MMORPG.com Reviewer Jef Reahard takes a deep look at Funcom's Age of Conan, highlighting the game's strengths and weaknesses.

I'm standing high atop the windswept peaks of the Eiglophian Mountains, looking out across the switchbacks and narrow ravines leading to the tiny settlement of Dinog nestled near the roots of the hills. Its an altogether magnificent scene, or, at least it was until I looked down to see the tip of a sword sticking out of my gut, the blood-red drops of gore trickling off its tip and soiling the pristine white of the snow-capped ledge beneath my sandaled feet.

Phuxurmom, a conqueror according to my combat spam, swings his sword deftly and, in two swift strokes, my assassin lies sprawled in a pool of his own guts as they spread beneath him on the frozen tundra, his head a few feet removed from the rest of his body and his arms embarrassingly akimbo. All I can do is hurriedly click the respawn button to save my poor avatar from the tea-bagging fate that is surely worse than his latest pseudo-death. The joke of it all is that there was no rare spawn nearby, no resource node within a country mile, and really, no reason at all for the bloke's sword to be sticking out of my gullet other than the sheer spitefulness and possible adolescent maladjustment of its owner.

Check out the Age of Conan Review

Nice review, but what is with the constant jabs at the player base? I mean, no disrespect, but it could be you, not them, that’s the problem. I mean, shall we start including opinions on the player base of all games in official MMORPG.com Reviews? They would just about all read the same way. Do the writers here know about this thing called the internet? Its almost a pointless thing to include, as every single person will have a different experience. 9 times out of 10, most people that say "This community sucks", walked in and started pissing on the drapes.

As far as PvP consequences go, the system is on the test server. I understand you can’t review what you have not played on live. But it’s on the way, and I hope for all those that are not playing, you amend or re-review the game when it goes live.

Why didn't john do this review, seems every review on this site now is done by someone else, makes it hard to gauge anything in the articles. Review from internet user #36579241 is about as useful as an official review as the 5 threads in the games forums by the same title.

Originally posted by Mrbloodworth

Nice review, but what is with the constant jabs at the player base? I mean, no disrespect, but it could be you, not them, that’s the problem. I mean, shall we start including opinions on the player base of all games in official MMORPG.com Reviews? They would just about all read the same way. Do the writers here know about this thing called the internet? Its almost a pointless thing to include, as every single person will have a different experience. 9 times out of 10, most people that say "This community sucks", walked in and started pissing on the drapes.

The observations on the player base are just that, my observations.  Some will agree, some won't, but reviews are, by nature, opinion pieces, and I don't have any interest in watering down my perceptions to make them more palatable for folks that have thin skin.

I still play AoC on a PvE server and really don't have any issues with the player base. Most of them seem pretty decent.

The writers experience which apparantly comes from a PvP server is pretty much echoed in the AoC forums as screams of ganking, griefing, and OP threads. The new system being implemented in the upcoming patch supposedly will negate some of those complaints but...well you can't please everyone so I'm sure it will continue to a hopefully lesser amount.

I like the game but there are still many lag issues and some broken quests which have stayed broken through all the updates. Personally I'm sticking around until patch 3.0 comes out and if many of the same problems exist then time to move on.

Originally posted by jedijef

 and I don't have any interest in watering down my perceptions to make them more palatable for folks that have thin skin.

Uh, yeah. That’s what I said. The problem was, you simply sounded bitter. Especially with the "Ganking" comments and the slurs used to generalize the player base.

To be honest, sounds like you rolled on an open PvP server, and found out that YOU, have thin skin.

Originally posted by Mrbloodworth

Nice review, but what is with the constant jabs at the player base? I mean, no disrespect, but it could be you, not them, that’s the problem. I mean, shall we start including opinions on the player base of all games in official MMORPG.com Reviews? They would just about all read the same way. Do the writers here know about this thing called the internet? Its almost a pointless thing to include, as every single person will have a different experience. 9 times out of 10, most people that say "This community sucks", walked in and started pissing on the drapes.

As far as PvP consequences go, the system is on the test server. I understand you can’t review what you have not played on live. But it’s on the way, and I hope for all those that are not playing, you amend or re-review the game when it goes live.

