Age of Conan - Hyborian Adventures (PC)

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Age of Conan is finally here! But should you be interested?

Could Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures be the MMORPG to finally wrestle the genre's crown from the phenomenon that is World of Warcraft? The early statistics are certainly encouraging. Developer Funcom has shipped around 700,000 copies of the game to retailers for day one, including 110,000 units of the sold-out Collector's Edition. Interest in the game has been so strong that Funcom has been unable to fulfil all orders in several markets due to current server capacity limitations. Extra orders of servers are now in place to ensure more customers can begin playing. Wow, so to speak.

Numbers are one thing. What about good old fashioned hands-on impressions? With the game now in European stores, we logged on to give you a first hand report of Age of Conan's first 10 levels to help you decide whether Norwegian developer Funcom deserves your hard-earned cash.

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Once you've installed Age of Conan, downloaded all the necessary updates and picked your server you'll be presented with your first major decision - what class to pick? As in most MMORPGs your class decision will determine your play style for your time in the game with that character. AoC has only three races, or cultures as they are known in the game, to chose from (Aquilonian, Cimmerian and Stygian) and they are quite similar in that they are all human types, but there are loads of classes to choose from.

All 12 flow from four key archetypes, the solider, priest, rogue and mage. RPG fans will already know what these mean, but for the uninitiated, a soldier takes damage, a priest heals, a rogue sneaks about and a mage causes magic damage. Simple.

Within each of these four archetypes are three classes which allow players to specialise in certain areas. Players who fancy playing the role of a soldier can choose between the Guardian (straight up tank), the Dark Templar (tank mixed with magic) and the Conqueror (less tank, more damage). People who want to spread the healing love will find the Priest of Mitra (straight up healer), Tempest of Set (healer that uses tomes) and the Bear Shaman (druid) available for selection. Players who like to sneak about can choose from the Barbarian (wild damage), the Assassin (dual wield daggers) and the Ranger (bow and crossbow). And finally, for magic lovers out there, Age of Conan lets you pick from a Demonologist (summons demons), the Herald of Xotli (can transform into a demon) and a Necromancer (can raise and control the dead).

There are more character customisation options than you could possibly need

So there are plenty of choices, and, through Age of Conan's feat system, which allows you to further customise your character with points spent on special skills gained as you level up, you shouldn't feel too constrained by your choice. Don't get us wrong, picking your class still has a massive effect on your style of play, but there are more opportunities for tailoring style of play to your own needs than in most other MMORPGs.

We went with the Herald of Xotli, in part because we thought it sounded cool, and secondly because we quite fancied turning into a demon and clubbing people to death. One you've decided on your class you can then start to tweak the way your character looks. There are a bewildering number of options available here. Picking from a male or female is standard practice of course, but you can change the appearance, from physical shape to cheekbone definition, of almost any aspect of your character. Pick your tattoo, scar, hair design, eye type and whatever else takes your fancy. Or just keep randomising until you see something that catches your eye. We spent almost half an hour crafting the most beautiful Stygian female Herald of Xotli we could. What? We'll be staring at her for hours on end. Our prerogative.

Once completed (and you've picked a name of course) it's time to enter the world of Hyboria. Age of Conan sees every player, no matter what class or culture, begin the game with the same back story and in the same starting area. You are a slave aboard a ship, rowing just to stay alive. The ship sinks and you wake up on a beach with a serious case of amnesia. A mysterious man approaches who gives you a heads up on where you are - Tortage Island, "the jewel of the Barachan Isles", just off the coast of Hyboria. This is where you'll spend your first 20 levels of the game - a dangerous jungle island teeming with creatures and humans hell bent on your destruction. You're given your first quest, to kill your slave master who also found himself washed up on the shore. If he gets to the main city and tells everyone you're a slave, that'll be curtains for you. People here don't like slaves you see.

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