A much needed breath of fresh air into a game that's finally starting to live up to it's potential...2 years later...
But around level 50ish, the seams started to burst a little. Lack of any meaningful upgrades hurt a little. Some instance tuning issues crept in as well. Gotta love taking a level 70 tank into a level 50ish instance, and watching him get tooled up like he's level 40. Then crafting changes, and on and on...
basically, instead of fixing things, they changed more things, breaking others along the way, and I gave up.
In the midst of that, the community in the game became something awful. Nasty little bastards, who assaulted anyone who had a question, sited a problem, or generally didn't feel the game was quite right. "Go back to WOW" was like a chant required by players for the server gods to not disconnect them randomly, which happened dispite their shouted mantras.
At that point I left. Returned a while later, watched gear itemization improve, but still tuning remained an issue in some cases. The community became calmer, and content was added to fill in some gaps here and there.
But still, something was missing, so I left again, but that damn game stayed in my head, wanting to return one day, when things were finally done right.
I don't know what "right" is, honestly, but I think Rise of the Godslayer is about as close to right as Conan is oging to get. And I mean that mostly as a compliment.
The game, now, is the game that should have been released two years ago. It makes sense, crafting is almost worth a damn (which is usually as good as crafting gets in any MMO), combat is still knock your socks off good, and the new content added adds even more depth to the amazing atmosphere of this game.
There are still some gripes. Even now, some of the content in the instanced content feels out of tune, and it's easy to get lost, looking for help to finish quest lines which never comes. To get something completely done in this game, you need a guild...
...which brings me to the community.
instead of being the spoiled brat it was in it's youth, the community has grown into a shy teenager, reluctant to speak, but ask a question, and someone is usually there to give you an answer, and happy for your thanks. And, they have the answer...because most of the wishy washy players, the criers, the screamers, and the entitlists left this game long ago, leaving the community fairly well behaved, possibly the best behaved in any game I've ever played.
But, it's small. It was never large, but even after many server condensings, the user base feels smaller than it ever has. This effects things in a negative way. It's hard to find groups unless you join a guild, and even then, it's not guaranteed. But, when you do, the players are dedicated, know their stuff, and are happy to share their knowledge with you, which is cool.
Most of the level gaps where lack of quests seemed to hit hard before are gone, and much of the new content is pretty strong. And, yet, I can't help but feel this game is as big as it's going to get. Which, for me, is fine. Most days, I log on when I have time, and just knock out a couple hours worth of quests to wind down, and played this way, Conan plays very well.
But, every once in a while, I long for some instance smashing, and those are the days this game feels very lonely.
So, finally, the real Age of Conan is here...complete, compelling, and for the most part, pretty solid. Unfortunately, the only people who are likely to enjoy it, are people like me, who loved the potential of this game, hated seeing it go to waste, and waited for the day to come when it'd be worth coming back to again.
Sadly, I seem to be the minority. Shame, cause it's very much it's own game now. Shame still, that so few will ever give it the chance I feel it finally deserves.