People have been playing the same cardbox sized arena WoW instances for months. I don't see the size preventing people from playing AoC.
Five years however is a bit excessive. If I get a good year out of an MMO, I call it a great game. If I get more, I call it a massive succes (for me of course).
Wait until you reach lvl 40 and find out about peanut sized zones , and lack of content....
No way in hell you've reached lvl40 if you complain about small zones and lack of content at post-40. You should be ordered to take a walk in the deserts of Kopshef to cool of before you talk. Lobotomist... yeah right.
nice review. Its nice to see someone admit when they are wrong, its not that common on these forums.
Having played to level 40ish I have to 100% disagree with the poster his standards must be low.
Nope, maybe yours are impossibly high?
Graphics Excelent
Beyond excellent imo. Stunning is closer.
Single player storyline (Good)
Yeah, this is bout right. The destiny quest line is good, but nothing amazing. It's fun and engaging enough to play through though for sure.
Gameplay (Poor)
How so? This a traditional MMORPG that evolves some of the concepts (combat for instance) to lift it above the standard whack-a-mole gameplay of games before it. If you are calling AoCs gameplay 'poor', you must be be calling every other MMORPG's gameplay to date truly sh*t....
Are you?
If so, why are you even playing this genre of game?
Longevity (Poor)
Of course it is...
right...
So, how long do you think it's gonna take you to...
Finish PvE all has to offer...
To try out a few of the varied classess...
Fully explore the excellent harfvest/ craft system...
To grow bored of mini game/ Border Kingdom PvP...
To work with your guild to build your city...
To get together with your guild and explore the raid content at end game at your wn speed...
By the time you even come close Funcom will be stacking on the new content.
Combat too fast for any tactics button mashing as normal.(Poor) Little skill
Maybe your just too slow?
I know I don't ever ever button mash.
Again, maybe your just not very good at the game?
Quests linear and simplistic zero challenge(Poor)
This I agree with. The quests are just on the wrong side of easy. I am not a fan of GPS questing though, and AoC is hardly unique for this in todays market. AoC is too easy in the same way all MMORPGs are too easy now.... At least it's quests are well written and engaging though.
Again, if AoC is 'poor', every game out there right now is truly truly sh*t.
World size has to class as Small and totally instanced(Poor) no massive about this.
Massive in MMOs actually refers to the amount of people, not the zone size.
With that being said, the number of actual zones is indeed small, but boy they are usually huge with so to explore...
Again with the myths...
The game is NOT 'totally instanced' and you are either deliberatly misrepresenting it for some reason, or you dont understand the term properly.
80% of the game is open world. It uses instances to achieve specific goals, and for that I applaud it.
If you want to class the world size as small, then fine so be it. I personally would prefer to have a world this size that is fully developed then a vast open space with nothing in it. I personally think the game is about right.
Community and requirement to develop community zero(Poor) Raid and guild endgame just an arena.
While the tutorial ooc chat (1-20) indeed makes your ears bleed, this really changes in the real game and I have personally met so many good and friendly people I have no idea why people are touting this bad community garbage. Personally, my guild just simply rocks and makes playing the game a joy.
I play on Crom and I see little to support this myth of 'bad community'.
Mimics a single player game linear to the point it again has no challenge and nothing to explore.
I don't get this at all, past the solo destiny quest.
If you choose to play the game as a solo RPG, then thats your issues, not the game's... I have grouped TONS since I started, and while I would love it to be harder, it certainly isnt any easier then EQ2 or WoW, or any other MMORPG out there.
Anyhow we have covered this above and you are repeating yourself now.
A waste of invested time as there can be no sense of acheivment here, for people who have too much time or value their own very little.
hehe all games are a 'waste' of invested time.... Thats the point... but to say theres no achievement in this game is just ignorant... you obviously just not getting it at all.
I know for dam sure that I feel rewarded when I win PvP, and I know I am rewarded when I see simply stunning environments like the Sanctum, and I know 100% when I see our HUGE guild town taking shape I will feel defitnly rewarded.
Very very dissapointing
Thats not surprising, seeing as you seem to have missed everything that is good in your need to hate this game.
Originally posted by Deathstiny My computer: Dell XPS 630 - Quad core 6600 - 4gigs DDR2 - Gforce 8800 GT 512mb - Windows Vista Premium 32bit. That system currently retails for about $1200 to $1400 depending on some options.I was not prepared for this. First of all the game looked absolutely amazing. And I don't mean just "good". I mean generations ahead of its time. And the fact that my system runs it anywhere between 40-80fps (city vs. outdoor) on MAX settings is a blessing.
While I am pleasantly surprised with the launch of Age of Conan, the servers are very stable ( WoW is majorly pwnd in this area, remember the suffering we had to endure with the release of WoW ... ) The graphics are indeed very nice and run fine on a high end system.
Overall I agree with most of what you have said.
I have to point out that you can NOT run the game MAXED on the system you mentioned with the frames you said.
Keep in mind I talk about a resolution of 1680×1050, which is a very much used average resolution for a high end system.
Now, when running 1680x1050, setting AA on 16xQ, View distance 3000+ something, and under advanced settings you turn all sliders to the right and put everything on the highest setting, then you will have around 20 FPS on following system :
8800GTS 512MB, 4GB DDR2 800mhz 4-4-4-12 RAM, Quad Core Q6600 @ 3Ghz, 2 x 150GB Raptor HD, Dual boot Windows XP SP2, Windows Vista 64bit.
And before you say my system may not be tweaked right, I run every other game out there on max settings, ( unreal tournament 3, bioshock, LOTRO etc ) except Crysis ( but thats just a beast ) with at least 30+ FPS
I will take this even further and say that I think LOTRO graphics are almost as good as AOC, but ALOT better tweaked and even with DirectX 10 effects it runs alot smoother then AOC.
The engine needs alot of improvements imho, because as it stands now, you need a 8800 series card to be able to run it.
I sold my old PC to a friend of me to run AoC, that one has a 7950GT 512MB, with an Athlon 2,8Ghz and 4GB of ram, and he must put everything to the almost lowest settings on 1280x1024 and even then he gets spikes of 10 FPS.
So again, to enjoy the game you need a 8800 series card.
But besides that, I am having fun
Greetz
If you are interested in subscription or PCU numbers for MMORPG's, check out my site : http://mmodata.blogspot.be/ Favorite MMORPG's : DAoC pre ToA-NF, SWG Pre CU-NGE, EVE Online
I like the combat system, it is almost revolutionary imho.
