Every once in a while a game comes along that is bold enough to break the mold of the genre to which it is cast. The game takes some fresh approaches and gives players pause to re-think previous perceptions.

Age of Conan – Hyborian Adventures, from Funcom, is one of those titles. This massively multiplayer online subscription-based title does some amazing things in terms of combat, rethinks character classes, incorporates a strong story, dazzles visually and is a whole lot of fun to play as well.

In order to do justice to this title, GameZone will be running the review of the game in several parts, breaking it into the major areas of the game. This first review will target the first 20 levels of the game, which amounts to an introduction to the combat system, character classes and general game flow. The next review, which will be down the road a bit (after the next phase has been explored more thoroughly), will take on the next 20 levels of gameplay, and so on. These reviews are at milestone areas in the game. At level 20 the guild experience kicks in. At level 40, crafting comes into play. The game does have a level cap of 80.

Age of Conan (AoC, henceforth) takes place in the world created by Robert E. Howard. While it bears some semblance to an ancient Europe, it mixes enough real-world elements with fantasy to give the whole game an immersive factor. There are no elves, or dwarves, or goblins in this fantasy. It is all human-based, but there is an undercore of evil, and demonic monsters to battle.

Let’s start at the beginning, though …

Character creation

You get to choose between male and female and then pick one of the three available races – Aquilonian, Cimmerian and Stygian. Some of the game’s 12 professions are limited to certain classes; for example, the Stygians are the magic-wielding race and have three professions to select from – demonologist, Herald of Xotli and necromancer. The demonologist and necro are pet class and the herald (HoX) is sort of a pet unto themselves. The HoX wields a two-handed weapon and can turn into a demon for short periods of time, absorbing a lot of damage as well as dealing it.

There are four priest classes in the game – Priest of Mitra (which is one of the gods in the game), Tempest of Set (another one of the gods) and bear shaman. Again, Funcom has put an interesting spin on these classes. Consider a priest who is also a melee machine or tank, and heals by bashing opponents. Fun? Absolutely.

The rogue class gets some love with barbarian, assassin and ranger. It seems the barbarian is very popular on the PvP servers, but may not be what preconceptions of the class would deem it to be. The barbarian is a damage dealer, pure and simple, but does not go in for the heavy armors; rather this class equips light and uses almost every weapon scheme available in the game. As a rogue class, though, the barbarian is not overly immune to damage.

Those who can take a hit are in the soldier profession, and include the classes of guardian, dark templar (a tank that has some magic powers), and conqueror (provides group buffs).

Customization of the character is easy. There are 21 sliders to tweak the faces (don’t look for huge changes) and seven sliders to tweak the body. Pick a name and the server you are going to play on (there were 25 servers at launch for player-versus-environment and player-versus-player gaming), and you are ready to enter the game.

Another way to customize the character is through allocation of skill points and the feat trees. As you kill and level, points become available in skills that you can disseminate. These may be in such skills as climbing or hiding, or even health regeneration. The feats tree comes in three flavors for each profession – a general tree and then two branches for profession definement. For example, a HoX may drop points (one feat point is earned each level after level 10) into Avatar or Possession. An Avatar feat tree might focus on flame-based attacks, while the Possession feat tree starts with fire, but will ultimately get to the stage where you can take control of enemies.

Tortage

The first 20 levels of the game are an interesting blend of multiplayer gaming and solo-player destiny quests. You begin washed up on the shore of the island, in slaver’s clothes. The first mission is standing chained to a wall about 100 yards away. For the first five levels, you are battling through humans and demons to the gate that will lead you to Tortage City. During these levels, you gain a few generic skills and a couple that are profession-specific.

You will also have the chance to upgrade your armor and weapons through loot drops.

Once you get into Tortage, there are two types of missions available – the daytime multiplayer quests and the night-time destiny quests. The latter takes players deeper into the storyline and each profession sees a different piece of the story, tailored to that class. This is a remarkable bit of gaming that really makes the player feel as though they are the center of the story, or that it is their story being told. Missing pieces of one character’s story are filled in through destiny quest in another profession.

For example, as a rogue you sneak down to the harbor to see what a spy for King Conan is doing, only to see him arrested by the guard of the ruler of Tortage. The next time you see him is in a camp just outside the city gates. How did he get there? You find out other pieces to that by playing a mage, a healer and a soldier.

The daytime quests also follow story threads and you will unravel the secret of the city by doing them. The whole quest scheme in Tortage is needed to reach level 20, get into the final battle for the city (a destiny quest) and leave Tortage for your homeland.

Review Scoring Details for Age of Conan – Hyborian Adventures

Gameplay: 8.9
The UI needs a little work, but is generally effective. The keyboard-and-mouse controls work well enough.

Graphics: 9.5
A few glitches aside the look of this game is amazing. The environments are diverse and appealing, and the animations are solid.

Sound: 9.2
The voice acting in the first 20 levels is great, and the musical score is impressive. The only downfall is the prerequisite grunting and groaning characters do when hit.

Difficulty: Medium

Concept: 9.5
If you have read any of the works of Robert E. Howard, you will realize the undertaking of creating an MMO based on that world. Funcom did a remarkable job. The game has taken the genre in some great new directions.

Multiplayer: 9.0
The community is actually pretty good. There are a few players that obviously lack the maturity level to play a game like this, but those who can handle it, answer questions and are generally nice to chat with created the foundation for what might become a very solid and good player base.

Overall: 9.4
This game marks the next generation of MMOs in many ways. It looks good, is very entertaining and plays very well. This is a journey well worth taking.