AOC is a game that is extremely fun for a month or two - after that people will start asking "Is this really mmo , or just a glorified online rpg?" they will lose interest and go looking for real social enviroment games (just in time WAR comes out)
I will recomend buying it , just for the kicks. And if you dont care to waste 50$ on a MMO you will play only 2 months
In all fairness, this is what people were saying about LOTRO at release, so remains to be seen how things will evolve.
And to be fair to the other side of the coin as well, LOTRO isn't doing as spectacularly as hyped either. It's not going anywhere anytime soon, but it's never going to be what everyone thought it'd be either.
I have the feeling AoC will don that mantle within 6 months.
In all fairness, this is what people were saying about LOTRO at release, so remains to be seen how things will evolve.
And to be fair to the other side of the coin as well, LOTRO isn't doing as spectacularly as hyped either. It's not going anywhere anytime soon, but it's never going to be what everyone thought it'd be either.
AFAIK they recently announced an expansion pack. So I guess it is going somewhere
Never ceases to amaze me how many people make their minds up by reading questionable reviews on forums, for goodness sake people learn to use your own minds .
While, I would love nothing better than to 'make up my own mind' but it seems that FunCom has deemed it unnessicary to hand out buddy keys on launch so people can do as such.
So, we have nothing better to go on other than questionable reviews.
Mmmm now thats strange I have a Invite a freind for seven days in my Copy ?
Nice review, has a feel of balance about it, and is much as I guessed. I will however give it a try myself once I have upgraded my machine, as I have found in the past that games people have hated (not that you or your review do) have turned out to be diamonds.
I appreciate the effort, but anyone who pays attention to the scores in red would be doing themselves a disservice. There was a lot being typed without really saying much.
Your Level 20-40 reviews could've been summed up as "I didn't really like the style of quests, so I decided to grind instead". That's all that was said there.
The UI is clunky in spots -- particularly the chat -- but other than the chat I hadn't had many issues with it. *shrug* Plus enhanced UIs are already coming out. I don't factor it in too closely.
Roleplaying got a special spot in your review and factored into your score, although the majority of players don't really care about it.
Crafting... eh. Give or take. The armor difference in low levels is slight enough that I don't think crafting would make much difference that low anyway. Gathering can be done at 20 however, and is quite useful in one form of "crafting": Guild Cities. If you're the type who hoped to make something useful for low levels though, you'll be disappointed.
In-Game Voice Chat: Irrelevant. People "expect" to use Ventrilo or Teamspeak. I don't know where you get saying people expect it included in the client.
Combat: You failed to mention the fact that general positioning can be used as a strategy to hit 2+ mobs at once, plus the fact that, like with healers, no targetting is needed. No mention of PC Collision Detection in there either, which really helps cut some of the cheese in PvP.
Your gameplay score is almost totally based on your opinion of instancing, which is another give-or-take.
----
Look, I've got issues with the game too -- but this was a little too skewed for my tastes. I could've combined a few sections, "averaged" them out myself and got a different score. :P
Much of it mirrors my own experiences in the game. It's kind of fun, but I think a lot of that is due to the fact that it is new, and we haven't had a new MMO of this type since LOTRO. For all the hype about the innovative combat system, I just don't see it as being such -- sure, there are more buttons to press and you have to pay a bit more attention, but frankly the system screams "console designed game" to me, and isn't difficult or challenging really. The graphics and setting are very well done, but the cost of that is extremely low population cap for zone instances, which detracts from the immersion of the game. And the fact that the economy is dead in the water due to the trade/bank/mail system being offline at launch (and still offline almost a week later now) doesn't help matters.
I'm beginning to think that we've seen the last of the true MMOs -- wide-open immersive worlds where you can freely interact with large numbers of players in a single space. The demands for graphical eye candy are now resulting in such a heavy use of instance design, on the one hand, while the economic siren-song of the console market is itself resulting in more arcade-like game mechanics -- such that the traditional MMO seems to be fading into the rear-view mirror. It very well may be that a few years from now we will look back on things and see that WoW, for all of its flaws, was the last true MMO, before the genre was subsumed by smaller, less-massive instancing to accomodate graphics tastes and arcade-style mechanics to smooth the console port process (and appeal).
Nice try. I think most people can see your agenda through the "review" though.