I really dislike all the zoning and instancing, it makes the world feels small and less of an "massive" multiplayer online RPG.
If in the endgame the Guild vs Guild battles ( the keep battles ) are restricted in numbers ( as I heard, something like 48 vs 48 ), I will drop this game in a heartbeat and go to WAR. If not, then WAR will have a harder time to get me in their game
Greetz
If you are interested in subscription or PCU numbers for MMORPG's, check out my site : http://mmodata.blogspot.be/ Favorite MMORPG's : DAoC pre ToA-NF, SWG Pre CU-NGE, EVE Online
Alright, so Funcom huh? Ouch I was there for Anarchy Online Launch so I was prepared for uglyness. But I was bored and since I pretty much buy every single MMO that comes out I figured meh! May as well give the competition a try so I can "bash with experience". I was not prepared for this. First of all the game looked absolutely amazing. And I don't mean just "good". I mean generations ahead of its time. And the fact that my system runs it anywhere between 40-80fps (city vs. outdoor) on MAX settings is a blessing. Alright, so I didn't hate the graphics. Big deal, the servers will probably crash every few minutes and there will be hours upon hours of downtime right? WRONG! The servers have been up almost permanently (one 5 hour downtime exception that bothered me). For a release that is quite a feat. Of course I may just be lucky and servers are only up when I'm playing but considering I'm playing a lot I can safely say it's been a smooth lauch (as smooth as launches go).
That pretty closely sums up my approach to Funcom and AoC before launch. I was burned by the crappy AO launch also. Even though I was trying to stay neutral I had low expectations of stability in the early weeks and months. I was very shocked to find I never CTD.
On a harsher note I think the marketing side of Funcom did a hamfisted and awful job with the paid beta access, various key codes for this and that through multiple sources that turned into a cluster f**k. Over all a great launch though and a fun game to me.
Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Give a fish a man and he will eat for a month!
People have been playing the same cardbox sized arena WoW instances for months. I don't see the size preventing people from playing AoC. Five years however is a bit excessive. If I get a good year out of an MMO, I call it a great game. If I get more, I call it a massive succes (for me of course).
Just try walking from one city to another and you will have yoiur answer. No World.
________________________________________________________ Sorcery must persist, the future is the Citadel
People have been playing the same cardbox sized arena WoW instances for months. I don't see the size preventing people from playing AoC. Five years however is a bit excessive. If I get a good year out of an MMO, I call it a great game. If I get more, I call it a massive succes (for me of course).
Just try walking from one city to another and you will have yoiur answer. No World.
we all know how critically entertaining miles of empty space between areas is.
People have been playing the same cardbox sized arena WoW instances for months. I don't see the size preventing people from playing AoC. Five years however is a bit excessive. If I get a good year out of an MMO, I call it a great game. If I get more, I call it a massive succes (for me of course).
Just try walking from one city to another and you will have yoiur answer. No World.
we all know how critically entertaining miles of empty space between areas is.
My computer: Dell XPS 630 - Quad core 6600 - 4gigs DDR2 - Gforce 8800 GT 512mb - Windows Vista Premium 32bit. That system currently retails for about $1200 to $1400 depending on some options.
I was not prepared for this. First of all the game looked absolutely amazing. And I don't mean just "good". I mean generations ahead of its time. And the fact that my system runs it anywhere between 40-80fps (city vs. outdoor) on MAX settings is a blessing.
While I am pleasantly surprised with the launch of Age of Conan, the servers are very stable ( WoW is majorly pwnd in this area, remember the suffering we had to endure with the release of WoW ... )
The graphics are indeed very nice and run fine on a high end system.
Overall I agree with most of what you have said.
I have to point out that you can NOT run the game MAXED on the system you mentioned with the frames you said.
Keep in mind I talk about a resolution of 1680×1050, which is a very much used average resolution for a high end system.
Now, when running 1680x1050, setting AA on 16xQ, View distance 3000+ something, and under advanced settings you turn all sliders to the right and put everything on the highest setting, then you will have around 20 FPS on following system :
8800GTS 512MB, 4GB DDR2 800mhz 4-4-4-12 RAM, Quad Core Q6600 @ 3Ghz, 2 x 150GB Raptor HD, Dual boot Windows XP SP2, Windows Vista 64bit.
And before you say my system may not be tweaked right, I run every other game out there on max settings, ( unreal tournament 3, bioshock, LOTRO etc ) except Crysis ( but thats just a beast ) with at least 30+ FPS
I will take this even further and say that I think LOTRO graphics are almost as good as AOC, but ALOT better tweaked and even with DirectX 10 effects it runs alot smoother then AOC.
The engine needs alot of improvements imho, because as it stands now, you need a 8800 series card to be able to run it.
I sold my old PC to a friend of me to run AoC, that one has a 7950GT 512MB, with an Athlon 2,8Ghz and 4GB of ram, and he must put everything to the almost lowest settings on 1280x1024 and even then he gets spikes of 10 FPS.
So again, to enjoy the game you need a 8800 series card.
But besides that, I am having fun
Greetz
Have to disagree with you on this. I have a FX-60 with 2 gigs of RAM and a 7800GS and get 25-30fps with no low spikes anywhere so far, and I've played up to a lvl 24 Aquilonian Conqueror and 29 Tempest of Set, with the settings on low, shader set to 2.0.
Glad you are having fun!! It's awesome when you get that feeling. You know the feeling I mean when you really get into an MMO. I'm sure one day it will fade though like with all games and WAR will still be there to welcome you so don't cast it off yet!
I am having a blast in AoC though, and i'll eventually play WAR i'm sure. I can't wait for a game that can hold my attention and give me this feeling for like 10+ years but I doubt that will ever happen with technology moving the way it does and all. Anyhow grats again on finding that feeling.
nice review. Its nice to see someone admit when they are wrong, its not that common on these forums.
Having played to level 40ish I have to 100% disagree with the poster his standards must be low.
Graphics Excelent
agreed
Single player storyline (Good)
agreed
Gameplay (Poor)
why?
Longevity (Poor)
only 1 week and you are out of content? maybe we are defining longevity differently. care to elaborate?
Combat too fast for any tactics button mashing as normal.(Poor) Little skill
wrong, button mash ensures death, but yeah combat is fast which i thougth was good
Quests linear and simplistic zero challenge(Poor)
??? as opposed to? zero challange?
World size has to class as Small and totally instanced(Poor) no massive about this.
yup the horse needs a little more kicking. some like, some dont. if the alternative is waiting in line for a mob to spawn no thx.
