I got my copy of Age of Conan on Friday and I couldn’t wait to install and play it. After playing it most of the weekend I thought I would share my impressions of the game. I only have my 2.2 Ghz Macbook Pro to play it on, so I was worried about performance of the game. It was playable but I really do need a new computer to appreciate the graphics of this game.

As soon as I started playing the game I noticed that, although the graphics are very nice there are many things in the GUI that need to be upgraded to make the game more visually pleasing. The GUI doesnt look as polished off and as nice to use as something like World of Warcraft, and reminded me a little bit of Everquest 2. Accessing character windows and chatting is simple, and as you expect from all MMORPG’s.

The graphics although very nice, even on lowest detail, need alot more work to make character models movements and animations more smooth and realistic. I found that the animations for jumping and running around were rough and very jumpy.


Now for the coolest part of the game the combat system. As soon as you start the game your given a weapon and you start swinging or casting spells to mow down enemies. Usually taking on more than 1 mob, the combat is fun and really cool. While I was playing as a conquerer, sometimes blood would splatter on the screen for a cool finishing move effect. The combat is addictive and there are incentives to keep smashing enemies one after another. For instance the necromancer has a chance to summon a big elemental on each kill lasting a minute or so, which makes you want to keep fighting to summon more and more minions.

Something really interesting about the game is how they have separated single-player missions and multi-player missions. You have a choice to switch between night(single-player) and day time(multi-player) to progress through different parts of the game. I believe it works quite well but I wonder how it will work for end-game content and items.

For a MMORPG that has just been released I believe it is very good. I have experience getting pumped up for new MMO’s coming out such as Vanguard, only to get let down. It has many features already built-in which make it stand out above other MMO’s. There are still many things I believe that need to be added to this game that are standard for MMO’s, but I am sure they will be added with time.