Age of Conan opinions needed

[Morgoth]

I hesitated to get it on release day, because, you know... being a MMO and all....

There was also a shatstorm of mixed feelings about it. The first 20 levels in Tortage should be pretty awesome, but after that, it's supposed to be completely broken. Is that still true? Is the game now fun and playable?

[The.Donut]

I think the general consensus is that the game seems rather unfinished and unpolished (dungeons being unplayable and buggy) and the communication between the devs and the community is rather poor. My advice would be to give it a few more months of patching.

 

This is purely based upon what I've read in forums and the like - haven't actually played the game myself - so take what I say with a pinch of salt.

[Morgoth]

Yeah, that's what I heard. But it also could be trolling and the usual hate that the MMO crowd spreads. Still, honest opinions are welcome.

Edited July 17, 2008 by Morgoth

[Hurlshort]

I played it for the first month of release, as well as a bit of open beta. It's a beautiful game and it really catches the flavor of the Conan books and the best parts of the movies. It is different than any MMO out there in terms of setting and gameplay. The setting is more adult, and I'm not talking about boobs, it's just a very gritty world. Slavery and cruelty are very common themes throughout the game.

 

The gameplay is much faster than other MMO's. I'd compare it more to Guild Wars than anything else, but it still is fairly unique. That being said, it's still very simple.

 

I played three different characters through the first 20 levels of Tortage. This part of the game is well done, in fact I've compared it favorably to many single player games. The purchase alone was worth it for that part of the game for me. But after level 20 I really lost interest fast. The game loses its purpose after that and becomes fairly grindastic. The level cap is 80, so you can see that Funcom is pretty set on the treadmill game design.

 

So I'd say get it if you enjoy the setting, they really pull it off. Also get it if you have the patience for an MMO grind.

[Morgoth]

How long does it take to reach Lvl 20?

[@\NightandtheShape/@]

Not very long, you can certainly do it within a month...

[Moatilliatta]

@Hurl

Do you think it's possible that the game could be fun after level 20 after enough patches?

[Morgoth]

Not very long, you can certainly do it within a month...

No doubt, but how long does it estimately take in hours? I'm not gonna fork out 50

[tripleRRR]

Less than 10 hours really. If you do all the quests and listen to all the dialog then you might hit 12.

[Morgoth]

Oh well not worth then.

[Hurlshort]

@Hurl

Do you think it's possible that the game could be fun after level 20 after enough patches?

 

That's a tough question. I know quite a few folks who are enjoying the post-20 content, but they are more comfortable with the grinding nature of MMO's. I don't see that changing. I do imagine they will clean up the bugs and add some content for those levels over the next year, but I don't think they will change their entire design.

 

10 hours is probably about right for the first 20 levels. There is pretty decent re-playability though, a stealthy character takes a very different route to the end than a warrior character. I played through it three times and it wasn't until the third time that I started getting bored with it.

[Rosbjerg]

I've been playing it for a month now.. and I'm having a fairly good time.. I've never played MMOs before, so the grinding is bothering me alot. Also the constant quests that are pretty much "go to That Guy/Place and fetch my X amount of Y" ..

 

But I'm playing in an RP-PVP server - and that is great fun, the RP community on the European servers is really great. That's what saves it for me. If the crowd was boring it'd be out of that game in no time.

[@\NightandtheShape/@]

Not very long, you can certainly do it within a month...

No doubt, but how long does it estimately take in hours? I'm not gonna fork out 50

[Morgoth]

I'm a fickle bastard, so I'll pick it up tomorrow. There's nothing else left to play until Autumn.

[Bokishi]

I'm at 22, and am kinda staying there lol

[tripleRRR]

All I am doing is leveling all the classes that interest me to the early 30s then starting a new one.

[Dark_Raven]

I wanted to get it, it looked pretty interesting in the game magazine reviews. Than I saw it was a pay to play game. No sale.

[Bokishi]

I wanted to get it, it looked pretty interesting in the game magazine reviews. Than I saw it was a pay to play game. No sale.

 

But first month is free!

[Jaesun]

I wanted to get it, it looked pretty interesting in the game magazine reviews. Than I saw it was a pay to play game. No sale.

 

Well... wait a couple of years and they will finally adopt the same model all MMOG's do. The game finally become free to d/l... then all you have to pay is the 20$ a month. Until they announce an expansion...

[Dark_Raven]

People need to stop buying games that require a monthly fee. Once the developers see that no one is buying their game they'll quit making those types of games or offer free internet play like BattleNet and GuildWars.

[Jaesun]

People need to stop buying games that require a monthly fee. Once the developers see that no one is buying their game they'll quit making those types of games or offer free internet play like BattleNet and GuildWars.

 

I can understand why battle.net is free. There is very little cost to Blizzard for it, except for the server costs.

 

I am still a bit amazed Guild Wars is still around. I fully expected it to fail by now.

[Hurlshort]

Heh, sometimes people quote DR and I accidently read the nonsense that she posts.

 

GW and Battlenet are not anything like the standard MMO. They are both great ways to run a game, but not everyone wants to be limited to instances and chat rooms.

 

Subscription numbers are growing, so developers aren't going to be backing off the monthly payment model. $10-15 a month for hours of entertainment is a reasonable exchange for most people. Movie prices have continued to rise over the years as well, and I don't think a few folks staying home will change that. Considering a month of WoW or whatever is the some price as 2 movie tickets, I consider it a fair exchange.

[Morgoth]

Bought it, installed it (ugh takes long), patched it (1,57Gbyte Patch wtf?), playing with a Conquerer (melee fighter).

 

Gotta say, I'm pleasently suprised. I was first a bit scared that the game would crash or any other bad surprises could occure, but nope, it runs stable, with a steady 60fps on High details. It looks gorgeous, especially at night.

Well, I only played to lvl 8 so far, but I like the combat system alot. The old automatic click-and-wait nonsense from WoW really made me tired, so I'm glad Funcom took a more fast and action oriented approach. Great atmosphere and nasty pirates. There were apes too on the island (but why no monkeys?).

So far, so good.

[@\NightandtheShape/@]

I certainly think it's far superior to WoW, but then again I have a very low opinion of WoW.

[tripleRRR]

Eh the hit key to swing thing got old for me very fast. Plus pvp as melee with it is a godawful nightmare ><. The game is ok but doesn't grip me enough to pay for it any longer.