Age of Conan - Hyborian Adventures (PC)

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Age of Conan is almost here, and we're bloody excited.

"It became bigger and better than we thought it would be when we started," says product director Jorgen Tharaldsen, a spot light from somewhere behind us shining in his face. Product manager Erling Ellingsen stands opposite him, flanking the giant cinema screen on which Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures is about to be shown. He nods in agreement, his demeanour expertly concealing how tired and drained he must be. "I apologise," he says, after struggling to get out a word. "I got one hour's sleep last night."

We're in Oslo, Norway. A cinema to be exact. Funcom's summoned us, along with what feels like every journalist in the country, for Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures' official launch. We're excited. We're excited because we're promised our first look at some of the game's features the developer has deliberately been holding back, features that, in our opinion, propel the game from being merely interesting to must play. We're talking guild keep sieges and guild city building to name a few. But we're most excited about Conan himself. Rumour has it that we're going to get the chance to see some stuff nobody has seen before, and one of those things is to meet the virtual version of the great man himself in the climactic ending to the game's Destiny quest line - a quest that begins at level one and ends at level 80. Phew.

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The presentation begins with an overview of the game - nothing new for the gaming press in attendance, but invaluable info for those not schooled in the dark arts of the MMORPG. And there are plenty of non specialist media in attendance. Funcom and the launch of Age of Conan is a massive event. The country's mainstream media has descended on the Oslo cinema like a swarm of locusts. I'm told politicians are in attendance. Even electro pop starlets Röyksopp are milling about. Without realising it, we find ourselves slap bang in the middle of possible the biggest thing to happen to Norway all year.

We're treated to a whistle-stop tour of the game's classes - it's four main class archetypes, the soldier, rogue, priest and mage, and their three derivatives. We're shown character customisation from aboard a slave ship that's about to sink. We see the game's starting area - the pirate island of Tortage. Washed up on the beach, an NPC approaches and we see the cinematic dialogue in action. Your player must get to the main city before your slave master, who also ended up on the island, does, and kill him before he reveals your slave status. Tortage will be the starting area for everyone in the game, which to our mind will have a negative impact on replayability. "Different classes play the same story but it plays out differently," reassures Jorgen.

One of Age of Conan's hooks is that for the first 20 levels the player can choose to play as if it were a single-player game, not an MMO.

One of Age of Conan's hooks is that for the first 20 levels the player can choose to play as if it were a single-player game, not an MMO. "When you play an MMO people feel they used to be powerful and huge in another MMO and then they come to this world and they're meaningless," explains Jorgen. "But if you have a story at the beginning you get into it." Jorgen's words suggest the team hopes Conan will convince players to ditch their current world for Hyboria. Funcom knows it has a hardcore game on its hands and clearly it's out to steal players from other games.

"Every character you talk to has a dialogue, like Neverwinter Nights," says Jorgen. He's at pains to point out how AoC will do more on the dialogue and storytelling front than simply provide players with a text-based quest box to read. We're shown the rogue's sneak skill, which involves weaving in and out of shadows to stay hidden. A small diamond on the top right hand corner of the screen shines to let you know when you're safe from prying eyes. Again, this is yet another point of difference. Let's make no bones about it. Funcom is telling the world why Age of Conan is better than World of Warcraft.

You'll be able to play the first 20 levels like a single-player game, if you want.

But it is AoC's much heralded multidirectional combat that we reckon will hook gamers in and keep them hooked for months on end. "People in MMO games don't think combat is interesting and they do it all day," says Jorgen. "We wanted to put people inside the battlefield in a different type of way." It is not hyperbole to say that fighting in this game will be unlike in any MMO previously released.

To show it off we're transported to Thunder River, a mountainous area of the game in Cimmeria, the birth-place of Conan himself. "This was the very first location we designed, but the last one we finished," says Jorgen. Water is thunderous as it cascades over a waterfall and into the river itself. The shore is lush green, wooden bridges perilously flimsy. A huge stone prison looms large in the distance. You'll have to break into it and defeat a demon, we're told. It looks beautiful, and immediately reinforces our belief that Age of Conan is the best looking MMO ever.

A Funcom employee has a level 60 ranger, a scout based character from the rogue class archetype, to hand to demonstrate the combat. We've already seen how the melee-based multidirectional combat works but we've yet to see what innovation Funcom's brought to the bow-based classes. A mob is targeted and the perspective is shifted, first to first-person then to third person. A targeting reticule shows that you'll actually have to aim your arrow shots. Then we see that the DDR-esque combo system also applied to arrow firing - with arrow commands flashing on screen. "It plays more like a console action game", says Jorgen. We agree.

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