Age Of Conan: Hyborian Adventures

By Alan Bell

Arnie was revealed to the movie-going world as a loin cloth-clad man of muscle, stumbling through his simple lines and flexing his ridiculous muscles (I think he’s allergic to something…) as he dispatched a myriad of mystical bad guys (swooping up the girls along the way – good or bad). The character of Conan was much beloved and both he and Arnie were catapaulted into the canons of legend, never looking back.

It’s been a while since we last adventured in the lands of Hyboria, however, and while Arnie won’t be joining us (he’s busy governating California), Conan’s got a mystical land full of bad dudes to waste so he wants you (and thousands of your friends) to join him.

Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures is, technically, an MMO. It’s a little more complicated, however, than your average post-“oh my god we can make beeelions of dollars! Look at World of Warcraft!” warcry of the videogame publisher middle-manager. For a start, before you can jump online and start grinding noobs, you need to complete the (extensive) single player campaign mode. Once you hit level 20 you can run around online and ask people (repeatedly) “how do I shot web?” in the local chat mode. It’ll be fun, you’ll be crazily popular.

In addition to the (rather unusual, for an MMO) single player mode, Age of Conan is doing a number of things in brand new ways as it attempts to set itself apart from the myriad of MMOs that have tried (and failed, without exception) to steal a slice of the billion dollar pie from WoW, the undisputed leader of the genre. Check out these bullet points (the words to the right of them are also very impressive):

* Age of Conan is all about the end game; levelling to get there won’t take you anywhere near as long as traditional MMOs
* Mounted combat – those magical horses your character seems to be able to squirrel away in their pocket is no longer just a way to get places. Now you can get places covered in the gore that used to pump around inside your enemies
* Real Combat ™ - it’s all about real world action combat, none of this “click, wait for the hidden dice roll, find out if you succeeded or not” stuff – now when you click you’ll swing your sword (etc) and anything in front of you, within range of your weapon, will taste the sharply honed blade. How this (seemingly) lag-sensitive mechanic will work 300ms away from the servers (like we in Aotearoa likely will be) is yet to be determined. In addition to being real time, there’s also a lot more to it than “swing my sword” – you can choose from six different attacks (such as hack against the head, swing at the torso – etc)
* Three races to choose from at the start of the game, with class selection beginning at level 5. Further sub-class selections are possible at level 20, as well as the selection of a “prestige” class, which provides a parallel path for development from that point onward.
* Gorgeous graphics, powered by both an impressive technological game engine and stunning art style. This is not your average looking MMO.


The combination of compelling license, killer graphics and innovative gameplay sure make for a mix that we here at NZGamer are eager to check out. Just remember, when it lands here next year, if the monster you just killed drops his goggles, don’t bother looting them – they do nothing.

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