Community and requirement to develop community zero(Poor)
agreed, possible downfall. had a few "thats it" moments myself
*edit* still wondering how i mis-read this part. community is average. above reply is for the funcom support , costumer service. *edit*
Raid and guild endgame just an arena.
not there yet
Mimics a single player game linear to the point it again has no challenge and nothing to explore.
playing with one char only atm but saw the option to skip destiny quest. newbie island is what it is : newbie island
A waste of invested time as there can be no sense of acheivment here,
again as opposed to? if you say WOW we are definitely from different planets.
for people who have too much time or value their own very little.
contradiction. already said no longevity, how can it be for people who have too much time
Very very dissapointing
not for me, i hope coming releases cater for you
Falfeir just my opinion and gut feel, having played near every MMO released the ammount of choice has ruined the genre to an extent and I am not easily impressed having played games in the past where I have had real fun died a lot to the point of despair and maybe i'm a bit of a masochist.
Gameplay is too prescriptive all content is quest based 100% from what iv'e seen so far everything can be soloed no mechanics bring people together and I dont really want to be a guild slave 4 days in. Limited models very limited IP but i guess that is Conan.
Longevity is about game design so i would like to be playing the game for say 18 months and still not be max level . Still have skills or abilities to improve on areas to hunt in where i felt threatened. (Carebear features in games make this just too easy, features that have put the genre back). Lets forget Add ons, the add an extra 10 levels and an expansion is just lazy and poor design.(Don't confuse this with my not wanting to pay for additional content Money is not an issue here.)
I am not out of content but , I am just not enjoying what is available from A MMO perspective. Nothing in the design has caused any sense of community to form( Maybe it is much more fun PvP and I am on a PvE server). So I can level but I can't really explore the classes are not inspiring me a linear skill tree wih everything out to see now, there may be more. But that sense of discovery doesn't exist, I may have a downer on class based games if I think about it.
Combat maybe I am being unfair, for me it is simplistic to master I have a set of combos which i vary slightly i don'ty seem to die... That doesn't mean it isn't hard though but for me not.
Quests simplistic (i guess you can turn all the hints of but that doesnt delay the simplicity if you have a memory for landscape which funnels you), Question Marks and Exclamation Marks Ohhh very very nice maps which now have shaded out areas just in case you haven't missed the flashing red light.
An example is the Gem quest in old taranta climb the walls (sorry you do not have the right climb skill so prescriptive.... Why does it not let people climb and fall, I will tell you why because if they did that the code would have to check against your skill bt it doesn't so is it really a skill (linear). Just falling and thinking ouch that was stupid would be nice... not possible
World Size. I don't care about quests I will try to walk over land to a town. Not possible the land mass does not exist.
Raid: just Lazy End game
Guilds : I like to make friends' no time to do this. It's a mad rush to get to 80 (whats that all about), I'm lev 42 and I feel i haven't started playing the game, I haven't explored or acheived just followed a forced path oblivion or the witcher deliver this.
Invested Time: A guild can build a city or town so they can acheive they can maybe siege another guild city/town. Thats good for guilds. Go play a MUD like Gemstone and get to level 80 you will feel you have acheived/ Survive PvP in Meridian 69 you will feel you have acheived/ Go from Nanto to Yanshi in AC1 before the bots arrived and you will feel a great sense of acheivement.
I have no feeling yet that I have done anything in AOC, I can see guilds achieving you mentioned WOW and I hate that game with a vengence. AOC doesn't come close and you really don't realise how much that hurts me to say it.
For people who have too much time : There is no contradiction here at all when i talk longevity I talk about a game delivering over time, when I talk about people Valueing their time I am referring to what they are really achieving, if you have nothing better to do you may play it even though it is mindless.
Future releases won't fix the game it will be more of the same the way the game plays is in it's design and it's current strict nature will be difficult to change. Or require a lot more land mass and open content sadly the IP will restrict this.
I don't normally bother to express my views so don't take this the wrong way, but I cannot understand how people get away with releasing something which is such a dissapointment. I can only conclude that this one will pas me by a shame because i have so much to contribute, but the game has to be worth iot before I will waste my valuable time.
Your post was worth responding to
________________________________________________________ Sorcery must persist, the future is the Citadel
well who didnt see that coming? it just launched, give it a rest... mmos need time.. if they dont insert more content soon then i can understand u are not happy, but it has been out for.. 7 days in us.. and 4 days in eu... sheesh
MMOs currently playing: - About to play: Lord of the Rings Online Played: Anarchy Online (alltime favorite) and lots of f2p titles (honorable mentions: 9Dragons, Martial Heroes, Dekaron, Atlantica Online)
really? the game is not finished?? -_-' well who didnt see that coming? it just launched, give it a rest... mmos need time.. if they dont insert more content soon then i can understand u are not happy, but it has been out for.. 7 days in us.. and 4 days in eu... sheesh
Level 42 out of 80 with no real effort. I guess they just want everyone at 80 as soon as possible, I guess crafting will just be end game items as no one will be 40 50 60 long enough to need the goods.
The game isnt designed with time in mind the progression is all too fast ... A shame
________________________________________________________ Sorcery must persist, the future is the Citadel
I have to say im pleased with the game so far myself. Playing a ranger (lvl24 atm) and its great. Love the combat system, though I personally wish for some more ranged combos, only got 4 at lvl 24 whilst I got a whole bunch of melee ones.
Instanced zones dont bother me one bit. Landscapes are beautiful and the music really does give another level of immersion to it. Currently in cimmeria and when runnig down this long hill with a beautiful view of the valley and nice music playing it would kill some of the immersion if there were 200 other people running up and down that same hill killing mobs and causing mayhem hence im all for instancing. So far there has been just about the right amount of people per zone/instance for me, no need to queue for mobs/quests, always a few people around for it not to feel empty.
PvP is fun so far, got owned by a lvl 16 assassin today though, most likely cause I suck rather than a balance issue, that and there propably was more than one, sneaky bastards those sassins. Havent noticed any large amount of spawn/zone camping yet, there is some but not much that I have seen.
The loot I think could be a little better. Im using all quest rewards, not getting anything fun from looting and theres nothing fun to buy either. Hopefully traders come online soon so I can spend some money, havent spent anything yet.
End game I dont know much about. Though a few guildies have mentioned there is a lack of quests after 50-60. Just have to see what happens in a month or two, hopefully im still enjoying my ranger then.
