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In this Age of Conan review you'll learn about a game that gains in popularity each day.
Age of Conan is a MMORPG, a Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game developed by Funcom, a Norwegian company.
The original game is called "Age of Conan - Hyborian Adventures" and was launched May 20th 2008 in the USA and May 23rd 2008 in Europe.
In the original game, you can choose between three different races: Aquilonians, Cimmerians and Stygian. You can adventure in Cimmeria, Aquilonia and Stygian and level up to level 80.
When your first character reaches level 50, you can make one character which would start at level 50, it is the so called "free 50?. You can choose between the different available classes and races and when you make your character, at the moment of entering the game, you are asked if you want to enter as a level 1 or level 50. If you choose level 50, you are sent to your hometown, in a corner. You will be naked but will have all the necessary equipment in your bag and 1.50 gold, which can be used to purchase a mount, for example.
When it was launched, the game received generally favorable reviews from different tests and magazines, but player's reactions were overwhelmingly negative. The game was plagued by a vast number of bugs going from missing zones to broken encounters and bugged quests and many other graphical glitches. Funcom lost many players in the first months after the launch.
Many players complained that the game was lacking end game content. When you reached 80, there wasn't much to do except a couple of raids.
Funcom did a big job in fixing the bugs, but still today, many small bugs remain. Since the game is very demanding on the graphic side, some players may experience more or fewer bugs and crashes depending on their equipment. Personally, most of the time, it runs pretty flawlessly, but it is very common to hear or read players saying in raid or group: "Just a sec, need to relog/restart"
Age of Conan lost many players in the first months after release, and it took them a lot of time to win them back. But today, as of August 29th 2011, it seems they have caught up again. According to Funcom, they have more than two millions player at this point.
There are four different classes of players: Soldier, Mage, Priest or Rogue. Each class is subdivided in three different subclasses:
Soldier: Guardian, Dark Templar, Conqueror.
Mage: Necromancer, Herald of Xotli, Demonologist.
Priest: Tempest of Set, Priest of Mitra, Bear Shaman.
Rogue: Assassin, Ranger, Barbarian.
Depending on the race you are going to choose, you will be able to be different classes.
Aquilonian can be: Guardian, Dark Templar, Conqueror, Priest of Mitra, Assassin, Ranger or Barbarian. An Aquilonian can't be a Mage and only the Aquilonian can be a Priest of Mitra.
Cimmerian can be: Guardian, Dark Templar, Conqueror, Bear Shaman, Ranger or Barbarian. Like the Aquilonian, a Cimmerian can't be Mage.
Stygian can be: Tempest of Set, Necromancer, Herald of Xotli, Demonologist, Assassin or Ranger. The Stygian can't be a Soldier class and only a Stygian can become Tempest of Set.
While fixing the bugs, Funcom also developed the instances and the end game.
In May 2010, Funcom released the Expansion Rise of the Godslayer.
Firstly, a new race entered the game: The Khitans and a new place: Khitai, at the far east.
The Khitans are the only race able to have every class, but of course, not every subclass. A Khitan can be: Guardian, Dark Templar, Bear Shaman, Necromancer, Herald of Xotli, Demonologist, Assassin or Ranger.
Everything on Khitai is level 80. There are 12 factions (and some secret factions you can meet throughout the game) opposed to each other 2 and 2. For example, the Children of Yag-Kosha are opposed to the Yellow Priests of Yun, Brittle Blade is opposed to Shadows of Jade, etc.
When you choose one of the faction, its opposite will instantly become your enemy. Each faction propose different gear and mounts so generally, players choose a faction depending on which gear they want. Each time you make a quest for a faction, you are awarded a number of tokens called Mark of Acclaims (typically abbreviated: MoA and generally from 14 to 20 per quest) and a number of positive reputation for the faction for whom you quest. You will lose the same number of reputation points at the opposite faction.
If you, for example, quest for Brittle Blade and get 2,000 faction points, you will lose 2,000 factions point at Shadows of Jade.
As you gain more and more reputation with your factions, more and more gear becomes available to you. At the moment, you can get up to level 4 in each faction. At level 1, you can buy some blue gear (for example chest) and you can buy the blue Khitai legs at level 2. You have to wait to level 4 to get the purple gear and the eventual mount or pet.
You buy the gear with a bit of gold and MoAs and it goes rising with the gear and the level. You can buy the blue chest at level 1 for 90 MoA but the purple boots at level 4 for 980 MoAs.
The endgame became much more exciting in Khitai with all these factions, all these quests, new dungeons and possibilities. In fact, Funcom ended up having more endgames than midgame.
This is what the new extension, planned to come out around tomorrow, the 30th of August, is making up with.
Funcom is opening a new area called Turan. The place will be for level 50 to 80, so a lot of midgame, new solo dungeon, new dungeon scaling with your level, new level 80 raid and about 50 new quests.
At the same time, parts of the existing game are going to be revamp, new quests will come in the good old Hyboria, new rewards and other changes.
If you buy the inline extension pack, you will be able to play Turan when it releases, you will get many bonuses (potions, level 20 mount, extra character slot, etc.) but you also will have one level 50 character more, so you can throw yourself in Turan from day one. Funcom has revealed the launch date for the Savage Coast of Turan pack as September 8th, although early access will begin starting August 31st for those that purchased the Early Access Bonus pack.
The game is sat up to be released in relation with the new Conan film. If it works flawlessly, that might be a big win for Age of Conan. If it is as buggy as it was when they first started, it could very well mean the death of the game.
Needless to say that I hope for the former possibility because I really enjoy this game, despite the bugs. And I hope this shows in my Age of Conan review.
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