because of all this. As hard as that is for me to believe, I ended up ignoring people when I knew they had a new quest because I just couldn't face the complete and utter tedium of the combat that was sure to be involved. I also find myself actually not wanting to explore. Normally, give me a large open area to explore and I'll happily spend hours poking my nose into every corner and looking under ever rock. But the endless grind of the combat and the frequent respawn discourages me, and I find I just want to finish the quest and get out of there before I have to kill another hoard of damn crocodiles or gorillas or whatever.

The game looks and feels as good as you'd expect in a modern big budget game. I like the look and feel, which is so important to me. The animations are good for the most part (though my character runs as if she's suffering from some sort of affliction). Voice acting is good and the dialog is well written, and very importantly the language sounds appropriate to the setting, which I find makes a huge difference to immersion. I can't stand games with a medieval or fantasy setting and people are using modern language or speaking with broad American accents. I'm actually quite impressed with the dialog. Quest givers offer a bit of a back story and you even have options on the tone of your reply (helpful or snarky, sympathetic or indifferent). You feel you're having an actual conversation with the person.

The monsters are cool, some of the landscapes are gorgeous, the music's fine and all that. I love the design of some of the clothes and armour, but weapons, particularly bows, look oversized.

There is definitely a lot to like about this game. In fact, it's quite tragic because I can see how good it could be if not for the combat and respawn issues. And it's possible I'm not being fair because like I said, this just might be what MMOs are like. But it's such a shame because this kind of game would be sheer bliss to me. Bliss. And I really want to like it, but I just can't stand the utterly tedious grind that the combat becomes. Though I will probably stick it out to the end of my trial period, I won't be subscribing for another month.

Tip: If you don't know what server to choose, and you're into role playing and not PVP, I can recommend Gwahlur (Oceanic) as a role play friendly server with not too many other players.

Great hype about it.

failed to live up to it

Game started out well but has turned into a boring grind. Not many quests past 70, in fact i've been grinding the same 3 areas from lvl 74 to 78 (around 5 million xp of the same mobs! YAWN) . Some of the graphics are way cool, i.e. thunder river, atzels, conalls etc but after 70 there is no reason to go to these areas and you are in stuck in boring old khesh. Americans are playing 80–90 ms lag, i'm lucky to get 300, most nights around 400ms, doesn't help the pvp. Economy is stuffed, the interesting stuff is extremely expensive (war horse 150G – at 79 i have 24G, better of than most) and you can't finish crafting unless you belong to a tier 3 city guild, which even the large guilds are struggling to build. Funcom has entirely failed to update as they said…trying to hang in to get to 80 then giving it a rest for a while. Have a good think before buying this game, it may improve but don't count on funcom to do so any time soon.

The game started off ok, a little rough round the edges which Funcom steadily patched, no problem there. BUT then they start to go on continually about game rebalancing etc etc. The short version is that they start nerfing everything and everyone on a regular basis, and quite frankly it's really, really, REALLY annoying. I did love this game, our guild is good and doing well, the mechanics, graphics and concept etc are sound, the only problem I now have with it all, is what Funcom continually does to it. I congratulate Funcom on their ability to destroy their own player base, well done! I give AoC an average rating due to the fact I'm still getting enjoyment from it, soley due to the people I muck round with online and the shear effort our guild has put into the game.

Been playing since release, and it plays like a beta…terrible. Graphics looks nice, but after an hour of game play, the memory leak becomes apparent and things start looking ugly, then expect a client crash to follow. The early levels are great fun, but you soon run out of things to do come level 60, and once you hit lvl 70, the game turns into a grind…very boring. The combat system was fun until they nerf'd it a few patches back, why they decided to slow down attack speed for 1H melee is beyond me, it now takes my guardian forever and a day to land a combo on a mob. I find class balance incomplete, casters are defiantly over-power, the PvP system is still not in the game, nor DirectX 10. As for Oceania Servers (low ping) no such thing sorry, only Oceania RECOMMENDED servers, this is not a bad thing as I get good ping on my standard ADSL connection (200–400MS), only problem is the server tends to spike to 4k-10k then drops you randomly, known fault. I would recommend heading over to the AoC forums and take a read, people arent simply venting hate, the game is in a sad state. I am very disappointed with my purchase, I believe Funcom should have delayed the release as the game feels massively incomplete, why pay money to play a beta. I might come back to the game after 6 month or so, I suggest anyone considering this game wait also.

Graphic is impressive, so i give 1star. all else, it's a junk. Maybe in another 6months of time, with all the patches and promised features come out, it will be worth playing, but there's no way i'll be paying for another month. They should've delayed the release and made the game more complete.

This isn't a review it's more like a heads up. I bought the game because I'd heard you can play it up to level twenty offline. And since I didn't know how well it would run on my computer (but I assumed badly), and since I'm new to MMOs and didn't know if I'd enjoy one, I figured I could try it out without going through the hassle of updating and creating an account. Well, you can't. You can only play online. Ok, it is an MMO after all. But I gave up when I started to update it and saw it was at least two gigs to patch. I don't know if that's a lot for online games or not, but I only get five gigs a month.