Why didn't john do this review, seems every review on this site now is done by someone else, makes it hard to gauge anything in the articles. Review from internet user #36579241 is about as useful as an official review as the 5 threads in the games forums by the same title.

To be brutaly honest, he was spot on about the AoC playerbase. Read the the tech forums, AoC players tend to go into "attack mode" when people ask honest questions about problems they are experiencing, I mentioned it several times in the AoC forums myself, The AoC community is infested with the "bully mentality". I believe that as long as AoC is around, other games will benefit from the fact that the worst of the worst are playing AoC, and not ganking/griefing in the others.

And anonymous reviews are just as meaningful as reviews done by anyone else. Just because you don't know him doesn't mean that he doesn't know what he is talking about.

The 6 rating is about right.  I would have put more emphasis on the technical faults as opposed to the community though, but if that was the reviewers experience I think it is a legitimate observation.

Graphics they got right.  One day in White Sands I  just stopped and admired my male avatar's physique.  With shader 3.0, the anatomy is so good...far and away better than any other mmo.  The fact that my avatar looked pretty much like every other character in my class was a major draw back though.  Also, although there were customization sliders, I could really only come up with one male and one female that I was happy with.  Everything else I created looked ugly to me. 

I liked the fact that the females could go topless, although I always stayed covered up.  The ability to look at your toons breasts is unnecessary, but occasionally gratifying from the male perspective.  Also, it is a statement that this is a mature game and there may be some things here that you won't get in other games.  It puts you on notice...

The decapitations and dismemberments rock.  I love them.  Arterial spray for the win.

The combat system as I experienced it was a mixed bag though.  At first it is fun and adds a layer intriguing complexity to the game.  Later, I started to wonder why I had to hit 3 or 4 keys in AOC to execute the same type of attack in other games that would require only 1 key.  And executing 3 actions could require 12 key strokes.  And if you lag and the game doesn't register one of your key strokes correctly then you don't execute the move.  In the end I thought it was an interesting idea, but it fails in it's execution, atleast for me.  I would rather have standard mmo combat over this system.

Music was amazing.  Loved it.  Probably the best music in an mmo.  And the level 1 to 20 Tortage quest givers that talk really added immersion for me.

After graphics, boobs, decapitation, dismemberment and a terrific sound track, the game goes down hill though.  Too many zones with loading screens for me.  It felt claustrophobic and ruined  immersion for me as well.  And in one zone I was in there were 23 copies.  I did not like that at all.  It is a huge, huge negative for me to have multiple copies of a single zone.  It's not the first time I have experienced this game mechanic in an mmo, but I hope it is the last.  Probably not though.

Technically the game failed in a big way for me.  I have a decent rig, but apparently the game did not like ATI in the beginning.  Not sure if this has been rectified or not, but there are really two main graphics card companies out right now, Nvidia and ATI.  An mmo today can not develop for one and give the middle finger to everyone else who choosed the other.  It's just stupid from a business model perspective, and it's infuriating and gamebreaking to anyone who purchased the wrong brand.  The performance ranged from acceptable to abysmal, and that was the end for me.  They did not fix the ATI problems in the first free month, or extend my time or even offer me a free trial once the issues were resolved. 

My second biggest gripe, besides its technical failings, would be Funcom itself.  They lie.  They ignore. They spin.  They deny.  They ban with gleeful abandon.  A horrible, horrible company that should be avoided.  Their disdain of the player base is puzzling on the one hand, as they are a company trying to make money, but understandable on the other hand because criticism of this debacle has been vociferous.

6/10 is probably a fair score.  Maybe they can turn it around some day, but basic game design decisions, in my opinion, are fundamentally flawed, which paints a dim future for this game.  I hope for the sake of their stock holders I am wrong.

Originally posted by Soupgoblin

Originally posted by Mrbloodworth

Nice review, but what is with the constant jabs at the player base? I mean, no disrespect, but it could be you, not them, that’s the problem. I mean, shall we start including opinions on the player base of all games in official MMORPG.com Reviews? They would just about all read the same way. Do the writers here know about this thing called the internet? Its almost a pointless thing to include, as every single person will have a different experience. 9 times out of 10, most people that say "This community sucks", walked in and started pissing on the drapes.

