Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures

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Editorial reviews

Amazon.com
Based on the events and characters of Robert E. Howard's Conan the Cimmerian stories, Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures is a fantasy themed massively-multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) that immerses players in a dark, expansive universe filled with ground-breaking brutal combat, dangerously intoxicating magical abilities, and the social and cooperative game features that MMORPG players crave.

The MMORPG finally matures

A troubled King Conan on his throne. View larger.

Test your metal in close combat. View larger.

Straddle War Mammoths & Killer Rhinos. View larger.

Lead your guild in player vs. player battles. View larger.

Explore the pleasures & pitfalls of the Hyborian Age. View larger.

Set in the later years of Conan’s life, after he has famously become king by his own hand, the game centers around the fragile state of Conan’s rule in Aquilonia. Surrounded by enemies and hostile nations, Conan’s rule hangs by a thread and in the end, it’s up to players, either singly or backed by their guilds to turn the tide for or against the embattled king.

Massively Multiplayer Gaming for the Adult Player
One of the most highly anticipated MMORPGs in recent years due to the strength and familiarity of the Conan franchise across a variety of major media, Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures is the first of several releases planned for the franchise, all of which are aimed at an adult audience. Firmly rooted in the savage, bloody, violent and sexy Hyborian universe, players can expect a graphically beautiful game blended with gritty gameplay that is true to both the barbarian hero from Howard’s writings and the Schwarzenegger influenced version from books, movies and comics.

Available Cultures and Classes
Although Age of Conan contains a wide range of peoples, its playable cultures are currently limited to Aquilonians, Cimmerians, and Stygians. Within each of these players can choose from a selection of archetypal character classes, although available classes and subsequent subclasses are not necessarily the same within each culture. For example, archetypal classes for Aquilonians and Cimmerians are Rogue, Priest and Soldier, while Stygians are represented by Rogue, Priest and Mage. Further differences exist within subclasses for each. See the basic breakdown of all three cultures below:

Aquilonians: Internally divided, but united against their barbarian neighbors, the Aquilonians live lives on the edge. Their kingdom, with its prosperous cities, enlightened culture and religious freedom, is known as the "Flower of the West." Yet for all this and despite the power of King, Conan I, it is a land where culture clashes and unrest are always a threat.

Cimmerians: As the Hyborian Age comes to an end the northern barbarian clans of the Cimmerians know that the end of their time is drawing near too. King Conan I of Aquilonia is himself a Cimmerian, though not typical of his people. Although his life has been filled with wanderlust, his Kin care nothing for what occurs outside their clan territories.

Stygians: Masters of the magical arts and ruled by their consuming worship of the serpent-god Set, the Stygians excel at occult and diabolic lore. They learned long ago that true power lies in knowledge and in pacts with dark powers. This single-mindedness has allowed them become the only culture to harness the secrets of the Mage class and power that comes with it.

Modes Singleplayer as well as Multiplayer
Unlike most MMORPGs, Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures includes a significant singleplayer experience as well as deep overarching multiplayer gameplay. This is an atypical MMORPG feature, but one that has a purpose. Players enter the game as a lowly galley slave with no memory of his/her past, and over the first five to 20 levels of singleplayer action build the skills necessary to survive in the game's multiplayer levels. During this time you will traverse a variety of rich environments including jungles, deserts, mountains, valleys, dungeons and cities packed with NPCs, beasts and monsters, before eventually leveling up and moving back to your chosen culture’s homeland. Because the only character-related choices that players have to make at the game’s opening are their looks, clothing and culture, this singleplayer mode is important in deciding what class and subclass to pursue and thus the level of impact your character will have in greater multiplayer portions of the game.

In-game levels 20 and above are strictly multiplayer. 20-40 introduce players to guilds. 40-60 deal with large scale combat. 60-80 have the player interacting with King Conan and levels 80 and up represent end-game play. Here gameplay changes as social aspects of MMORPG gameplay take over on a large scale.

Real-time Combat That Takes Queues from the FPS
Traditionally MMORPGs have utilized a mix of auto and turn-based functionality in their combat systems, but Age of Conan dispenses with that, instead drawing inspiration from FPS/action games. Firmly rooted in the brutality of the Hyborian universe, game developer Funcom has devised an action-based system that not only provides the sense of actually being in the fight, but also requires the player to participate in it. That means no simple targeted attacks. Players can attack and defend from nearly any position in real-time, whether on the ground or atop a mount, while standing still or on the move. It’s a recipe for carnage and one that fits right into the world of Conan.

The combat system in Age of Conan comes in three forms: drunken brawling, mini games like CTF and massive Player vs. Player battles, which lets you engage in siege combat to defend or attack a city. All are easy to learn, but difficult to master, providing hours worth of play and replay value and are the core of this new cutting edge MMORPG.

System Requirements:

	Minimum Specifications:	Recommended Specifications:
OS:	Windows XP Service Pack 2 or Windows Vista
Processor:	Intel Pentium 4 3Ghz or equivalent	Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4GHz or equivalent
RAM:	1GB	2048MB Dual Channel DDR2
Video Card:	NVIDIA GeForce 6600 or better	NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GTX or equivalent
Video Memory:	128MB	512MB
DVD-ROM:	Quad-speed (4x) DVD-ROM drive
Hard Drive Space:	30GB of Free Space
Other:	Broadband connection required for online gameplay

 

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Customer reviews

review by: date: 2008-11-30 rating:
One of the better ones, if your patient.
I just purchased this game the other day after a few weeks of debating whether to get this one or World of Warcraft. I was a HUGE fan of the Warcraft franchise up to World of Warcraft, and I think that what has turned me away from it is all of the children that you had to deal with in that game (I've played the trial a few times).