According to the box you get 30 days free play, and a seven day guest pass for a friend, so that's a plus. But I can't tell you any more about the game, sorry.

I'm disappointed I won't be able to play it though. It looked good.

I have to admit I have been following this games development for some time, and when the game was released, many were disappointed, and those that just bought the game confused. But Funcom has been doing great things in terms of client optimization, as of recent, most memory leaks have been patched (that's a big achievement), and most other bugs are being ironed out. The game is epic in the sense that each zone looks like actual effort was put into it, if you have read the book, the game will feel more alive. Although it is recommended you play this game in medium to high in settings, otherwise its not worth it. Many new things are already being added, new areas and zones, armors look completely amazing, and the PvP is unmatched. Technically, this game is amazing, and soon to have DX10 features including HDR, now that's something to look froward to.

Oh the ganking… why did i choose a pvp server again?> lol.. I found the updates downloaded very quickly, but this mmo just doesnt grab me the way WOW did, when i first played wow i was addicted in the first 10 minutes, but im struggling to get into conan, might get better with more updates im not sure, also you need a mean machine to play this with nice framerates.

Fantastic game, on it's way to being the best MMO to date. Spectacular graphics, even though the directx 10 version will only be released in August 2008. Nine great classes. Huge world. Encaptivating sto­ry.

There are many bugs, but this is the case with every MMO so soon after release, they will undoubtably iron these out.

Ignore comments from other reviewers below such as “The first 20 levels in fact seem to be built to remove the need for player to play interaction, removing what i believe to be an essential part of any MMO from the gameplay.” This is completely incorrect. The game is brilliant in the sense that you can skip the single player missions completely and there are plenty of multiplayer missions to complete instead. It's your choice.

You will not be disappointed, this game (although very different) is much better than the current leader, World of Warcraft. The combat system is second to none. The added violence and adult themes make this game more suited to the older gamer, rather than the family game that is Warcraft.

Or roll on Cimmeria the RP-PvP server which has a strong Aussie and NZ player base.

Beta tested this game for the last 6 months and now into Live, while this game has a different take than other MMO's I feel it gives it that something extra that alot of gamers are after.

Yes there can be alot of solo play up to level 20, but you can also choose not to do the solo leveling aspect and level in the mainstream area.

But don't be fooled, this game while it has extensive PvE content is heavily focused on open PvP on the non PvE servers. If you make your character on a RP-PvP or PvP server be prepared for a heavy PvP orientated gameplay.

The visuals are excellent and even with a modest spec'd computer this still looks great. The gameplay is superb, the customer support is good and getting better and better as the weeks go on.

Don't be fooled that this is a new mmo and has little experience, it was developed by Funcom, the developers of Anarchy Online an MMORPG 7 years in the running now and still going strong. The future content just listed is extensive and a great look ahead for what looks to be a packed month of updates, additions and fixes. and it can only get bigger and better.

So like any game, give it ago, try it out for 30days and if you dont like it, dont play it. But if your looking for a new experience in gameplay and adventure then pick it up and delve into the exciting world of Hyboria and by Crom let the heads start rolling.

The game on first glance seemed to me to have all the makings of one of the great MMORPG's of the next 4 years. While this seemed to be true with gameplay, within the first 15 levels i found the hype and the content lacking and leaving me wanting more social interaction from the player base. Out of the Hundreds of people on the very over crowded and laggy servers, it struck me that only a handful of these were willing to participate in groups. The first 20 levels in fact seem to be built to remove the need for player to play interaction, removing what i believe to be an essential part of any MMO from the gameplay. And although the graphic and the combat system were superb the emphasis on PVP interaction instead of a healthy balance of RP and PVP made me loose interest once i reached lvl 20. This game will be perfect for the player who desire nothing more than a heavily PVP oriented game, with little social interaction, crafting or side quest activity. Hopefully future updates can remedy some of its downfalls, as countless friends and i have already returned this game to the place of purchase, as i'm sure many hundreds out there will.

Yup. Lots of patches etc. But at least the patch download flew at 120kb/s so it only took an hour to download. Then maintenance exactly on the time my patching finished. But one thing to remember is that we got the game AFTER the official launch (20th).

As for the game, combat is far more exciting compared to WoW's “click and forget” philosophy. This game incorporates the idea of directional damage and defence. So combat is not ENTIRELY dependent upon who has more bling blings. The content is far more…mature… than the likes of WoW. I've seen a fatality taunt in that game that really lends itself to be at least R16.

The FPS with AMD core 2 duo 2.4ghz, 2GB ram and Geforce 8800GTX remained pretty much stable at 60 with stable latency of around 280 (broadband).

This game only needs to be polished more and only time will tell if this game would get it.