Part 2

Outside the starting zone of Tortage the difficulty does increase after the first 20 levels. Funcom has created an intuitive and great quest and map system. The system is so easy and intuitive which makes a change, it's hard to get lost which may put some people off who like to really explore. Quest givers all appear on your mini-map, and whichever quest you have selected, a yellow arrow points you on your way. The looking-for-group system is nice and thorough, but it doesn’t seem to be fully taken advantage of by the players at this point. It seems like people will need to get used to it, but it’s definitely going to be a valuable tool.

Any instanced based PVP is pretty barren at the lower levels, which brings us to the next point. PVP is fun, but can also be frustrating. It really just depends on the type of player you are. At this point there is no other gratification for PVP other than self-gratification. If you’re on a PVP server, and you’re not interested in being killed while questing, then you picked the wrong server type. On PVE servers, you can pretty much avoid it. They have a good structured black and white PVP vs. PVE server for those who fancy that route. You definitely need to decide which kind of player you are before you start because your game play will be severely hampered if you choose the wrong server type. PVP is action packed, but at this point, still slightly unbalanced even though, for a newly released title, the PvP is pretty solid and you can still get a lot from it. Future tweaking will certainly make it even better. Funcom's plans for PvP also include adding both incentives for solid players, and penalties for those that guiltlessly slaughter helpless noobs. We’ll have to wait and see how that affects the action.


Like any good MMORPG AoC includes crafting but you don’t get to start actually crafting items until level 40, at which point you’re half way through the game. This is slightly dissapointing, especially when item creation can be a important at lower levels. Also, if you’re a trader and crafting type of person, you really don’t get to experience this in its fullest early on.

One of the biggest problems at the moment is item customisation. Everyone is pretty much going to look the same, and everyone pretty much looks like a peasant until you start reaching higher levels. At level 20, I was wearing a ninja mask and flip-flops. The really weird thing about that is that I wasn’t the only assassin in a ninja mask and flip-flops, it was common. That’s really one of the major issues: your toon doesn't appear unique, and everyone is looking cookie-cutter as far as gear is concerned. Funcom has addressed this, and plans to add more item customisation which is definitely something to look forward to.

If there was one feature that makes World of Warcraft stand out from the crowd its the interface customisation through LUA. Right now Age of Conan doesn't offer nearly enough flexibility in this area, you can change the interface layout with quite a bit of work, there are some great interfaces already out there created by the community, but it needs to go a little further. Fortunately Funcom have said they are looking at this and the game customisation may well get ramped up in the future.

The last thing I’ll tackle in this review is alt-syndrome. I’m one of those alt-maniacs. If you’re an alt-maniac like me, you’re going to be downright frustrated at the fact that there is simply only one starting area which is Tortage. If you skip the main quest to free Tortage, which you can, it lessens the need to repeat the early portions of the game. In a sense, it’s really nice that they give you that option. But if you choose that route you’re left without valuable items your character will want (see: Ninja Mask and Flip-flops). So each time you create a new character, you’re going to have to go through the same story again.

There has been much talk about the system requirements and there's no getting away from it, the AoC is a beast. If you don't meet the minimum system specs then foreget it, the more powerful your PC the better. Thankfully I have been playing on a Quad-core with SLI and it's been performing superbly, but then with those kind of specs it should. One other quick thing I should mention is that game locations are astounding. This game is simply beautiful.

All in all it’s a solid game, and you’re definitely in for a good time. Age of Conan isn't a perfect MMORPG - but it's important to remember that it just launched and what MMORPG is perfect? Speaking from personal experience, very few MMOs have offered this much this soon after launch. Even the much praised World of Warcraft suffered with various flaws when it launched.

Funcom is working out a lot of the issues every new MMO faces this early on. They are dding new content, new customisation, new territories, new items, and lots more twice a week at the moment. The overall feel of AoC is true to Robert E. Howard's vision; it's a brutal, visceral world, very different from anything else out there. It's utterly unique, and that is definitely appealing. AoC may have a few flaws right now, but it's loaded with fun.

We'll more than likely revisit Age of Conan in an updated review, it's still early days for the game, but the future is looking bright for Funcom. I’ll see you in Hyboria!