Let’s face it, in many regards the fantasy MMO genre has gotten rather stagnant. It is the same ground retread time after time with a different coat of paint and some new names applied. Not that there is a lot wrong with that – after all, if the game is entertaining, then it is a journey worth taking.

Funcom is about to jump into the fray with its second massively multiplayer online game, Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures, and this is a game that does depart from the norm in many ways. AoC is a game that is very much about your story in the lands of Hyboria (which is Robert E. Howard’s fictional representation of Europe close to 10,000 years ago with like Aquilonia, Stygia – which is akin to Egypt, and Conan’s Cimmeria – the northern, almost Scandinavian realm). You are at the center of the brewing conflict that threatens to engulf the known world.

Of course, what would a world in conflict be without a variety of peoples, and Conan offers just that with a nice array of tribes, some merely savage while others are caught up in power that has led them into the dark arts and alliances with demonic entities.