Age of Conan is a game that no one should miss, great teamwork gameplay and fabulous gaming expiriance.
First 20 levels you will spend on a small island of Tortage, starting naked and unarmed hoping to reach the first city on your map of Hyboria and you play a single player environment as you try to form your character depends of which race you picked (Aquilonian, Stygian, Cimmerian) and class (soldier,mage,priest)...12 of them available to play with. After the part of beating Red Hand leader, you are ready to face a multiplayer ONLY for the first time, you start your destiny in huge city of Tarantia where you can see other players trade, practice, talk or join some Guild, so it looks like you are in some real, breathing city and looks like there is complete economy working. After first 20 levels your character is somehow formed and ready to face real challenge ...Cimmeria`s Wild lands. In Tarantia you can find Conan`s castle, placed in a noble district later in the game where you learn about your destiny and your past... it ends in a city of Kheshatta.
Differences between classes are huge, mostly shows the power or weak spots when you join RAID/Group. In Group, you join with other 5 players to ride with you in battle, in Raid you are with 23 other players within 4 groups for which every need its leader to work. Few elite quests are meant to use full strenght of carefully combined classes, otherwise it won`t work and you will be easily defeated. In most cases, teamplay work better with good conversation.
Graphics in game are fantastic, it only support DX9 and shader 3.0 max, but believe me, with all the sliders maxed, you won`t need anything visually better, it goes on expense of your PC config power though, so be careful or it won`t be playable. With expansion Funcom promised DX10 features and new locations placed on maps that already exist. I played on both 1680x1050 and 1920x1080 and i can say the game looks jaw dropping.
Music/sounds perfectly describe atmosphere although, i would like to hear some music from the movie as well.
Negative side of this game goes to loads of bugs (mostly seen when you are hit by an arrow while riding a horse and you can`t get off and fight, and some bosses that are essential part of some quest doesn`t respawn at all and you have to wait for another day or two ...and some problems with making a raid, helps if you relog and regroup) but when you get used to those minor bugs you can relax and fully enjoy it, i did and i am more then happy to say that i finished the game within 3 months.
I honestly recommend this game even if you are not such a fan of this genre.