"Don't touch that please, your primitive intellect wouldn't understand alloys and compositions and things with... molecular structures."
first of all thanks for the detailed reply. Nice change in the flood of one word replies. I, as someone who is very satisfied by the game, have hard time understanding people who didnt like it. Of course there are bugs, broken mechanics etc but overall the game is good. at least this is what i think. Many say its not seamless, that it kills the immersion. for me its not an overkill, would have been better but not that important.
Originally posted by Isane
Falfeir just my opinion and gut feel, having played near every MMO released the ammount of choice has ruined the genre to an extent and I am not easily impressed having played games in the past where I have had real fun died a lot to the point of despair and maybe i'm a bit of a masochist. lol, that may be so but i think the reason is wanting every mmo to be like your first mud/mmo which is unrealistic. You are not the same person, to begin with. my understanding is With every mmo, content for "been there, done that" increases. one thing shouldnt change though: having fun. to have fun there has to be challenge. i think you and i differ at this point, you dont see any challenge in this game. Maybe you rolled in the mill for too long in the past and know that the bait doesnt worth the trouble. me? i have to somehow find 3 g for my horse. Gameplay is too prescriptive all content is quest based 100% from what iv'e seen so far everything can be soloed no mechanics bring people together and I dont really want to be a guild slave 4 days in. Limited models very limited IP but i guess that is Conan. true. but this is what the masses want. this was successful. funcom made the game with one thing in mind: money. deviating from average joe has its merits and flaws. As for no mechanics to bring people together, hopefully we'll be having some border love in the future. Longevity is about game design so i would like to be playing the game for say 18 months and still not be max level . Still have skills or abilities to improve on areas to hunt in where i felt threatened. (Carebear features in games make this just too easy, features that have put the genre back). Lets forget Add ons, the add an extra 10 levels and an expansion is just lazy and poor design.(Don't confuse this with my not wanting to pay for additional content Money is not an issue here.) again average joe but i definitely dont want L2. I also want to play a game i enjoy 18 months and still have things to do but defining with months of gameplay is a little bit wrong. they say 250 hours gameplay, for me its 2 years, for some its 2 months. I am not out of content but , I am just not enjoying what is available from A MMO perspective. Nothing in the design has caused any sense of community to form( Maybe it is much more fun PvP and I am on a PvE server). So I can level but I can't really explore the classes are not inspiring me a linear skill tree wih everything out to see now, there may be more. But that sense of discovery doesn't exist, I may have a downer on class based games if I think about it. again what people want, they want to be herded. previous title from this company is skill based. i liked that way better. now it says i cant hold long sword. let me handle it, let me spend skills in it, allow me to do the foolish thing. they tried it before didnt profit much. what i said here doesnt make it ok if its a downer for you of course but hopefully shed some light on the "why" Combat maybe I am being unfair, for me it is simplistic to master I have a set of combos which i vary slightly i don'ty seem to die... That doesn't mean it isn't hard though but for me not. in AO s combats i managed to read comics. the combat is different and fun, at least for me. Quests simplistic (i guess you can turn all the hints of but that doesnt delay the simplicity if you have a memory for landscape which funnels you), Question Marks and Exclamation Marks Ohhh very very nice maps which now have shaded out areas just in case you haven't missed the flashing red light. true but if they havent done that someone would have and people start alt+tabbing to the respective site. we have wonderous examples. besides have you seen any better quests in another mmo? An example is the Gem quest in old taranta climb the walls (sorry you do not have the right climb skill so prescriptive.... Why does it not let people climb and fall, I will tell you why because if they did that the code would have to check against your skill bt it doesn't so is it really a skill (linear). Just falling and thinking ouch that was stupid would be nice... not possible
wrong, i have fallen many times ( many meaning 3/40ish). think of it as "you dont know where to start with" World Size. I don't care about quests I will try to walk over land to a town. Not possible the land mass does not exist. i dont like this one neither but can live with it. Raid: just Lazy End game Guilds : I like to make friends' no time to do this. It's a mad rush to get to 80 (whats that all about), I'm lev 42 and I feel i haven't started playing the game, I haven't explored or acheived just followed a forced path oblivion or the witcher deliver this. i, too dont know the reason of the rush but guessing that they see it as a challenge. hope they are having fun. about exploring, i love the places i go, they used altitude greatly. i think what you wanted was a seamless world. sorry its not. Invested Time: A guild can build a city or town so they can acheive they can maybe siege another guild city/town. Thats good for guilds. Go play a MUD like Gemstone and get to level 80 you will feel you have acheived/ Survive PvP in Meridian 69 you will feel you have acheived/ Go from Nanto to Yanshi in AC1 before the bots arrived and you will feel a great sense of acheivement. but guilds are formed by players. be a part of something greater than you, say "i was there when it happened" also im sure there will be things that are very hard to achieve in this game. advanced horse training seems like forever to me and thats something you can just buy. now, what those things will require, (time, skill, planning etc) i dont know. I have no feeling yet that I have done anything in AOC, I can see guilds achieving you mentioned WOW and I hate that game with a vengence. AOC doesn't come close and you really don't realise how much that hurts me to say it. For people who have too much time : There is no contradiction here at all when i talk longevity I talk about a game delivering over time, when I talk about people Valueing their time I am referring to what they are really achieving, if you have nothing better to do you may play it even though it is mindless. still not getting this, if you think leveling is easy and you didnt feel like achieving then thats not an achievement. you found the game too easy? everything you try, you succeed easily? if so then its really a problem. Future releases won't fix the game it will be more of the same the way the game plays is in it's design and it's current strict nature will be difficult to change. Or require a lot more land mass and open content sadly the IP will restrict this. I don't normally bother to express my views so don't take this the wrong way, but I cannot understand how people get away with releasing something which is such a dissapointment. I can only conclude that this one will pas me by a shame because i have so much to contribute, but the game has to be worth iot before I will waste my valuable time. Your post was worth responding to what you consider needs fixing is actually a design decision so yes those wont be fixed. again im sorry, i hope coming releases cater for you but the game is good, just not your cup.
