Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures Updated Hands-On - More Early Game, More Midgame, and Player-Versus-Player

By Andrew Park, GameSpotPosted Dec 14, 2007 6:06 pm PT

What is best in life? We find out in an updated hands-on session with this violent and action-packed online game.

Age of Conan

Watch Age of Conan in motion. This trailer is absolutely not for children.

There's something about high-fantasy settings that just seems to work well for massively multiplayer games. We're not sure if it's the pointy ears on the elves, but for some reason, the addictive gameplay of online role-playing games--the fighting, the questing, the looting, and the adventuring with other like-minded players--seems to go hand in hand with the colorful fantasy worlds that authors such as J.R.R. Tolkien helped inspire. However, not all fantasy stories are suitable for all audiences. For instance, the works of Robert E. Howard, creator of the antihero Conan the Barbarian, tell bawdy tales of violence and debauchery. These tales will come to life in Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures, an online game in which you'll actually play a character in Conan's savage world and use real-time action commands to attack your foes and dispose of them in all kinds of brutal ways.

The riddle of steel is simple: He who has the steel crushes his enemies in Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures.

Our session began with a fleshed-out version of the game's early hours, in which you create a new character from scratch as a prisoner on a slave ship with a severe case of amnesia. Despite your character's mental state, you can still use the game's many, many, many customization options to create a character from one of three points of origin: Aquilonia (the kingdom of Conan), Cimmeria (the barbaric lands of Conan's origin), or Stygia, a land of dusky-skinned sorcerers. Not all characters of all races can play as every different character profession, and different flavors of the game's four archetypes (soldier, priest, rogue, and mage) are available to different races. We chose to play a hardy, pale-skinned Cimmerian male character with scruffy blond hair, a braided beard, and various scars and tattoos across his body. The game features simple options to tweak basic face types and hairstyles, as well as tattoos, scars, and other details, but if you care to, you can go extremely in-depth and spend a great deal of time tweaking facial features and proportions. Given that we knew our time with the game was limited at our play session, and because we'd had experience playing a soldier class before, we decided to try the bear shaman, the basic Cimmerian priest class whose abilities include group-based healing, strengthening spells, and some minor damage incantations.

Once we created our character, we again found ourselves washed up on the jungle shore just outside of Tortage, the game's starting city, after our slave ship was attacked by a mysterious warship. As a new character, we awakened on the beach and were greeted by a mysterious old man who, like many of the characters you'll encounter in the game, addressed us with full audio speech. He recognized our character's amnesia problem, and chose to advise us in a brief cinematic cutscene with a close-up camera angle reminiscent of the conversations in BioWare's Knights of the Old Republic, complete with different dialogue options to choose. The old man informed us that the slaver captain of our ship had also survived, and that we could not let him reach Tortage alive. We then set out after him into the jungle, but came upon a comely (and scantily clad) lass in chains, strung up across the jungle path and blocking our progress. The wretched young woman recounted a sad tale of kidnapping and rough treatment by lascivious bandits, and explained that her chains were locked by a key that had been picked up by a scavenger. We hunted down the man along the beach and used our trusty chunk of oar (a large slab of wood we wielded like a club) to pummel him into submission. At our service was the game's real-time combat system, which lets you press different keys on your keyboard while moving your character around to deliver different strokes and combinations. The scavenger was no match for us, and with key and maiden both liberated, we made our way into the lush, densely forested jungle in search of the slaver.

The game will have densely packed environments.

