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Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures: Rise of the Godslayer Impressions Pt. II
Stradden
Managing EditorMember CommonPosts: 6,696
MMORPG.com's Bill Murphy got his hands on the beta for the Age of Conan expansion, Rise of the Godslayer. Today, on launch day, he brings us some more impressions of the new addition.
In last week's preview I talked a bit about some of the new features coming to Age of Conan in the game's first true expansion: Rise of the Godslayer. Since then, I've had some time to explore the game's lower-level content a bit more and even some of the upper reaches, as well as delve deeper into the new pet and alternate advancement systems. And while Rise of the Godslayer might not have the traditionally thought of "more levels" that expansions usually contain, it certainly isn't lacking in advancement to make or carrots to chase after.
One of the first things players will notice whether they're level 20 and entering the Gateway of Khitai or level 80 and working on the new upper-level content is that the new zones of Khitai are far more open and traversable than what they're used to. There's a lot less running through bottlenecks, and a lot more open spaces to explore. The Gateway of Khitai is actually quite beautiful as well, and with a decent enough video-card you'll be able to see the Great Wall off in the distance. Interestingly enough Funcom seems to have taken a bit of inspiration away from LotRO, as depending on whether its day or night will alter what quests you have available in the Gateway. One graveyard has a bunch of wildlife mucking about during the day, and at night those beasts will give way to ghosts and other undead enemies.
Cheers,
Jon Wood
Managing Editor
MMORPG.com
Comments
Interesting article.
While I'm still astonished FunCom didn't improved the UI(*) at all with this expansion, I have to admit the game now runs like a charm (in DX9) even on medium computers (AMD 4200+ @2.2), 3 gig RAM, 8800 GT)
(*) UI:
Still impossible to rebind some buttons and functions like mouse buttons
Outdated trading and mailing UI
Weird proprietary names for basic commands like addfriend, emotes, chat functionality and so.
Removed the mouse look hot key toggle (was CTRL+M)
Still no one button hot bars and weapons switching
Still no 1st/3rd person view toggle
Still no support for Xbox controller (btw with 3rd party macros it works awesomely well)
Dig the expansion. Played Beta. Zones are insanely much more bigger than the original game and itemization is so much more elaborate. I have a good feel for this one.
The Ultimate Breakdown
Kudos for doing a detailed impression of the game and not a rushed review (i.e. Eurogamer)
I agree with you on about everything. This expansion is going to make this game "feel" every level instead of just a linear sprint to endgame. I'm very surprised at funcoms persistence and looking forward to tearing through the new content. Litteraly.
"I'm not cheap I'm incredibly subconsciously financially optimized"
"The worst part of censorship is ------------------"
I never tried the game when it first came out, but recently tried the unlimited trial where your on the beginning island. I like the fact they didn't make it your average 10 day or 2 week trial but let you play unlimited in the noob area. Otherwise I wouldn't have had a chance to really check out the game with work and all...
Having the oportunity to check out the beginning area I am definitely liking it thus far. The character creation is fairly in depth, the combat is pretty damn fun compared to your average button mashing MMO's, and the graphics have a style I really enjoy.
Funcom's decision to include the original game with the expansion is more than enough to get me to join. Excellent marketing strategy IMHO. That along with the unlimited trial was enough to convince me to invest in the game. Looking forward to payday.
Our spirit was here long before you
Long before us
And long will it be after your pride brings you to your end
Great article.
I am also extremely impressed with Funcom's persistence with this game, and this expansion pack seems very "clean," compared to its original release. If only the original launch was as smooth as this expansion pack's, this game could have been a lot greater. Anyway, I think they are on the path to redemption, and am looking forward to future titles from them.
Funcom as proven that if they put their minds to it and listen to their core players that it is possible to redeem a game that two years ago was said to be the biggest bust of all time. Glad to see the game growing.
Starting to feel the urge to resub now.
It is preferable not to travel with a dead man.
Ok frook it, i'll resub and give it a go. I like what i read.
I am gonna resub as well and give it a go :-)
So the new expansion is not just for level 20 - 40, it is for 80+ as well? Still trying to get to the bottom of leveling issues. In the old days you had problems which started 55 to 65 (hard to remember exactly when) you did lots of 'Villas' moved on to another zone and came back to the repeatable Villas quests a couple off times more. I would say I did some 20 levels in Villas.
Now we have people posting (other thread) saying no problem till 72. Or there is no problem at all. If the 'gateway' opens at 80 that looks good for the 80+ levels. So what is the truth, can you solo level 1 to 90 without returning to Villas?
It seems like a good time to reevaluate the game.
With the patches of the last 2 years also 2 zones have been added to deal with the level gaps, Ymir's Pass (inspired upon a short Conan-story) for the L55+ level gap, and Tarantia Commons that deals with the L70+ level gap.
The expansion has 5 new (huge) areas, 1 for L20-40, and 4 for L80.
There is no level cap raise, instead there's lateral leveling via the AA (Alternate Advancement) system, that'll give you new abilities in the form of feats and perks: from what I understand the perks has a lot in common with how it's being done in Guild Wars.
