Age of Conan

Disclaimer- This is just my first few hours worth of play so my opinions may change later on

graphics and immersion- damn pretty game. You do need a hefty machine to run them though. The pirate town really looks like a pirate town. Great sound effects and the voice acting is good. Lots of nice little touches. Funcom outdid themselves on the starter area. I hope the rest of the world is done this well.

quests - well written. Some of the best quest writing I have experienced. Question is does it hold out till the upper levels/ So far so good though. I dislike the "easy" mode on the quest indicators etc. They could lose the arrows and pointer to the quests and it would not hurt my feelings. I try not to look at the map more than nescessary and there may be a way to turn off the indicators in options.

combat- same old thing pretty much as far as the abilities go. Shiftable defense shields are new to me though. Still have not gotten the hang of using them. There may be more there than what I have seen so far.

Fun Factor - I found the Barbarian class to be pretty standard hack and slash. Herald of Xolti rocks at level 5. Gotta love any class that lets you turn yourself into a demon and breathe fire. I will be making a healer later on but right now that mage is a lot of fun.

documentation- half ass is the best way to describe it. Some fairly good in game docs but they still leave a lot to be desired. I would almost buy a strategy guide on this one if there were not some good free guides popping up on the net.

What i don't like - The interface is clunky but livable. Same for the chat functions. I wil be joining a guild this evening so I won't talk about guild functions yet but I heard it is lacking also. I mis LoTRO's built in voice chat. AoC definitly has some rough spots. It is not even close to next gen whatever that means, but it is a good game.

Summary- I picked it up at Circuit City for $39.99 USD and I don't regret it. Even if I go back to LoTRO after the initial 30 days it was money well spent. If you have a decent machine and 40 - 50 bucks that are burning a hole in your pocket it is worth a try for sure.

Originally posted by Jackdog

 the initial 30 days it was money well spent

fully agree

Originally posted by Jackdog

Disclaimer- This is just my first few hours worth of play so my opinions may change later on

graphics and immersion- damn pretty game. You do need a hefty machine to run them though. The pirate town really looks like a pirate town. Great sound effects and the voice acting is good. Lots of nice little touches. Funcom outdid themselves on the starter area. I hope the rest of the world is done this well.

quests - well written. Some of the best quest writing I have experienced. Question is does it hold out till the upper levels/ So far so good though. I dislike the "easy" mode on the quest indicators etc. They could lose the arrows and pointer to the quests and it would not hurt my feelings. I try not to look at the map more than nescessary and there may be a way to turn off the indicators in options.

combat- same old thing pretty much as far as the abilities go. Shiftable defense shields are new to me though. Still have not gotten the hang of using them. There may be more there than what I have seen so far.

Fun Factor - I found the Barbarian class to be pretty standard hack and slash. Herald of Xolti rocks at level 5. Gotta love any class that lets you turn yourself into a demon and breathe fire. I will be making a healer later on but right now that mage is a lot of fun.

documentation- half ass is the best way to describe it. Some fairly good in game docs but they still leave a lot to be desired. I would almost buy a strategy guide on this one if there were not some good free guides popping up on the net.

What i don't like - The interface is clunky but livable. Same for the chat functions. I wil be joining a guild this evening so I won't talk about guild functions yet but I heard it is lacking also. I mis LoTRO's built in voice chat. AoC definitly has some rough spots. It is not even close to next gen whatever that means, but it is a good game.

Summary- I picked it up at Circuit City for $39.99 USD and I don't regret it. Even if I go back to LoTRO after the initial 30 days it was money well spent. If you have a decent machine and 40 - 50 bucks that are burning a hole in your pocket it is worth a try for sure.

Absolutely agreed with every point and share every view/concern/opinion with you on this one Jackdog.

accurate summary albeit I am not soo enamoured by the quests yet but the initial storyline is ok so far. Herald is a cool class.

Graphics are ok but I do  not think they are eq2 / lotro quality (not far off though)

Hotbar and Ui is awful and I am very pleased this is in the first patch updates they are planning - albeit the news they use XML and therefore UI downloads will be avaliable is good news.

It's not a world beater but its a robust game with an extremely smooth launch.

AoC is a lot like CoH and in that regard its a success.  I for one love that I won't have to alt-tab back and forth between eq2i/wowhead type sites to game.  Graphics are good but I do think LotRO and EQ2 make better use of colour to make things pop more.  Water looks awesome though.

Personally I prefer the artistic design / style and visually everything about AoC especially the weapons and armour compared to LOTRO, where I remember looking like a 'christmas tree' in clothes that simply don't make sense lol.  Not saying LOTRO's a bad or ugly game at all, it's just by far not what I'm interested in now.

The quests feel way more immersive like adventure and so far I've encountered ZERO 'get me 10 boar spleens' type of crap junk quests.  All the quests have a good story and realistic purpose which I love.

JackDog, trust me the combat gets better.  It will be difficult for many but hang in there, once you got it down...it's beautiful.  I'm wading thru 20 mobs in a row mowing them down with ease...well mobs that are 4 lvls below me..hehe

But I got the combat system down to a science now and it is so fluid, it is very satisfying because you feel like you are really doing something yourself

The graphics are amazing, amazing detail.  The weapons are best in any MMO i ever played..yes even EQ 2, LOTR.  The armor is equal to EQ 2...extremely detailed but in Age of Conan the armor is more realistic...just better looking

Agreed, the city of Tortage, the pirate town where you start as noobs..is very swashbuckler looking...awesome huge ships in harbor and some used as saloons , lol.  One ship raised way up and used as part of a castle!

This game will become legendary no doubt

If you are having any doubts about the game in early levels because you feel trapped, just keep playing. Get out of tortage and into some of the other zones and you will appreciate the game fully.

Combat takes a bit to get used to.  Most people will be initially confused by the "no auto attack" component of AoC.  Playing a mage would benefit people who don't like this new melee... unless you pick a Herald.

I think the graphics are better than EQ2.  They look more realistic while EQ2 models had a "claymation" look to them I always felt.   Though I did like how my EQ2 toon would turn his head to look at things, that was a nice touch.