From what we've seen, Age of Conan's environments will be densely packed to give the game a lush, lived-in feeling. The jungles are thick with vines, shrubs, and tilted trees, as well as the ambient noises of cawing birds, but we didn't have much time to contemplate the scenery. We were constantly attacked by small packs of bandits, aggressive jungle apes, and finally our target the slaver, who was lying in wait for us. After trading a few insults with the potbellied, oily-looking scoundrel, we attacked him, slew him, and finally made our way to the city with our rescued companion in tow. Once we reached the city gates, we started to get some idea of the game's lore and its most powerful figures. For instance, our first quest at the city gates was to aid a nearby blacksmith, and in exchange, the surly tradesman shattered the slave's chains on our character's wrists, which gave us clearance with the gate captain to enter the city. The gate captain himself mentioned that he belonged to a faction of influential buccaneers who were making inroads into the coastal area, but refused to elaborate. He instead sent us on another quest to deliver a letter to a tavern maid in the town.

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94 Comments

  • omerg1993

    Posted Jan 8, 2008 3:42 am PT

    cabacinho Will there be a single player campaign? My internet is nto good enough to support online play.
    thx

    _______________________________________________________
    in the first 20 lvls it will be both single player and multy player

  • omerg1993

    Posted Jan 8, 2008 3:36 am PT

    is the open beta on yet?

  • PsychiKleftis

    Posted Jan 3, 2008 7:27 pm PT

    Lots of people don't seem to understand how censorship works. Let me explain as simply as possible.

    The ESRB CANNOT, I repeat, CANNOT alter a game to censor it. They can bump the rating up from M to AO, for instance. If they DO decide to do this to AoC then FUNCOM (no one else) will have to decide if they want to release a censored version or release it as an AO game in those countries that deem it as such. Releasing a game as AO instead of M generally hurts sales, which is why most companies release these censored versions.

    Now, the problem is, as always, the sexual content. There are prostitutes, sexual innuendo, and bare breasts in AoC. There is, however, no actual full frontal nudity or sex scenes. This falls under the category of an M rated game (look at the ESRBs' website if you don't believe me).

    Finally, if any of you have played Conan (not Age of Conan) for the 360, then you will recall brutal decapitations, dismemberment, bare breasts, and heavy sexual innuendo. All these things, and nothing more, are included in Age of Conan, and guess what Conan was rated? That's right. M.

  • jeffljtj

    Posted Dec 29, 2007 4:32 pm PT

    Djin is completely right. They are going to do to this game what they did to "The Witcher," but that doesn't mean it still won't be at least semi-enjoyable. Games like WoW don't really add much to the genre, but they are still incredible games, because of the amount of content they bring to the table. You can bad-mouth Guild Wars as much as you want, but the people who made it just laugh at you, because a ton of people play their game and they make an insane amount of money from it. I don't think Conan had much potential in the first place, and it's going to take something quite a bit stronger to contend with WoW and GW. The gameplay is incredibly dumbed-down, just like Djin says.

  • BloodMist

    Posted Dec 28, 2007 2:01 pm PT

    Hmm, well it sounds like it'll be a nice very action driven sort of MMO, much like CoH/V is.Lookin good.Not good enough to buy without a free trial playthrough but, no MMO is.It's also definitely nice to see an MMO that's M rated for once.

    And if you think it'll be toned down, then you are a fool, because you can't tone down a game based on Conan and not expect it to completely fail.Look what happened with AvP.Not nearly as successful as it could've been.There's a reason the sequel isn't PG-13.

    If you don't like MMO's Djin, that's your damn problem, and your ignorance is so obvious it's astounding.And that goes for anyone else who badmouths MMO's with the same ridiculous blanket statements, you barely have any MMO experience, if any at all.GW is nothing more than a wannabe Diablo 2 that will never be.

  • DarkDisciple90

    Posted Dec 28, 2007 12:32 pm PT

    Where are you getting your information from Djin? I highly doubt they will need to tone down the violence for America of all places, nudity I can understand, and I can live with out, but don't try and tell me that the game is too violent for America, especially when we already have games like Gears of War and The Darkness.

