Recently Allakhazam was invited to play the highly anticipated upcoming MMO “Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures”. During that time many questions were asked and answered, including a sit down interview with Jørgen Tharaldsen who is the Product Director for AoC. I must warn you before hand that even though the game is not yet rated, they are aiming for a Mature rating. As such, they aren’t pulling any punches and this is seen in the trailers and screenshots, so if you have a weak stomach or don’t like to see blood and gore you should probably turn away. Of course, if you’re reading this then you likely are interested in Age of Conan anyway and know that already.

Now that all that introduction is out of the way, let’s get to the meat of this shall we? We were given four hours with the game, on top of the line equipment. We started out making our own characters and exploring the creation screen, low level quests and areas, and all the various settings for graphics. After that we formed teams to try two dungeons, and then finally an all out PvP war of Fansites vs. the Game Developers! However, that will have to wait for later, as I’m going to start at the beginning.

Graphics Galore, bleed your eyes or burn your eyes?

We all know that graphics aren’t everything in a game, and good gameplay can easily offset poor graphics. However, as you can see from the screenshots the game is visually stunning.

Now, as I said, we were given VERY good PCs to play the game on (XPS desktops with nVidia 8800s and Core 2 QUADS with nice large widescreen monitors to be precise) but that doesn’t mean you have to have top of the line equipment to play the game and still have it look stunning. They also had the game running on a mid-range laptop (sorry no clue on the specs) and it was running quite well, and still looked great. The reason for this is that the game engine is easily scalable, much like EQ2’s, and even on a lower end machine it still looks great. Just about everything can be changed, and they also offer preset performance profiles, so you can easily customize it to run on your PC and still look good.

Innovations Galore

After creating a character, which is very detailed, although still in need of polishing, we were let loose in the game world. Along with the VERY detailed character creation, you immediately see several things that are new, at least to the MMO world. The first of which is you start in your own solo instance, and don’t actually enter the “multiplayer” world until level 5. After that you can switch back and forth between the two at will until level 20, when you finally go fully multiplayer. Granted, a private instance to start off with isn‘t that new (LotRO currently does something similar, and EQ2 did in the past too), However switching between a private instance and the world at large at will is a nice touch, and is even encouraged by them as you can only complete your class quests at night, which is the solo instance.

Something a lot newer, or at least that I haven’t seen, is best shown with this screenshot

Yes, that’s right, branching dialog. Funcom has coded into the game something you normally only see in a few single player games. This is an interesting choice, especially considering that you can’t reload and go back to the dialog choice as in single player games, so you live with the choice for your character’s life. This is another example of where the game can use some polish. Some of the lip syncing isn’t in, and not all the dialog is recorded. However, they still have four more months and I was told that they are still actively recording and adding sound clips with more lip syncing. There are also several female NPCs who dance seductively as you talk to them, which I was told is a bug they are working on.

Was that a burning headless corpse going past me?

In the world of Conan, it very well could have been! The combat system is great fun, and very gory. Every class has various “fatality” moves which trigger automatically (albeit at a low percent chance) from your base attacks, and also when using combo moves or various spells. For example, as you saw in the new trailer, a rogue stabbed someone then turned around and stuck a dagger in their throat. Of course, it just wouldn't be Conan without....

Yep, decapitations with full blood splatter and gore.

Another innovation can be seen in the combat, as every attack can be an AE attack. You can run up, hit an attack direction, and it can hit multiple mobs. Yes, you heard me right, I said attack direction. You have 3 basic attacks to choose from; left, top, and right. In addition each mob (and eventually players they hope) has defenses (3 max) in the form of “shields”. This is nothing more than where the mob currently has their defenses allocated, however this directly affects the damage you do and chance to hit. These shields will also change dynamically in combat. For example, say a mob has 3 to the right. If you attack from the right you’ll do very little damage and have a low chance to hit. However, if you keep attacking from the left the mob is going to move the defenses over there. This makes for a refreshing change of pace from other MMOs where it is just basically “engage, hit x buttons until dead.” Not that there is anything wrong with that, and there are still very strategic fights to be had that way, but this adds another dimension to combat and makes it that much more exciting and strategic.

You can also do certain combo moves (slightly different from the ones I mentioned above), which basically do two attacks in the time it takes to do one. Each weapon type has different combos, so what may work with one won’t work with another. For example, with the starting weapon (an Oar) you can do a right swing and then quickly follow it up with a left swing to do sort of a follow up attack with bringing your oar back across the target(s) again. As you gain levels you also open up combo abilities, all of which can still end with the aforementioned beheading or some other fatality style move.

But don’t think only the melee players get to have the fun of killing people brutally like that. Nope, mages are also getting equal love. In addition to the spell weaving (which sadly wasn’t in the version we played, but was explained briefly as combining various spells) each spell has a chance to be a fatality also. For example, mages who want to use fire spells can literally set the mob on fire which causes them to do an emote, scream, and fall over dead. Ice spells can freeze them solid and shatter them, Lightning causes electrocution, and holy spells will cause them to do a pose and fall into a black void.

