Skeptics who doubted there was room for another massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) alongside the 10-million-strong World of Warcraft and other persistent fantasy worlds can eat their words as Funcom has confirmed its hotly-anticipated Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures sold more than 400,000 units its first week alone -- even selling more copies than Grand Theft Auto IV in some markets.


Commercial success is one thing, but how does Age of Conan fare in the gameplay department? Will gamers agree to pay $14.99 a month after the first 30 days of free play are up? If our first eight days knee-deep in Hyboria are any indication, the answer is a definite yes. Gamers patient enough to sit through some growing pains -- namely, new servers added to handle the traffic and many system updates that address various technical bugs -- will find the experience an intense and rewarding one.

Based on the works of acclaimed fantasy author Robert E. Howard, Age of Conan begins like most other MMOs. After the slick CG sequence, players will spend a bit of time customizing their character in a number of areas, including gender, culture (Aquilonian, Cimmerian or Stygian), class (Barbarian, Shaman, Demonologist and nine others), voice, body size, skin color, hairstyle, facial features and so forth. Each class comes with its own skills and attributes, of course -- for example, the Ranger is more adept with bows and crossbows than, say, the Conqueror, a sword-wielding soldier with heavy armor. The culture you select will also determine the city to which you're teleported when finished with the brutal island of Tortage: Aquilonians will go to Old Tarantia with its towering castles and walls, Cimmerians will go to the mountainous Conarch Village, and Stygians will go to Egypt-like of Khemi (each with different quests, NPCs and so on). This also adds to the game's replayability.

The first 10 to 12 hours or so of the game are spent on the island of Tortage, by interacting with dozens of NPCs (non-player characters) who help you get your feet wet with many single-player missions; these include finding other NPCs or items, delivering important messages, stealthily approaching a target in the shadows, eavesdropping on conversations from rooftops, and attacking a boss (more on combat in a moment). By making decisions during conversations, you can accept single-player night missions or opt to take on multiplayer quests during the day. For example, towards the end of your stay on Tortage you'll find yourself exploring Acheronian Ruins, and you'll be asked if you want to go at it solo or with up to six players to split responsibilities like fighting, tanking, and healing.

Once you make it to level 20 or so -- out of a total of 80 -- and finish a climactic quest, you're zapped to the mainland of Hyboria and won't be spending much time alone from that point on. In the chat window presented at the side of the screen you'll be asked to join various groups of up to six people, or for a bigger commitment you'll often be invited to join specific guilds, though you must first achieve level 20 before starting one of your own (there is no cap on the number of people per guild). We didn't spend much time on dedicated player-vs.-player (PvP) servers, where it's one fighter against the other (or guild versus guild) as opposed to killing NPC creatures. If you're on a regular PvE (player-vs.-environment) server you can't be attacked by other players unless you enter a mini-game (such as Capture the Flag) or if your guild creates a battlekeep, which can be conquered by other guilds in a massive conflict. A glimpse of the Age of Conan forums will reveal a few players bitching about getting killed on PvE servers when going about their business, but this issue has now been patched, says Funcom.

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.

This review was based on a retail copy of the game provided by the publisher.