I dont have an "agenda"
I just posted my opinions. Age of Conan is a fine Multiplayer experience but isnt really an MMO. If you like this kind of game then by all means by AoC. I just couldnt deal with the quest grind and the boxed in zones.
Otherwise Im not upset with Funcom's game. Tortage was well worth the $50
'Scuse me if I'm wrong OP, but I really didn't hear you say much about the "multi-player" part of this game. I heard you say you quested at the beginning, the you resorted to grinding, but I never heard you talk about group synergy, other people's opinions and influences on your gameplay, and things of the like. I could have missed it, but if you're playing this game 90% by yourself, well... I think that throws your review off just a bit. I just kept hearing a lot of "I did this" and "I ended up doing this instead", nothing about "We decided" to do anything.
Few things in high lvl zones you cannot instance simply because there are not that many people to spawn another instance. Whats worse is one high lvl apprenticing couple low levels and get spawned camp because of that chances are sometimes that high lvl is afk/another account.
Currently the dungeons/instances are pretty nice but do not start till lv 35 and the apprenticing makes leveling broken unless ofcourse you are PoM in which case you can solo grind even faster cause of how broken some classes are.
Thanks to the OP for an excellent description, and thanks for saving me around 100 euro (would need a copy for my GF aswell).
The thing that totally kills it for me is the way they do the zones. Sounds like it's just like in Tabula Rasa, and that sure wasn't pleasing. You're in this huge fantasy world and your friend is at the same spot as you, but you can't see him - cause he's in an alternative universe? Huh? Removes all joy for me.
On top of that, as assumed: When games are graphically brilliant they usually slack in other areas. Sounds like this happened here too.
Was really hoping for AoC to take over after WoW, but guess it takes an even huger effort to do that. We'll just have to wait...
There's plenty of people here that have played just as much as the OP and loved it, what if he's keeping you from spending the best 100 euros you've ever spent? Either way, it comes down to trusting some random guy in the internet about something that's a matter of sheer opinion on a forum. That's not a terribly bright idea, what with bias, skewed opinion, and random anonymity being what it is.
Comments
Patra is a bit far off. If you were in Volos, I'd invite you to come over. Tsipouro is on me
AOC is a game that is extremely fun for a month or two - after that people will start asking "Is this really mmo , or just a glorified online rpg?" they will lose interest and go looking for real social enviroment games (just in time WAR comes out)
I will recomend buying it , just for the kicks. And if you dont care to waste 50$ on a MMO you will play only 2 months
Heh, assuming ebgames doesn't knacker up my CE WAR order, I'll be there for OB whenever that is.
Mne eto nado kak zuby v zadnitse.
In all fairness, this is what people were saying about LOTRO at release, so remains to be seen how things will evolve.
If u invite me for tsipouro i dont think i ll be in any shape to even go close to a PC while staying there... God i love that drink
And to be fair to the other side of the coin as well, LOTRO isn't doing as spectacularly as hyped either. It's not going anywhere anytime soon, but it's never going to be what everyone thought it'd be either.
I have the feeling AoC will don that mantle within 6 months.
Mne eto nado kak zuby v zadnitse.
And to be fair to the other side of the coin as well, LOTRO isn't doing as spectacularly as hyped either. It's not going anywhere anytime soon, but it's never going to be what everyone thought it'd be either.
AFAIK they recently announced an expansion pack. So I guess it is going somewhere
Very good rewiew. usually find rewiews vrongs but tis is well writen.
While, I would love nothing better than to 'make up my own mind' but it seems that FunCom has deemed it unnessicary to hand out buddy keys on launch so people can do as such.
So, we have nothing better to go on other than questionable reviews.
Mmmm now thats strange I have a Invite a freind for seven days in my Copy ?
Nice review, has a feel of balance about it, and is much as I guessed. I will however give it a try myself once I have upgraded my machine, as I have found in the past that games people have hated (not that you or your review do) have turned out to be diamonds.
I appreciate the effort, but anyone who pays attention to the scores in red would be doing themselves a disservice. There was a lot being typed without really saying much.
Your Level 20-40 reviews could've been summed up as "I didn't really like the style of quests, so I decided to grind instead". That's all that was said there.
The UI is clunky in spots -- particularly the chat -- but other than the chat I hadn't had many issues with it. *shrug* Plus enhanced UIs are already coming out. I don't factor it in too closely.