As far as PvP consequences go, the system is on the test server. I understand you can’t review what you have not played on live. But it’s on the way, and I hope for all those that are not playing, you amend or re-review the game when it goes live.

Why didn't john do this review, seems every review on this site now is done by someone else, makes it hard to gauge anything in the articles. Review from internet user #36579241 is about as useful as an official review as the 5 threads in the games forums by the same title.

 

To be brutaly honest, he was spot on about the AoC playerbase. Read the the tech forums, AoC players tend to go into "attack mode" when people ask honest questions about problems they are experiencing, I mentioned it several times in the AoC forums myself, The AoC community is infested with the "bully mentality". I believe that as long as AoC is around, other games will benefit from the fact that the worst of the worst are playing AoC, and not ganking/griefing in the others.

 

Part of my point was that this can be found anywhere. It’s the internets. And this will always be a matter of perspective. Instead of realizing this, generalizations and blanket name calling ensued.

Becouse someone died in PvP.

Completely agree on the observations regarding the playerbase.

Can hardly be bothered with the official forums anymore, as it's just a waste of time. And the trigger happiness, you only have to take a walk in Connall's or Fields of the Dead to get yourself stun-killed by a couple of level 80s :P

That said, though, the RP I get in AoC makes more than enough up for it, and I just can't be bothered to waste neither energy nor time on getting annoyed with it :)

[EDIT] Oh, and... Did you feel somehow trodden on some sore toes there, Mr. Bloodworth? :)

apparently the article says that theres something inherently wrong with the game that brings a certain type of unique whineyness from its player base

could it be the game sucks?

Originally posted by Bree'ah

[EDIT] Oh, and... Did you feel somehow trodden on some sore toes there, Mr. Bloodworth? :)

Nope. Try reading, and understanding, what i am talking about.

Also, its has been my experoiance that the RP PvP servers are much better, less random ganking.

Originally posted by Mrbloodworth

Originally posted by Soupgoblin

Originally posted by Mrbloodworth

Nice review, but what is with the constant jabs at the player base? I mean, no disrespect, but it could be you, not them, that’s the problem. I mean, shall we start including opinions on the player base of all games in official MMORPG.com Reviews? They would just about all read the same way. Do the writers here know about this thing called the internet? Its almost a pointless thing to include, as every single person will have a different experience. 9 times out of 10, most people that say "This community sucks", walked in and started pissing on the drapes.

As far as PvP consequences go, the system is on the test server. I understand you can’t review what you have not played on live. But it’s on the way, and I hope for all those that are not playing, you amend or re-review the game when it goes live.

Why didn't john do this review, seems every review on this site now is done by someone else, makes it hard to gauge anything in the articles. Review from internet user #36579241 is about as useful as an official review as the 5 threads in the games forums by the same title.

 

To be brutaly honest, he was spot on about the AoC playerbase. Read the the tech forums, AoC players tend to go into "attack mode" when people ask honest questions about problems they are experiencing, I mentioned it several times in the AoC forums myself, The AoC community is infested with the "bully mentality". I believe that as long as AoC is around, other games will benefit from the fact that the worst of the worst are playing AoC, and not ganking/griefing in the others.

 

Part of my point was that this can be found anywhere. It’s the internets. And this will always be a matter of perspective. Instead of realizing this, generalizations and blanket name calling ensued.

 

Becouse someone died in PvP.

It has nothing to do with losing in PVP.  I'm currently enjoying Warhammer, and dying much more frequently than my opponents, let me assure you. 

I always take the player base into account when I review games, it is a large part of the experience of an MMO.  Its your prerogative to think that unimportant, but don't presume to know the rationale behind my decisions. Your generalization that the kind of behavior commonplace on the  AoC forums, and to some extent, in game, is excusable because 'its the internet' is no more valid than my hypothesis that it detracts from the game. 

Originally posted by Mrbloodworth

Nice review, but what is with the constant jabs at the player base? I mean, no disrespect, but it could be you, not them, that’s the problem. I mean, shall we start including opinions on the player base of all games in official MMORPG.com Reviews? They would just about all read the same way. Do the writers here know about this thing called the internet? Its almost a pointless thing to include, as every single person will have a different experience. 9 times out of 10, most people that say "This community sucks", walked in and started pissing on the drapes.

