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| From: Eidos
Category: Video Games
List Price: £34.99
Buy Used: £3.99
You Save: £31.00 (89%)
New (26) Used (12) from £3.99
Rating:  35 reviews
Sales Rank: 2325
Platform: Windows Xp
Genre: role-playing-games
Media: Video Game
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 7.4 x 5.4 x 0.6
EAN: 5021290031609
ASIN: B0012PN1TE
Release Date: May 23, 2008
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Condition: Discs went out the box only once for the first installation
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| Customer Reviews:
 Such a shame August 5, 2008
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
I have played AoC since the day of release, I have a level 80 Ranger on a PvP server.
If you have the PC system to run AoC well, it looks absolutley stunning, the graphics and sound combined are both very well done and brilliantly realised throughout the various zones.
Gameplay wise, it is similar to most MMO's with the exception of the much vaunted combat system. The combat system is slightly different to what we have seen so far in other MMO's, does take a *small* amount of timing/skill to use properly and overall is more fun than the usual mindnumbing keybashing.
The starting area which takes you through your fist 20 levels of the game is very well done indeed, the storyline is good as well. It is polished and done very well.
On the whole, with some of the recent patches, levelling up to 80 is not too bad at all now, there are generally enough quests to do in order to get you there and not very much grinding required as such, if you take advantage of the quests on offer. Any grinding you need to do is really only in the 70+ range, and not a lot of it. What grinding you do need to do can easily be done, and fairly quickly in the Villas in Noble District.
Overall, despite the bugs/crashes getting to 80 is fine, fun most of the time, and worthwhile overall.
The game fails really, most noticably, when you reach max level of 80.
There is nothing to do, even on a PvP server. Currently the much delayed PvP "patch" which should have been in from the very start anyway, has still not shown itself, and has been delayed by 2 months or so. Reading the information available about what it will be like if/when it does come, is not very promising as well, very restrictive and unrewarding. I hope this changes before it goes live, or it will kill the game off for many people, me included.
This is the real problem with AoC, the developers Funcom, have an absolute gem of a game here at it's basics, but they have failed to correct quickly enough, the myriad bugs, incomplete and broken classes, no PvP system, and high end PvP (Battlekeep encounters) are also, quite frankly, boring, broken pointless and bugged as well.
It is a recurring theme in the game with little to no content at high levels, and having been touted as a strong PvP game, well, not having any PvP system in place from the start and still not having one over 2 months since release is incredibly poor.
The class balance is very poor, crafting is poor, itemisation is poor and there is no economy as a result. What little economy did exist has been broken by the developers in the last 2 patches.
Also, due to the way gemcrafting works, and the failure by Funcom to address these issues quickly enough, it has completely skewed World PvP as well. Players who have the time and resources are now using fully gemmed gear which basically allows them to 1 shot kill any other class in the game, ruining any semblance of balance to PvP. It also ruins their own combat system, one of the positives of the game, as tank classes run around 1 or 2 shotting everything with no combos required, just normal swings doing insane damage.
The way FC have handled gems is bizarre and totally against what 99% of players actually expected and wanted and expressed. They do not listen to the actual players and make some very very odd decisions about where they decide to fix things, and more often than not break more than they fix.
I would say this game had, and still has really, the potential to be truly incredible, however it has been badly let down by the developers, there are too many bugs, memory leaks, lag spikes and crashes, PvE Raiding is poor, PvP is meaningless, itemisation is a joke, and crafting is bland, boring, and mostly useless, with class balance non existent. The UI is primitive, guild management poor, no alliances, no options and what options there are, they are restrictive.
The top end game which was supposed to be Battlekeep sieges again is very poor. All these things should have been addressed by now, but they have not, and while they may get around to it at some point in the future, for many players it will be too little to late. They will have moved on to another game or back to a previous one. Many already have. It may be worth looking back in on AoC in a few months time, but the way things have gone so far, I have my doubts, and that really is a shame because I was looking for soemthing different than World of Warcraft to give my money to. At this point in time, AoC is sadly not it.
Over hyped. May 24, 2008
36 out of 43 found this review helpful
*** Repost from the CE ***
This game exceeds with it's selling point (the graphics), but overall it's very poor.
Ok to start -
Good points:
* Graphics are amazing even on low.
* Quest system is a breath of fresh air. Very few fed-ex style quests.
* Combat system is a great change from the auto attack most games have.
* User UI is customizable, and user friendly.
* Leveling is fast. (both good and bad, depending on your view)
* Ganking is minimal overall
Bad points:
* Very poor launch.
* CE editions arrived with keys that didn't work.
* Pre-order keys also did not always work.
* GM support is limited.
* Leveling is fast. Funcom advertised 2 weeks solid hardcore gaming to reach 80, there were people lvl80 within 3 days of the early access going live.
* Unless you a PC that meets the recommended specs, it'll run pretty poor.
* An 8800GTX (or similar) and 4gb RAM is needed to run high settings at a reasonable rate.
* Not true open world PvP. Zones are instanced. So grouping can be troublesome.
In my personal opinion, wait a few months before buying. Funcom are swarmed with complaints at the minute, and those are growing by the day.
This isn't to say everyone has had issues, some are happily playing away.
For me personally, I think I wasted 60 buying the CE. This game was launched 3 months too early. It's pretty much still in beta in terms of support, glitches, bugs etc
Don't go canceling that WoW sub just yet.
Quick spec check: (to get 30+ fps)
Required to play high - 8800GTX (or similar) 4GB RAM, 3GHz C2D
Required to play medium - 8800GT, 3GB RAM, 2.5ghZ C2D
Required to play low - 7900+, 2gb RAM, 2.2ghZ C2D
It'll play on lower spec machines, but Funcom's minimum spec are a complete joke.
Buy at your own risk.
A good game so far, even with the flaws discussed in previous reviews. May 26, 2008
9 out of 12 found this review helpful
I had the pre release from Amazon, it got to me on time as promised, as did the game itself. Thanks for the great service Amazon!
The game itself is beautiful and despite its flaws fantasticly fun to play. The graphics are amazing and I very quickly became immersed in the rich storyline and seamless gameplay.
However things started to go horribly wrong when I left the starter Island and moved to the main play area.
The NPC voiceovers stopped, apparently they are only on the starter island and nowhere else. The Trading system, bank and mail services do not work at all. Many of the quests up to level 54 (my current level) are completely unplayable due to bugs. The chat system, friends list, guild maintenace are basic and badly designed, much of the text in the chat window is completely unreadable. Some of the skills are also completely broken or dont do what they are supposed to do. The charge skill for instance, catapults you 300m away from the enemy!
Some unscrupulous beta testers also have been exploiting leveling bugs and the broken trading system to level their characters to max level in 3 days, these people are also riding around on expensive mounts they shouldnt be able to own after 3 days.
The list of faults, ommisions and bugs is enormous but after nearly 2 weeks I am still playing Age of Conan, It's still so much fun to play. I've given it 2 stars although it easily has the capbility to earn 5 stars if funcom pull their fingers out and fix the game quickly.
It's such a shame that the excellence of the starter island did not continue into the rest of the game... