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| Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures | 
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| From: Eidos
Category: Video Games
List Price: $49.99
Buy New: $19.97
You Save: $30.02 (60%)
New (21) Used (15) from $16.00
Avg. Customer Rating:  148 reviews
Sales Rank: 990
Format: Cd-rom
Platforms: Windows Vista, Windows Xp
ESRB: Mature
Media: CD-ROM
Batteries Included: No
Age: 17 - 20 years
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 6.1 x 1.8
MPN: SAGECPUS00
Model: SAGECPUS00
UPC: 788687100670
EAN: 0788687100670
ASIN: B000RZPW9W
Release Date: May 20, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 Worth Every Penny! July 17, 2008
3 out of 14 found this review helpful
When compared to CoH, WoW and LotR Online (MMOs that I've played) this game was by far the easiest to setup and patch. Although the game has many bugs it is still very playable as well as enjoyable (despite the mob of whining children, every patch has improved the game). This is not the game for the WoW player that enjoys a simple auto attack and alien looking armor/weapons. This game also offers a very detailed character creation (if you invest the time) and 12 classes. At level 65 (Priest of Mitra PvE server) I haven't had any problems with finding things to do such as quest, craft and gather. Anyone that has an interest in AoC should check the net for videos and decide if it is what they 're seeking. In my opinion this game is aimed at a more mature player that enojoys fantastic graphics and is willing to be challeneged.
 Incomplete product, very unstable, poor customer service July 17, 2008
13 out of 16 found this review helpful
I purchased Age of Conan two days after its official launch. I played it for the duration of the initial free 30 day subscription you receive when you purchase the game.
* Be wary of reviews that only mention the area designed for new players, or extrapolate upon very minor features such as "character creation". These things, while strong in this game, are going to account for but a tiny part of your overall experience. My review focuses on aspects of the game that will affect your enjoyment from day one right on through day thirty - namely stability, content, and customer service. *
To start, I'll focus on the stability and quality of the application itself: Age of Conan is extremely unstable, being plagued by bugs that will crash your system for a variety of reasons. The game client has a lingering memory leak that has continued to wax and wane in prevalence since launch. As of the writing of this review, the stability of the client is still very poor and the memory leak is still very pervasive (you can verify this by visiting Funcom's official forums for Age of Conan). I attempted to use two separate high-end systems, both different architectures: one has an AMD 64 bit CPU, quad core, with a NVidia video card, the other is a dual core Intel-based system with an ATI video card. The Intel system runs Windows XP Pro SP2 and has 3.5 GB of RAM. The AMD system runs Vista Premium and has 4 GB of RAM. Both video cards are current generation, and are capable of running other modern games at the highest settings without issue. I tried running the client with my drivers and firmware fully up to date, attempted using different versions, and a wide variety of other modifications, but could never run the game with any semblance of stability. To qualify, I am a very well paid IT worker with over ten years of experience. I am currently a network engineer and work with everything from storage area networks to basic system analysis and administration for Netware and Windows servers (and occasionally Linux). I know full well what I'm doing.
Next, regarding the advertising of the product: Age of Conan is missing much of what is promised on the box, including technical features such as DirectX 10 (if you're not tech saavy, DirectX is an "application programming interface" for mutlimedia - graphics and audio. DirectX 10 is the latest and greatest version). DirectX 10 offers more powerful visual effects and cleaner, more detailed graphics. This game only supports DirectX 9. Large scale player-versus-player combat is not fully implemented. End-game "raiding" (content meant for large groups of players) is generally inaccessible to the average player. More on lacking features later.
Regarding game play: The virtual game world is not well realized. Many of the zones (sections of the virtual world) you adventure within may look large and expansive, but only a very small area is actually navigable; you are confined by invisible barriers into very small, track-like spaces. And unlike other MMO's where players can travel freely through an immersive persistent world, Age of Conan is heavily "instanced". That is, only a small number of people can be in any zone at the same time. When more players try to enter zone a new instance is created, which is a copy of the zone in which a set number of players are allowed into. So, although there may be 80 people in one zone, there may be four instances of that zone with only 20 players in each (I'm using arbitrary numbers as an example, it varies by zone).
