AoC is one of two games that I just keep coming back to. It has *almost* everything I want from an MMO.
GRAPHICS
The graphics are just amazing and that's number one in my book. Yes, I realize that graphics alone don't make a good MMO, but they sure can emphasize a shitty one, such as TOR. TOR has piss poor cartoony garbage graphics, but was boasting the best game play in any MMO to date. After the shine of *story* wore off for me tho, I was stuck with a below average game with abolutely garbage visuals... time to move on. While the visuals of this game aren't quite up to an HD modded Skyrim with a good ENB running, it's STILL the best visuals in any MMO on the market and that's saying something for a 2008 game. I really feel like I'm there in AoC. The immersion is pretty amazing for me.
STORY
The story is also just as fun as the graphics. Tortage is a blast to play and replay. In fact, I leveled a dozen characters just through Tortage alone and some of those I never even took to 80. There are people that complain that the story past Tortage is bad, but those are people that can't get over the system shock of going from listening ot dialogue to reading it. The story takes a small slump immediately after 20, but then it picks right back up again in the 30's.
The problem with people that complain about the story in this game being terrible is that they are skipping all the amazing dungeons in this game. ALL of the best dungeons in this game are between lvl's 1-79. This isn't to say that the dungeons post 80 are all terrible, but the three wings of Tier 2 raiding are a giant yawnfest where you are stuck in the same landscape for hours. I can't believe they made some of the most enjoyable dungeons in any game I've ever played and then finished it off with a multi-hour romp in boring land.
Some of the pre-80 dungeons are an absolute blast to play over and over. Cradle of Decay, Ampitheater of Karutonia (one of my all time favorite dungeons in any game), Sanctum of Burning Souls (I love this dungeon and I even run it at 80 solo when I'm bored sometimes), Iron Tower (Very hard, but very fun), Crows Nest (Fan the Flames!).
PVP
I'll admit that when I first started playing AoC I was a big PVP'er. I rolled all my first few characters on Deathwhisper and fought people with my Necromancer any chance I got. It was a blast and almost forced you to level with other players in order to avoid being ganked solo. There's nothing as fun as rolling up on people farming at atzels fortress or the badit camp in kesh and facerolling them and then farming it for yourself. On the PVE servers, if you came up on people farming, then you were forced to join their group and if they wouldn't let you join, then you were shit out of luck.
This really isn't an issue anymore now that most players are lvl 80 and not farming the bandit camps for XP, but within a month of release it was great to have the option to PVP to keep your PVE area clear.
At first PVP was horribly broken. TOS were one-shot wonders, often hitting even best geared guardians at the time for double their HP in damage. Funcom took the approach of "one character rebalance at a time" which simply left a rotating door of OP characters. The TOS were nerfed to oblivion and then the Necros were crazy OP, then they were nerfed, then the rangers... and so on. So basically it took a long time to balance PVP and a lot of PVP'ers weren't willing to stick around and wait.
PVP is still in a state of shambles. Someone at Funcom got the idea that what we really want to do for PVP is play a small handful of minigames ad nauseum and when that gets boring what we really wanted to do was farm PVP resource nodes. That guy, whoever he is, should be fired... like in front of a firing squad. Worst idea ever. What people really wanted from PVP were dynamic objectives to fight over.
EXPANSION
The first and only expansion to this game is a mixed bag for me. First, it provided some really good pick-up entertainment in the form of 6 man dungeons that were challenging and very rewarding. The gear drops from them were even better than Tier 2 raiding gear. There were some pretty fun quests here too, although many of them were bugged very badly.
The new areas were also visually stunning. They looked amazing, had compltely brand new NPC's fight, and were a nice break from the rest of the game.
The problems started when I decided to get my first new mount. The Tiger. I had no clue how bad grinding could be until I started down this path. Doing the same 5-6 quests over and over and over and over for hours on end just to collect some stupid tokens that I could turn in to get a baby mount, which I then had to train up. It was a literal Asian grinder... set in an asian landscape. I got my Tiger and quit playing again soon afterwards.
Some of the new areas were absolutely ridiculous to top it off. Kara Korum for instance had so many predators per square foot, that there's no way there was enough prey for them to even live longer than a day.
OVERALL
Overall, this game is actually very enjoyable, but it should and I emphasize this, it really should be played with good friends. Take your time leveling, try to do all the dungeons for your level, and do the ones you like a few times. There's plenty to do at lvl 80, but it gets repetetive fast so enjoy the lower level content without simply racing to 80.
