Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventure could be the MMO to end all MMOs. A bold statement I know, but I was fortunate enough to get a sneak peek of the game in action a couple of weeks ago and lucky you; you get to hear all about it.
Armed with an invite from Eidos, I hot-footed my way down to London, to a small, chic underground club for a preview of what looks set to be the hottest MMO of 2008. Once I managed to get past the burly doorman, I descended a spiral staircase, which took me into a room festooned with velvet curtains. An hour of milling and small talk later we were ushered into the screening room and settled down for a stifling hot, if interesting couple of hours.
First impressions were of the jaw-dropping variety. Let's just say, Age of Conan is the prettiest barbarian adventure you're going to go on any time soon. The world isn't looking dissimilar to Oblivion, but the difference being that this is an MMO, making it pretty impressive work. We were treated to a fly through, which revealed lush jungles, packed densely with plants and creepers clinging to every rock and tree stump. The landscape took in volcanoes, streaming with red hot lava, as well as tropical beaches and mountains paths featured the ruins of ancient civilisations over-run with ivy and vines.
The footage we saw didn't feature NPCs, but it still felt like a world you could step straight into; a world that is rich and just waiting to burst with life. But this isn't just about beautifully realised blades of grass. Age of Conan offers players a fully interactive environment, rather than just your standard pretty veneer. This means you can climb walls, open doors and even smash down doors that you can't be arsed to open in the conventional way. Hey, you're a barbarian, so why not!?
Now then, let's get down to the nitty gritty – the character gen. I've said it before and I'll say it again, character gen is key, so I had my critical eye honed for this part of the presentation. Frankly, Age of Conan has added every customisation you could ever want. Without a hands-on I couldn't tell how many faces and hairstyles there were to choose from, but once you choose a basic face you can tinker with every aspect of it, right down to the size of their ears.
Erling Ellingsen, product manager at Funcom, was presenting the game and he boldly claimed that you should be able to turn off your player names and people would still recognise you. That means you could have a truly individual face! Now that is something I've got to see. Boy am I looking forward to three days of tinkering with my character.
Age of Conan is breaking the mould on a number of counts. First, the game begins with a solo game, designed to ease players into the online world. It also gives players that all important feel for the game before they need to make any important decisions such as, what career path they take for the rest of the game. This aspect of Conan could be a real boon for first time MMOGers, as they'll find a game not unlike a traditional RPG. The only difference is the fact that it just happens to be massively multiplayer and oh, yeah, online. The solo missions are woven into the central plot line and feature most heavily in levels one to 20, while allowing players to still enjoy the online world.
The second break from the norm comes when you look at the combat in Conan. Rather than the usual sit back, target, click, click and click style fighting, it's up to you to roll your sleeves in and start swinging. Fights require players to actually swing their weapon, choosing a particular direction or side to attack from. However, the foes are no pushover because they'll shield themselves if you attack one side too much. Rather than targeting one enemy, you simply run into a group and use random attacks to keep them on their toes, or knock them off their feet all together.
Of course the most talked about aspect of Conan is the boobs, or well, I mean the mature age rating. In the UK it'll be an 18, which means this is an MMO with blood, brawling, brutality and a few saucy wenches for good measure. This is an adults only world, but in the way that Sin City and Hellblazer gave us adults only comics. That is, fully realised worlds where actions have real consequences. Yes, we did see boobs on a succubus, but I think even you Yanks should be able to cope without the need for a dose of smelling salts.
The fact is Funcom is trying to stay true to the spirit of the original Conan stories, written by Robert E Howard in the 1930s. The team was keen to reiterate that it is a tough world where you have to fight for everything and live by your sword. In order to recreate this setting as faithfully as they have, Funcom had to come out sword swinging and go for the mature gamer and good on them for doing that.
If they really do pull this one off, I'm telling you now it's going to blow our socks off and I haven't even mentioned the mounted combat and the ability for guilds to build their own cities.
Age of Conan isn't just one game, it's many, which means it could be the most exciting MMO sandbox experience yet. However, when asked if it's a WoW beater, the ever-modest Ellingsen, simply states that they'll be happy if the game is successful and although they'd like to rival WoW, it has become a phenomenon that is going to be very hard to beat.
Well, I for one would like to see Age of Conan give it a pretty good go.
Most played: The Witcher
Most wanted: Okami