I just celebrated my one year anniversary of quitting World of Warcraft by starting Age of Conan. This may not be a bad move if it were a mediocre game like Tablua Rasa, or a passing fancy like Lord of the Rings Online, but Age of Conan is none of these things. AoC is a very bad move indeed. I’ll see you all in two years.

My main character is now nearly level 40 (the current level cap is 80), and by the game’s terms, this means I’ve barely crawled out of newbie land and am just about to purchase my first mount and start crafting items. As a MMORPGer, I revel in solo content and collect new characters (”alts”) like candy. For this casual gaming experience, AoC is truly near perfection. The world is huge, the quests never run thin, the combat is fast, and so are the beginning levels. For as long as AoC was delayed, it’s no wonder that the game is so polished and enormous. There are still some problems - particularly with class balance - but AoC has truly won the initiative round with their busty, bloody, brave new world.

The major selling point for AoC is the innovative combat system. I’ve heard it compared somewhat accurately to rock-paper-scissors. Your enemies have points of defense: high, left and right; these correspond to your own directional melee attacks. The enemy’s strong and weak points are graphically overlaid on the baddie, leaving you to attack their left if they’re guarding their right, and so forth. The enemies will change their defenses if you’re attacking one side too often. This system is fresh for MMORPGs, but not entirely alien: think arcade fighting game.

Magic users will have less of an opportunity to use this melee setup, and all players learn special moves which more or less eliminate the need to continue exchanging single strikes. Your melee skills do require you to follow them up with a sequence of directional attacks, which become progressively more difficult as you level up.

You often have to fight more than one enemy at a time, which makes some classes a little perilous, and battles for all classes a little risky. You can position your enemies so that they’re grouped together and all enemies take damage from your attacks.

Combat is very fast and brutal. When you perform critical attacks, you have a chance of performing a fatality, which is a rather drawn-out animation of your character running their sword completely through an enemy’s body, decapitating them, or dozens of other gruesome ways to die. Blood spatters all over the inside of your monitor in an orgiastic display of victory. This game is not for the squeamish or the conservative, but it’s a horribly sinful cathartic exercise for the rest of us. Far more satisfying than killing pygmies or murlocs in droves, and a healthy alternative to real-life road rage.

Rating:

My Build: Cimmerian Barbarian (dual-wielding edged, reaver)

Cost: $14.99/month

Learning Curve: Moderate (MMORPG experience recommended)

Grind Factor: High

Economy: Strong, unstable

Population: high

Spam/Farmers: high, low (respectively)

AoC boasts three races: Aquilonian, the greco-roman types; Stygian, the vaguely Egyptian types; and Cimmerian, your viking stock. All races are highly customizable in appearance and even voice. Depending on race, players can choose from one of 12 classes in four archtypes: soldier, rogue, priest or mage. Most of the 12 classes are hybrids of some sort (for example, the Tempest of Set can cast powerful attack and healing magic). Within the classes, different feat trees are available, allowing you to further customize your character’s skills. Cries for balance and bugfixing are common for some classes, especially through the first few levels or in PvP. It’s generally agreed that the Barbarians and the Heralds of Xotli are the easiest to bring through the first few levels, and Bear Shaman or Necromancers have the worst time of it. Once a player hits level 20 or so, many of these balance issues are evened out a bit.

Experienced gamers with the right class can easily level to 20 in about 10 hours of gameplay. Quests are divided between day and night: night quests are solo quests, for your progression only, and day quests are groupable in a free-for-all environment. There is no “rest” experience, but you do get 10 pitched battles a day, where your experience is increased if you’re victorious over a randomly selected foe you’ve engaged. Death is no big deal - you resurrect at the nearest resurrection point and either take a minor penalty to your attack that goes away in half an hour, or go back and locate the point where you died to remove the penalty.

Getting around is easy on the player, too. All quest objectives and vendors are all marked on scrollable, zoomable maps. Players can sprint using their stamina, a fast-renewing pool like your health or mana. Moving between zones is free and only a load screen away. Most zones have two or three others that they’re linked to. All players also have the ability to hide, though you must train your skill and monitor the light quality around you to sneak effectively. At level 40, you can buy your first mount for 2 gold (plus a 1 gold riding skill). This is great for the expansive in-zone travel. Faster, cooler-looking mounts (like an armored rhino) are available at higher levels for more gold.

Money is difficult to come by initially. Characters learn tradeskills at 40 and gathering becomes available as early as level 20. Nodes for resource gathering are not marked on your minimap, but they are static. Since everyone can train every gathering skill (skinner, woodcutter, etc.) and it’s easy to make a note on your map of where you found resources, you will be in constant competition for every material in the game.

Every 10 levels there seems to be a significant leap in how much money you earn from quests and mobs, progressing from a few tin to copper, silver, and (hopefully!) gold.
Items can be bought and sold with no time limits at universal auction houses. Due to the influx of new players, the economy is very unstable, and inexpensive items can be had in droves for some types of gear, or not at all for others. Rare items drop rather frequently: I’ve had three different universal “blue” (superior, or better than rare) items drop in my journey to level 40.

It’s been a beautiful journey, too. The graphics are stunning, even at super low quality. The zones are expansive and interesting, from the snow-tipped mountains of Cimmeria to the ancient ruins in Aquilonia and the desert oasis of Stygia. All of the quests are letterboxed with a voiced dialog from your questgiver, very similar to Morrowind or Bioware style. Most of the quests are not terribly interesting, but a few of them are touching, chilling, or downright cool. My favorite so far is a quest where I walked into a darkened gallery of statues , and the exit closed behind me. Out of the corner of my eye, I thought I saw a statue move. Then, they come to life, and slowly, one by one, they amble down the hall to find and kill me.

There are some lingering issues with the game, but the developers seem intent on fixing bugs rather than releasing new content. The graphics are extraordinarily resource-intensive: so much so that even with the graphics turned down to nothing, I had to upgrade my aging video card in order to play.

Apart from the flaws, this is an extremely strong launch and a deep, fulfilling world. I have confidence that issues with balance and bugs will be resolved quickly. These minor problems can be overlooked or waited out while you enjoy the rest of the game. Age of Conan is not a copycat; it’s blazing new trails for MMORPGs with its careful balance of convention and innovation. Come for the boobs and blood, stay for the enormous content and dynamic gameplay.