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SINGAPORE: Fans of online role-playing games these days are overwhelmed by the variety of massive multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) in the market. Joining the expanding pool is Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures (AOC).
Set in the dark fantasy realm of the Hyborian Age, warlord Conan has seized the throne of Aquilonia. But ancient evils have emerged, threatening his reign. You are one of the many warriors who have rallied under the flag of Conan to battle the invading evils.
You start as a slave surviving a shipwreck on the pirate island of Tortage.
But first, you have to create your character. You can choose from the three races of Aquilonian, Cimmerian or Stygian, and from six classes in each race, such as assassins or priests.
You can pretty much customise your character's appearance to your heart’s delight, such as changing the length of your eyebrows or even the shape of your eyes.
It is important to note that once you select a server, you cannot move that character to another server. So, if you don't like to get "killed" by other players, do not choose a player vs player (PvP) server. Instead, choose a Player vs Environment (PvE) server.
Despite being an MMORPG, AOC provides a solid solo role-playing experience. You can move up to Level 20 in Tortage on your own, though you'd probably want to find players to aid you in major quests that require raiding big dungeons or enemy camps.
Of course, you can always create a guild (when you are Level 20 and above) or join one to have a constant supply of manpower to aid you.
After Level 20, when you can leave Tortage to venture into Hyboria, the world is much bigger. Only then would playing solo be more daunting.
The quests in AOC are interesting and varied. Quests given by non-player characters (NPCs) in Tortage are well-delivered by voice actors, with the NPCs exhibiting relevant body language.
Even inconsequential NPCs’ actions in the city add much humour, like drunken pirates urinating into the harbour.
The soundtrack, reminiscent of Lord of the Rings, is superb. Ambient audio, from trickling streams to enemies gasping for air, is dutifully delivered.
The graphics, from the lush terrains to the textures of the characters, are also top-notch. And that's on my two-year-old gaming rig, on which my graphics settings are set to automatic.
Despite looking and sounding so good, and though I'm playing on servers in the United States, AOC suffers from little online lag.
The caveat is the huge hard disk space that AOC takes up — a whopping 20GB, or more! There are also constant server maintenance and periodically, some huge patch downloads, up to 700MB each. Even so, minor technical bugs still surface, like walls that I cannot climb even though that’s necessary for quest completion.
Still, it's all worth it. AOC provides the best real-time melee combat action you will ever get on a computer RPG.
Instead of the usual mouse clicks, you use the number keys for directional combat actions, like striking your opponent on the front, left or right. Strike on one side of your enemy too often and you will find that side well-defended. Hit a few magical combos to deliver the fatal blow instead.
Fatalities can result in dramatic moves like beheading or a heart being ripped out. This makes for a visual feast, but also accounts for the game's M18 rating. Topless female characters and foul language are common as well.
Still, the action sequences make AOC stand out from the rest. The personal involvement in combat is a refreshing change from the mundane mouse click-fests of other MMORPGs, and keeps the interest going when you are in the middle of a long dungeon crawl.
VERDICT
Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures (monthly subscription of US$14.99 ($21.50; first month free) is a greatalternative, and even a good competitor, to MMORPG behemoths like World of Warcraft.
It has all the right ingredients – superb audio and graphics, minimal online lag, varied quests and an innovative real-time combatsystem – to make it an addictive game.
RATING: 4/5 - TODAY/fa
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