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From:Eidos
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User Rating: Amazon Sales Rank:#389 |
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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.
1 of 1 customers found the following review helpful:
 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.
3 of 3 customers found the following review helpful:
 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.
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