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My personal review of AoC
xaldraxius
Member Posts: 1,249
Ok, I've been sitting the fence until I had the chance to play the beta. I've been hoping that this would be a great game, but also I've been taking note of all of the reasonable complaints. I have done my best to hold my tongue when it came to all of the posts bashing the game and comparing it to Vanguard. So, after three days of playing the open beta I have this to say:
1st: When it comes to graphics, I haven't seen better in an online game. The landscape and scenery is great with a very distant draw plane. The monsters and enemies are well done as well. The body models are incredibly detailed, even in lower graphics settings, and the movements are fluid. The con side is that, so far, I haven't seen much variation in armor or clothing. Of course I remember the first days of Asheron's Call when there were only three or four different sets of armor and they dropped in all colors of the rainbow. I'm glad this game doesn't do that, though I hope there will be an option to dye your armor. Also, I've tried to build some pretty odd body shapes with the sliders, and they all turn out looking pretty much the same. Being the races are all human, this game lacks a lot of individuality. Total Score: 7 out of 10 (Individuality is very important to me, and so far this game has let me down in that aspect.)
2nd: The combat is fun. You have to know when to, and when not to execute combos. Thay are very helpful as some of them do a large amount of damage, but doing a fatality on one enemy while three others are hacking away at your backside is counter productive.PVP mini games are a lot of fun. I can't say a lot for the Team Anihilation mode, but CTF is fun and takes a lot of stratagy to excell at. I wish they had a way of picking your team though. There is a lot to be said for having a balanced team, and with the random way mini games are created it's imposible to plan out. I am excited about what the Sieges will be like though, now that I've had a taste of the combat system. 9 out of 10 (Would be 10 but I'm tired of getting pwned by assassins all the time. At level 13 there's no way of me judging long range class balance, but face to face a fighter type should be able to beat a rogue who should need to rely on stealth and possitioning. But I can't let my lack of ability taint my review...lol)
3rd: Quests certainly aren't lacking in this game, though I feel they are pretty much the same stuff on a different day, so to speak. The cutscenes are cool, and the voiceover work is well done, but it's pretty much kill this, bring me that, lift that barge tote that bale. Luckily I find that the loot drops off of enemies are as good if not better than quest items, so quests are pretty optional. The single player game mode is pretty nice though; I can play at my own pace and not have to worry about a line up of people trying to kill a certain mob, and the story is neat too if you take the time to listen through all the dialog. I just wish it had intricate instanced dungeons like DDO. That would make this game perfect IMO. Total Score: 7 out of 10 (Pretty much completely because of the single player mode.)
4th: Bug and Technical issues: I've got a pretty good rig and I can run this game at the highest settingsand the framerate hovers around 40-50, I get just a bit of stuttering at times so I turn off bloom and shadows and drop my AA down a bit and get a steady 60-70 which works great, even in high traffic areas. I can't say the game will work that way on everyones computer, but even at the lower settings, which I tried just to see what they were like, the game looks great. I haven't had much trouble with loading screens, most seem to last for less time than the loading screens in City of Heroes or DDO. I do find myself getting stuck on the terain from time to time, but usually jumping will fix the problem. I have had the game freeze a couple of times, but less than I do in CoH, and that game has been out for 3 years. Total Score: 8 out of 10
All in all it's a pretty decent game. Would I call it a WoW killer? No. It's too intensive as far as the combat goes to appeal to the most casual gamers, and it does require at least a mid level comp to play. Not something you could play very well on a two or three year old rig, or with a dial up connection. If they add some variations on armor designs and some intricate dungeons, (which it may actually have at later levels) I'd rank it higher. As far as what I've seen in beta I give the game a total score of 7.5 out of 10
Comments
nice review, and doesnt seem biased.
Yep a nice review and well written,seem's to be a very honest opinion,I would only dis-agree with "Being the races are all human, this game lacks a lot of individuality. Total Score: 7 out of 10 (Individuality is very important to me, and so far this game has let me down in that aspect.)
AoC is an ip based on the books so they cant very well put in gnome's,night elf's or hobits,Anyone that know's about the lore of conan will know this before they play.I hope though that in later level's the armor drop's will really help to set player's as individaul's,also having 12 classes to choose from aid's this also.
If someone had came up to me in 1980 when I was on my Atari 2600 and said we will be playing games with thousands of people at the same time.I guess my response would have been,"but I only have 2 joysticks"
http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/235780/page/8
Good review. I would give around the same scores.
Not arguing with you there. Just mentioned that all the races were human for those who weren't familier with Robert E. Howard's work, and to push the point that the options for individuality were fairly low at this part of the game. 3 races 12 classes, but only Stygians can be 'mage' types. I say 'mage' type in the little quotes because there is no class that resembles the typical mage; 2 pet classes and a transformation class. The Tempest of Set is closer to being a mage, and it's supposedly a divine class (Again, Stygian only). But once again that fits in with the Conan Universe, and I don't feel that it's nessisarily a bad thing.