It seems as though WoW’s walked away unscathed yet again.

Game Info

Developer: Funcom
Publisher: Funcom and Eidos Interactive
Release Date: May 20, 2008
Genre: MMORPG
Available Platforms: PC
Modes: Online only
Reviewer’s Experience: Played to level 25 on several classes across two servers.
Author’s Note: I hope you enjoy the inaugural review. Please, email or comment me any crits that you have.

What’s Great:

• First 20 levels are entirely voice-acted. This means that the game’s intro is spectacular–and, honestly, quite deceiving of most of the game’s quality.
• Single-player intro makes you feel like part of the story from the beginning, defeating the evil Red Hand on Tortage, although grinding in the multiplayer areas is recommended before facing these quests.
• Graphics shine for a MMORPG, especially in the detailed character models and forests. In this of age WoW, it’s impressive.
• Innovative “Real Combat” system is one of the few areas that shines past the intro. Directional attacks string together into combos. This is what will keep you coming back–grinding is no longer quite as boring.
• Player-built cities and strongholds are a pretty cool promise, and fairly well-executed.

What’s Not:

• Illusions of grandeur fall apart after first 20 levels. There’s not a single voice-acted quest after you  get off of the starting island, Tortage. You quickly fall into “fetch X of Y for Z” quest patterns.
• PVP griefing. Although this is a problem that plagues almost every game (MMORPG or not), some of the choices for PVP zones in this game were…questionable, to say the least. The tavern where I have six quests shouldn’t be a PVP zone. The village where you learn crafting shouldn’t be a PVP zone. It’s pretty frustrating, especially for melee characters, who often get killed by trick-arrow gankers.

Although these may seem like fairly minor grievances, I found myself quickly after the first area thinking, “This is WoW with a new coat of paint!” Though the developers promise new “destiny quests”–a voice acted quest every level–and changes to the PVP system, I have to wonder how many have already been lost, how many possible converts have gone back to WoW because of friends or whatever. Me, I’m going to stick with the game–I’m not a WoW player, and I’ve got nothing better to do. I’ll keep this article updated if it improves.

Overall, I think that Age of Conan starts out incredibly. The beginning really has the makings of a spectacular MMORPG. I just think that this one should’ve spent a little more time in the cooker. Maybe, in the future, it’ll be great. For now, all I hope is that some better game will come along and build upon Conan’s core mechanics–the excellent Real Combat system, which keeps combat interesting, and the story-driven introduction. Until then, well, WoW, you can keep your place on the pedestal of MMORPG God status.