  • Djin

    Posted Dec 25, 2007 10:41 am PT

    @CapcomGroove2,

    The US version will NOT be what we've been seeing. The US version will be tamed a lot. No boobs, nothing. Since boobs in the US are still "taboo" and considered a sexual thing among most people, the US version will be very watered down. They are doing this because they still want MONEY. In the end, every company is about making a profit. So there's going to be blood, but not much. It's going to suck hardcore because the MSRP (Or whomever those people are) says if it has boobs, it has to be an AO rating. And the majority of stores will not carry an AO rating game.

    So this sucks. As no one has played this game yet, everything is based upon what we are spoon fed by the dev. team.

    Guild Wars and World of Warcraft are pretty much made by the same people. The people who were working on Battle.net and WoW, some of them left to form NCsoft (Guild Wars).

    I agree that 95% of the MMORPGs are nothing but the same drawn out, old and beaten up system with another shell plastered on top... who knows, even AoC might be the same. I have been following this for years, and with the current movies for PvP out, it almost makes me not want to play. To see them kill the gameplay this bad hurts. Not only does it look boreing, but it looks more dull then a game from years ago...

    So what, pretty looking grass and characters, but if the magic is weak and so is the fighting, pretty graphics won't cut it.

    Check out the 27 videos I have uploaded. Merry Christmas and enjoy.

    http://www.youtube.com/djdjin

  • Vamenti

    Posted Dec 24, 2007 6:59 am PT

    Guild Wars/World of Warcraft is old, boring, repetitive and very limited do not use it as a comparison. All the MMO's from 5 years ago mask repetition with new environments just because they weren't able to implement any decent features with basic programming knowledge of that period. Todays CPU's can execute large quantities of methods with in milliseconds which allows more real world events rather then just starring at 3d trees and rivers all day. Today MMO's think outside the square and are not punished by slow hardware. This game looks excellent but its not for your average Joe PC that has specs for old crappy Battle-Net games "shakes head at WoW and starcraft communities". World of Warcraft and Guild Wars are old fashioned grinders. Conan has less repartition because they weren't limited by technology. This game will be more lively and realistic then your basic WoW/Guild Wars grinder. I am prepared to make a monthly investment as long as the content keeps coming and the community isn't childish or moronic.

    Look at the last 2years many MMo's have failed but this wont.
    See you online ****

  • Crey93

    Posted Dec 23, 2007 8:26 am PT

    this game is a mmoorpg game that means only online cabacinho

  • cabacinho

    Posted Dec 22, 2007 1:41 pm PT

    Will there be a single player campaign? My internet is nto good enough to support online play.
    thx

  • CapcomGroove2

    Posted Dec 21, 2007 2:35 pm PT

    I really, really like the idea of an mmorpg featuring more adult content than world of warcraft, im not talking porn but just slighlty more... um a sliughlty higher age rating (violence)...anyway the thing is myself and many others have reservations about using bank details online after having troubles with trojans and wotnot. We would definetly purchase this game as it is a less childish mmorpg but probably only if there were time cards made available for purchase.

  • Spyder25000

    Posted Dec 21, 2007 2:19 pm PT

    check out www.mmorpg.com and vote for your mmorpg
    MMORPGS are gonna be FPSRTSMMORPG

    WoW could be better, just another game, ill stick to my Diablo II

    I like this game cause you can summon stuff! (weapons, demons, undead)

    @Jaur_Mejia
    It is close to fps isnt WoW like a fps?
    i tried to play wow and i didnt like it, my frined convinced me to not get and get this game insted
    I hate how you can reach the top leave so fast, its way to quick

    @Dijn
    ITs a bad game, they just slapped everything in, stole all the ideas from other MMO's which are starting to copy other MMo's
    soon were gonna have 1000 MMO's that are the same!
    Yeah of the 9 Million people playing i bet at least 3/4 are trails,cafes and the free asian accounts.

  • Adam_the_Nerd

    Posted Dec 20, 2007 8:53 pm PT

    Sounds totally awesome. Whoa long comments = bad and stupid.

