Age Of Conan: Two Week Reivew

My free two weeks of Age of Conan was over last night. After I logged in, I received an email stating that my account was now frozen (even though I was in game...) and that it was time to decide whether to pay up or get out. So I thought "what better way to decide if I want to pay for AoC again than to write down my thoughts on the game." And, being the dutiful blogger that I am, I decided to share that process with my loverly readers. Will I stick with Age of Conan for a month more, or will politely uninstall the client and go back to World of Warcraft or some other familiar territory? Read on below to find out!

Combat

The combat is fast and involved. There's definitely no auto-attack and certainly no AFK grinding involved in AoC, and I like that a lot. The directional combat system, while interesting, can be frustrating but it does add a bit more to the mix. Combos provide something different as well that we aren't seeing in other games. No longer can you just hit an ability and expect a reaction, you have to follow up with specific attacks in order, and you have to plan those attacks for maximum impact with regard to the directional shield of your enemy. The bad news here is that the intangible feel is off at times. Casters "feel" odd. Some combo attacks do not "feel" very good either, although they deliver the desired effect.

Graphics/Looks

The game looks sharp. I'm able to run the game in "High" settings and in windowed mode and still get a sharp, clear picture of the world. Admittedly, it takes a few moments too long to zone into areas for my taste, and even then it may take a bit longer for NPCs to load correctly. That's annoying, and likely means that if I start into large scale PvP, I'll probably have to turn my settings down to survive. The look and feel of the environments are top notch though and I have nothing to complain about in that regard. Character models are very well done and pretty customizable, and even armor options look good. I haven't particularly run into many clown costumes yet, unless you count the loincloth's of the beginning zones.

Leveling

Leveling is pretty quick. On some occasions, I'm able to gain two levels just from turning in a group of quests! That worries me in a sense and makes me happy in another. Sure, I'm lower level and I expect to level fairly quickly at this point, but others have said that doesn't particularly change much at later levels. Progression is nice though. Skill points that can be spread amongst differing skills like Hide and Skulk are acquired in bulk, and new abilities and combos are available immediately upon leveling. No interrupting your game play to run back to a trainer in this game.

Story/Lore

I've never been a big fan of the Conan Universe or the story involved in it. I've never given it much of a chance, to be honest, so coming into AoC I'm a little blind to the background setting. I'm familiar with the concept and the races and whatnot (as much as the 80's movies allows me to be), but from there I'm ignorant. However, the interactions I've had thus far in game have given me plenty to consider. The story that has been presented to me is intriguing, and I'm interested in seeing where it takes me.

"Mature" Content

I'm really torn here. I truly enjoy the truthfully mature themes of the game, such as politics and moral dilemmas. I even enjoy the world being presented in a grittier manner with prostitutes roaming the game world, rapists that need to be killed, and true poverty seeping through people. Those are concepts I'm happy to explore in a game world. I'm not sure I enjoy the gratuitous "maturity" of the game however. Blood and gore is OK, but does it need to splatter all over my UI? Bare chested women are a bit unnecessary, particularly when men are hardly proportionate when unclothed (Ken doll affect). And the lack of LGBT inclusion thus far seems arbitrarily left out, and when added to a few of the other "mature" items the game offers, makes the world feel more like a teenage straight male's fantasy than a truly Mature game world.

PvP

I've not been able to explore this much with my Assassin, but I was really enjoying the mechanics of PvP with my Ranger, and I have a feeling I'll likely enjoy them with my Assassin (even if he can only take a total of 3 hits…). While I've enjoyed this low level, solo PvP content, I'm really looking forward to larger-scale encounters as well as small group encounters. The mini games sound fun as well. It is clear that the developers wanted PvP to be a significant piece of AoC's puzzle without being all that was offered, and so far as I've experienced, they are succeeding.

PvE

I got to be honest and say PvE is a little easy. My Ranger can take on multiple mobs at once without really sweating. My Assassin can drop a mob with one stealth attack plus a quick combo, although his multiple mob skills are lacking. But in any case, I haven't felt particularly challenged by the PvE encounters I've had so far. I'm very interested to see group dungeon content as well as raid content to see how those fare, but I'm worried at this point that PvE will be just like World of Warcraft: easy mode until end-game raids.

Community

Global chat is terrible. Undeniably horrendous. Not just on the PvP server. The RPPvP server is just as bad, and the PvE worlds don't appear to be much better. Luckily, that seems to be just the Global chat. I've not stepped into an area where people are non-stop ganking (as of yet) and I've not been somewhere where people are camping mob spawns to the exclusion of you getting anything done that you need. I haven't found a guild just yet either, mainly because I figured it would be a bad idea to do so while still not sure whether I wanted to play the game for an extended period of time, but I have found a couple LGBT-friendly guilds online. Not sure if they're active still though.

Conclusion

While I did not make it out of Tortage like I had planned to do, I still had a lot of fun with Age of Conan. The main reason I failed to get off of Tortage is because I decided to try the Assassin, and one of the reasons I decided to do that was because one of the LGBT guilds I though I might apply to was on a different server. However, I've really been enjoying my experience with AoC. I haven't had a single out-right moment of frustration with the game, like I do/did with Warhammer Online and WoW. It also appears there's a very nice balance, both with "polish" and with importance, between PvP and PvE, unlike WAR, WoW and LotRO. Plus, my toon is pretty hawt, which is always a good thing. And I made sure he had some junk in the trunk, like my WAR toon.

So, that leaves me with the ultimate question: Do I stick around for another month, or do I bail on Funcom's creation? When I first played Age of Conan, I hated it. Everything about it seemed busted and I just didn't enjoy the feel. I suppose that's likely why they extended this two week offer to former subscribers though. It gave me a chance to come back and see what's changed in the game world. Which is a lot. And a lot of good, from what I've seen. Ultimately, it comes down to this: Am I having fun in Hyborea? The answer is a resounding Yes. And if I'm having fun in the game, that leads me to say that I will absolutely re-up my subscription for another month.