Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures Review
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With every sense of integrity in my typing hands, I can honestly say that I believe Funcom has made a winner here, and is on to something big. While every MMORPG at the very start of retail has to make it out of the jungle first, based on what we've seen at release and how everything has come together from concept, to beta, and then to retail, the five years waiting for Age of Conan have certainly been worth it, and with 400,000 customers already subscribed to Age of Conan, it's no doubt that thousands and thousands of players around the world have caught on to the magic of Hyboria and the exceptional work that Funcom has put in to the game since beginning development in 2003.
With its eye-gasmic graphics, mind-blowing sounds, offering of diverse and unique gameplay experiences, clever and thoughtful design, and story-telling that would make Robert E. Howard himself proud of this production, Age of Conan is set to be a mammoth MMORPG. While it certainly will not be a World of Warcraft killer (that's a Goliath that stomps over all of its Davids), Age of Conan will be a game that will retain its most dedicated of fans for many years, introduce many new players to the MMORPG genre, and without a doubt set the standard for MMORPGs for years to come.
And the second is at G4 with a score of 4/5:
Obviously I couldn't take my Dark Templar all the way to the 80 level cap, so there's a lot that bears exploring. Crafting doesn't begin until level 40 (same goes for mounts), and you need a well-organized guild to start building a keep to get into siege warfare (although you'll still get into it way sooner than if you were playing something like Lineage II.) Luckily there are other PvP diversions along the way minigames like Capture the Skull, for example.
Age of Conan's graphical potential seems to depend largely on how insane your rig is even moreso later on when DirectX 10 support goes in. There is a lot of detail to be had if you can process it, but even some basic things like having an animation for resting instead of just having the your character plunk down on the ground for a while make the game feel more realistic. None of the music particularly caught my ear, but at least that means it wasn't annoying me.
You'll find everyone from inspired role-players to hardcore number crunchers, transplants from both WoW and LOTRO, in this game. How long they'll stay is anyone's guess, but it seems like Age of Conan has plenty of room to grow.