  • Jair_Mejia

    Posted Dec 20, 2007 4:24 pm PT

    The way GW functions is closer to an FPS multiplayer game. One of the reasons I don't consider it a true MMO. I'm not saying it's a bad game, I really liked it, but I would not call it a full MMORPG game. It's a unique game that probably should not be forced into any of these genres.

    Call it what you like I guess.

    @ Djin: I do agree what you say about wow (kind of). In my eyes World of Warcraft just fixed all the minor annoyances and problems that MMOs before it had and set it in the warcraft universe. That does not make it a bad game... they just made is accessible to a wider range of players, one of the reasons it has more subscribers than most other traditional MMO game.

    In my experience when most people go out to buy an MMO they are instantly put off by the subscription fee, so when they sit down to play they want something that better be super fun. All of the older style MMOs force you to play for hours and hours before you begin to reach anywhere close to the actual gameplay, and this is where I think they lose many of their players. World of Warcaft has an easy leveling system (fast)
    Players gain many skills early in the game (keeps them interested)
    There are almost no penalties for dying (pretty much just run back to your corpse)
    Focus on Questing and not grinding (you could argue questing is the same as grinding, but when there are reasons as to why you are killing those 20 pigs it makes it a lot easier to complete for most people)
    Solid PVP and PVE (almost all classes are balanced well for PVP and PVE)

    I'm not saying World of Warcraft is the best MMO, but to call it a BAD game...come on.

    @ jakkaj : all of the issues you talked about were personal. "Idiotic pressure" ? Seems to me like you're not the type of person that can handle playing an MMO game. That's fine stick to GW, it's all good.

    Also you say that all the hard work you put in the game is gone after an expansion is released. Yeah, that's what happens when you play a game that doesn't end. The world (game world) keeps moving and you have to keep up, which is what a persistent world is. More content is added to keep people playing.

    Well i'm out of this place. I think you're all looking at these games the wrong way, but I guess you think the same about me.

  • Djin

    Posted Dec 20, 2007 9:16 am PT

    @aggelet,

    The only thing World of Warcraft did to set high standards was take everything from other games (Remember, WoW wasn't the first MMORPG around) and just add a little polish, dumb the graphics down so any PC can play, slapped "Blizzard" on the box and made it really really really really simple and easy to play.

    Out of those "9 million" you always hear people throw around, well, about 7 million are "FREE ASIAN" accounts. Yes, if you can read, you can find the information that Asia doesn't have to pay for an account, but yet, they pay by the minute/hour.

    Also a lot of cafes have "free" accounts. So of course it sounds amazing to say a game has "9 million people", doesn't mean it's the best, just means it's popular.

    Popular isn't always good.

    I won't go into this debate about WoW and how it's subpar, but I've alpha tested UO. Shows you how far I go back.

    http://www.youtube.com/djdjin 27 Age of Conan movies and growing.

  • ukillwegrill

    Posted Dec 19, 2007 4:33 pm PT

    Sounds Very Positive

  • AussieReviewer

    Posted Dec 19, 2007 3:01 pm PT

    I hope its good. I can't wait for Warhammer online much longer

  • BrownShirt228

    Posted Dec 19, 2007 2:49 pm PT

    I read the review. I believe they got themselves a customer. Nice to see it's for PC & the PC version is coming first. Thanx Gamespot for the review. Please get us a DEMO =)

    PS. I also hope I don't have to pay monthly either. That's absurd & purely milking us. That's why I never got into World of Warcraft, or any other pay-to-play game.

  • demi_veritaz

    Posted Dec 19, 2007 10:48 am PT

    Jair_Mejia : I didn't say ALL MMOs have to be free. I said it was a STEP in the right direction, not that it was an end all answer, because games evolve with their players.
    As for GW not being persistant? They add new weapons and armor all the time, new bosses, etc. They also change the dungeons and have frequent skill rebalances to make sure most skills are usable in some way.
    As for jakkaj. Right on.

  • jgbrandi

    Posted Dec 19, 2007 8:57 am PT

    If I have to pay monthly to play , this game stink

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