Alright so I've been a WAR fanboi for quite some time and I've been bashing AoC on numerous occasions on these boards (see my posting history if you have any doubts). I didn't bash AoC because I knew anything bad about it (I was not in BETA). I simply wanted MY game (WAR) to "win". I know that is not a mature reason but I'm sure many here can relate and I wanted everybody to understand from what perspective I'm writing this. Further info: I am currently in WAR Beta but won't compare AoC to WAR as I'm respecting the NDA. My computer: Dell XPS 630 - Quad core 6600 - 4gigs DDR2 - Gforce 8800 GT 512mb - Windows Vista Premium 32bit. That system currently retails for about $1200 to $1400 depending on some options. Alright, so Funcom huh? Ouch I was there for Anarchy Online Launch so I was prepared for uglyness. But I was bored and since I pretty much buy every single MMO that comes out I figured meh! May as well give the competition a try so I can "bash with experience". I was not prepared for this. First of all the game looked absolutely amazing. And I don't mean just "good". I mean generations ahead of its time. And the fact that my system runs it anywhere between 40-80fps (city vs. outdoor) on MAX settings is a blessing. Alright, so I didn't hate the graphics. Big deal, the servers will probably crash every few minutes and there will be hours upon hours of downtime right? WRONG! The servers have been up almost permanently (one 5 hour downtime exception that bothered me). For a release that is quite a feat. Of course I may just be lucky and servers are only up when I'm playing but considering I'm playing a lot I can safely say it's been a smooth lauch (as smooth as launches go). Alright, so the game looks great and is stable. Surely there must be tons of broken quests. Wrong again! I've done dozens of quests and they are working just fine. Plus many of them are actually quite entertaining and tell a great story. But the community is full of tards right? "Sadly" no. OOC is the new barrens chat but other than that I have met lots of great people already. The player base is defintely more mature than WoW and that's great news all around. How about the classes? All crap right? I've tried 9 out of the 12 classes so far and besides the Dark Templar I like em all. WoW a priest that nukes so he can heal better? What a great concept. You mean I'm no longer forced to spam 1 button and play healbot? Who would have thunk? Seriously the classes are great. Sure some balancing is required but honestly WoW has been out for what 3 years and classes need balancing. Or hey! Ask an EQ1 wizzy (9 years game life) how their class balance is compared to zerker and rogue dps on raids. Yeah, Funcom is doing alright ....ack can't believe I said that. BLASPHEMY! Alright, well combat must really suck then right? Well, you probably have guessed by now how this review is going. Sorry! I will NEVER EVER play and autoattack MMO again. Combat rocks! After level 10 a whole new world opens up and boy oh boy I can't believe we played MMOs the way we have all these years. Okay, I'm not going to bore you much longer. I just need to say a couple mroe things. First of all a big sorry to my previous attitude towards the game. A big congratulations to Funcom. AoC will be my MMO for years to come. THQs WH40K is the only thing on the horizon right now and that's at least 3-4 years away. As for WAR. I won't be playing it. I'll keep testing it here and there and fullfill my duties as a beta tester and I do hope it will do well as I like the license but my home is now Hyboria. I can't believe I'm about to say the following but ... THANK YOU FUNCOM !!!
Hey what server do you play? I dont really go out of my way to find groups or talk to people but I would like to be able to just walk up to some people and listen, or be in a zone with massive OOC chat lol, I generally avoid cities just cause i enjoy the wierd ass *MATURE MATURE MATURE ie. S3Xule A55alt (sorry, dont wanna get banned LOL!) and other really bad things* quests, I find that the stranger or the more graphic or tear-jerking or.. in this recent case... .. .. i'll use the quest quote.. "while they had their fun with my, my husband broke free from his chains and they killed him" i messed a few words but the first part is 100% quoted from a woman, oh.. then theres this part.. "I'm pregnant but I don't know if it's my husbands or the nemedians" ... wow, lets see WoW say that!!
"Sometimes, things that may or may not be true are the things a man needs to believe in the most. People are basically good. Honor, courage, virtue mean everything. Power and money, money and power mean nothing. Good always triumphs over evil. Love, True Love Never Dies." Which Final Fantasy Character Are You?
Seems pretty typical of the initial impression of the game. By level 40 more people are a lot less optimistic about things so make sure to post back then and see if things have changed for you.
I plan on sticking with it to 80 but right now I think it is more of a stopgap until WAR and not a replacement. Things can change in 6 months though.
What's this wait-till-level-40 crap I keep hearing? Is there an MMO out there that I haven't played that suddenly gets drastically *different* to play past level 40? I mean I took my Elf Hunter to 53 in WoW and didn't seem to be any more fun than when playing at level 1.
That would be a problem specific to WoW and woulden't neccecarily translate to another game. To me, your character *should* get more interesting to play as they get stronger and more skilled. I don't know yet if this is the case with conan first hand, but if it's true, then they've definitely done something right.
On the note of leveling too fast, I've gotten floods of information about many people/guilds abusing many things to level quite easily. At first I was quite annoyed about this, but I decided it was for the better. Since they so openly abused so many things, it got the attention of the devs, which means faster fixes. Also, they've ruined the game for themselves, so dishonest people won't be playing this game long. I'm not making any accusations, it just seems to me there were/are so many exploitable features at the moment due to dishonest beta testers that anyone with a weak will would be sucked into exploiting easily.
That would be a problem specific to WoW and woulden't neccecarily translate to another game. To me, your character *should* get more interesting to play as they get stronger and more skilled. I don't know yet if this is the case with conan first hand, but if it's true, then they've definitely done something right.
Ok... but name an MMO where when your character is post level 40 that things are NOT repetitive. I'm quite sure your auto-attack will still be the same, your skills will still be assigned to the same buttons (with different levels), the sounds of the world will be the same, the monsters you walk past from a city will be the same, the vendors will be the same, the purchase price for certain weapons will be the same and there will still be go here and fetch X or kill Y enemies.. So..... what game is totally different post-40?
Comments
People have been playing the same cardbox sized arena WoW instances for months. I don't see the size preventing people from playing AoC.
Five years however is a bit excessive. If I get a good year out of an MMO, I call it a great game. If I get more, I call it a massive succes (for me of course).
No way in hell you've reached lvl40 if you complain about small zones and lack of content at post-40. You should be ordered to take a walk in the deserts of Kopshef to cool of before you talk. Lobotomist... yeah right.
Having played to level 40ish I have to 100% disagree with the poster his standards must be low.
Graphics Excelent
agreed
Single player storyline (Good)
agreed
Gameplay (Poor)
why?
Longevity (Poor)
only 1 week and you are out of content? maybe we are defining longevity differently. care to elaborate?
Combat too fast for any tactics button mashing as normal.(Poor) Little skill
wrong, button mash ensures death, but yeah combat is fast which i thougth was good
Quests linear and simplistic zero challenge(Poor)
??? as opposed to? zero challange?
World size has to class as Small and totally instanced(Poor) no massive about this.
yup the horse needs a little more kicking. some like, some dont. if the alternative is waiting in line for a mob to spawn no thx.
