Editorial Review
Based on the events and characters of Robert E. Howard's
Conan the Cimmerian stories,
Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures is a fantasy themed massively-multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) that immerses players in a dark, expansive universe filled with ground-breaking brutal combat, dangerously intoxicating magical abilities, and the social and cooperative game features that MMORPG players crave.
The MMORPG finally matures |
A troubled King Conan on his throne.
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Test your metal in close combat.
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Straddle War Mammoths & Killer Rhinos.
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Lead your guild in player vs. player battles.
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Explore the pleasures & pitfalls of the Hyborian Age.
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Set in the later years of Conan’s life, after he has famously become king by his own hand, the game centers around the fragile state of Conan’s rule in Aquilonia. Surrounded by enemies and hostile nations, Conan’s rule hangs by a thread and in the end, it’s up to players, either singly or backed by their guilds to turn the tide for or against the embattled king.
Massively Multiplayer Gaming for the Adult Player One of the most highly anticipated MMORPGs in recent years due to the strength and familiarity of the
Conan franchise across a variety of major media,
Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures is the first of several releases planned for the franchise, all of which are aimed at an adult audience. Firmly rooted in the savage, bloody, violent and sexy Hyborian universe, players can expect a graphically beautiful game blended with gritty gameplay that is true to both the barbarian hero from Howard’s writings and the Schwarzenegger influenced version from books, movies and comics.
Available Cultures and ClassesAlthough
Age of Conan contains a wide range of peoples, its playable cultures are currently limited to Aquilonians, Cimmerians, and Stygians. Within each of these players can choose from a selection of archetypal character classes, although available classes and subsequent subclasses are not necessarily the same within each culture. For example, archetypal classes for Aquilonians and Cimmerians are Rogue, Priest and Soldier, while Stygians are represented by Rogue, Priest and Mage. Further differences exist within subclasses for each. See the basic breakdown of all three cultures below:
Aquilonians: Internally divided, but united against their barbarian neighbors, the Aquilonians live lives on the edge. Their kingdom, with its prosperous cities, enlightened culture and religious freedom, is known as the "Flower of the West." Yet for all this and despite the power of King, Conan I, it is a land where culture clashes and unrest are always a threat.
Cimmerians: As the Hyborian Age comes to an end the northern barbarian clans of the Cimmerians know that the end of their time is drawing near too. King Conan I of Aquilonia is himself a Cimmerian, though not typical of his people. Although his life has been filled with wanderlust, his Kin care nothing for what occurs outside their clan territories.
Stygians: Masters of the magical arts and ruled by their consuming worship of the serpent-god Set, the Stygians excel at occult and diabolic lore. They learned long ago that true power lies in knowledge and in pacts with dark powers. This single-mindedness has allowed them become the only culture to harness the secrets of the Mage class and power that comes with it.
Modes Singleplayer as well as MultiplayerUnlike most MMORPGs,
Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures includes a significant singleplayer experience as well as deep overarching multiplayer gameplay. This is an atypical MMORPG feature, but one that has a purpose. Players enter the game as a lowly galley slave with no memory of his/her past, and over the first five to 20 levels of singleplayer action build the skills necessary to survive in the game's multiplayer levels. During this time you will traverse a variety of rich environments including jungles, deserts, mountains, valleys, dungeons and cities packed with NPCs, beasts and monsters, before eventually leveling up and moving back to your chosen culture’s homeland. Because the only character-related choices that players have to make at the game’s opening are their looks, clothing and culture, this singleplayer mode is important in deciding what class and subclass to pursue and thus the level of impact your character will have in greater multiplayer portions of the game.
In-game levels 20 and above are strictly multiplayer. 20-40 introduce players to guilds. 40-60 deal with large scale combat. 60-80 have the player interacting with King Conan and levels 80 and up represent end-game play. Here gameplay changes as social aspects of MMORPG gameplay take over on a large scale.
Real-time Combat That Takes Queues from the FPSTraditionally MMORPGs have utilized a mix of auto and turn-based functionality in their combat systems, but
Age of Conan dispenses with that, instead drawing inspiration from FPS/action games. Firmly rooted in the brutality of the
Hyborian universe, game developer Funcom has devised an action-based system that not only provides the sense of actually being in the fight, but also requires the player to participate in it. That means no simple targeted attacks. Players can attack and defend from nearly any position in real-time, whether on the ground or atop a mount, while standing still or on the move. It’s a recipe for carnage and one that fits right into the world of Conan.
