Good for a Month
I beta tested the game through FilePlanet and was mildly impressed with some of the features, such as fatalities and the graphics (when the beta wasn't crashing on me). I ended up buying the game with a few friends since I figured the game would end up just being fun with a few glitches at first. After a few weeks, I put in a request to cancel my account. There just wasn't anything new and exciting I hadn't already played in other MMOs, such as World of Warcraft or EverQuest. It's been around 6 months since I've touched the game, so I decided to give it another shot so here's an updated review of Age of Conan.
Anyone who hates grinding will probably enjoy the power-leveling you can frequently see spammed in the global chat. I'm not really against power-leveling like some, so this isn't a big issue for me. However, if you don't want to do that, expect to do a lot of grinding. Most of the quest are very similar to other MMOs, such as kill X amount of creatures and bring back X amount of pelts. The quest do give you a lot of experience and you'll probably gain a level just turning in quest to a town at lower levels. This game really isn't based on solo as much so a lot of quest you get even at the beginning are group quest. Frankly, I would rather solo for 80% of the game than quest with people. One of the main reasons I got this game was for it's PvP, which I use the Bender approach of "Kill all humans". So grouping isn't really that fun to me, unless I can PvP them when we get to the boss. Yes, I'm a jerk. But you need bad guys in a universe to complete it.
The PvP is where most people probably jumped into this game. This game does feature some really fun PvP, however, there's just so much wrong with it at the same time. Especially at low levels. Most other MMOs I've played, if you PvP in certain areas, the town's people or guards will come out and beat murderers down. Not in Age of Conan, at least in most areas. One thing that turned off at least 2 of my friends was spawn camping. There's a set spawn point and in some of the lower areas, everything just camps them. So you'll spawn and unless you high-tail it out of the area, you're screwed. Sometimes you'll even see level 30/40s in a level 20 area just spawn camping. A simple solution would be for Funcom to just add some high level guards around the spawn areas so people can at least leave and begin to have fun. I remember some of these areas and if I wasn't able to hide, I would have never been able to play and would have called it quits day one.
One thing I was letdown on in the PvP is loot drops. Some PvP games (Shadowbane, for example) offered a hardcore PvP option to make good use of your bank. When you were slayed in battle, you literally lost all the loot in your inventory. This option really should be available in any MMO since there's really no point to PvP in a game unless you can rob their graves. I kept hearing hardcore PvP whenever I heard anything about this game. It's fun, it really is, but it's pointless. There's free multiplayer games that have swordplay and you can show off your sword skills. Such games as Rune. It's old but it still does the trick, and has enough unscripted gore to keep you coming back for more.
As I mentioned, there were tons of crashes using Windows Vista with a Direct X 10 video card. Also, there were tons of slowdowns. They've really patched up the game and have made it run silky smooth (for the most part) with everything on high. The sounds are really good, but what sucks is only 1/8th of the quest givers have voices. Anyone familiar with Everquest and the 2GB download for voices know it is possible to read you off all the quest. I really don't care about the Age of Conan story mainly because of the lack of voice acting. It really makes it feel generic, even when they do bother to voice act.
There is a single player portion of the game, and it's a little more exciting than the normal grind. I actually would rather just play the single player until I hit level 60, but since I have no idea where to go to finish the single player after I left, so I'm going to have to push some grind.
Overall, you have to really think about the purchase. I enjoy the game for what it is, but it's hard to justify $15 a month for something I've been doing the same (and more of) in World of Warcraft. Ultimately, I'd say anyone who has a World of Warcraft account will find nothing new or exciting in this game other than a new world and gore. If you haven't tried World of Warcraft and want something less 'cartoony', go with Age of Conan. You'll have a lot of fun if you've never experienced something like World of Warcraft or EverQuest. And if you want something that's more open than you can handle, try out Sony's Vanguard. It's not the best looking game, but there's a ton of really unique ideas and features.
Verdict: Skip, for now
