Graphics

There's no question about it. The graphics in Age of Conan are incredibly impressive compared not only to other MMO titles, but also to a lot of other PC games. Those of you looking for something other than Crysis to test your machine's power should consider this as a great alternative. There is however a price for the improved graphics in AoC. That price is high system requirements and they are the very first thing you should consider before making a purchase.

Here -- for your consideration -- are the official system requirements for Age of Conan:

Minimum configuration:
(1024x768, detail reduced)

• OS: Windows XP Service Pack 2 or Windows Vista
• Processor: Intel Pentium 4 3Ghz or equivalent
• RAM: 1GB
• Video card: nVidia GeForce 6600 or better
• Video memory: 128MB
• DVD-ROM: Quad-speed (4x) DVD-ROM drive
• Hard Drive Space: 30GB

Recommended configuration:
(Up to 1280X960, most features on)

• OS: Windows XP SP 2 or Windows Vista
• Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4GHz or equivalent
• RAM: 2048MB Dual Channel DDR2
• Video card: nVidia GeForce 7900 GTX or equivalent
• Video memory: 512MB
• DVD-ROM: Quad-speed (4x) DVD-ROM drive
• Hard Drive Space: 30GB

These specs are going to require that any machine you pop this game into is going to need a pretty good amount of graphical and processing power. If you've got those specifications met -- or you don't mind running the game on lower settings -- then there's nothing here that should dissuade you from playing the game.

One thing we'd like to point out is that with time, Funcom will be streamlining the graphics engine for improved efficiency. If you really want to play the game but aren't going to be able to run it until you upgrade, at least things will be smoother by the time you get in. Even if you can run the game and decide to wait a month or two you'll probably see smoother performance than if you were to play day one. It's also worth noting that Age of Conan will eventually employ DirectX 10 graphics, however at the time of this feature Funcom has said that DX10 won't be in for launch.

Leveling

The first 20 levels (there are 80 in total) in Age of Conan will be very much a single player experience. That's not to say that players won't have the choice to try some grouping before level 20, but it's completely optional. Everything beyond level 20 is your standard MMO fare, although there should be plenty of soloing to be had up through to the highest level.

In fact, the solo experience is so very important that you can expect to hear lots of great voice acting throughout he game. You'll also see some pretty impressive facial expression from the characters as well. It's not going too far to say that questing in Age of Conan has a very Knights of the Old Republic feel to it.

The upside to this system is that those of you who favor the single-player experience will probably enjoy the story given. Did we mention there's a story? It'll probably be fairly good since Funcom has been known to deliver some satisfying drama (The Longest Journey) in the past.

The downside, however, will be that anyone wanting to jump straight into the MMO aspects of the game will have to be a little patient. It's also worth noting that Age of Conan takes roughly 250 hours of gameplay to reach max level.

Combat

Realistically speaking, the combat isn't full-on real time, it's more psuedo real time. However there is no auto-attack. Instead, you simply walk -- or run -- up to a character and start hacking away when looking for a fight. It's a visceral experience to be sure, but one that has its drawbacks. For instance, the game employs a shielding system that requires players to direct their attacks (you have three directions to start with: left, center and right -- or the 1, 2 and 3 keys respectively) towards whatever side an enemies visible shields aren't protecting. This can lead to a "whack-a-mole" experience for some, since you constantly have to be hitting these attack keys for any damage to be done.



Endgame

Eventually with any MMO you play the question, "What's there to do after I hit max level?" comes up. With Age of Conan you can expect something different: player ran cities in both a PvP and PvE setting on any given servers. Guilds will be able to create their own cities within special instanced zones, which will be great for guild events and access to all sorts of crafting functions. There will also be a zone called the Border Kingdoms which is an open PvP zone where a small amount of player-created cities can reside. This will be where huge city invasions with mounted combat and siege weapons will take place. There will also be raiding and instanced content for players to travel through, so the PvE players aren't going to get left out.


Conclusion

If you've got the machine to run the game and everything that's very different-yet-familiar sounds like your kind of thing, then AoC is probably going to be a lot of fun for you. There's a lot of things in this MMO that are very different than any other offered. Yet with all of these differences comes some new headaches as well, so it's a bit of a trade-off. Overall, the good seems to outweigh the bad in the case of Age of Conan.