Great review from someone who actually has played the game on and off since launch! No, the game is not el perfecto, but it does have more to offer than so many of the posts that shovel out hatred would have you believe. AoC is a great Conan game - by far the best Conan game ever made - and a decent MMO that is fun to play.
In addition the game is continually being patched, developed, or expanded. Updates are fairly common covering everything from added playfields to gameplay tweaks. Funcom may be running on a shoe string budget, but they have not abandon the game, not even for the sake of TSW.
I was supprised how good this game realy is. I have heard so much negative about this game around the internet, but when i tried it out for my self i found it very enjoyable. Im subbed to TSW and to WOW and i just bought GW2, but i find myself playing AoC more than anything. I run AoC on Geforce GTX 670, and the game looks pretty nice for a 4 year old game. I havent seen much of the problems they say it has either, and I there are players running around everywhere, so the game is far from dead thats for sure, especialy now after the server merge. I was also impressed with how friendly ppl are, the guild i joined was very helpful from the day started playing..
Aside from the terrible launch, and possibly a year and a half fixing it, the games actually pretty good for a themepark.
The classes are fun, the combat is fun, it looks good, the endgame raids are fun...open world pvp was fun when the game was well populated as were the pvp instances.
The problem is, you burn out on the game and never really look back.
I think if this game launced in the same state it was 2 years after, the game would still have a decent following.
Not sure the state of the game right now, but i remember trying the game out just to see how bad it was, and test out my new gtx260 at the time...and i ended up staying for much longer than i usually stay in a themepark.
Personally, i get the hate towards funcom, but i honestly believe their games are FAR better than this and other sites give them credit for. I mean at least their games are cutting edge graphic wise and usually offer something that actually is innovative, in this games case the combat was phenominal and a much needed improvement from tab target spam...however i did hear they made the combos less complicated....and spellweaving was great fun...oh and the game had guild sieges and territory control...often overlooked in modern themeparks.
Aside from the terrible launch, and possibly a year and a half fixing it, the games actually pretty good for a themepark.
I currently play other games, but still log in once or twice a week as F2P as I've done the last 6 months, AOC is refreshing, and parts of it still feels like next gen mmorpg. The fact that you dont have to target anything feels so right. In the game I play now, I actually have to target some of the AOE spells on mobs infront of me or it dosent fire... sigh...
Tab targeting is still the norm in most modern mmorpgs. The problem with AOC and the main reason I dont play is the low ammount of new content, and the crappy ingame economy. It dosent help that Funcom fails with a good amount of the new content they add and never bother to fix it so it's used.
Latest for example the breach dungeon which NOONE does anymore even if it was added 5 months ago, Ai district, House of crom social event that like 2 guilds have completed, it just goes on, there's extremly little new succesfull content, it's halfway done, all of it.
Originally posted by clumsytoes44 Perhap's it's time to re-install AoC, and give it another whirl. Will probably just S-can whatever chr's i have and restart fresh.
I did. Felt a little like coming home. It really has evolved over the years to something amazing. Too bad they are not much into marketing, FC is not really good at that.
So i gave it a whirl, after the dust had settled , The game was not F2P at the time and a subscription was needed. I got out my card and subbed to see just how the game had evolved. l
In my experience, trusting funcom with your plastic is the single biggest mistake you can make.
But that's only my anecdote, carry on with the thread.
Self-pity imprisons us in the walls of our own self-absorption. The whole world shrinks down to the size of our problem, and the more we dwell on it, the smaller we are and the larger the problem seems to grow.
I honestly enjoy AoC and have come back to it on and off since launch. I've been playing it for a few weeks now and can say it's a very good game. I also really like Criag Morrison eventhough a lot of people say that most of what he says is lip service. I believe that he has some really good ideas and general understands mmos.
I played AOC when it first came out and was amazed at its graphics, combat and story. Tortage levels 1-20 are the best 20 levels I have ever played in a mmo and I have played many mmo's. I played on a PvP server so it was very intense as it was open world, playing a ranger I loved turning invisible, sneaking up on people and letting lose with a volley of arrows. I also loved it when you were being chased by gankers and gave them the slip by sliding down a river from the top of a mountain-great fun. As fun as the early play was I did feel they dropped the ball after Tortage, harvesting and crafting were crap and the story line went down hill. I also felt the community was one of the worst I had ever seen, even worse than WOW and that is saying something. I have no regrets but I did leave to try other games and about 4 months ago I figured I would try the F2P option but their F2P is one of the worst I have ever seen. Perhaps when they come out with their new crafting system I may try again because the game does have some fond memories for me
I didn't try it until it went F2P. I did have a lot of fun on release reading their official forums though. What a fustercluck that was.
