Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures

"A nice, refreshing take at an MMO."

Funcom releases it at last! Age of Conan, after all the hype is finally on shelves, buyable, and playable...with the right computer.

Does it live up to the hype, does it really prove that Blizzard and WoW are not our last hope in the MMO universe? I like to think so.

Now for the review portion...

Sound: 10/10
This is one of the game's best qualities. The sound, simply put, is amazing. From combat noises, to music, to ambience, everything just fits, and works well in the environments. The music itself is epic, giving it the nice Conan feel, and the swords slashing and blood spurting is just that perfect touch.

Graphics: 10/10
By far the best graphics I've ever seen in an MMO. Although, if your computer cannot handle it on max, it may not look the best. But if you have the right parts and enough money this game looks insanely good. The water reflections are perfect, shadows blend well, the grass is comparable to Oblivion...Everything is beautiful. This is one of the best aspects of the game.

Gameplay: 8/10
I am absolutely addicted to the style of the fighting in this game. Sometimes things may seem a bit slow, as when you click multiple combos in a chain, and others may go by too quick as you're getting into the whole fight, and not paying attention to what combo you just poked--But all in all this is a very new, interesting system of combat in an MMO.

Reason being that this isn't a 10 is really only because the combo system is somewhat hard to get used to, and very hard to get good at. This could prove to be a good thing, but also a bad thing as it may not be that appealing to the simplicity of battle in other games. All that depends on the person. Another reason this is not a 10 would be due to the HUD and UI system. Sure, it's pretty, but honestly...Could they not give us more buttons, or a nicer chat system? The chat system itself
deems it pretty hard to socialize since all the text looks the same, and yes, it can be changed, but some people may find it hard to figure things like this out for themselves. At least one nice thing about the UI is that it's customizable, much like World of Warcraft's.

Progression: 9/10
I had to take another section out of Gameplay for the levelling in this game, because I think it sort of needs it's own piece of the cake. Now, the quest system is the typical <Take quest> <Do task> <Turn in> which is peachy since almost every single MMO rolls with that system. The only problem I have found is that rather than looking and reading or listening to quest text, I find myself spamming my mouse trying to grab it ASAP and get on with it so I won't fall behind in the level race to 80. The game loses it's background and it's story through this system if nobody is willing to read or listen, making this somewhat of a flaw.

One thing I really do seem to love about the questing system is the built in helpers/marks that it places on the mini map showing where to go and what to do. It's almost like a built in web-helper so you don't have to alt tab every 5 seconds to look at how to finish said quests.

TOTAL SCORE 9/10
The game is simply amazing. Not perfect, which may change in due time with patches and updates and bug fixes, but for 3 days after launch, it's really living up to everything people were hoping for, at least for me. It's sure nice to have a new refreshing game to slip into, not knowing anything about the new territories or instances and learning it all for yourself.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 05/23/08

Game Release: Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures (US, 05/20/08)