If you let the hiccups in the launch of Age of Conan stop you from trying it out, you will be doing yourself a great disservice. Even with the aforementioned issues, Age of Conan is one of the most compelling gaming experiences on the market. Once its faults are corrected and new content further enhances the already phenomenal experience, Age of Conan may well be the most engaging MMO available for many years to come.

Age of Conan does all of the major things right. Like any MMO in its early days, Age of Conan has had its share of technical hiccups. Funcom has been working hard to iron out problems as they arise. Updates have been coming out nearly every day since the servers went online. It will be interesting to see how things develop after six months or so, but as it stands, Age of Conan is off to a great start and it can only get better from here.

Technical issues notwithstanding, the violently rewarding Age of Conan is one of the finest online RPGs available.
The Good:
* Mature, brilliantly imagined game world is a pleasure to explore
* Exciting combat keeps you constantly involved
* Many quests are powerfully written and have emotional impact
* Varied classes make both team and solo play equally viable
* You can tear a man’s heart out of his chest and eat it.
The Bad:
* A large nu...

Crispy Gamer writes: “Skeptics who doubted there was room for another massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) alongside the 10-million-strong World of Warcraft and other persistent fantasy worlds can eat their words as Funcom has confirmed its hotly-anticipated Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures sold more than 400,000 units its first week alone — even selling more copies than Grand Theft Auto IV in some markets.
Commercial success is one thing, but how does Ag...

”Reviewing an MMORPG is a notoriously difficult subject to broach. Despite the obvious fact that everyone views games differently, there’s also the fact that within a week, for all you know, there may be so many game changing elements added in a mammoth patch, that the review instantly becomes irrelevant. Out of the (probably) far too many MMORPGs I’ve played, the rate at which they change, especially in the early stages, is phenomenal. Which tends to be good news in my expe...

Bit-Tech: “Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures doesn’t bring anything hugely new to the table and the only real gimmicks it has going for it are the franchise behind it all and the fact that you can’t take two steps without faceplanting into the second biggest pair of boobs you’re ever like to see. It’s a fun and accessible RPG though, and on that front it can’t be faulted.”

FunCom’s much-awaited MMORPG, Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures, has finally reached the shelves of retailers and the hands of the expectant masses. The MMO Gamer’s most recent addition to the editorial family, Paul Sherrard, has been exploring the lands of Hyboria since launch, so that we can give you an idea if the latest entry into the MMO arena is worth your time and money.

Age of Conan is finally here, after months of waiting. While it doesn’t entirely succeed, it’s far from a failure.
Key to the appeal of this PC massively multiplayer title is the new combat system, which favors the game’s focus on player-versus-player combat. By forcing MMO gamers to think strategically and place their attacks at varying angles, combat in Age of Conan is a much more skill-based affair than in any MMO before it.
Unfortunately, the rest of the game...

Boomtown writes: “Following the AoC hands-on we had for you a few weeks back I have been hacking and slashing and sometimes running away (okay, running away a lot) in the beautiful world of Hyboria and boy am I excited about it.
Obviously the beginning of the game hasn’t changed from the hands-on so you still get the smart little boat ride where you can create man or woman in your image. Well, sort of. I tried to be truthful to my own likeness in my creation and was left qui...

”If you hear the name Conan, most people think about movies with Arnold Schwarzenegger and a mediocre game on the previous gen consoles. Not something that makes you jump out for joy as an MMORPG fan. Luckily Funcom based their newest MMORPG on the original Conan-material, created by Robert E. Howard. In this world there is no space for weakness or stupid jokes. Hacking someone’s head off because you didn’t like the way he looked is quite normal!
To let the novice play...

Conan’s core features are brilliant. Blood, sex, power, vengeance, lordship, and lust together drive a game that has tremendous potential, despite its lackluster polish. In the months to come, Hyboria will grow into a gladiatorial contender that you may well want to experience, World of Warcraft fan or not. For the moment, though, this is a game best left to the MMO crowd that’s been craving an M-rated change of pace.

“Here come the steamrollers, newbs,” says the text box floating above the crumpled body in front of my group. “Time to call in the level 80s. I thought you guys wanted to get quests done.” I can’t imagine any better victory in a massively multiplayer online role-playing game: Not only is the opponent beaten in the digital world, but defeat has triggered something akin to the Kubler-Ross stages of grief in his real-life brain. His ultimatum is Hyboria’s vers...

It’s extremely tough reviewing MMORPGs. We’re aware that no review this soon into the game’s cycle is going to be able to objectively encompass the sheer volume of Age of Conan – both at the higher end of the levelling spectrum and with respect to future content that will presumably smooth out the experience for everyone involved.
We don’t mind admitting that we’ve only reached Level 25 with our main character, and are currently scrounging around the begi...

UGO writes: “Joining the group of hopeful challengers to WoW’s success is the Norwegian developer Funcom. They come with some street cred, having built second generation MMORPG Anarchy OnlineNow they return to the scene with Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures, an MMORPG set in the fantasy world of Conan the Barbarian.
In Age of Conan, you play a shipwrecked slave washed up on the shores of a beach. The only other surivor is your owner, who you’ll need to kill to make go...

Pocket-Lint writes: “Developers Funcom definitely required a particularly strong back story to pick at if it was to take on the might of World of Warcraft in the MMO world. And taking the Conan fantasy setting of Robert E. Howard, they certainly got their hands on a classic.
Age of Conan straight off feels like a much mature title than the money making machine that is World of Warcraft. While the latter is certainly one that all the family can conceivably enjoy, it’s not too...