The combat system in
Age of Conan comes in three forms: drunken brawling, mini games like CTF and massive Player vs. Player battles, which lets you engage in siege combat to defend or attack a city. All are easy to learn, but difficult to master, providing hours worth of play and replay value and are the core of this new cutting edge MMORPG.
System Requirements:
| Minimum Specifications: | Recommended Specifications: |
| OS: | Windows XP Service Pack 2 or Windows Vista |
| Processor: | Intel Pentium 4 3Ghz or equivalent | Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4GHz or equivalent |
| RAM: | 1GB | 2048MB Dual Channel DDR2 |
| Video Card: | NVIDIA GeForce 6600 or better | NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GTX or equivalent |
| Video Memory: | 128MB | 512MB |
| DVD-ROM: | Quad-speed (4x) DVD-ROM drive |
| Hard Drive Space: | 30GB of Free Space |
| Other: | Broadband connection required for online gameplay |
| Cached date: AWS Called=true
Customer Reviews
Waste of Time and $$$$$ 
2008-07-15
It's just sad had much Funcom had to work with here, but they fell flat. The graphics engine is great IF you have a top of the line machine. Class Balance is non-existent. Customer Support is a joke. Not worth a single penny.
Still in Beta 
2008-07-14
I'll keep this short, since there are lengthy, more detailed reviews below.
Graphics-wise, there are no better games. Matched with some blood and gore, you have a reasonably immersive gaming experience.
The 'adult content' is all hype; aside from occasional, accidental nudity, expect the adult content to only be the aforementioned blood and gore.
The game has the potential to be far better then any other MMORPG that is currently on the market, however:
1) The game is effectively still a 'beta' with catastrophic patches at times fixing or breaking stability issues.
2) The classes are in a constant state of flux that makes it hard wishing to invest time in a character that will be 'nerfed' week to week.
3) Quests and endgame content are lacking. One has to grind on random mobs as opposed to complete quests in order to gain levels. All in all, one achieves levels quickly, however.
4) It is too early to really understand system requirements for the game. Vista systems seem to have worse problems then XP, and this game was supposedly made to run on Vista.
My recommendation is stay away from this game for at least three to six months. You will enjoy the first week of game play, as you go from a well developed tutorial village to the main world. But, once reaching the main world, the collective bugs and lack of content will rapidly diminish the fun and leave you frustrated.
Nice graphics, but just graphics, no customer service, no good gameplay 2008-07-13
wel this game have nice graphics but has no customer service, no good gameplay, all the game is doing crap quest, crap instance and if u want get a team to do instance is harder and wasted time, guild ppl arent friendly, well and the game in just 1 month and half from mmo rating drops 8.4 to 7.9 what u think about that and 60% of ppl quit.
well i let u know something if u want to try it play, and if u gonna play in pvp server play in tirrany or deathwhisper(my server) cuz all other pvp server have less than 1k of ppl and there is very hard to get team
sincerly
Lord Kovenant
Deathwhisper 46 assasin
Deathwhisper 10 Guardian
shadowblade 36 assasin (this server sucks)
so sad... 2008-07-13
This game is a huge disappointment... I've been following the development and prerelease hype. I even bought the collector's edition and wanted in on the 3 day early release.
* The early access fiasco killed the game for me. They advertised/promised early access to certain people and they did not deliver. There was an uproar about this in the forums, but funcom deleted all the angry posts. I should have known from how the early access fiasco was handled that funcom was a poorly managed company. There are many fanboys who come to their defense, but I think the sorely disappointed significantly outnumbered them.
* Game play is boring... There is no thought required in play. The game is not 'clever' at all. The game is about as tasteful and imaginative as a stale ham sandwich with a few drops food coloring. I actually fell asleep while playing the first time.
* I think other reviewers have commented on the ganking, bugs, and other issues.
* Poorly executed, poorly implemented - bad product overall... I feel robbed of my $50. I originally bought the CE, but returned it when they failed to deliver early access and tried a standard copy.
Over rated, you might want to wait! 
