|
| 
| From: Eidos
Category: Video Games
List Price: £34.99
Buy New: £16.99
You Save: £18.00 (51%)
New (26) Used (12) from £3.99
Avg. Customer Rating:  35 reviews
Sales Rank: 3970
Platform: Windows Xp
Media: Video Game
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 7.4 x 5.4 x 0.6
EAN: 5021290031609
ASIN: B0012PN1TE
Release Date: May 23, 2008
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours
|
| Customer Reviews:
Very Poor Customer Service June 12, 2008
2 out of 5 found this review helpful
Warning! The company behind Conan has almost nothing in the way of customer support. If you do not like the game, there is no known way to cancel your subscription. All customer support mail is handled by a bot, so no resoloution is possible!
Promising, but incomplete June 4, 2008
36 out of 38 found this review helpful
I've been playing since the start of open beta, through early access and now have a level 76 character on a pvp server, so I have experienced the majority of the available content.
There are things which I love about this game and there are things that I dislike immensely, let's start with the good. Characters and combat are really fun, the combo system works really well, and for spellcasters no need to stop and target, as long as you are facing an enemy your spells should select the target.
The graphics are very impressive, notably in the first 20 levels, White Sands Isle is particularly nice with sun bleached sand and rippling azure water. however later areas lack some of the polish of the early zones. A zone like Thunder River is still impressive, but seems visually to be a bit more rough around the edges. You are given a fair amount of choices when designing your character, and there are more sliders than you could shake a stick at, however a few more variations of skin tone and hair colour would have been nice. I also really like the design of the weapons and armour, they are stained, cut and dented. Even the lower level items look good on your character, I have a level 20 assassin who is wearing flip flops, how cool is that :D
There are three resource zones where the majority of gathered items can be collected by players, I actually found it fun expoloring these zones as quite often mobs of your level will spawn while you are collecting. This leads me on to what you are collecting for...
Guild Cities, this is what has kept me motivated to continue with the game, your guild collects resources and then starts building a city in an instance of one of the resource zones. So far my guild has managed to build most of the fist tier of buildings, you get a good degree of choice in where to place the different buildings, and it is always nice to see them being raised from the ground. When I say a city, I really do been it, these things are big, maybe 2/3 of one of the capitals from WoW.
The clases also seem very fun, I have been playing a Priest of Mitra, which I have found has some intersting and clever abilities and is a real pleasure to play. I have tried out most of the classes at lower levels and they all seem interesting. Also if you enjoy playing a healer type class you should really enjoy the three priest classes, they are all unique and can all also do a fair bit of damage, which is a nice change from other MMOs.
Sounds good so far? Be prepared here come the negatives...
There are alot of loading screens, each zone is a seperate area that has to be loaded, this sometimes gives me an impression that I am playing in a series of, admitedly large, room, rather than being part of a seamless world. I used to play World of Warcraft and looking back I really enjoyed the fact that you could travel the entire length of a continent without seeing a loading screen, Conan does not make me feel the same way.
There is not enough content in the game yet, meaning you will have to spend much of your time in the later levels grinding. To be fair to Funcom they have stated they know this is an issue and are adding additional quests in the next few weeks.
The big selling point of this game for me was the Siege Warfare, this has not been implemented yet alongside many of the end game raids and dungeons.
Ther are many bugs such as extremely long respawns on quest items, mounts going slower than a walking player, quests that cannot be completed, graphical glitches, crashes etc. Age of Conan definitely feels unfinished.
Personally I will take a break from the game and come back in a few months when hopefully some of these issues have been resolved, I do think it has the potential to be a great game, in a few months time.
 Revolutionary, a real treat for the senses. June 2, 2008
5 out of 9 found this review helpful
First off, I'm not some kind of inexperienced gamer who suddenly decides to try out a new mmo because it's something I've never done before. I love playing on any sort of game if they're any good. So, normally MMO's aren't my cup of tea. I've played on almost all the MMOs on the market and almost each and every one of them seem to be identical. I personally own WOW, EQ2, Lotro and Guild Wars. My personal favourite out of all of those would be Everquest 2 because it's much deeper than all the rest. But quite frankly the overall gameplay between all these products remain completely identical and fear to tread new ground. And so now comes the bravest attempt for an MMO of all time: Age of Conan.
Traditional MMO gameplay has been completely removed for this game, and it's about damn time as well. Long gone are the mindless auto-attacks that seemed to ruin the gameplay and the strategic points from WoW, EQ2 and Lotro. Now, combat is fast - paced, bloody and just plain fun. You'll often forget that you're even playing an MMO, and that you're just playing a fantastic RPG.
And that's what's great about Age Of Conan. There's an option for not grinding at all, and just do some cleverly - plotted quests that are so much more advanced than the emotionless text that NPC's gave out when you wanted a quest in WoW. There's an option for almost all the quests if you want to do them in single player, which means if your friends aren't on, you don't have to bring up a pathetic chat window typing in: "LFG to Deadmines".
These little things give AOC a tremendous boost that no other MMO has succeded to achieve. Yes, it has had a generally buggy release, but that's what's to be expected, right? Lotro had a far worse release with framerates going down to their 20fps even on high - spec systems and it still hasn't gone any better.
Fortunately, AOC has managed to have a steady framerate on the medium spec systems and still looks gorgeous. Just look at the screenshots if you haven't done already. Seriously, this stuff is mind - blowing.