Community and requirement to develop community zero(Poor)
agreed, possible downfall. had a few "thats it" moments myself
*edit* still wondering how i mis-read this part. community is average. above reply is for the funcom support , costumer service. *edit*
Raid and guild endgame just an arena.
not there yet
Mimics a single player game linear to the point it again has no challenge and nothing to explore.
playing with one char only atm but saw the option to skip destiny quest. newbie island is what it is : newbie island
A waste of invested time as there can be no sense of acheivment here,
again as opposed to? if you say WOW we are definitely from different planets.
for people who have too much time or value their own very little.
contradiction. already said no longevity, how can it be for people who have too much time
Very very dissapointing
not for me, i hope coming releases cater for you
I need more vespene gas.
Having played to level 40ish I have to 100% disagree with the poster his standards must be low.
Nope, maybe yours are impossibly high?
Graphics Excelent
Beyond excellent imo. Stunning is closer.
Single player storyline (Good)
Yeah, this is bout right. The destiny quest line is good, but nothing amazing. It's fun and engaging enough to play through though for sure.
Gameplay (Poor)
How so? This a traditional MMORPG that evolves some of the concepts (combat for instance) to lift it above the standard whack-a-mole gameplay of games before it. If you are calling AoCs gameplay 'poor', you must be be calling every other MMORPG's gameplay to date truly sh*t....
Are you?
If so, why are you even playing this genre of game?
Longevity (Poor)
Of course it is...
right...
So, how long do you think it's gonna take you to...
By the time you even come close Funcom will be stacking on the new content.
Combat too fast for any tactics button mashing as normal.(Poor) Little skill
Maybe your just too slow?
I know I don't ever ever button mash.
Again, maybe your just not very good at the game?
Quests linear and simplistic zero challenge(Poor)
This I agree with. The quests are just on the wrong side of easy. I am not a fan of GPS questing though, and AoC is hardly unique for this in todays market. AoC is too easy in the same way all MMORPGs are too easy now.... At least it's quests are well written and engaging though.
Again, if AoC is 'poor', every game out there right now is truly truly sh*t.
World size has to class as Small and totally instanced(Poor) no massive about this.
Massive in MMOs actually refers to the amount of people, not the zone size.
With that being said, the number of actual zones is indeed small, but boy they are usually huge with so to explore...
Again with the myths...
The game is NOT 'totally instanced' and you are either deliberatly misrepresenting it for some reason, or you dont understand the term properly.
80% of the game is open world. It uses instances to achieve specific goals, and for that I applaud it.
If you want to class the world size as small, then fine so be it. I personally would prefer to have a world this size that is fully developed then a vast open space with nothing in it. I personally think the game is about right.
Community and requirement to develop community zero(Poor) Raid and guild endgame just an arena.
While the tutorial ooc chat (1-20) indeed makes your ears bleed, this really changes in the real game and I have personally met so many good and friendly people I have no idea why people are touting this bad community garbage. Personally, my guild just simply rocks and makes playing the game a joy.
I play on Crom and I see little to support this myth of 'bad community'.
Mimics a single player game linear to the point it again has no challenge and nothing to explore.
I don't get this at all, past the solo destiny quest.
If you choose to play the game as a solo RPG, then thats your issues, not the game's... I have grouped TONS since I started, and while I would love it to be harder, it certainly isnt any easier then EQ2 or WoW, or any other MMORPG out there.
Anyhow we have covered this above and you are repeating yourself now.
A waste of invested time as there can be no sense of acheivment here, for people who have too much time or value their own very little.
hehe all games are a 'waste' of invested time.... Thats the point... but to say theres no achievement in this game is just ignorant... you obviously just not getting it at all.
I know for dam sure that I feel rewarded when I win PvP, and I know I am rewarded when I see simply stunning environments like the Sanctum, and I know 100% when I see our HUGE guild town taking shape I will feel defitnly rewarded.
Very very dissapointing
Thats not surprising, seeing as you seem to have missed everything that is good in your need to hate this game.
Watching WAR videos , tbh I think Id rather play Aion than WAR.
I guess Im just one of those older gamers who are sick of playing cartoons . Rather zone than see bland.
While I am pleasantly surprised with the launch of Age of Conan, the servers are very stable ( WoW is majorly pwnd in this area, remember the suffering we had to endure with the release of WoW ... )
The graphics are indeed very nice and run fine on a high end system.
Overall I agree with most of what you have said.
I have to point out that you can NOT run the game MAXED on the system you mentioned with the frames you said.
Keep in mind I talk about a resolution of 1680×1050, which is a very much used average resolution for a high end system.
Now, when running 1680x1050, setting AA on 16xQ, View distance 3000+ something, and under advanced settings you turn all sliders to the right and put everything on the highest setting, then you will have around 20 FPS on following system :
8800GTS 512MB, 4GB DDR2 800mhz 4-4-4-12 RAM, Quad Core Q6600 @ 3Ghz, 2 x 150GB Raptor HD, Dual boot Windows XP SP2, Windows Vista 64bit.
And before you say my system may not be tweaked right, I run every other game out there on max settings, ( unreal tournament 3, bioshock, LOTRO etc ) except Crysis ( but thats just a beast ) with at least 30+ FPS
I will take this even further and say that I think LOTRO graphics are almost as good as AOC, but ALOT better tweaked and even with DirectX 10 effects it runs alot smoother then AOC.
The engine needs alot of improvements imho, because as it stands now, you need a 8800 series card to be able to run it.
I sold my old PC to a friend of me to run AoC, that one has a 7950GT 512MB, with an Athlon 2,8Ghz and 4GB of ram, and he must put everything to the almost lowest settings on 1280x1024 and even then he gets spikes of 10 FPS.
So again, to enjoy the game you need a 8800 series card.
But besides that, I am having fun
Greetz
If you are interested in subscription or PCU numbers for MMORPG's, check out my site :
http://mmodata.blogspot.be/
Favorite MMORPG's : DAoC pre ToA-NF, SWG Pre CU-NGE, EVE Online
Oh and I am also a WAR fanboi.
I want to add this :
I like the combat system, it is almost revolutionary imho.
I really dislike all the zoning and instancing, it makes the world feels small and less of an "massive" multiplayer online RPG.
