Age of Conan - Hyborian Adventures Preview

The combat really is the key. Where mounts in "that other MMO" are primarily used to get you from A to B quicker than it takes to walk, Funcom has designed its mount system from the ground up to add a dimension to battles. Mounts are the perfect weapon for driving back attacks and breaking up groups. Every mount has its own set of specific abilities, which are all physics based, ensuring that careful positioning is just as important as knowing your way around a blade. Their powerful, sweeping strikes send enemies flying and knock opposing players off their feet. It's then up to your on-foot mates to mop up the now broken group.

That's not to say that you won't be able to deal any decent damage while on horse back. Player characters can wield weapons while on horses (but not other mounts, more on that later), using the direction-based combat system players will have mastered during their on-foot adventures. The keys 1, 2 and 3 are your overhead forward attacks, Q and E your left and right uppercuts. Things can get pretty complex, and fast, especially when faced with multiple enemies and other human players who are also mounted up. Clicking hot-keyed mount attacks with the mouse cursor with one hand while keeping the other hammering away with player attacks is no small feat, but it can be extremely rewarding. After about 10 minutes of play we were able to use the horse's charge attack, which causes the mount to speed towards a single enemy and knock it down, trigger front and rear kicks on surrounding enemies then deal some serious damage with Thrud's twin blades. Sweet.

One of the most impressive aspects of the mounted combat in Age of Conan is how realistic the animals move and look. They have all been motion captured, even the Mammoth (using an elephant). Movement is impressively lifelike, animations are fluid the beast/avatar interaction is superb. Take, for example, the fact that your character will crane his or her neck to look backwards when you reverse. Or the blood stains on mount fur. Or the battle cries, triggered by pressing the space bar, which combine player and beast animations. All these little things add up. We're not claiming it's as good as Walking with Dinosaurs, but it's a valiant effort on Funcom's part.

Killing countless low-level computer-controlled enemies while on horse back is fun, but, as with most MMOs, the true fun is to be found in player versus player combat. When players step onto a mount they automatically share a health pool with it. It acts, in a way, like a super-powerful buff. The amount of hit points will differ depending on the mount, but, rest assured, you can be knocked off. Indeed many NPCs will specialise in knocking you off your high horse. When attacked by opposing players and enemy mobs, both you and your mount, take damage.

Mounted combat seems like such an obvious gameplay mechanic, but it's completely underused in MMOs. Storming into an enemy group, dispersing bad guys with devastating mount attacks and coordinating all of that with the six-way player combat is a breath of fresh air. It's Funcom's way of sticking two fingers up at those who say MMO's don't require any skill to play.

While the Armoured Buckskin was the only horse we had access to during our play test, Funcom tells us there will be plenty of other horses available for purchase once players hit level 40 (this may change during the beta). There will be what are described as "plain" horses, with no armour or special abilities, as well as those which specialise in speed and those which come with tons of armour and play the role of a super tank.