As far as PvP consequences go, the system is on the test server. I understand you can’t review what you have not played on live. But it’s on the way, and I hope for all those that are not playing, you amend or re-review the game when it goes live.

Why didn't john do this review, seems every review on this site now is done by someone else, makes it hard to gauge anything in the articles. Review from internet user #36579241 is about as useful as an official review as the 5 threads in the games forums by the same title.

Jef has actually done a couple of reviews for us now and has written a number of articles as well. Quite frankly, Jef has the experience in-game and I don't. It'd be totally irresponsible for me to review a game like this without having played it for the numerous hours that Jef did.

I have complete confidence in Jef's abilities as a reviewer :)

Originally posted by jedijef

Originally posted by Mrbloodworth

Originally posted by Soupgoblin

Originally posted by Mrbloodworth

Nice review, but what is with the constant jabs at the player base? I mean, no disrespect, but it could be you, not them, that’s the problem. I mean, shall we start including opinions on the player base of all games in official MMORPG.com Reviews? They would just about all read the same way. Do the writers here know about this thing called the internet? Its almost a pointless thing to include, as every single person will have a different experience. 9 times out of 10, most people that say "This community sucks", walked in and started pissing on the drapes.

As far as PvP consequences go, the system is on the test server. I understand you can’t review what you have not played on live. But it’s on the way, and I hope for all those that are not playing, you amend or re-review the game when it goes live.

Why didn't john do this review, seems every review on this site now is done by someone else, makes it hard to gauge anything in the articles. Review from internet user #36579241 is about as useful as an official review as the 5 threads in the games forums by the same title.

 

To be brutaly honest, he was spot on about the AoC playerbase. Read the the tech forums, AoC players tend to go into "attack mode" when people ask honest questions about problems they are experiencing, I mentioned it several times in the AoC forums myself, The AoC community is infested with the "bully mentality". I believe that as long as AoC is around, other games will benefit from the fact that the worst of the worst are playing AoC, and not ganking/griefing in the others.

 

Part of my point was that this can be found anywhere. It’s the internets. And this will always be a matter of perspective. Instead of realizing this, generalizations and blanket name calling ensued.

 

Becouse someone died in PvP.

It has nothing to do with losing in PVP.  I'm currently enjoying Warhammer, and dying much more frequently than my opponents, let me assure you. 

I always take the player base into account when I review games, it is a large part of the experience of an MMO.  Its your prerogative to think that unimportant, but don't presume to know the rationale behind my decisions. Your generalization that the kind of behavior commonplace on the  AoC forums, and to some extent, in game, is excusable because 'its the internet' is no more valid than my hypothesis that it detracts from the game. 

 

Good. Then we do understand each other. All I can say to you at this point is welcome to the internets and online gaming. This behavior can be found in every, single game, some more than others. I also, never said it was excusable, I said it was expected. Especially in a PvP game.

Originally posted by Stradden

Originally posted by Mrbloodworth

Nice review, but what is with the constant jabs at the player base? I mean, no disrespect, but it could be you, not them, that’s the problem. I mean, shall we start including opinions on the player base of all games in official MMORPG.com Reviews? They would just about all read the same way. Do the writers here know about this thing called the internet? Its almost a pointless thing to include, as every single person will have a different experience. 9 times out of 10, most people that say "This community sucks", walked in and started pissing on the drapes.

As far as PvP consequences go, the system is on the test server. I understand you can’t review what you have not played on live. But it’s on the way, and I hope for all those that are not playing, you amend or re-review the game when it goes live.

Why didn't john do this review, seems every review on this site now is done by someone else, makes it hard to gauge anything in the articles. Review from internet user #36579241 is about as useful as an official review as the 5 threads in the games forums by the same title.

 

Jef has actually done a couple of reviews for us now and has written a number of articles as well. Quite frankly, Jef has the experience in-game and I don't. It'd be totally irresponsible for me to review a game like this without having played it for the numerous hours that Jef did.

I have complete confidence in Jef's abilities as a reviewer :)

I enjoyed his review, except for the jabs at the community. I would have brought it up, regardless of the title.

Originally posted by Mrbloodworth

I enjoyed his review, except for the jabs at the community. I would have brought it up, regardless of the title.