If in the endgame the Guild vs Guild battles ( the keep battles ) are restricted in numbers ( as I heard, something like 48 vs 48 ), I will drop this game in a heartbeat and go to WAR. If not, then WAR will have a harder time to get me in their game
Greetz
If you are interested in subscription or PCU numbers for MMORPG's, check out my site :
http://mmodata.blogspot.be/
Favorite MMORPG's : DAoC pre ToA-NF, SWG Pre CU-NGE, EVE Online
On a harsher note I think the marketing side of Funcom did a hamfisted and awful job with the paid beta access, various key codes for this and that through multiple sources that turned into a cluster f**k. Over all a great launch though and a fun game to me.
Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Give a fish a man and he will eat for a month!
Just try walking from one city to another and you will have yoiur answer. No World.
________________________________________________________
Sorcery must persist, the future is the Citadel
we all know how critically entertaining miles of empty space between areas is.Just try walking from one city to another and you will have yoiur answer. No World.
like Lord Of The Running Online?
Or World Of Walkingcraft?
we all know how critically entertaining miles of empty space between areas is.Just try walking from one city to another and you will have yoiur answer. No World.
like Lord Of The Running Online?
Or World Of Walkingcraft?
lol
While I am pleasantly surprised with the launch of Age of Conan, the servers are very stable ( WoW is majorly pwnd in this area, remember the suffering we had to endure with the release of WoW ... )
The graphics are indeed very nice and run fine on a high end system.
Overall I agree with most of what you have said.
I have to point out that you can NOT run the game MAXED on the system you mentioned with the frames you said.
Keep in mind I talk about a resolution of 1680×1050, which is a very much used average resolution for a high end system.
Now, when running 1680x1050, setting AA on 16xQ, View distance 3000+ something, and under advanced settings you turn all sliders to the right and put everything on the highest setting, then you will have around 20 FPS on following system :
8800GTS 512MB, 4GB DDR2 800mhz 4-4-4-12 RAM, Quad Core Q6600 @ 3Ghz, 2 x 150GB Raptor HD, Dual boot Windows XP SP2, Windows Vista 64bit.
And before you say my system may not be tweaked right, I run every other game out there on max settings, ( unreal tournament 3, bioshock, LOTRO etc ) except Crysis ( but thats just a beast ) with at least 30+ FPS
I will take this even further and say that I think LOTRO graphics are almost as good as AOC, but ALOT better tweaked and even with DirectX 10 effects it runs alot smoother then AOC.
The engine needs alot of improvements imho, because as it stands now, you need a 8800 series card to be able to run it.
I sold my old PC to a friend of me to run AoC, that one has a 7950GT 512MB, with an Athlon 2,8Ghz and 4GB of ram, and he must put everything to the almost lowest settings on 1280x1024 and even then he gets spikes of 10 FPS.
So again, to enjoy the game you need a 8800 series card.
But besides that, I am having fun
Greetz
Have to disagree with you on this. I have a FX-60 with 2 gigs of RAM and a 7800GS and get 25-30fps with no low spikes anywhere so far, and I've played up to a lvl 24 Aquilonian Conqueror and 29 Tempest of Set, with the settings on low, shader set to 2.0.
Glad you are having fun!! It's awesome when you get that feeling. You know the feeling I mean when you really get into an MMO. I'm sure one day it will fade though like with all games and WAR will still be there to welcome you so don't cast it off yet!
I am having a blast in AoC though, and i'll eventually play WAR i'm sure. I can't wait for a game that can hold my attention and give me this feeling for like 10+ years but I doubt that will ever happen with technology moving the way it does and all. Anyhow grats again on finding that feeling.
Having played to level 40ish I have to 100% disagree with the poster his standards must be low.
Graphics Excelent
agreed
Single player storyline (Good)
agreed
Gameplay (Poor)
why?
Longevity (Poor)
only 1 week and you are out of content? maybe we are defining longevity differently. care to elaborate?
Combat too fast for any tactics button mashing as normal.(Poor) Little skill
wrong, button mash ensures death, but yeah combat is fast which i thougth was good
Quests linear and simplistic zero challenge(Poor)
??? as opposed to? zero challange?
World size has to class as Small and totally instanced(Poor) no massive about this.
yup the horse needs a little more kicking. some like, some dont. if the alternative is waiting in line for a mob to spawn no thx.
Community and requirement to develop community zero(Poor)
agreed, possible downfall. had a few "thats it" moments myself
*edit* still wondering how i mis-read this part. community is average. above reply is for the funcom support , costumer service. *edit*
Raid and guild endgame just an arena.
not there yet
Mimics a single player game linear to the point it again has no challenge and nothing to explore.
playing with one char only atm but saw the option to skip destiny quest. newbie island is what it is : newbie island
A waste of invested time as there can be no sense of acheivment here,
again as opposed to? if you say WOW we are definitely from different planets.
for people who have too much time or value their own very little.
contradiction. already said no longevity, how can it be for people who have too much time
Very very dissapointing
not for me, i hope coming releases cater for you
Falfeir just my opinion and gut feel, having played near every MMO released the ammount of choice has ruined the genre to an extent and I am not easily impressed having played games in the past where I have had real fun died a lot to the point of despair and maybe i'm a bit of a masochist.
Gameplay is too prescriptive all content is quest based 100% from what iv'e seen so far everything can be soloed no mechanics bring people together and I dont really want to be a guild slave 4 days in. Limited models very limited IP but i guess that is Conan.
Longevity is about game design so i would like to be playing the game for say 18 months and still not be max level . Still have skills or abilities to improve on areas to hunt in where i felt threatened. (Carebear features in games make this just too easy, features that have put the genre back). Lets forget Add ons, the add an extra 10 levels and an expansion is just lazy and poor design.(Don't confuse this with my not wanting to pay for additional content Money is not an issue here.)
I am not out of content but , I am just not enjoying what is available from A MMO perspective. Nothing in the design has caused any sense of community to form( Maybe it is much more fun PvP and I am on a PvE server). So I can level but I can't really explore the classes are not inspiring me a linear skill tree wih everything out to see now, there may be more. But that sense of discovery doesn't exist, I may have a downer on class based games if I think about it.
Combat maybe I am being unfair, for me it is simplistic to master I have a set of combos which i vary slightly i don'ty seem to die... That doesn't mean it isn't hard though but for me not.
Quests simplistic (i guess you can turn all the hints of but that doesnt delay the simplicity if you have a memory for landscape which funnels you), Question Marks and Exclamation Marks Ohhh very very nice maps which now have shaded out areas just in case you haven't missed the flashing red light.
An example is the Gem quest in old taranta climb the walls (sorry you do not have the right climb skill so prescriptive.... Why does it not let people climb and fall, I will tell you why because if they did that the code would have to check against your skill bt it doesn't so is it really a skill (linear). Just falling and thinking ouch that was stupid would be nice... not possible
World Size. I don't care about quests I will try to walk over land to a town. Not possible the land mass does not exist.
