Its now two years ago, Age of Conan came out on our machines for our
pleasure. Resolutely shifted from other MMORPG , AoC’s first name was
attempting to seduce the crowd with his decidedly mature universe. A
short-term success of the fault to a high-level content not silly.
Today, the title of Funcom offered its first expansion, Rise of the
Godslayer.
invite all deserters to return to see what has become in the meantime
the most famous kind of premature. Despite the collapse of the early
days, the developer who we owe Anarchy Online has never dropped the
project but continued to support it by adding more and more content
culminating last month with the arrival of Rise of the Godslayer, a
first extension satisfactory.
About the game:
Prepare to experience the most sevage sexy and brutal online world ever
created. Take on the role of a Demonologist, Barbarian, Bear Shaman or
any other of the twelve exotic classes as you face the challenges of
Hyboria alone or in groups of other players from all over the world.
Fight for survival, socialize with friends, construct equipment or even
entire cities with your fellow players, and carve out your destiny in
the world of Conan.
Experience an unprecedented character development and customization
system with combo attacks, skills, special abilities, and deadly spells
that ensure no two characters are the same. Watch these powers come to
life in an advanced combat system never seen before in an MMO, where you
choose every slash, swing, and thrust dynamically in real time. Age of
Conan combines fast-paced action with deep, detailed character
development.
Half-naked women, violence at every street corner and whatnot are just
lewd elements that make a Conan MMO apart. Despite its good intentions,
the game could not hold the crowds, the fault of a ton of broken
promises and a high content of ridiculous. A few months after its
release, the AoC servers emptied of its players like boils crushed by
the weight of disappointment. Two years later, the game has changed. The
quests are more numerous, the leveling is less painful and new areas
are emerging. It is also possible to create characters level 50 as long
as we have already taken this course with one of his protection. All
this without counting the new developments that await us in Rise of the
Godslayer . That is something to tempt back the many deserters and
perhaps delight neophytes.
AoC Rise of the Godslayer Trailers:
Initially, the title was praised by all who had taken great pleasure to
walk the Tortage area, particularly worked: with dense environments of
stunning beauty, quests and NPC finicky well lined, it left augur the
best for the future. The fans appreciated the kind of dynamic combat
while fans of Howard recovered the mature atmosphere of his work. Age of
Conan quickly knew a big success that allowed him even to rank third
best selling PC 2008 in the U.S. charts. Then came the cold shower: past
the first 20 levels, it had to deal with a game…unfinished. The NPC
became silent, the translation was incomplete, the bugs multiplied. Many
features, such as crafts, guilds and PvP mass, were not ready yet (the
game had virtually no high quality content). Some parameters such as the
price of horses, making them inaccessible to level 40, showed a
surprising blunder, combined with a clear lack of finishing.
Gameplay:
Here you are proposing a new system of evolution, the parallel
progression, ideal for upper level players (80). Here is a very nice
assortment of new passive and active abilities, which will cost us, the
choice of Master Points, accumulated by killing the monster or points of
Prowess, reward our fighting PvP . We can even unlock these abilities
by means of playing time, which is connected or not, a very nice
alternative for casual players. Interesting, if not enticing, it is now
possible to customize like never characterize our favorite, although
complete this table implies a considerable investment in points and game
time we will take anything and bring us one of Khitai your new dancers
and a good pink oriental please.
Funcom gives us a new area for our wild antics: the Khitai. In short,
this is a region containing the culture of China and its major
attractions: characters with slanted eyes, Great Wall, temples, legends
and all that with. A new race made its appearance, the Khitan, but
offers no benefit or disappointment is all purely aesthetic.
Furthermore, it is now possible to operate in an area typical oriental
from level 20 and up until level 40, we find the pleasure of (re) visit
Tortage quests and then carefully put together to discover new content .
It will however wait for the coveted level 80 to enjoy in all its
splendor areas beyond the Great Wall. Five in numbers, they each have an
authentic Asian environment. Jungle, rice, deserts, mountains and vast
plains, Funcom has the means to disorient us. And for once, it was not
difficult given the content of stingy AoC first name. Anyway, let’s go
to discover new lands and what they have to offer.
