General Discussion

MMORPG.com Managing Editor Jon Wood has been playing the first twenty levels of Funcom's Age of Conan. Today, he presents this review of the game to this point, telling us what worked in the game and what didn't.

A great game that has some issues to work out. That’s how I would describe my experiences so far in Funcom’s Age of Conan.

When getting ready to write this review of the game’s first 20 levels, I had some trouble getting my thoughts into an order that would sound and look good on paper (or on your screen, as the case may be). On the one hand, from a personal point of view, these first twenty levels were some of the most fun that I have had playing an MMORPG title. On the other hand, I did run into a number of problems and customer support, at the time that I used it, was a bit of a mess. In the end, my fellow MMORPGers, I hope to address both the good and the not-so-good elements of the game.

Read the whole reivew here.

A fair and honest review of levels 1-20. Good read, thanks.

Great !!! good stuff .....cant wait for your review of next 20 levels!!

Looks like a review I would write if I had to write one. 

It's too bad the best AoC has to offer is levels 1-20. It is downhill from there.

not true, for me the game is way more beter from 20+.

Some of you may be surprised to find that Role-Playing garnered a score of seven, but from my time on Hyperboria, a US RP server, even the gankers took the time to RP, giving my friend and I the opportunity to “join them” before their 23rd level assassin came out of hiding and slit our throats. -From page 4

This comment has me a bit confused. It sounds like you enjoyed the RP on an RP server, so why would people be surprised by a score of 7? Is one of the biggest complaints lack of rping? I ask because I'm acutally surprised that you ranked it so low (the rp with the NPCs, while it doesn't affect anything, is still the best rp I've seen in a game, and that's not even taking PC rp into consideration).

It's the new trend now to only reviewi 1/4th of the game ? Yeah today I bought a new car and the car salesman had me sold when he only showed me 1/4th of the car. The rest of the car is missing though. No wheels, no engine, no brakes and the transmission needs a complete overhaul but other than that I am a happy buyer. If people are going to review the game then review ALL of it or don't even bother ya know ? 

Originally posted by SaintViktor

It's the new trend now to only reviewi 1/4th of the game ? Yeah today I bought a new car and the car salesman had me sold when he only showed me 1/4th of the car. The rest of the car is missing though. No wheels, no engine, no brakes and the transmission needs a complete overhaul but other than that I am a happy buyer. If people are going to review the game then review ALL of it or don't even bother ya know ? 

Actually, with the unique nature of the 1-20 campaign, a review on that aspect of the game is appropriate.

Also, given the amount of time that it takes for someone writing a review to move through all of the content of a game is quite substantial, we wanted to provide our users with something opinion-wise until we can do a full and complete review of the entire game.

MMORPGs aren't the same as single player games and shouldn't be reviewed in the same way and certainly can't be reviewed in the same amunt of time.

Hope that clears things up for you.

I pretty much agree with this review.  I've had more technical problems (falling through the ground is particularly annoying when you are in a city built over water), but I still find it largely enjoyable in the 1-20 range.  I won't continue to play, mostly because I am a lousy PvPer, and not because of the game itself.

From the last page:

Value is also a category that I felt needed at least a paragraph to explain: I think that the different approach that this game takes to the contemporary MMORPG makes it worth the box price to try (keeping in mind that you get your first 30 days free). I ranked it a seven because I know that some of the decisions that the developers made will not sit well with some players.

On the rating list though it's rated 8 for Value.

Looking forward to a review on the post-newbie area game.