Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures

Review from Anna - Saturday, 04 October 2008 @ 8:42pm

I was actually kind of excited to play this game, considering I’d bought two previous copies already for other people. It meant that when I got my own, I thought I’d have something to discuss with them. Also, my disparaging opinion on the majority of MMOs games could be validated by some wider experience with them. Age of Conan was a chance for that, and boy, did it deliver.

I’m not a big fan of MMOs – most people who know me can tell you that much at least – and this was going to be an opportunity for me to finally dip my toe in and maybe give a damn about the next MMO around the corner. There are some pretty simple reasons – I’m an anti-social gamer most of the time. I like locking myself away for hours at a time with NPCs sooooo much cooler than real people. This feeling can be heightened depending on how long my shift was at work that day. There are days where the stupidity of the general public astounds me and some nice, well-adjusted NPCs carefully moulded by the hand picked writers of –oh let’s throw out there – Bioware for example, gives me back my (rather naive) belief in the general good.

An MMO will usually at some point force you to join up with other like-minded explorers which will be where the general stupidity plays in for me– it’s rare to find that helpful, quiet group that doesn’t feel the need for battle cries at every skirmish. I’m also a fan of the one woman army syndrome most people get annoyed at in games. I like being awesome – mainly because I’m quite underwhelming in RL. Age of Conan was going to be different – the first twenty levels are mostly available as a single player campaign. You do your own thing and the game follows the plot along at a decent pace.

But I hated this game a long time before then.

About a week before then.

So... know any good ghost stories?

It had taken far too long to install already but at least it was no more than an hour. Fair enough, it’s a big game. I load it up and it wants to search for the latest patch. Fair enough too. I go to make myself a pot of tea and come back.

Any game that needs 3Gb of patching should never have been released so early. I am willing to wait if it means my bandwidth will not suffer. It’s not small, but neither is it large enough to suffer multiple downloads of the same patch. The fact that there are no Australian servers didn’t help when the server overloaded, meaning the patch would time out. The patcher also doesn’t like firewalls so be aware of that too. The only good thing about it was that I reached a decent speed averaging 180kb/s relative to what I usually get. So within a few days it had blown my monthly limit and I was cruising on dialup speeds until the bill rolled over.

Hitting the new billing month meant I could dive straight into the game. Customising your character was pretty reminiscent to most games – paint a few tattoos, add a scar here or there, measure the thighs and bust. A lot of little details for the little OCD person in you to get just right.

As to all those comments made about the tits being on the large side – the slider does keep it between C and ludicrous cup but it’s pretty much in keeping with the Conan universe. From what I remember reading in the books, there wasn’t much call for less than curvaceous women to satisfy the raging lusts of the Cimmerian barbarian warlord.

To mix things up I chose to be a bear shaman. Roar. I’m not a fan of armour most of the time and never bother with it much so in exchange for some healing powers, making the class the best suited thing in the game. Other classes are similar in exchanging strengths - the usual thing, so I believe most people would find it easy to pick a class to stick with according to how they play. That said, you still have the choice of playing through with multiple characters at the one time. After that it was a matter of hack hack hack hack hack SPELL hack hack hack hack SPELL hack and the coup de grace slash when I felt like throwing in some variety with a combo.

TREBUCHET!!!

The UI is similar to WoW so most gamers will slip in easily and make it through the first several levels quickly and find themselves comfortable in the Hyborian world. Gold wasn’t a problem, and death isn’t so terrible that you particularly want to go out of you way to avoid it other than the rather unpleasant associations with the whole dying thing. The journal is a little bit more refined than most and easy to negotiate – handy when I realised I was in my first fight with little idea of how to lock onto my target. This is one example of the dangers of living life on the wild side by not reading the manual.

The graphics in this are certainly a step up from WoW in many aspects. It’s very well designed, thought out, laid out and doesn’t feel at all like an MMO geared specifically to the online world solely. This game actually delivers in making you feel independent in the game rather than one of millions running through the NPC-despatched quests. At least for the first few levels – but then, they’re designed for that and then you can dive into the more MMO specific quests and areas which are where the game really lost me. From your arrival on the beach of Hyboria to begin your adventures you’re given beautiful skies and luscious forestry, reaching your first city, you’re given the full weight of a bustling, dirty civilisation.

The NPCs you encounter are better fare than what you might normally find, particularly in the first few levels. Rather than being one liners or quest regurgitators, most will have a little bit of personality, a bit of story that helps round out the Hyborian canon. For example, early on you end up passing on love notes (if you’re feeling generous, that is) between an amorous guard and his object of affection. It’s a sweet touch and makes you care a little bit more about your role in the game.

What... is the air-speed velocity of an unladen swallow?

Pros

It succeeds in actually making you feel like an individual despite knowing that there are thousands doing the same quests. For an MMO, it has some great graphics, decent NPCs and a stronger plot than you would expect.

Cons

3gb patch before you can play, lack of an Australian server, it's another MMO you have to lose your life to.

Summary

Despite my blinkered view of MMOs, Age of Conan has it's good points but the fact that they shipped requiring a 3gb patch before playing is disappointing.