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All the mythical beasts and monsters you'd expect from a fantasy MMO will make an appearanceAfter our short stint at level 25 we were thrust into a team-based six versus six capture the flag PVP battleground. This proved to be the most fun of the day, with both sides really getting into the competitive spirit. Again, I was a demonologist, trying desperately to find hidden positions to spam fire spells at the flag carrier or the opposition healer whenever combat kicked off. We were on a small, narrow map, which funnelled most of the combat into a valley in between the two bases. It was pretty standard CTF fare - and players of Warcraft's Warsong Gultch will instantly feel at home. The bases were raised, stone structures, with only one clearly defined path in and out. In the match we played combat ebbed and flowed as the two teams took turns rushing and defending, with few isolated skirmishes. It was a lot of fun, and was a much more impressive showcase for AoC's unique three-pronged combat system than simply killing computer-controlled monster after monster.
Funcom told us that the game will have a few variations on your typical PVP combat - indeed Erling Ellingsen, Funcom's product manager, said AoC is a "PVP centric game". He described huge battles in the Border Kingdon, where 200-odd players will be rushing towards each other Lord of the Rings style. This sounds great, but unfortunately wasn't something we had the opportunity to see during our time with the game.
AdvertisementAoC will also have an interesting sounding Drunken Brawling PVP mode. In this, you have to get drunk in order to make attacks in a rock, paper, scissors fashion. It's intended to be a harmless and speedy bit of fun that serves as a diversion to the main PVP combat, and doesn't take into account your character's level at all.
As my time at Funcom and with Age of Conan came to an end on a bitterly cold night in Norway, I was struggling to form some kind of definitive impression. I like the art direction - the dark, moody, mature take on the Conan universe, and I love the MMO genre in principle, so you would think I would be excited to the point of bursting. But I'm not. Instead I'm slightly deflated. I'm worried the game will be delayed further. I'm not sure how the game's most interesting features will end up because I haven't had a chance to get my mouse hand on them. And, perhaps most worrying of all, I'm not convinced the game's unique combat system will do enough in the first 20 or so levels to convince Warcraft players to log out of Azeroth and log in to Hyboria.
Will AoC threaten World of Warcraft's fantasy MMO crown?But I'm happy to be proved wrong. WoW is not the be all and end all of the online gaming market - there is a desire for something different, for a viable alternative - and I'm still cautiously optimistic that AoC can fill that gap. And I acknowledge the unique difficulty MMOs present in terms of getting the right message out to the game playing public - they tend to get better the more you play - and it's hard to simply dump someone halfway into the level cap and expect them to get it. So here's to next year, here's to mounted combat, and here's to Funcom and the crunch. Good luck guys.
Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures is scheduled for a March 2008 release on PC and sometime after that on Xbox 360.
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