Potentially, everyone: even if the level 80 players are clearly best
served with the four gaming zones and dungeons a few dedicated, growth
alternative is available from level 20 and level 20 characters to 40 can
enjoy the new area of origin which are native to the Khitan. Rise of
the Godslayer then leads you into the kingdom of Khitai, which extends
along the eastern edge of the continent. This new Asian-inspired
territory is divided into five zones of play, between which it is
possible to pass without going through an NPC travel: you can now see
the border districts before entering, and even if should always carry a
load time too long and deal with the usual instantiation, it is
nonetheless a real breakthrough, which increases the coherence of the
universe. The first game area, the Gate Khitai, is reserved for player’s
level 20-40. Both warn you: this vast desert steppe and wild, recalling
the ambience too Cimmeria, is not the most pleasant area to browse. For
a more pronounced change of scenery, it was not until level 80, you
will rally the entire area from behind the Great Wall through a large
door guarded.
What is best in Conan
life?
Already busy juggling a war against Nemedians and control at all times
against the stratagems of Thoth-Amon, King Conan finds himself a bit
jaded when it is in no longer required to monitor attacks on his person
orchestrated by murderers from the Orient. Instead of moving himself to
silence the threat of a good sword in both hands across the face, the
old barbarous Cimmerian decided to confer the investigation on such
attempts to murder one of his most loyal advisers to discover the
identity of sponsors. Obviously here that countless adventurers who
tread the lands of Hyboria since May 2008 are involved, since we will
send directly to Khitai to play secret agent with the various factions
vying for power in this equivalent Howard although Asian Continental.
Alongside this main plot, we also discover a continent plunged into
turmoil between the incessant onslaughts Hyrkaniens near the wall
Khitai, open conflict in the forests of shimmering Chosain the
mysterious crater Karak Korum or multiplication camps of bandits in the
Northern Prairies. In total, five new and gigantic areas us around more
or less open to our attention during the coming months.
If this first expansion of Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures is
dedicated to the logical evolution of players have already reached level
80, the first new area that we discover is actually dedicated to level
20-40 to serve as drop point post-Tortage for the new playable race or
destination of choice for players tired of Wild Lands of Zelata and
Conall Valley. Great, varied and open, this additional region has all
the ingredients necessary for entry into the brutal world of Age of
Conan with numerous quests not always original, but sufficiently well
designed and never too tired. The first dive in the Empire Khitai is
also an opportunity to discover the extraordinary work done by artists
of Funcom on this new culture which boasts of buildings, objects, frames
and other unique items especially flattering to the retina. When it was
discovered armor sets generally hideous to the release of Age of Conan ,
one can only salivate at the new Asian-inspired sets that we will soon
offer here, especially as their Statistics and drop rate seems to be
more generous than before. The density of quests is also particularly
good before level 35 – where we note the beginnings of shortness of
content – and it’s a safe bet that the door Khitai become the
destination of choice for all reroll to come in the MMORPG from Funcom .
Who is going to cry:
Although very successful, the door Khitai remains an area of more
conventional unlike other four new areas introduced by adventure Rise of
the Godslayer. All designed on a model much wider and open than in the
base game, they are accompanied mainly a system of factions that lies at
the heart of the gameplay of this first extension of the MMORPG from
Funcom . Since our entry into these areas at 80, it will actually
invited to visit each of the numerous factions involved in the intrigues
of the Empire. Whether Murder on the road, a guild of assassins without
pity or rather the bodyguard of the Emperor, we will be asked each time
to think carefully before signing our allegiance (although reversals
are possible jacket) because all these organizations have enemies or a
selection of benefits / drawbacks to watch. In all cases, we will
quickly obey every whim of our new employers to pocket valuable points
of reputation and faction tokens that will unlock eventually access to
specific objects particularly powerful and visually very successful. It
will also complete some quests with more traditional population to
recover special marks that we can offer our organization a favorite to
inherit a small boost to our standing, although it is usually just as
effective to simply transform their worst enemies in sushi to rise in
rank.
