Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures (PC)

An exhilarating online fantasy well worth your time and money
6/2/2008 6:06 PM | 3 Comments | Page 2 of 3

Speaking of killing, the game offers a deeper real-time combat experience than most other MMOs. Over time you'll master mouse-and-keyboard moves and combos, be it hacking and slashing with swords or blunt weapons, shielding and dodging and other defensive maneuvers, using range weapons at a distance, performing magic attacks with spells, or summoning pets to help attack enemies. Commands are mapped to a small horizontal bar with small icons, showing you which number key to press for the desired outcome. This "Mature"-rated game is quite graphic in this department, with plenty of blood-splatter and dismembering.

When you level-up enough you'll have the option to pay NPC vendors for Mounts, such as quick horses or powerful mammoths used during combat. Height gives you an advantage, sure, but combos are nearly impossible during mounted combat (not to mention you'll likely be knocked off your horse by a tough enemy).

As with most other MMOs, be sure to loot the fallen enemy if they drop a parcel, which may include items, weapons or gold (used to buy goods from vendors). Ditch the items you don't need, while keeping (and outfitting) your character with head-to-toe gear to make them a tougher bad-ass.

While the sheer brutality (and sexuality, where busty women warriors can go topless, if they so choose) is what Conan fans have grown to expect from this 75-year-old franchise, this game also allows for construction rather than destruction: players can pick up a craft -- such as alchemy or blacksmithing -- and produce goods to use or sell to other players. And while we didn't try it ourselves, a real-time strategy-like feature lets guilds create their very own city by gathering resources and constructing buildings.

While the game has a lot going for it -- hundreds of missions, high-definition graphics and impressive voice acting from the NPCs -- there are a few issues that need ironing out. For one, the game didn't run very smoothly, even on a PC that more than met the minimum requirements (see www.ageofconan.com for details); some choppy frame rates and stuttering action sequences with large groups hurt the overall experience -- and this is on a quad-core PC with 3 GB of RAM and a decent Nvidia video card (a quick call to the tech support line confirmed they were working to "optimize" performance issues). Also be forewarned that Windows Vista owners are told to first install Service Pack 1 before playing, which we reluctantly agreed to do in order to play and review this game.

Secondly, there are odd glitches such as slain bodies that get stuck in the air face down and eerily gyrate on the spot. Or you might find yourself unable to jump onto dry land while in a half-foot of water, yet five minutes earlier you were able to effortlessly leap from one mountainside ledge to another.

Shortcomings notwithstanding, whether you're new to MMORPGs or a longtime fan in search of a new alternate reality, Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures is one of the most exhilarating PC releases to debut in a long while. While we've just scratched the surface of this ambitious fantasy world, it's easy to see that its strong community features, many diverse missions, and high presentation values should all ensure long-term commercial and critical success.