The spell casting I did was, for the most part, fairly standard for MMOs, target and click. However, there was also a channeled spell where you could turn around while channeling it, and can hit multiple enemies. Several spells also had fairly decent splash damage around the target. Healing is supposed to mainly consist of heals over time, which should give healers a more active role in combat and allow them to do some damage.

Now, I should add a quick disclaimer about the “standard” spell casting here: We were only leveled up to about 22, so there is a very good chance that come higher levels they will have more dynamic spell casting such as the meleers get.

“But what about PvP? Can you behead people in PvP and set them on fire and such?”

Well of course you can! I personally witnessed several decapitations, and set a few people on fire when playing against the devs.

I did warn you earlier it was a Mature MMO didn’t I?

Devs vs. Fansites PvP, mayhem ensues!

You’ll remember earlier I talked about how we got to play against the Devs in PvP? Well now it's finally time for me to talk about that and give you lovers of PvP a little bit information about AoC's PvP!

The type of PvP we ended up playing was Capture The Flag, although there will be other modes as well, when the game is released.

The first thing you should know about PvP is that there will be both ranked and unranked matches along with a matchmaking system and a queue you can enter from anywhere in the world. After a few people have been found, you will be teleported to a staging area, where everyone waits for the final people, and then the match will begin.

Some of the same rules apply in both PvE and PvP. You can still behead people, set them on fire, freeze them, etc. However there are, at least in CTF, several other differences which are an interesting change. Probably the largest of which is that, in true Conan fashion, running away isn’t encouraged. In fact, if you’re hit from behind you slow down and become sort of dazed. This ensures that most fights are to the death, which is certainly something that will appeal to some people. Another thing is that you run REALLY slowly when you have the flag, although you do have a sprint option (which is also in the PvE game) to run faster for a short period of time (it uses up stamina which is limited), although not fast enough to escape people pursuing you. Sprinting with the flag raises your run speed to about normal, but your pursuers can also use sprint to boost their speed above your slower speed.

Now, that doesn’t mean that only the heaviest armor classes can or should carry the flag. I was playing a mage and easily carried the flag back to base. Because most fights are in the “To the Death” style, in CTF that really encourages teamwork, so anyone can run the flag well if they have a small group with them. I was able to run the flag because the Fansite team did a good job protecting me and we worked together to complete the “objectives” as it were, even going so far as to win the second match. That isn't to say the developers didn't put up a good fight though, I mean they did make the game and have been playing it for a lot longer then most of us!

The classes, what we had since we didn't have enough to equally represent all of them, seem really well balanced. Even though I was able to obtain the most kills, as a mage, in both rounds, I was by no means invincible and could have died quite easily several times if it wasn’t for the timely use of potions, someone beheading one of the people chasing me, and me setting another one or two on fire, all of which happened to both teams a few times.

Eventually the Devs hope to have the shield/defense system I touched on before for players too, which will add a whole new dimension to PvP that hasn’t been seen before. Already it is a fresh take on the system, with changes such as “To the Death” combat and other nifty little features evident in CTF. But CTF is just one mode. There are plans for large scale guild vs. guild combat where you have to invade cities. Then there is also mounted PvP combat as you level up, and all sorts of other goodies.

That’s really only the briefest overview of PvP, and only for CTF games. There is much more planned for PvP and in the interview with Jørgen Tharaldsen he gives us some more information about the “Border Kingdom” combat, which is where you will find the things like Battle Keeps, Mercenaries, and more. So be sure to stay tuned for that which will be coming shortly.

Some Final Thoughts

All in all, I’m really surprised and pleased about Age of Conan and how far along it is considering the closeness to release. Are there some bugs still? Of course, even if some are quite funny (see the dancing NPC above). Does the game still need some polish? Of course it does or it would have been released already. However, for being only four months from release the game is remarkable polished and done. I don’t know if they will need all that time, but considering the release state of some games and the current state of this game, I applaud them for taking the time to make sure they have it right and put a nice polish on things.

The game itself promises to not only be massive fun, but also will introduce quite a few innovations into the genre. Just as WoW changed the genre, I can see AoC changing it also. They are making combat more interactive, dynamic, and making some radical changes to PvP. As you’ll read in the interview with Jørgen Tharaldsen, they are also fully integrating crafting into the game and you will actually need crafters for things other than potions and the like, so all you crafters rejoice. Quests and NPC dialogs are becoming more dynamic with the selective choices, and the switching between a solo instance and the world at large is a nice touch. Even though that only goes up to level 20.

Will Age of Conan end up being the WoW killer that so many people are waiting for? It’s quite possible, although it‘s still way too early to tell. Then there is also the fact that they are going after a total different market by aiming for the Mature rating while WoW and everyone else is “stuck” in the Teen market. That’s certainly a risk, but it could very well work in their favor, and you don’t get ahead without taking risks. Only time will tell whether the risk pays off, but if they stay on the track they are taking now it very well could.

Update:you can read the interview with Jørgen Tharaldsen here