Age of Conan - Reviews @ Games32, GameZone

Games32.com awards Age of Conan a score of 87 and concludes:

Age of Conan is certainly worth your time assuming you have a powerful, current generation, PC and are ok with the game rating: Mature, 18+. 18+ means not so much violence as you may expect but it does mean blood and dismemberment from time to time. It also means the player base is more mature, and you won't probably encounter passionate item-grinder kids that have no life and dropped out of school for a computer game. You will be delusional to think however that everyone past 18 years old is an actual mature person.
Age of Conan is currently one of the few, if not the only competition to date for World of Warcraft. They have till Christmas to catch up with the players, fix all the bugs, and bring new content where it lacks. If they manage, we will have 2 giant MMORPGS in our hands. Anyway, the game is still strong, and you should still give it a chance for 2-3 months at least. Who knows, you might end up a big fan.

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GameZone.com has continued their previous review covering the first 20 levels in a review #2 to now also cover the levels between 20-39. The score is the same as before:

While new combos do not happen very often, what these levels do well is define the profession you are while revealing a greater portion of the world. You will start to look more critically at armor and weapons and associated buffs they may have. While one piece of armor may have a higher defense rating, sometimes the better piece of armor for you will be lower in defensive rating, but have a high stamina rating, or constitution rating, or even increase several stat categories.
The patches, now up to twice a week while the idiosyncrasies of the client are ironed out, do present a few problems. The most recent patch seemed to create a couple of crash situations, including the dreaded “out of memory” crash to desktop.
The 20-39 levels, though, do begin to offer up a robust view of the world while revealing deeper game mechanics, such as the grouping aspect of the game, which requires players to team up to defeat certain mobs or achieve quest goals.
The storylines are still pointing in a specific direction but you do start to see more of the individual NPC stories and get a feel for the world.
Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures is a multilayered MMO that reveals gameplay layers as you progress and explore the world. This continues to be a rich and varied gaming experience. The hint of evil threatening not only Conan’s realm but all of Hyboria is ingrained into the fiction of the game and as you build upwards, you begin to sense the textures of the painting that is slowly revealed in this game of high adventure.​

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More information.

What a ridiculous statement - that a Mature 18 or 18+ game will necessarily draw a more mature crowd.

I would expect the exact opposite to be the case. It's very much the inarticulate and boorish gankbois that will be drawn to the game's outwardly violent nature, and in particular, if promise or hint of sexual content is dangled in front of them (deflated boobies, or not).

Well, yes, but the gameplay and detailed, story driven quests certainly don't appeal to kids. I have yet to meet any youngster in Age of Conan, and don't think I will for quite some time.

In general, I think WoW is going to hang on to the kids for now. WoW is the first, and only, online game you can actually play as a youngster and not be considered a "computer geek" - it's actually cool to play WoW. Play anything else and you get labelled a geek. Pretty similar to what pants to wear and so on.

martink said:

What a ridiculous statement - that a Mature 18 or 18+ game will necessarily draw a more mature crowd.

I would expect the exact opposite to be the case. It's very much the inarticulate and boorish gankbois that will be drawn to the game's outwardly violent nature, and in particular, if promise or hint of sexual content is dangled in front of them (deflated boobies, or not).

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And that's exactely what happened... if you have a look at the official forums you'll see that AoC's playerbase is not more or less mature than any other mmo crowd out there. There are a lot of retards playing the game just as there are a lot of retards playing WoW... go and try to play on a PvP server and you'll see what I mean.

Ionstormsucks said:

And that's exactely what happened... if you have a look at the official forums you'll see that AoC's playerbase is not more or less mature than any other mmo crowd out there. There are a lot of retards playing the game just as there are a lot of retards playing WoW... go and try to play on a PvP server and you'll see what I mean.

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That's one reason why avoid PvP like the plague.

To me, PvP should be brutal and furious and bloody, yes, but unfortunately it does bring out a lot of pathological behaviour in people. I can imagine the introverted child in the basement finally being able to beat someone up, if only by ganking.

The AoC forums read like the who's-who of mental disorders and bifurcate between people who are announcing that they're leaving AoC because it's boring/incomplete/buggy/whatever and those who are staunchly holding their ground because AoC is the best/beautiful/awesome/kool.

Personally, I played for just under a month and at the end found that I had to force myself to play. Once I got out of Tortage, the world opened up (albeit instanced and disjointed and seemingly devoid of other players) and I wanted very badly for the game to start to appeal to me. In the end, I just couldn't muster the enthusiasm and uninstalled it and reinstalled Guild Wars

I really wanted to like AoC, because I need a regular RPG fix. Now I really want to like Sacred 2. Please, please make it be good.

martink said:

The AoC forums read like the who's-who of mental disorders and bifurcate between people who are announcing that they're leaving AoC because it's boring/incomplete/buggy/whatever and those who are staunchly holding their ground because AoC is the best/beautiful/awesome/kool.

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The people in gameforums represent only small minority of any gaming population and from that minority usually only the most loudest people rise to be heard. Most players never register or even read the forums.