Tortage was pretty good, not as good as SWTOR storytelling imo but still good. It quickly got boring for me after that though. I would have stayed to the level cap but I had no interest in subbing and their payment model didn't allow single purchases of content as an alternative to subs. I also really wasn't a fan of the combat.
I didn't try it until it went F2P. I did have a lot of fun on release reading their official forums though. What a fustercluck that was.
Tortage was pretty good, not as good as SWTOR storytelling imo but still good. It quickly got boring for me after that though. I would have stayed to the level cap but I had no interest in subbing and their payment model didn't allow single purchases of content as an alternative to subs. I also really wasn't a fan of the combat.
Yep, their f2p is close to worthless (to quote from myself: "before f2p, with the unlimited trial I could get 4 buddies ingame (3 of them subscribed). After the f2p conversion I tried to show it a few people, everyone's left before level10...")
But if you left Tortage and went to the main land on an f2p acc, then you should get some award of patience And out of curiousity, I also really wasn't a fan of the combat. which class did you choose?
Comments
Great review from someone who actually has played the game on and off since launch! No, the game is not el perfecto, but it does have more to offer than so many of the posts that shovel out hatred would have you believe. AoC is a great Conan game - by far the best Conan game ever made - and a decent MMO that is fun to play.
In addition the game is continually being patched, developed, or expanded. Updates are fairly common covering everything from added playfields to gameplay tweaks. Funcom may be running on a shoe string budget, but they have not abandon the game, not even for the sake of TSW.
"The Pen Is Mightier Than The Demo"
JEDI MASTER SOTANAX
SWG PRE-CU
Aside from the terrible launch, and possibly a year and a half fixing it, the games actually pretty good for a themepark.
The classes are fun, the combat is fun, it looks good, the endgame raids are fun...open world pvp was fun when the game was well populated as were the pvp instances.
The problem is, you burn out on the game and never really look back.
I think if this game launced in the same state it was 2 years after, the game would still have a decent following.
Not sure the state of the game right now, but i remember trying the game out just to see how bad it was, and test out my new gtx260 at the time...and i ended up staying for much longer than i usually stay in a themepark.
Personally, i get the hate towards funcom, but i honestly believe their games are FAR better than this and other sites give them credit for. I mean at least their games are cutting edge graphic wise and usually offer something that actually is innovative, in this games case the combat was phenominal and a much needed improvement from tab target spam...however i did hear they made the combos less complicated....and spellweaving was great fun...oh and the game had guild sieges and territory control...often overlooked in modern themeparks.
I currently play other games, but still log in once or twice a week as F2P as I've done the last 6 months, AOC is refreshing, and parts of it still feels like next gen mmorpg. The fact that you dont have to target anything feels so right. In the game I play now, I actually have to target some of the AOE spells on mobs infront of me or it dosent fire... sigh...
Tab targeting is still the norm in most modern mmorpgs. The problem with AOC and the main reason I dont play is the low ammount of new content, and the crappy ingame economy. It dosent help that Funcom fails with a good amount of the new content they add and never bother to fix it so it's used.
Latest for example the breach dungeon which NOONE does anymore even if it was added 5 months ago, Ai district, House of crom social event that like 2 guilds have completed, it just goes on, there's extremly little new succesfull content, it's halfway done, all of it.
Have to agree, AoC is top notch now. After nearly two years break it´s even better than I remembered.
Must have been a lot of updates since then.
And hey it´s Sheldon approved!
I did. Felt a little like coming home. It really has evolved over the years to something amazing. Too bad they are not much into marketing, FC is not really good at that.
In my experience, trusting funcom with your plastic is the single biggest mistake you can make.
But that's only my anecdote, carry on with the thread.
Self-pity imprisons us in the walls of our own self-absorption. The whole world shrinks down to the size of our problem, and the more we dwell on it, the smaller we are and the larger the problem seems to grow.
Even better, it's Queen Penelope approved
I didn't try it until it went F2P. I did have a lot of fun on release reading their official forums though. What a fustercluck that was.
Tortage was pretty good, not as good as SWTOR storytelling imo but still good. It quickly got boring for me after that though. I would have stayed to the level cap but I had no interest in subbing and their payment model didn't allow single purchases of content as an alternative to subs. I also really wasn't a fan of the combat.
Yep, their f2p is close to worthless (to quote from myself: "before f2p, with the unlimited trial I could get 4 buddies ingame (3 of them subscribed). After the f2p conversion I tried to show it a few people, everyone's left before level10...")
But if you left Tortage and went to the main land on an f2p acc, then you should get some award of patience
And out of curiousity, I also really wasn't a fan of the combat. which class did you choose?