2008-07-13
I have played alot of MMO's, I have beta tested alot of MMO's. This one by far was released way to soon. All MMO's in my opinion are released to soon, but out of all of the MMO's I have played over the years, this one has had to be the worse.
First off, this game has more memory leaks then taxis in New York. Crashing, unstable and so much PvP content that isn't even working its not funny. The best part about this game I feel is the music. I do enjoy that alot.
Second is if you have played other MMO's, this UI is horrid. Thats all I have to say about that.
Also I dont see alot of the hype either about this is an adult oriented game. Witcher has more adult content then this does, WAY MORE! And I know Witcher is not an MMO, but the graphics are better too. The graphics in AoC are nice, but not as great as everyone is boasting. If anyone has played EQ2, I want to see your rig run with custom settings with all sliders to max without serious performance issues. But you have to say each game has its perks, I think EQ2 has better lighting dynamics in their engine, but AoC has better looking world environment. Also, in AoC alot of the armor textures look 2D. Odd for boasting state of the art graphics. (If you have a DX10 rig, I know the box says DX10, but dont try to click the DX10 tab if you get it, DX10 is not in AoC yet as others have stated.) Also, alot of armor looks the same, they just changed the color. I have a very high end gaming rig and run AoC all at max settings and I nitpick everything down to the chain on armor. And funcom trying to lay blame on peoples computers is a serious pass the buck that will not help keep the population up or growing.
I do feel this game has alot of potential if Funcom works on serious issues first. As it stands, they are trying to fix things accross the board when they should be starting at the front and working their way to the back. So, if your thinking of getting AoC, all I say is you might want to wait, read up on Funcom forums or other gaming forums to see if things are fixed and improved. I am upset I spent 50 dollars on this for 30 days of play. But, I have it, and after 30 days I will wait and see if things improve.
I gave 2 stars of fun cause its so much fun having to reboot, rescan, and restart AoC every hour to keep playing. When your in a group, this is a bonus, cause no one drops at the same time so it adds to the enjoyment of it.
Overall 3 stars, cause there are a couple zones I go zone into, sit down and turn up the speakers to hear the music as I am doing things around the house. As stated, music is very good.
Age of the Thomas the Tank Engine 2008-07-19
Graphics & Landscape *****
Definitely next generation, beautiful full lush views, rolling hills and detailed equipment. If Wow or Eq2 will revamp their scenes to this level it'd be the game of the decade . No major visual bugs as far as I could tell. The cities are true architectural beauties, sunlight reflects off the stones etc. Only disappointment was relatively 'limited' playing area, I thought we'd looking at an island that was "vanguard" size ,with many many cities and environments. At least that's the impression given on the website . But at present they have only developed about 1/8 of that big advertised map.
Game play **
Reviewing the videos and box descriptions beforehand, you'd think your battles are going to be skilled death match bouts or strategic plays . I.e a tactical boxing match style with a "Cinderella man" ability to vary for different foes. Instead they are largely slug fests. Yes you can vary the attack buttons and hit off their Armour defenses, but that's about it. Doesn't make a huge difference which strike buttons you use, as long as you use a lot of them. Note Combo moves are just sequence buttons as opposed to "special" events. For example as a ranger using a bow, I can't "aim" at a certain target area, i.e. the legs of a armored defender. I can send wounding arrow, blood drain etc but there's only two defense factors to figure out, health and shield direction . An improvement sure over most MORPG's but not exactly a game winner. I had wanted to use marksman plays instead of merely generalized wounding skills. Yes there are modifiers, but there presence is limited.In the end it doesn't really matter which class you choose, 85% of the time you have to melee the encounters to finish them . When I did die the reason was nearly always because a NPC spawned next to me (additions) or the whole camp aggro'd. Easy to level.