PVP is pretty good as well, CTF and siege modes are available and is at least something fresh at the genre.
Put it simply, AoC is the most perfect example ever made of what MMOs should be, breathtaking, fun and grind - free. I reccommend this to even people who don't usually enjoy MMos as well. It's completely fresh and original, sticks faithully to it's lore and it never get's boring. It's even worth it's monthly fee.
Of course, we'll have to wait and see if AoC doesn't get repetetive after a long period of time, but I've got high hopes for this one....
 Overhyped, Unless..... June 2, 2008
5 out of 11 found this review helpful
Let me run through the major ups and downs with this game; starting with the downs...
- If your pc is not the absolute *absolute* best end pc, you will not be able to run this game on the lowest settings.
I cannot stress that enough. Really.
I have never, ever had a problem running a game on maximum quality, the very highest graphics settings. I can only just run this game on low.
- A funny comment that I seem to hear from a lot of people is "Hooray! Finally, an MMO which doesn't consist of button mashing"
May I point out - if you play a melee class in this game - you will probably need to replace the 1,2,3 keys on your keyboard on a weekly basis. I dont think I know of a game where you mash the same three keys so much.
- You can kill any player
To me, this initially sounded like a really nice idea, me being a pvper and all. But after I've witnessed it, I realise what a horrible horrible mess it is.
The fact that a player who is 50 levels above you can come and kill you and get kill points for it is ridiculous - so much so I'm assuming it's a bug which they'll hopefully fix at some point.
You could argue "why did you roll on a pvp server" at this next point, but after a day of it, you wouldn't be saying that.
Imagine you have a quest to kill a certain mob, lets call him "Barry". and lets say at any given time there are 3 - 6 other people going to kill barry as well. Everyone tries to kill eachother and ultimately - to level you have to be the best pvper. If you're really unlucky there'll be a level 70 or 80 camping Barry for some easy pvp kills. Now imagine trying to level like that - about 10 quests per level at the start, slowly increasing
And on the topic of pvp - there is no skill to this game. gear means little - PVP is purely a battle of whose pc runs the best
And the good points?
- The combat system. I know, I know, I just told you it was a buttonmash-fest, and it is. But I'll give it this - it does stop you from falling asleep mid battle. Not because it's not boring (I assure you, it is) but because you need to concentrate somewhat.
- *IF* your pc can handle the maximum quality graphics, they are outstanding.
- (This point is only a plus because it deals with the terrible pvp system, however if the pvp didn't suck, this would be in the "bad points") A big chunk of the game is single player. Hooray, you don't have to die a billion times to get your quests done! Although this kinda defeats the point of an MMO, and I *think* the single player part of the game is mandatory.
So overall 3/2 stars out of 5. There are a lot of mixed opinions with this game. To be perfectly honest though, it seems like the only people who would enjoy it are those that have 3,000 brand new PCs and enjoy an easy mashing of keys.
Funnest MMO I've played June 2, 2008
5 out of 9 found this review helpful
I'm a level 32 Cimmerian Dark Templar in the game and so far I have had a really good time.
First of all, the sense of context and 'place' is outstanding. I have absolutely no background knowledge of the Conan universe, but because of the richness of the game I have just ordered the 'complete chronicles of Conan' book by Robert E. Howard. The rich lore is coupled with the absolutely gorgeous graphics to create the most immersive MMO I have played (bearing in mind that my MMORPG experience consists of WoW, Lotro and EQ II).
To elaborate furhter on the graphics: if your system can handle maxing out the draw distance (how far away you can see) you're in for a serious treat. Stuff that is far away actually looks the way it should; the sense of scale is perfect. Foliage is dense and realistic. The water effects are beautiful. The armour looks cool. Plus, there is the promise of even better graphics to come, with the update to DirectX 10.
Gameplay-wise, we may not be witnessing a revolution in combat mechanics, but the AoC system is definitely more visceral and involved than your typical MMO. The combo/shield system keeps your mind from drifting off while fighting NPC's and adds a dimension of skill to the PvP (player versus player) combat.
My only downsides so far are that there has been some glitchiness (occasional bugs) but personally have not seen anything serious. They've already fixed the bank/auction house stuff which people were complaining about in older reviews. I can't take a star off for that because every MMO has some problems when they start and AoC's problems have been comparatively few. There are also some fairly rude people on my server who tend to insult people who ask questions or talk in the general chat channel, but they are a minority. It might also be because I'm on a PvP server, which might be more testosterone fueled than a PvE server (not that I regret being on a PvP server- it adds a feeling of danger and edginess that I quite enjoy).
In addition to all the things that are available right now, we also have a lot to look forward to in future updates from the development team. Besides DX10, there will also be a bounty hunting system for PvP and even prisons for players who unfairly/repeatedly murder (gank/grief) their fellow Hyborians. Not to mention new content. We have also yet to see the guild system blossom (as I'm sure it will). This is why I cannot understand previous reviewers who have said that they got up to level 24 or so and then gave up. There is so much to see in the world! So much stuff to do! So much potential for great PvP! Someone who hasn't even reached level 30 will not have experienced any more of the main storyline (for which there IS voice acting) or worn more advanced armour, or ridden a mount, or seen a guild city, or stood a chance in PvP. So please disregard the cynics and give Conan a try! It's already taking in loads of new players, and the more people who join Hyboria the more fun the game will be.
I'll try to write another review when I reach level 80, but so far so good!
|
|
|
| |