The ACTUAL size of MMORPG worlds: a comparison list between MMO's
The ease with which predictions are made on these forums:
Fratman: "I'm saying Spring 2012 at the earliest [for TOR release]. Anyone still clinging to 2011 is deluding themself at this point."
Two imediate elements I didn't see are character slot expansion and/or UI mods. These two single elements are probably why I'm not playing this game once again. It's a great game, but I'm an altoholic and refuse to pay extra for slots that should have been included in the first place and the more I can customize my UI the longer I'll be playing for. Fix these and I'll resub!
The size of the zones is what will always bother me because I can't stand heavily instanced mmo's. From what I'm reading, FC only increased the size of 1 lowbie area and 4 vet areas? ...weak. For me, until FC increases the size of all the zones or somehow get rid of zoning, I won't be re-subbing. It doesn't matter to me how much content FC throws in because it makes no sense to have a mount in AoC when it takes less than 2 minutes to get to the other side of the zone.
Play any games where you have been kill stealed?Camp you wanted was took an people would not leave for 48 hours?Ever have mob you needed for a quest get killed by a boared higher level an you had to wait 1 to 24 hours on its random respawn timer?
For some their will always be problems with instances .No matter the good side of instances,they are not happy unless they can camp something for weeks an hose others .They dont think a games fun.Seen this in eq .Watched people hold onto a camp just because their was compition for it.
To each their own.Ill have fun in aoc .Patching atm but zone size in aoc never was a problem for me or instances.Hope ya find a open world game ya like an have that 5 minute run like in north karna in eq.
"Civilized men are more discourteous than savages because they know they can be impolite without having their skulls split, as a general thing." Robert E. Howard, The Tower of the Elephant (1933)
The overall SIZE of the zones never bothered me, it's how they corraled you in to where you may have only one little pathway to access the other 50% of the map. Atzel's Approach is atrocious in this manner.
My understanding is that the expansion zones are alot less like this and are much more open. This is good news, and evidence that FC is listening. Also, they're adding random encounters to the game to make the zone travel more interesting. A good way to make a bad thing somewhat positive.
Going AA instead of adding levels is a good idea, too. No doubt they watched the popularity of Legendary Items in LotRO and saw that max level players with some sort of meaningful lateral advancement will keep playing while people who max those extra 5-10 levels will just quit again once they peg the new max.
I'll probably buy the expansion after a few months and check it out, but more importantly, this gives me more hope for The Secret World.
It seems u have been outdated from AoC current status since like 6-12 months ...
U dont have any problem to lvlup from 1-80 since then or more (only pvp can hold u :P). U have Ymir's Pass 55-65 lvl zone and 2 70-80lvl zones , the old keshatta and Tarantia Commons ...
what you mean witth UI mods? there are tons of fanmade UIs for download.
http://aoc.curse.com/
and you can buy extra slots dude, you can buy more 10 slots up to 18, and atm funcom are giving free slots for veteran players.
Btw the expansion release is going very well, I downloaded the expansion in full speed and no crashes at all!
It's a beautifully crafted game that a real sight for sore eyes for us long term "core" AOC gamers. The music is beautifully scored and although I only played for an hour in the new zone at the 80+ area it looks intriguing to say the least. I crashed several times porting between zones but my guess is there's a few tweaks we'll see to fix these over the next few days. Huge numbers of returning players and having and extra class to "run up the pole" is great. PUG's for RAIDS are still popular and effective for getting raid loot and it's nice to see active players on at all times, day or night regardless of peoples time zone. If you are into the next evolution of game play with a great combat system and interesting story line...this game is fantastic.
-Sculldog
Honestly AOC is the BEST MMO I have played and it is still trying to win over Players tainted by first launch. AOC is not for the faint of heart on PVP servers so that scared many casual WOW type Players.
If you want challenging PVP AOC is the place. Als othe game itself on a decent gaming rig is beautiful. Still #1 in MMOs visually by far! Downside is mainly minor stability issues depending on your setup at home and added content, specifically large updates always ding performance until patched.
Trust me, I'm not trying to bash AoC. I like the direction they went with AA and combos, etc., I just wish it would of turned out a little different when it comes to zones, but I know I can be picky.
Also, as far as open-world "kill-stealing" goes, I have been playing mmo's since the 90's and only once did "kill-stealing" ever become an annoying problem, and that was only during the CO beta. Which of course everyone knows how that game turned out, so it's too bad they didn't listen to their testers. The problem CS had with CO was that the combat mechanics allowed for "kill-stealing", not that the zones were mostly open-world. That is a different topic so I digress.
Just weak skinning mods. No API or ability to tweak the game to a player's liking. They are left with just dealing with someone else's idea of a game interface.
Exactly my point, you have to BUY more slots. This turns a 15/mo sub into a retail plus purchase. No thanks. Yes, I'm cheap.
im thinking of resubbin now txh for article new content etc its always a pleasure to see the AA advancement and all new things sounds little like music to my ears and intriguing and i like that so ill give it a chance
What you mention sounds like a personal problem and not FunCom's fault. I haven't seen a game yet that has unlimited character slots. Also, blowing off a game because it doesn't have a completely 100% customizable GUI is a bad move. I've seen WoW and EQ do this only. More MMOs choose to go the static route rather than offer people the chance to break the game through questionable mods.