Age of Conan's Second Coming
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It's hard to avoid comparisons with WOW's new Wrath of the Lich King zones when you play through Ymir's Pass. Here, too, is a northern wasteland, scarred with battle and filled with lore-heavy races and locations - Frost Giants, forces of Atzel burning and looting their way into Cimmeria, and various dodgy black magic types. Ymir's Pass sees Age of Conan wearing its "mature content" badge with pride again - not just in the form of naked breasts for the teenage contingent, but also by being downright nasty in a way most MMOs just don't do. There's screaming, blood, pain and unpleasantness, but there's also a solid narrative supported by a number of key, well-composed quest chains which put the nastiness in context.
Between Ymir's Pass, a little more work on my Destiny Quests (a character-specific quest chain which runs from the start of the game the whole way to level 80) and a handful of trips into group dungeons, I made 70 in no time: clean across the former content gap. Moreover, the whole journey was incredibly good fun - the best fun I've had in an MMORPG since I first got to rampage through the Death Knight's starting zone in WOW. But in Conan's case, the enjoyment lasted for a couple of weeks rather than a couple of hours.
Yes, I just compared Age of Conan to WOW, and favourably. Don't misunderstand - Conan still has issues with content and polish which WOW worked past years ago. The forthcoming changes to the game's itemisation are desperately needed, with Conan's armour and weapon systems still being utterly dull and uninspired. It's not the realistic models that are the problem, it's the fact that upgrades are largely meaningless - you find yourself discarding level 60 items because they're no better than the gear you first wore at level 40, which simply shouldn't be happening.