This reputation system ultimately suffers very classic but fast enough
for its lack of depth and a repetitiveness often intrinsic to this kind
of exercise. The quests offered by representatives of each group are
actually quite few in number, occur quickly and are paid in the luxury
of having a cooldown for the most part. That is to say that one is
forced to relive such missions to your heart if you want one day inherit
the epic faction rewards, but the game we "prevent" the farmer in us
too soon imposing a waiting time between each cycle of quests. The price
in tokens (money being more traditional or less obsolete Khitai) asked
for items released is particularly unfair and we would have liked to see
the many levels of progression in that direction to encourage us to
continue our climb Hierarchy line with appropriate rewards. Because
there is nothing more demoralizing than to achieve a new rank of faction
and see that we did not even have enough tokens to afford a single
potion. As it stands, nobody even tries to offer whatever is before
reaching the most popular items to avoid incurring several times this
monumental grind reputation. The two new mounts / pets special
introduced by Rise of the Godslayer is a perfect example of this system
may soon leave the less committed players on the floor. It would have
been helpful to introduce some toys less powerful but more accessible to
enable everyone to have at least the impression of progress over a
minimum of quests.
Visit the cemetery:
AoC is often blamed for its lack of high-level content, and particularly
the lack of a correct number of dungeons. An error account to atone by
offering no fewer than 12 dungeons for groups and six adventurers and a
new raid . In other words, the choice is vast and it will take some time
before all the foam as the difficulty is the rendezvous. Funcom has
even thought to implement two new dungeons to raid the Citadel in order
to die in Jade channel (or wiper for the purists) with a maximum of
friends. Like the new zones, dungeons have all been subject to work
particularly well, unfortunately some more than others. Of course, the
rewards are excellent and show an oriental style which contrasts
completely with the aesthetics of the universe nag Howard. Until then,
we want an extension that keeps its promises while correcting some
mistakes of the past. But technically, is what the title is always the
way?
The Northern Prairies, with their green plains, and forests of bamboo
and inhospitable swamps, as the province of Chosain, with its rocky
cliffs, forests of deciduous and red rice, really give the feeling of
moving in Chinese landscapes, especially the architecture of buildings
is not left with a design based on Asian temples and pagodas. As to the
jungles of Paikang, bordered on the east coast by a disreputable, refer
you to your memories of Tortage. Finally, at the northern Kara Korum was
a dark and desolate, whose population has been infected by a giant
crater, still smoking. The full Khitai therefore a large diversity of
landscapes, the exotic ambience is reinforced by the sublime soundtrack
Avenstroup Knut Haugen, a record that the East obviously more basic
game.
Beyond the artistic dimension particularly well, you should once again
gawk at the technical quality of the whole. Although 2D sprites
vegetation swear always so far and that the clipping is pronounced (it
must be said that the depth of field is often bluffing), the careful
modeling, animation and textures allows Ages of Conan retain his title
of most beautiful MMORPG, played with The Lord of the Rings Online which
alone can still compete. Note however that unlike the latter, Rise of
the machines Godslayer grows into a corner, and you will have a solid
configuration to enable all the graphics options without depriving
yourself of good fluidity. Too bad that the optimization remains as
perfectible: we saw during the beta frequent memory leaks, often
concluded by a nasty crash, we certainly hope to see corrected by the
official release.
Crush your enemies:
In addition to the reputation race, the other big new Rise of the
Godslayer is found on the side of the Parallel Progression (or PP for
short) which increases the power of our people without earning levels
because Funcom chose to stay the course to 80 despite the arrival of
this add-on . Presented in the form of a new skill tree divided in three
categories (one general, one dedicated to our archetypal one about our
class), this tool will allow us happy from level 20 to garner experience
points PP Prowess, Masters and Expertise. The concept is simple: fight
in PvP and you will eventually get the points needed to unlock Feats PP
skills on the player against player and / or the fight against the CC.
Multiply exploits in PvE and you inherit more points required for Master
of broader improvements to your character. Points of Expertise, for
their part, will be obtained whatever we do and can be used to unlock
any type of skills to compensate for any dimensional side of our
business. It is also possible to completely ignore the points system on
level 80 characters to choose an alternative release system which simply
asked to wait a while (online or offline) before they can access our
new skills, such as Eve Online . A good alternative for players who have
a limited playing time or number of characters.
Also note that the powers released by the system of parallel progression
fall into two categories: passive and continuous skills upon release,
but the benefits need to equip active in any new shortcut bar of the
same name. The problem is that the place is limited to equip these new
skills alive and he will choose the coup which to choose to fit the
situation a bit like the deck of skills Series Guild Wars . Add to that
some powerful advantages take more space than other locations or that
the benefits of our bar force us to pick from three categories of our
tree of PP and you will understand that this novel system may well of
increase the depth of tactical MMORPG from Funcom . And if the speed of
obtaining experience points PP also encouraged to grind it is noted, as
well as dozens of dungeons introduced in Rise of the Godslayer are
especially generous in that direction, prompting the players to move
group to progress.