Again, back to content: the game is very light on this. Aside from the very polished starting area that guides you through your first 19-20 levels, there isn't many fun and compelling activities. The quests are very formulaic and pedestrian (kill x amount of y, bring them to me), and quickly dissapear at higher levels, forcing players to "grind" (repeatedly killing the same creatures over and over again, for hours, to advance in the game). The crafting system, a staple of the MMO genre, is severely lacking. It does not reward appropriately for time spent, feels largely incomplete, and for lack of a better word is terribly boring. The developer is constantly making adjustments to how the character classes function, which is frustrating to players as they are forced to keep "respeccing" (modifying the abilities of their character skills), which costs money. Accruing money consumes considerable time. You get the picture. Many core game mechanics, such as character stats (think the standard Strength, Intelligence, Wisdom...) do not actually work. All of the gear your characters can use look similar, typically some form of a kilt, and is some hue of brown 99% of the time (I promise you I am not exaggerating). I could literally go on all day in this section. Suffice to say the game isn't very fun, as much of it is missing or does not function correctly.
And finally, there is virtually no customer service: in-game petitions for assistance routinely last for twelve hours or longer without being responded too, and more often than not are deleted with no notification, and no reason given as to why. To compound problems, The developer FunCom openly admitted on their official forums that the majority of customer service (both in-game and moderators on their web forums) currently consists of volunteers.
A fair warning to anyone thinking about purchasing this game. Buyer beware.
 I really like AOC July 16, 2008
2 out of 11 found this review helpful
To start I am a huge fan of the origianl books and I grew up reading the comics. I love the Conan legend. I bought this game and my 6 year old computer could not run it. So I needed a new one anyhow and I got a nice laptop. I loaded the game and I play it on a regular basis. I still like WOW but AOC is very fun. It is a much more adult game with sexual sugestion, heads being chopped off and bloody deaths. But this is what I loved about the entire Conan genre so if this type of adult content bothers you stay away. But if you want a more adult game then WOW (at this time) get it. I realy like this game and I will keep playing it to explore the world of Conan.
 Poor Customer Service & Alpha Bugs Render AoC a 2/10 Overall July 16, 2008
11 out of 15 found this review helpful
Concept 9/10 - The Conan stories and lore make for a great game idea. Funcom did manage to implement many interesting storylines fans of Robert E Howard, Clark Ashton Smith, and HP Lovecraft will easily recognize.
Graphics 10/10 - There is alot of eye candy and beauty in Age of Conan.
Content 3/10 - Content across all the levels is lacking, but levels 50+ it gets downright pathetic.
Crafting 0/10 - Crafting was quite obviously an afterthought. It's buggy, it crashes people, it's clunky, it's worse than poorly implemented (if thats even possible!). I craft in every MMO I have ever played. I would rather have root canal than craft in AoC.
Funcom Customer Support 1/10 - It's next to non-existent. They change things so often your head will spin and the character you roll up today will be nerfed into oblivion tomorrow. Constant core class changes, broken feats, broken skills, and never a word from the developer on long term goals of any of the classes. YOU must pay for your own skill respecs (very expensive!) everytime the developer patches, which is once a week (currently).
Class/World Stability - 2/10 - Constant game mechanics changes, constant class "re-balancing", broken feats, incomplete and/or broken skills, alpha bugs (bugs that should have been fixed by beta testing and are considered game breaking), server instability, frequent crashes, and frequent restarts needed to address graphical glitches or lock-ups. This list is not inclusive.
Machine Needed to Run - Only the newest and shiniest rigs will run AoC somewhere near where it was intended. However, constant server-side instabilities coupled with poor overall performance (aka "red 10k ping"), will greatly impact even the most beefy of machines.
If you purchase this, beware that Funcom are not currently supporting their own product. Pay and play at your own risk.
Waste of Time and $$$$$ July 15, 2008
3 out of 6 found this review helpful
It's just sad had much Funcom had to work with here, but they fell flat. The graphics engine is great IF you have a top of the line machine. Class Balance is non-existent. Customer Support is a joke. Not worth a single penny.
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