Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures Reviews
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Of course, the big draw of Age of Conan where end-game players will find the true longevity of the title is the siege-based PVP combat. The PVE content is more of a window into the world that will enrapture players initially but will ultimately be conquered easily. The grandeur of the epic-scale conflicts which we've looked at in earlier builds before is of course out of reach within the first 25 levels, but that's not to say that there is no PVP combat.Meanwhile, GameSpy does their own take with the pile-on, 4 editors giving their impressions from the first week.
Playing on a PVP server should be the choice destination for those wanting the real experience. Within PVP active zones you'll find yourself under assault by competing adventurers frequently. Through the early part of the game, most PVP combat takes place in quest zones, as a zone's populace vie for spawns and resources. Grouping with friends to conquer quests will quickly become a necessity, thanks to the bloodthirsty masses populating the low to mid-level areas. When the time does come to rumble, you'll need to unleash everything you've got in order to fell your foes. There's not much to the PVP at this stage you attack each other just like you would an enemy but it's a mere precursor of what's to come with the Siege combat. If my early and bloody encounters with a few level 40 players already donning War Mammoth mounts can be any indication, it's going to be a bloody affair.
Thankfully, one simple design decision makes the PVP warfare not just bearable but enjoyable: there is no substantial penalty for dying at the hands of another player. You lose no experience, nor do you resurrect with a debuff. Furthermore, the game privileges skill over equipment and stats; it's possible to successfully fight players up to five levels higher than you alone and much higher in a group. The only number that truly matters is the number of combatants you have on your side. This transforms PVP combat from a resource-draining nuisance to a fun diversion, though the current issues with spawn-camping will likely get on your nerves. There are, of course, rewards for good performance: players have an independent PVP level which increases with successful PVP kills. This, in turn, allows the player to better themselves and their guild. However, currently, low-level PVP kills award no PVP XP.
Delsyn (Stygian Herald of Xotli): After seven days of marching around Hyboria experimenting with both the Demonologist and Herald of Xotli classes, my feelings about this game are decidedly mixed. On the one hand, there are elements of this game that rank right up there for their sheer brilliance. Take PvP, for instance. When done in some sort of structured setting like the PvP mini-games or a battlekeep siege, the game's action-oriented combat system and fatalities make for an incredibly exciting experience. Sure, there are class balance issues right now (nerf Rangers!), but I have faith that Funcom will address them and when facing a skilled opponent of equal level, there's not another MMO experience like it.
The problem is every time I want to praise this game, its lack of polish hits me over the head. Perhaps I've been spoiled by a few years of organized and structured PvP, but a PvP server in Age of Conan is a throwback to the "Wild West" PvP free-for-alls of the pre-WoW era. It's not that I object to being shot in the back while fighting a Pict on White Sands Isle -- when you sign onto an FFA PvP server you know what you're in for -- it's that there really aren't any carrots or sticks in the form of penalties or better PvP experiences to encourage people to constructively channel their aggressions. The mini-games are fun diversions, but they're self-contained and don't offer anything in terms of loot or even bragging rights. The result is the kind of six-year-old spawn campers and immature jackassery that turned me off PvP in the first place.