Roleplaying got a special spot in your review and factored into your score, although the majority of players don't really care about it.
Crafting... eh. Give or take. The armor difference in low levels is slight enough that I don't think crafting would make much difference that low anyway. Gathering can be done at 20 however, and is quite useful in one form of "crafting": Guild Cities. If you're the type who hoped to make something useful for low levels though, you'll be disappointed.
In-Game Voice Chat: Irrelevant. People "expect" to use Ventrilo or Teamspeak. I don't know where you get saying people expect it included in the client.
Combat: You failed to mention the fact that general positioning can be used as a strategy to hit 2+ mobs at once, plus the fact that, like with healers, no targetting is needed. No mention of PC Collision Detection in there either, which really helps cut some of the cheese in PvP.
Your gameplay score is almost totally based on your opinion of instancing, which is another give-or-take.
----
Look, I've got issues with the game too -- but this was a little too skewed for my tastes. I could've combined a few sections, "averaged" them out myself and got a different score. :P
people are reviewing the review? WTF?
Nice try. I think most people can see your agenda through the "review" though.
Much of it mirrors my own experiences in the game. It's kind of fun, but I think a lot of that is due to the fact that it is new, and we haven't had a new MMO of this type since LOTRO. For all the hype about the innovative combat system, I just don't see it as being such -- sure, there are more buttons to press and you have to pay a bit more attention, but frankly the system screams "console designed game" to me, and isn't difficult or challenging really. The graphics and setting are very well done, but the cost of that is extremely low population cap for zone instances, which detracts from the immersion of the game. And the fact that the economy is dead in the water due to the trade/bank/mail system being offline at launch (and still offline almost a week later now) doesn't help matters.
I'm beginning to think that we've seen the last of the true MMOs -- wide-open immersive worlds where you can freely interact with large numbers of players in a single space. The demands for graphical eye candy are now resulting in such a heavy use of instance design, on the one hand, while the economic siren-song of the console market is itself resulting in more arcade-like game mechanics -- such that the traditional MMO seems to be fading into the rear-view mirror. It very well may be that a few years from now we will look back on things and see that WoW, for all of its flaws, was the last true MMO, before the genre was subsumed by smaller, less-massive instancing to accomodate graphics tastes and arcade-style mechanics to smooth the console port process (and appeal).
I just posted my opinions. Age of Conan is a fine Multiplayer experience but isnt really an MMO. If you like this kind of game then by all means by AoC. I just couldnt deal with the quest grind and the boxed in zones.
Otherwise Im not upset with Funcom's game. Tortage was well worth the $50
Unfortunately, I have to agree with this review.
'Scuse me if I'm wrong OP, but I really didn't hear you say much about the "multi-player" part of this game. I heard you say you quested at the beginning, the you resorted to grinding, but I never heard you talk about group synergy, other people's opinions and influences on your gameplay, and things of the like. I could have missed it, but if you're playing this game 90% by yourself, well... I think that throws your review off just a bit. I just kept hearing a lot of "I did this" and "I ended up doing this instead", nothing about "We decided" to do anything.
Few things in high lvl zones you cannot instance simply because there are not that many people to spawn another instance. Whats worse is one high lvl apprenticing couple low levels and get spawned camp because of that chances are sometimes that high lvl is afk/another account.
Currently the dungeons/instances are pretty nice but do not start till lv 35 and the apprenticing makes leveling broken unless ofcourse you are PoM in which case you can solo grind even faster cause of how broken some classes are.
Thanks to the OP for an excellent description, and thanks for saving me around 100 euro (would need a copy for my GF aswell).
The thing that totally kills it for me is the way they do the zones. Sounds like it's just like in Tabula Rasa, and that sure wasn't pleasing. You're in this huge fantasy world and your friend is at the same spot as you, but you can't see him - cause he's in an alternative universe? Huh? Removes all joy for me.
On top of that, as assumed: When games are graphically brilliant they usually slack in other areas. Sounds like this happened here too.
Was really hoping for AoC to take over after WoW, but guess it takes an even huger effort to do that. We'll just have to wait...
There's plenty of people here that have played just as much as the OP and loved it, what if he's keeping you from spending the best 100 euros you've ever spent? Either way, it comes down to trusting some random guy in the internet about something that's a matter of sheer opinion on a forum. That's not a terribly bright idea, what with bias, skewed opinion, and random anonymity being what it is.