Raid: just Lazy End game
Guilds : I like to make friends' no time to do this. It's a mad rush to get to 80 (whats that all about), I'm lev 42 and I feel i haven't started playing the game, I haven't explored or acheived just followed a forced path oblivion or the witcher deliver this.
Invested Time: A guild can build a city or town so they can acheive they can maybe siege another guild city/town. Thats good for guilds. Go play a MUD like Gemstone and get to level 80 you will feel you have acheived/ Survive PvP in Meridian 69 you will feel you have acheived/ Go from Nanto to Yanshi in AC1 before the bots arrived and you will feel a great sense of acheivement.
I have no feeling yet that I have done anything in AOC, I can see guilds achieving you mentioned WOW and I hate that game with a vengence. AOC doesn't come close and you really don't realise how much that hurts me to say it.
For people who have too much time : There is no contradiction here at all when i talk longevity I talk about a game delivering over time, when I talk about people Valueing their time I am referring to what they are really achieving, if you have nothing better to do you may play it even though it is mindless.
Future releases won't fix the game it will be more of the same the way the game plays is in it's design and it's current strict nature will be difficult to change. Or require a lot more land mass and open content sadly the IP will restrict this.
I don't normally bother to express my views so don't take this the wrong way, but I cannot understand how people get away with releasing something which is such a dissapointment. I can only conclude that this one will pas me by a shame because i have so much to contribute, but the game has to be worth iot before I will waste my valuable time.
Your post was worth responding to
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Sorcery must persist, the future is the Citadel
really? the game is not finished?? -_-'
well who didnt see that coming? it just launched, give it a rest... mmos need time.. if they dont insert more content soon then i can understand u are not happy, but it has been out for.. 7 days in us.. and 4 days in eu... sheesh
MMOs currently playing: -
About to play: Lord of the Rings Online
Played: Anarchy Online (alltime favorite) and lots of f2p titles (honorable mentions: 9Dragons, Martial Heroes, Dekaron, Atlantica Online)
Playing a melee is great in AoC with the combat system....I could never go back to auto attack either.
The game isnt designed with time in mind the progression is all too fast ... A shame
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Sorcery must persist, the future is the Citadel
Nice review!
I have to say im pleased with the game so far myself. Playing a ranger (lvl24 atm) and its great. Love the combat system, though I personally wish for some more ranged combos, only got 4 at lvl 24 whilst I got a whole bunch of melee ones.
Instanced zones dont bother me one bit. Landscapes are beautiful and the music really does give another level of immersion to it. Currently in cimmeria and when runnig down this long hill with a beautiful view of the valley and nice music playing it would kill some of the immersion if there were 200 other people running up and down that same hill killing mobs and causing mayhem hence im all for instancing. So far there has been just about the right amount of people per zone/instance for me, no need to queue for mobs/quests, always a few people around for it not to feel empty.
PvP is fun so far, got owned by a lvl 16 assassin today though, most likely cause I suck rather than a balance issue, that and there propably was more than one, sneaky bastards those sassins
. Havent noticed any large amount of spawn/zone camping yet, there is some but not much that I have seen.
The loot I think could be a little better. Im using all quest rewards, not getting anything fun from looting and theres nothing fun to buy either. Hopefully traders come online soon so I can spend some money, havent spent anything yet.
End game I dont know much about. Though a few guildies have mentioned there is a lack of quests after 50-60. Just have to see what happens in a month or two, hopefully im still enjoying my ranger then.
"Don't touch that please, your primitive intellect wouldn't understand alloys and compositions and things with... molecular structures."
first of all thanks for the detailed reply. Nice change in the flood of one word replies. I, as someone who is very satisfied by the game, have hard time understanding people who didnt like it. Of course there are bugs, broken mechanics etc but overall the game is good. at least this is what i think. Many say its not seamless, that it kills the immersion. for me its not an overkill, would have been better but not that important.
I need more vespene gas.
Hey what server do you play? I dont really go out of my way to find groups or talk to people but I would like to be able to just walk up to some people and listen, or be in a zone with massive OOC chat lol, I generally avoid cities just cause i enjoy the wierd ass *MATURE MATURE MATURE ie. S3Xule A55alt (sorry, dont wanna get banned LOL!) and other really bad things* quests, I find that the stranger or the more graphic or tear-jerking or.. in this recent case... .. .. i'll use the quest quote.. "while they had their fun with my, my husband broke free from his chains and they killed him" i messed a few words but the first part is 100% quoted from a woman, oh.. then theres this part.. "I'm pregnant but I don't know if it's my husbands or the nemedians" ... wow, lets see WoW say that!!
"Sometimes, things that may or may not be true are the things a man needs to believe in the most. People are basically good. Honor, courage, virtue mean everything. Power and money, money and power mean nothing. Good always triumphs over evil. Love, True Love Never Dies."
Which Final Fantasy Character Are You?
OP, your bashing AoC on the grounds of wanting WAR to "win" leaves much to be desired in the field of maturity on your part...
I assume this is your first time to these boards so let me say "welcome"
What's this wait-till-level-40 crap I keep hearing? Is there an MMO out there that I haven't played that suddenly gets drastically *different* to play past level 40? I mean I took my Elf Hunter to 53 in WoW and didn't seem to be any more fun than when playing at level 1.
That would be a problem specific to WoW and woulden't neccecarily translate to another game. To me, your character *should* get more interesting to play as they get stronger and more skilled. I don't know yet if this is the case with conan first hand, but if it's true, then they've definitely done something right.
On the note of leveling too fast, I've gotten floods of information about many people/guilds abusing many things to level quite easily. At first I was quite annoyed about this, but I decided it was for the better. Since they so openly abused so many things, it got the attention of the devs, which means faster fixes. Also, they've ruined the game for themselves, so dishonest people won't be playing this game long. I'm not making any accusations, it just seems to me there were/are so many exploitable features at the moment due to dishonest beta testers that anyone with a weak will would be sucked into exploiting easily.
Ok... but name an MMO where when your character is post level 40 that things are NOT repetitive. I'm quite sure your auto-attack will still be the same, your skills will still be assigned to the same buttons (with different levels), the sounds of the world will be the same, the monsters you walk past from a city will be the same, the vendors will be the same, the purchase price for certain weapons will be the same and there will still be go here and fetch X or kill Y enemies.. So..... what game is totally different post-40?