Review of Age of Conan, plus compared to HellgatLondon, HGL

This game is not FUN.
Especially compared to hellgate london.
Combat system much more fun in HGL.

review AoC: not fun, just pick a button to push, as opposed to HGL which is exhilarting! movement, dodging AND push buttons; but mainly, I feel POWERFUL in HGL, but in AoC I feel like I'm working; just get thru this, then on to the next slightly interesting quest, die, irritating. I don't want to play a game that irritates me so much.
Don't misunderstand though, I'm not promoting HGL either: I have issues with HGL devs also. Games are improving as gamers also evolve through time. Most gamers are tired of long grinds, long waits, difficult mobs with little reward.
Sure, there are the macho guys who demean a game if it's too easy, but they are just bragging. Macho as in: "Well, my fingers just got chopped off, but it's nothing, just a scratch."
Actually, in EQ, WoW, EQ2 and AoC the characters and classes are ALL WHIMPS. hehe. yes, they are. THINK about it: it takes multiple hits to kill one mob. and if you get more than 2 or 3, you are very likely to die.
What HGL got right is: you are powerful! You can go into a room with up to 50 mobs in it, and if you are smart, you can kill them all. solo! and, it gets harder if you are grouped. so no reason to cry "too easy". or, if still too easy? go elite, or Nightmare, or Hardcore. hehehe.
The complaints I have with HGL are:
1. pvp is balancing classes, messing the game up big time.
2. too much repetition! even tho the instances are made on the fly every time.
3. this happens with all games now: A few months after release from beta (way too soon btw) they fire the brains, then hire a 'support' team, who have no clue, can't fix bugs, are too limited in ability and skill.

I'm sorry I spent $50 on age of conan. be forewarned: save your money.

I wouldn't compare an MMO to a multiplayer game like HGL; they're just too different, with different appeals.

As for AoCs playerbase - I have yet to meet anyone under 18 in-game, which is quite exceptional compared to WoW, where 90% (seems like it at least) are below. I don't read the forums, however, so I wouldn't know about the community there.

Maylander said:

I wouldn't compare an MMO to a multiplayer game like HGL; they're just too different, with different appeals.

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I guess you could call HGL/Guild wars type mmos as mmo-lite if you want to be specific. Definitions change and transform. First there was GMUD, then it got changed to MMORPG which became MMOG and finally MMO. Its quite interesting really.

What definition is correct in each situation? Its mostly a matter of taste what to use but I guess the "correct" acronym is the one that is most used according to statistics (google fight).

However since there is no other typename for HGL and since people often seem to go for the easiest choice (limited number of shortest acronyms) my bet is on "mmo".

For me, the word "massive" changes quite a bit. Running around in a small group in tunnels all day is good ol'multiplayer, like CS and so on, not an MMO where there are thousands of players in huge game worlds.

What's wrong with merely a game being a multiplayer game? Can't we have regular multiplayer anymore? It's just "multi" "player" - more than one player. HGL is a single player hack'n slash game with multiplayer support, only a bit more evolved than Diablo 2s multiplayer several years ago.

Maylander said:

For me, the word "massive" changes quite a bit. Running around in a small group in tunnels all day is good ol'multiplayer, like CS and so on, not an MMO where there are thousands of players in huge game worlds.

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Massive can be defined in many ways. Originally it was strickly the amount of people you could see in the laggy screen but now its more like thousands of players seperated by different zones so that the game is not laggy.

What's wrong with merely a game being a multiplayer game? Can't we have regular multiplayer anymore? It's just "multi" "player" - more than one player. HGL is a single player hack'n slash game with multiplayer support, only a bit more evolved than Diablo 2s multiplayer several years ago.

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HGL is not a normal multplayer game. Its halfway between that and a mmo. Its far more than CS or som random ww2 shooter. Lets check the popularity of words mmo vs multiplayer and multi:

Hellgate mmo 1,850,000 uses
Hellgate multiplayer 1,020,0000
Hellgate multi 787,000

Tadaa! People have chosen "mmo".

Yes, and Oblivion is the greatest RPG ever - in fact, it is currently the very defintion of an RPG. "People" don't know what they're talking about, hehe.

Maylander said:

Yes, and Oblivion is the greatest RPG ever - in fact, it is currently the very defintion of an RPG. "People" don't know what they're talking about, hehe.

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Actually diablo rpg wins oblivion rpg hands down. But unfortunately thats just how it is - masses have the power to choose.

Of course you can try teaching millions of people the right definition but I doubt thats possible. Basicly you just have to accept that definitions change (or die as an old bitter man trying to teach everyone the "correct" definition).

zakhal said:

masses have the power to choose.

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We say here : "Millions of flies can't be wrong."

That's why democracy always turns out so well!

But let's not get too off topic, this is originally about two AoC reviews.

Maylander said:

That's why democracy always turns out so well!

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To quote churchill: "Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time."

Maylander said:

I wouldn't compare an MMO to a multiplayer game like HGL; they're just too different, with different appeals.

As for AoCs playerbase - I have yet to meet anyone under 18 in-game, which is quite exceptional compared to WoW, where 90% (seems like it at least) are below. I don't read the forums, however, so I wouldn't know about the community there.

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I can see that you wouldn't compare them.
However, I see video games as video games: sitting in front of a computer interacting with other players, and with NPC's.
All pretty similar, especially compared to Real life games like: Baseball, Racquetball, Football, etc. which you either enjoy watching, and/or enjoy playing.

Key word is 'enjoy' or not.
my point was: I could not/did not Enjoy Age of Conan.
No one else commented or responded to this: whether they enjoy AoC or the other video games they played. Seems everyone was wrapped up in the DEFINITION of what they are called.
hehehe. Silly guys, so easily gone astray.

I have to admit, Age of Conan didn't capture me the way WoW did back in the days, but I am currently enjoying my Tempest of Set quite a bit - I look forward to coming home from a hard days work to continue my levelling.

However, it's worth noting that the only reason I actually play MMOs is to pass the time between rock solid RPGs. I recently took a break from both WoW and AoC to complete Mass Effect several times, and I will certainly take a similar break from MMOs the next time a good RPG pops up.

Good review, average game

I strongly believe that this game is a step ahead of its time and this is by no means a good thing in this case. Underdeveloped and with total disrespect to details, Age of Conan is bound to fail because the expectations are simply too high. These guys were simply too concerned in "beating" the Lich King and the result is a mediocre game which has no chance in becoming the best MMORPG...RIP!