Now, on to Age of Conan.

I have read many reviews on here, some helpful, most not. It seems that most of the people that complain about it are doing so because it is not World of Warcraft (I remember all FPS's being compaired to Halflife and Halflife 2 for a while). Or, people giving bad reviews because their computer wasn't good enough to play it (as if that is the games fault, perhaps they should have read the system requirements before purchasing). So, after weeding out the bad reviews that weren't reviews, but people just slamming a game they had no intention of playing, I decided to give it a try.

The price has dropped to thirty-nine dollars and you get the first month free. I figure I can get at least thirty-nine dollars worth of play in thirty days. So, I purchased the game. After installing I sat back and waited for the 1.26 gigabyte patch to download.

If you can handle the patch, and if your system can handle the game, I would suggest giving it a try. I had a problem after patching, the game wouldn't run. It was telling me that there was a problem with my version of DirectX. When I went to the windows site to download it wouldn't install *sigh*. At this point I was starting to think that maybe the bad reviews were right, but, I contacted the tech support people for AOC via email and told them the problem I was having. The next morning I was greeted with a return email with two links (the second in case the first one didn't work) to download the DirectX file I needed. And guess what...it worked.

I enjoyed the first Conan movie, but, never read any of the books (something I plan on doing now) but, even with that little bit of knowledge of the Conan universe I was very impressed with this game. The mature rating will (I hope) keep the kids out of the game, and the game play is fantastic. I am playing this game on a Toshiba laptop and having no problems at all.

This type of game is not going to be for everyone, but, if you enjoy fantasy, and a well thought out game with breathtaking graphics it may be for you.

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review by: date: 2008-11-28 rating:
Maybe you should try it
The problem with AoC is, that they just released it too early, which was a bad decision IMO.

However, they have already fixed many things, important things. The game runs practically flawless now. Some new awesome content has been added as well.

AoC has *key* strong points: Graphics, animations, overall appearance. Sound, music. Melee combat. If you have the hardware, this game will run smooth on it - for reference, I am playing it on a 2.66ghz Core Duo and a GTX 260 Core 216. I also played it on a 8800 GTS, and it ran quite smooth as well.

In its current state, this game doesn't deserve at all a bad review. It has been getting better and better, and Funcom is obviously improving the game further, polishing here and there, adding new content, fixing existing bugs, etc.

I play World of Warcraft as well, and I still think it's a great game. However, in the end I slightly prefer AoC because of the better graphics (although I think WoW's art is great, AoC is just too awesome to look at) and the meaner, faster combat, even when WoW is a better game overall.

Some people say it's easy, but I think any MMO is easy. MMOs are about progression and looks, about fun, about achievements, not necessarily about skills. You can easily solo in WoW to level 70 (now to 80), right? Quests are your standard ones. So is the AI.

What can I say? If you expect something like WoW, you might be quite disappointed. In some respects, AoC and WoW feel like different games, regardless of the obvious standards. By the other hand, if you have the hardware and want to try something different, you should give Age of Conan a chance.

The characters, both male and female are stunning. The world is breathtaking. The music is mesmerizing. The combat is brutal. Age of Conan isn't a perfect game and has its flaws. It still needs more content. But as I mentioned, it's getting better.

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review by: date: 2008-11-07 rating:
Age of Conan Hyborian Adventures
This was my first foray into MMORPG's. I had just built a gaming PC, so my hardware was first rate and ready to go. The graphics and animation are great. I heard that people were having problems with it, but I did not have any (well one time their server was down but nothing having to do with the PC).

I am still trying to get the hang of using the mouse with the WASD keys and keyboard to fight. I'm more of an Xbox or PS2 controller guy. But the problems were that with the kids, the only time I had to play was after 10 PM, but then I'd end up playing until 2 or 3 AM. Then having to get up at 6 AM for work took it's toll. I lasted about 2 months.

I haven't played in awhile, so I probably have to start over with my fight training. I still haven't gotten the hang of the combos. I would recommend this game because it was a lot of fun. I do have friends and coworkers who are Warhammer, WOW, and LOTR fans, but I have not tried those because I do enjoy this game.

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review by: date: 2008-10-31 rating:
A work in progress
Think I may give it another year and check back to see if the game has improved. Thought I would enjoy a change from World Of Warcraft which I have played for about two years. Be careful voting for change, one might get an unpleasant surprise as I did. This game is about par with Guild Wars which one can play without cost online after the purchase of the game. After my initial 30 days of free play ends it will be goodbye Conan, at least for now.


review by: ATCGuard date: 2008-10-22 rating:
Didn't live up to the hype
I had been hearing about this game for years through the internet and friends. I was really excited to get it and start playing. As soon as I got into the game I realized it's just another WoW clone with a gimmicky combo attack scheme, I feel that FFXI did that much better 5 years ago or so. This game is nothing new, and it seems more like a beta version, not unlike Hellgate:London

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