The main advantage of the parallel progression from the reputation
system is that it always seems to move no matter what happens, because
even the most casual player in the world gather at one time or another
the points necessary to release these new features (especially as some
quests are rewarded with points of Expertise). Some may regret it is
impossible to re-specialize choices made in this new skill tree, but
since it is theoretically possible to develop the full capacity of PP on
a single character, bad choices do Office that eventually (big)
setbacks. This excuse, however, some lack of precision in the
descriptions of these additional powers.
When you got a certain rank, you can take a beast (wolf tiger …) and
raise it until it is big enough to be your mount. This is an interesting
looking and long-term, although we regret that the management system
itself is familiar to so summary, far from that suggested by some Korean
MMO material. Besides the large number of quests related to the
factions and their well-researched background, alongside a few new
dungeons (including The Pillars of Heaven, who has made a strong
impression), Rise of the Godslayer is also developing a main frame
designed to illuminate the past of your character: based on The Tower of
the Elephant, a story by Howard in which Conan was a mere thief, it
helps explain why the population does not Khitai King of Aquilonia in
his heart.
Last feature, not least, the system of progressive alternative, more or
less compensate for the lack of increase of the maximum level, a rule
for any add-on that MMO Funcom seems to have intended to derogate. It
comes in the form of an array of benefits (perks), some are general,
others related to your archetype and still others are specific to your
class. Some can be acquired with control points, earned in PvE, others
with feat points, earned in PvP, and still others require both types of
points. Each benefit has up to 5 rows. Unlike passive perks, the perks
assets must be placed in a bar dedicated hosts that do two of each kind
(general, archetype and class) knowing that the most powerful use both
slots. Note that while most of the benefits enhance the effect of
existing capacities, there are some who give you new combos, some based
on martial arts.
While the game is beautiful, very beautiful, even the best MMORPG of the
moment … as long as we push all the graphics options to maximum. And
there is the drama. The rate of frames per second drops to such an
extent that it becomes unplayable, even on a bike properly. Same story
when you go down as average, the frame rate collapses quickly when it
comes to displaying more than three Pekin on the screen. The depth of
field, at first glance generous, displays a clipping disgusting, the
term is appropriate. To top it all, the game client is still and always
prone to memory leaks that gratify us then crashes repeatedly. That
would be unbearable if the startup time of the game and loading areas
was not so long (typically within 3 to 5 minutes for restarting AoC).
Most of the players is reduced to playing with graphics worthy of an MMO
in the year 2010. Only the gameplay still nervous of certain classes’
combo is funnier, like the music moods bordering on perfection.
Rather obscure at first glance, the system of parallel progression
ultimately proves easy to use and allows you to customize your avatar
even more finely. But to give it more flexibility, developers have
introduced two variants. First, a third type of points: points of
expertise. Obtained at the same time as the control points or prowess
(but in smaller quantities), they replace either one or the other.
Moreover, all this is rather long to get, know that it is also possible
to gain or improve benefits over time, whether you’re online or offline:
this an option that should delight casual gamers, already well served
by the system of progression offline implemented with patch 1.07. But
the future of Age of Conan depends in part on its openness to a wider
audience. Let us hope that this first expansion, after all successful in
spite of a few details will help.
Conclusion:
Rise of the Godslayer is an opportunity to rehabilitate Age of Conan, an
MMORPG buried too quickly by those who had not accepted his finishing
problems and promises unkept. The first extension makes it possible to
measure the extent of improvements made under since its release. And if
some new features (the system of factions and the familiar management)
lacked a little ambition, the care taken in restoring Khitai, a
beautiful land of exotic Asian-inspired and immersive, commands respect.
The game mechanics and quests available are classic, but they are part
of a particularly rich background, stimulated by the rivalry between the
clans involved. Rise of the Godslayer is an invitation to travel and
the rediscovery of an MMO that finally answers all our expectations.
Pros:
- The
design of the new areas - New artifacts
- Parallel Progression
- Content solo, group and raid
- Music
Cons:
- Grind,
grind and more grind - Many bugs
- PvP somewhat forgotten
- Concerns ergonomics
