Age of Conan

at higher levels, hitting a mob on a shielded side will result in damage proportionate to how much defence they have allocated there.

One bracket, moderate damage, 2 or three, forget it.

The great story aspects continue, but there are more stories to get involved in, and far more choices. It really opens up beautifully.

The linear, instanced, guided feel of the beginning of the game vanishes for themost part, and you are left in a world that will leave you exploring, screen-shotting, and generally marveling over a very alive-feeling environment.

Sorry to be so general, but I can't be specific, due to NDA of course.

Originally posted by Vortigon

I agree with OP, if AOC only gets interesting after 20 levels how the hell do they think they are going to have a successful game?

You have to catch the attention of players quickly nowadays, the vast majority wont stick around for 20 levels of garbage, what are they thinking??

If anything they'll want to get to lvl20 as fast as possible if, like u, they think the first 20lvls are "garbage" by being the most immersive, interesting story-driven part of the game. I at least know that I'll be happily taking my time during these first levels, I enjoy these RPG elements. In fact It's the part of the game that is different and much more interesting than most other MMO's early levels, IMO.

Running around on pathways isn't always a bore.  I mean, don't get me wrong - you do feel very confined, but it's no worse than just about any Single Player RPG on the market now - with a few exceptions.

KOTOR I and II were nothing but rails, and they were both fantastic games.  The Witcher is nothing but a rail fest, and it's awesome too.

One of th ebest RPGs I've ever played (although, I think maybe it was more of an action game) was Blade of Darkness.  It was a complete rail fest, but it had some of the best level design of any game I've ever played.

I think rails can be useful, but I just hope that after the lvl 20 cap, there will also be a lot of open exploration, like any other MMO out has.

Blade of Darkness?, would that be Severence : Blade of Darkness where you could hack limbs off of yuor enemeies then pick them up and beat people with severed arms ect?

If so that game was and still is awesome, it's hard as nails but the combat in it is excellent.

Originally posted by Cabe2323

 It has a lot of unrealistic gore (ie massive amounts of blood on wounds that would be more blood then a person actually has) and also way over usage of sexuality. 

You've never read Robert E. Howard's Conan stories have you?

First off, I honestly don't make the connection people are making with this game's first levels with WoW as being worse... I'm assuming you guys realize what the first levels of WoW are, right? Let's see, orc and troll starting area: kill pigs and spiders, more pigs and spiders, maybe a couple of goblins or whatever, etc. the human starting area: go kill some wolves and umm... uhh... rats with candles on their heads (WTF)...? O.K., here are your options. Kill these things without accepting the quests, or... accept the quests, get a little bit more exp for killing the things and some boots and a sword made of plastic.

Honestly at this point I can assume people are just joking around... please show me a game that isn't linear or a grind for it's first couple of levels. If you are honestly judging this game for it's starting areas then please play WoW, as I'm sure that is definitely less linear...

Look, let's judge AoC in a cynical way:

"Halt! Who dares enter the city of Tortage?"

"I'm a lowly gally slave who crash landed on the outskirts of your town, looking to make a name of myself in Hyboria!"

"Wow, really? I haven't heard that one before..."

AoC isn't doing anything out of the ordinary with it's questing, I think everyone can agree with that. But PLEASE, if you are going to make comparisons, don't make extremely bad ones. That is all I wanted to say on that sentiment.

As for everything else people are judging this game on: if you don't like the storyline, the combat system, the performance, the lack of content, the optimization, please, feel free to do so and play another game when it comes out, it's all honest opinion. Nothing to make a fuss over (which I just did hahahahahahaha... no)

Originally posted by BigMango

 

Originally posted by Cabe2323

 

 

EQ2 has a starter island but it isn't linear like Tortage Island is.  It allows you to run around the entire zone up to the cliffs etc.  What I hate are these artificial pathways that are created in games. 

 

 

Seems you haven't played the game much. When you start your movement is very limited. You need to train your climbing skill, the more you train it the better you can climb on cliffs, so you get more freedom to move.

I don't get the "path way" feeling you are talking about. Of course on the starter island you are directed. Even as it is now there constantly are people on the chat who can't find things.

It seems you haven't even left the single player starter island. Have you actually played past level 20 ?

There is so much to do and so much depth on the starter island already, with an interesting story line. I don't understand why FC chose to give the open beta players only 13 levels. I really got the feeling of the game around level 17, and it gets better the more I play. 13 levels is much too short, it only shows the basics of the game.

I like this new active combat system, with shield management. This is finally something different from the same old we see in 90% of the mmorpgs. Different, but not too much, so you can still feel at home. And the classes are great, with awesome character desing, not plastic like Eq2 at all. Being in a party is a lot of fun, the toons are goregous with some awesome skill effects.

There is however a lot of gore in this game, I agree with you on that point.

 

 

BigMango i don't know how you expect anyone to take you of all people seriously, i remember your posts when you were a vanboi. When we were complaining about performance you were saying things like "it plays at 60fps on my 1Ghz Celeron and GeForce MX440",  when we were complaing about bugs you'd never seen any and when eveidence of bugs and bad performance was presented your defense was that Sigil would release miracle patches.

I dont like it that ppl snap at someone because they dont agree with the OP! A game forum is a place where people are FREE to say how they feel about a game. Whats wrong with that? You dont have to share an opinion, but respect it.

I agree on some parts, on others not. I dont feel AoC looks so plastic like EQ2, tho I do feel the characters look a bit dull and boring. The world looks great, but also I feel surrounded by artificial walls everywhere. I know its a tutorial, but its a bad one and one that does not make a good example of exploring an open world, like I prefer. Its kinda claustrophobic. No idea how the world afterwards is, but since we are supposed to be there until level 20 or so I can only say, thats a lame decision for a MMO.

Well Elikal, i could say that i don't like people snapping at the OP for making some very valid points.