Ok guys, let's let it sit then, Otherwise this is just derailing any other conversation about the review :)

A pretty reasonable summary of what a lot of other posts have been saying for months.  Once again the game gets high marks for graphics.  AoC was, for myself, a shining example of why graphics don't make a game.  I played the first month plus one additional month and decided that there just wasn't enough game play.  Sure is pretty though.

As far as the users go I don't think they're any different than the community in any other MMO.  They're certainly vocal but if you've ever paid for an MMO you've earned the right to let people know what you think.  As far as whiney goes, well that's a matter of opinion naturally.  I still say they have a right to whine and you have the right to whine about them as you've done.

I hope they continue to improve the game.  In another 4-6 months it may be worth coming back and re-evaluating.

Originally posted by jedijef

Originally posted by Mrbloodworth

Nice review, but what is with the constant jabs at the player base? I mean, no disrespect, but it could be you, not them, that’s the problem. I mean, shall we start including opinions on the player base of all games in official MMORPG.com Reviews? They would just about all read the same way. Do the writers here know about this thing called the internet? Its almost a pointless thing to include, as every single person will have a different experience. 9 times out of 10, most people that say "This community sucks", walked in and started pissing on the drapes.

 

The observations on the player base are just that, my observations.  Some will agree, some won't, but reviews are, by nature, opinion pieces, and I don't have any interest in watering down my perceptions to make them more palatable for folks that have thin skin.

I agree with you, its one of the reasons I left the game.  As for some of the responses youve had here Jef, most of these people like to sit on the sidelines attacking posters and never making much of a stand on anything.  Theres some sort of pleasure iin being the middle of the road guy that can attack every poster while claiming not to play the game but then attacking those that dont play any longer.

My trial ends in two days but I've past level 20 and still having great quest content. I havn't come across the bad whiney playerbase that you have but maybe because I don't browse game forums after the whole SWG thing. I don't come across the problems everyone else does but maybe thats because I just don't care about PVP balance and i'm not hardcore into the game so not picking at everything little thing. I think Age of Conan is ALOT better than WAR and Vanguard and all the shitty mmorpgs that have come out since WOW. It's just the zoning that has really killed the game for me, if the world was built like WOW's then I'd like the game but loading screens... I hate them, it killed EQ2 too.

The two things I hope future mmorpgs take from AoC are...

- Character customization depth
- The directional combat system where you arn't just standing there auto attacking but having to attack yourself, it makes you feel much more engaged in combat and just mroe satisfying. Though don't take the combo system because it doesn't work in EQ2 it doesn't work in WAR and it don't work in AoC, stick to the WOW system of every spell is it's own.

Originally posted by xtravert

I played the first month plus one additional month and decided that there just wasn't enough game play. onths it may be worth coming back and re-evaluating.

 Yeah that is exactly what I did as well. 2 months was enough. The reviewer talks about how player's characters and classes look the same at various levels from one another and I think that is right. But also one of the problems I had with the game is that my guy never looked any different himself! I basically looked the same at 10 as I did at 40 and that just doesn't sit well with me. I don't think that is much fun. I'm not a loot whore but... I am a looks whore. Give me some diversity and I will be happy. I felt the game was sorely lacking in that regards.

The culture armor looks really nice but.... unless I am missing something about its implementation won't everyone continue to look alike once they have it? I mean is it customizable? I remember seeing a dev video before the game came out of what looked liked hundreds of models in rows with all the various gear you could get and that spin guy was talking about all the combinations you could have to look unique. What the heck ever happened to that? Lol, and how sad it is that I have to refer to that guy as the “spin guy”. I typed that without even thinking, lol.

That lack of character "uniqueness" and the grind I seemed to be entering as the quests dried up were the reasons I left.

Will I give it a try in the future? Probably not. I did go back to AO once it was more "fixed" and I had a great time. So I think the author was right when he said they have a history of cleaning up their mess. But AoC is an entirely different beast. What all can you do in AoC? I mean how many systems are there to alter and enhance? Alot? Not when compared to AO. AO was broken out of the box but even on day one the base was there and it was alot more diverse than what is present in AoC. Besides graphics and a "different" combat system I don't see AoC offering up anything that current MMOs don’t already offer out of the box. Just my opinion of course.