Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures Preview

[GameBanshee News]

PC Zone has published a quick preview of Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures, based on what they saw of the MMORPG during a visit to Funcom's headquarters in Oslo, Norway.

The visit to snowy Oslo saw me swanning about Age of Conan's crèche area, that is, the island on which you're hand-reared through the game's first 20 levels. The city of Tortage offers a line of quests based around teaching you exactly how to use your particular class. It's no longer a single-player game in these early stages either.

Interestingly, by day Tortage is a multiplayer arena, but find a bed to sleep in and you'll wake up at night, where Age of Conan becomes an entirely single-player experience. You can flip between single and multiplayer just by hopping into bed.

In the single-player mode you further your 'destiny quest' by completing a series of quests based around your class. As a barbarian (AOC's rogue class), I found myself creeping along rooftops to eavesdrop on the local misfits, and stalking certain targets to subtly ensure their safety.

Whether or not this kind of quest can work outside of Tortage's single-player mode (and therefore anywhere past level 20), is unclear, but while it lasts it's an impressive and interesting change of pace from the typical 'kill X of Y' missions we're used to.