Creole Ned
07-21-2008, 04:53 PM
Here's my take on Age of Conan two months in. I won't be discussing PvP since I've only played on a PvE server.
My highest level character is a level 45 Herald of Xotli, a melee mage. The rest of my server slots are filled with other classes ranging from level 6 to 21 or so.
The Good:
- I love the look of the game. The scenery is often spectacular, whether it's lush, steamy jungles or towering snow-covered mountains that actually look like mountains, not just height-mapped terrain stretched way up in the world editor. Character models, both NPC and player, are also generally well-executed and visual effects are flashy without being quite as busy as some of the worst offenders in other MMOs.
- the combat system is the only one to really make my socks roll up and down since CoH. Although the combo system perhaps becomes a bit too much of a factor in the mid to higher levels (my aforementioned mage has to execute three moves for most of his attacks), combat still remains fast and satisfying. Sweeping your sword across a group of foes and having it hit all of them just feels right. Casters have some nice effects and some can melee decently as well, but ranged attacks feel pretty much the same as in most games. Not a bad thing, necessarily.
- the pace of leveling feels about right. It is definitely brisk in the early levels. In fact, it's the only MMORPG I've tried that lets you hit level 2 by defeating a single enemy.
The Not Good but Not Bad:
- Tortage is a nicely compact starting area with lots of quests and if you do the single player stuff, you can easily switch between the destiny (solo) quests and the others that can be done solo or with groups. You get tired of Tortage, though, because it's the *only* starting area -- a mistake, IMO. I'm not convinced that mandatory solo content is necessarily a good thing in an MMO, either.
- the UI. It is functional and has been improved but still lacks a lot of polish. Apparently mice with more than three buttons have never been introduced to the developers. Or the notion that you might want to adjust your mouse's sensitivity. The hotbars are twitchy and need work, too.
The Bad:
- bugs and broken stuff. Despite shipping late, the game still feels unfinished. There are a lot of bugs, ranging from trivial to "how'd they ship with that?" Funcom has been diligent at fixing issues but there has been a lot to fix.
- poorly realized character development. Your character gains a number of things as he advances: new abilities, new feats and skill points. There are problems with all three. In the early levels, abilities come fairly often but once you leave Tortage, it feels like your character is mostly complete and new abilities often don't come for five levels or so and even then, you'll likely just get upgrades to existing abilities. Feats work like WoW's talents but many feats remain broken or not properly documented. Balance issues are inevitable so I don't really ding the devs on that count. Finally, skill points can be used for things like climbing, hiding, mana regen and so on. For example, the first ladder you can climb will require 50 points in Climbing. Not a problem since you'll already have several hundred skill points. But why is the system doling out hundreds of points then requiring dozens for some skills to be useful? It's as if the devs just thought bigger numbers look better so they went with 50/500 instead of 5/50. There is also little in the way of direction in terms of how to assign skill points.
The end result of all this is that while combat remains brisk and engaging, my characters felt stilted and unchanging and my investment in them over time waned.
- mediocre gear. I am not a gearwhore but I do like getting shiny stuff that improves my character or at least makes him look better. AoC has a problem with both. In the case of the latter, especially so if you wear medium armor. I hope you like brown. The devs have been working on adding more robes and other armor but the current selection is pretty limited (although it does look very nice). Armor stats are generally pretty weak. I don't mind if the game is not built on the concept that "you are your gear" but getting a 0.1 defense boost on a chestpiece you may end up wearing for 10 levels just isn't very satisfying.
I'd still enjoy running through content with the highbie threesome of Circuit's guardian, Postal's bear shaman and my herald, but Postal has already abandoned the game, as usual. :P I am looking forward to what the devs add and fix in the upcoming months and plan on revisiting the game again but for now, I've decided to take a break from Hyboria. There's a lot I like about Age of Conan but it misses too many of the details to keep me hooked. I do miss the combat system when I switch over to a different game, though.
My highest level character is a level 45 Herald of Xotli, a melee mage. The rest of my server slots are filled with other classes ranging from level 6 to 21 or so.
The Good:
- I love the look of the game. The scenery is often spectacular, whether it's lush, steamy jungles or towering snow-covered mountains that actually look like mountains, not just height-mapped terrain stretched way up in the world editor. Character models, both NPC and player, are also generally well-executed and visual effects are flashy without being quite as busy as some of the worst offenders in other MMOs.
- the combat system is the only one to really make my socks roll up and down since CoH. Although the combo system perhaps becomes a bit too much of a factor in the mid to higher levels (my aforementioned mage has to execute three moves for most of his attacks), combat still remains fast and satisfying. Sweeping your sword across a group of foes and having it hit all of them just feels right. Casters have some nice effects and some can melee decently as well, but ranged attacks feel pretty much the same as in most games. Not a bad thing, necessarily.
- the pace of leveling feels about right. It is definitely brisk in the early levels. In fact, it's the only MMORPG I've tried that lets you hit level 2 by defeating a single enemy.
The Not Good but Not Bad:
- Tortage is a nicely compact starting area with lots of quests and if you do the single player stuff, you can easily switch between the destiny (solo) quests and the others that can be done solo or with groups. You get tired of Tortage, though, because it's the *only* starting area -- a mistake, IMO. I'm not convinced that mandatory solo content is necessarily a good thing in an MMO, either.
- the UI. It is functional and has been improved but still lacks a lot of polish. Apparently mice with more than three buttons have never been introduced to the developers. Or the notion that you might want to adjust your mouse's sensitivity. The hotbars are twitchy and need work, too.
The Bad:
- bugs and broken stuff. Despite shipping late, the game still feels unfinished. There are a lot of bugs, ranging from trivial to "how'd they ship with that?" Funcom has been diligent at fixing issues but there has been a lot to fix.
- poorly realized character development. Your character gains a number of things as he advances: new abilities, new feats and skill points. There are problems with all three. In the early levels, abilities come fairly often but once you leave Tortage, it feels like your character is mostly complete and new abilities often don't come for five levels or so and even then, you'll likely just get upgrades to existing abilities. Feats work like WoW's talents but many feats remain broken or not properly documented. Balance issues are inevitable so I don't really ding the devs on that count. Finally, skill points can be used for things like climbing, hiding, mana regen and so on. For example, the first ladder you can climb will require 50 points in Climbing. Not a problem since you'll already have several hundred skill points. But why is the system doling out hundreds of points then requiring dozens for some skills to be useful? It's as if the devs just thought bigger numbers look better so they went with 50/500 instead of 5/50. There is also little in the way of direction in terms of how to assign skill points.
The end result of all this is that while combat remains brisk and engaging, my characters felt stilted and unchanging and my investment in them over time waned.
- mediocre gear. I am not a gearwhore but I do like getting shiny stuff that improves my character or at least makes him look better. AoC has a problem with both. In the case of the latter, especially so if you wear medium armor. I hope you like brown. The devs have been working on adding more robes and other armor but the current selection is pretty limited (although it does look very nice). Armor stats are generally pretty weak. I don't mind if the game is not built on the concept that "you are your gear" but getting a 0.1 defense boost on a chestpiece you may end up wearing for 10 levels just isn't very satisfying.
I'd still enjoy running through content with the highbie threesome of Circuit's guardian, Postal's bear shaman and my herald, but Postal has already abandoned the game, as usual. :P I am looking forward to what the devs add and fix in the upcoming months and plan on revisiting the game again but for now, I've decided to take a break from Hyboria. There's a lot I like about Age of Conan but it misses too many of the details to keep me hooked. I do miss the combat system when I switch over to a different game, though.