MMORPG.com's Bill Murphy got his hands on the beta for the Age of Conan expansion, Rise of the Godslayer. Today, on launch day, he brings us some more impressions of the new addition.

In last week's preview I talked a bit about some of the new features coming to Age of Conan in the game's first true expansion: Rise of the Godslayer. Since then, I've had some time to explore the game's lower-level content a bit more and even some of the upper reaches, as well as delve deeper into the new pet and alternate advancement systems. And while Rise of the Godslayer might not have the traditionally thought of "more levels" that expansions usually contain, it certainly isn't lacking in advancement to make or carrots to chase after.

One of the first things players will notice whether they're level 20 and entering the Gateway of Khitai or level 80 and working on the new upper-level content is that the new zones of Khitai are far more open and traversable than what they're used to. There's a lot less running through bottlenecks, and a lot more open spaces to explore. The Gateway of Khitai is actually quite beautiful as well, and with a decent enough video-card you'll be able to see the Great Wall off in the distance. Interestingly enough Funcom seems to have taken a bit of inspiration away from LotRO, as depending on whether its day or night will alter what quests you have available in the Gateway. One graveyard has a bunch of wildlife mucking about during the day, and at night those beasts will give way to ghosts and other undead enemies.

Read Rise of the Godslayer Impressions Pt. II.