Classes***
The games heart is defiantly located in the barbarian mode i.e. tank. Whilst an attempt is made for mage's and priests, I got the feeling that given the large amount of tight dungeons instances, pvp changes and npc swarms, all classes are not built equally. I don't criticize being a tank , just if your not totally comfortable with being a slugger, you probably won't like the game
Atmosphere -**- ( depends on your taste)
The Devs here should be credited with going with their own definite style and taste. Rather then a "bland" non descriptive environment, they went for dark an dirty. So yes there are "swear" words and gore, but its not too explicit and most of it is related to the game play. Some players of course think an adult game means your now free to behave as a idiot. I.e. because its "M" rating you can " grief " and be obnoxious. I had wanted to play as a mage, but the choices were demon lover, undead death magic lover or demon/hell worshiper. Not good it you prefer not be involved in following overtly false/ demonic influences. It'd been nice to be able to least choose 1 'good"/"neutral" character. My point being the devs have labeled all magic 'evil' , regardless if its not to everyone's wishes.
Technical and online Side ****
Easy to set up, few game bugs, high requirements but you get high results, some glitches but devs are diligent to correcting them. Trade skills not so great and some in game items are yet to be seen. Some crowded playing areas and harsher for solo players. Basic UI ,which isn't that developed or adaptable.
Overall ***
Although it was an interesting experience I am not going to renew past the 30 day mark. It appeals to a certain type of play and that whilst the atmosphere and visuals are great, you are largely stuck in a Melee type world. I had hoped as I leveled there would be more mystic/interesting elements but not really, its Rambo as opposed to Apocalypse now. I certainly didn't have any "wow" moments(no pun intended at all). The Devs should be congratulated for a bold, stunning game. But doesn't mean it is for everyone.
Worth Every Penny! 
2008-07-17
When compared to CoH, WoW and LotR Online (MMOs that I've played) this game was by far the easiest to setup and patch. Although the game has many bugs it is still very playable as well as enjoyable (despite the mob of whining children, every patch has improved the game). This is not the game for the WoW player that enjoys a simple auto attack and alien looking armor/weapons. This game also offers a very detailed character creation (if you invest the time) and 12 classes. At level 65 (Priest of Mitra PvE server) I haven't had any problems with finding things to do such as quest, craft and gather. Anyone that has an interest in AoC should check the net for videos and decide if it is what they 're seeking. In my opinion this game is aimed at a more mature player that enojoys fantastic graphics and is willing to be challeneged.
Incomplete product, very unstable, poor customer service 2008-07-17
I purchased Age of Conan two days after its official launch. I played it for the duration of the initial free 30 day subscription you receive when you purchase the game.
* Be wary of reviews that only mention the area designed for new players, or extrapolate upon very minor features such as "character creation". These things, while strong in this game, are going to account for but a tiny part of your overall experience. My review focuses on aspects of the game that will affect your enjoyment from day one right on through day thirty - namely stability, content, and customer service. *
To start, I'll focus on the stability and quality of the application itself: Age of Conan is extremely unstable, being plagued by bugs that will crash your system for a variety of reasons. The game client has a lingering memory leak that has continued to wax and wane in prevalence since launch. As of the writing of this review, the stability of the client is still very poor and the memory leak is still very pervasive (you can verify this by visiting Funcom's official forums for Age of Conan). I attempted to use two separate high-end systems, both different architectures: one has an AMD 64 bit CPU, quad core, with a NVidia video card, the other is a dual core Intel-based system with an ATI video card. The Intel system runs Windows XP Pro SP2 and has 3.5 GB of RAM. The AMD system runs Vista Premium and has 4 GB of RAM. Both video cards are current generation, and are capable of running other modern games at the highest settings without issue. I tried running the client with my drivers and firmware fully up to date, attempted using different versions, and a wide variety of other modifications, but could never run the game with any semblance of stability. To qualify, I am a very well paid IT worker with over ten years of experience. I am currently a network engineer and work with everything from storage area networks to basic system analysis and administration for Netware and Windows servers (and occasionally Linux). I know full well what I'm doing.
Next, regarding the advertising of the product: Age of Conan is missing much of what is promised on the box, including technical features such as DirectX 10 (if you're not tech saavy, DirectX is an "application programming interface" for mutlimedia - graphics and audio. DirectX 10 is the latest and greatest version). DirectX 10 offers more powerful visual effects and cleaner, more detailed graphics. This game only supports DirectX 9. Large scale player-versus-player combat is not fully implemented. End-game "raiding" (content meant for large groups of players) is generally inaccessible to the average player. More on lacking features later.
Regarding game play: The virtual game world is not well realized. Many of the zones (sections of the virtual world) you adventure within may look large and expansive, but only a very small area is actually navigable; you are confined by invisible barriers into very small, track-like spaces. And unlike other MMO's where players can travel freely through an immersive persistent world, Age of Conan is heavily "instanced". That is, only a small number of people can be in any zone at the same time. When more players try to enter zone a new instance is created, which is a copy of the zone in which a set number of players are allowed into. So, although there may be 80 people in one zone, there may be four instances of that zone with only 20 players in each (I'm using arbitrary numbers as an example, it varies by zone).
Again, back to content: the game is very light on this. Aside from the very polished starting area that guides you through your first 19-20 levels, there isn't many fun and compelling activities. The quests are very formulaic and pedestrian (kill x amount of y, bring them to me), and quickly dissapear at higher levels, forcing players to "grind" (repeatedly killing the same creatures over and over again, for hours, to advance in the game). The crafting system, a staple of the MMO genre, is severely lacking. It does not reward appropriately for time spent, feels largely incomplete, and for lack of a better word is terribly boring. The developer is constantly making adjustments to how the character classes function, which is frustrating to players as they are forced to keep "respeccing" (modifying the abilities of their character skills), which costs money. Accruing money consumes considerable time. You get the picture. Many core game mechanics, such as character stats (think the standard Strength, Intelligence, Wisdom...) do not actually work. All of the gear your characters can use look similar, typically some form of a kilt, and is some hue of brown 99% of the time (I promise you I am not exaggerating). I could literally go on all day in this section. Suffice to say the game isn't very fun, as much of it is missing or does not function correctly.
And finally, there is virtually no customer service: in-game petitions for assistance routinely last for twelve hours or longer without being responded too, and more often than not are deleted with no notification, and no reason given as to why. To compound problems, The developer FunCom openly admitted on their official forums that the majority of customer service (both in-game and moderators on their web forums) currently consists of volunteers.
A fair warning to anyone thinking about purchasing this game. Buyer beware.
I really like AOC 
2008-07-16
To start I am a huge fan of the origianl books and I grew up reading the comics. I love the Conan legend. I bought this game and my 6 year old computer could not run it. So I needed a new one anyhow and I got a nice laptop. I loaded the game and I play it on a regular basis. I still like WOW but AOC is very fun. It is a much more adult game with sexual sugestion, heads being chopped off and bloody deaths. But this is what I loved about the entire Conan genre so if this type of adult content bothers you stay away. But if you want a more adult game then WOW (at this time) get it. I realy like this game and I will keep playing it to explore the world of Conan.
Poor Customer Service & Alpha Bugs Render AoC a 2/10 Overall 2008-07-16
Concept 9/10 - The Conan stories and lore make for a great game idea. Funcom did manage to implement many interesting storylines fans of Robert E Howard, Clark Ashton Smith, and HP Lovecraft will easily recognize.
Graphics 10/10 - There is alot of eye candy and beauty in Age of Conan.
Content 3/10 - Content across all the levels is lacking, but levels 50+ it gets downright pathetic.
Crafting 0/10 - Crafting was quite obviously an afterthought. It's buggy, it crashes people, it's clunky, it's worse than poorly implemented (if thats even possible!). I craft in every MMO I have ever played. I would rather have root canal than craft in AoC.
Funcom Customer Support 1/10 - It's next to non-existent. They change things so often your head will spin and the character you roll up today will be nerfed into oblivion tomorrow. Constant core class changes, broken feats, broken skills, and never a word from the developer on long term goals of any of the classes. YOU must pay for your own skill respecs (very expensive!) everytime the developer patches, which is once a week (currently).
Class/World Stability - 2/10 - Constant game mechanics changes, constant class "re-balancing", broken feats, incomplete and/or broken skills, alpha bugs (bugs that should have been fixed by beta testing and are considered game breaking), server instability, frequent crashes, and frequent restarts needed to address graphical glitches or lock-ups. This list is not inclusive.
Machine Needed to Run - Only the newest and shiniest rigs will run AoC somewhere near where it was intended. However, constant server-side instabilities coupled with poor overall performance (aka "red 10k ping"), will greatly impact even the most beefy of machines.
If you purchase this, beware that Funcom are not currently supporting their own product. Pay and play at your own risk.
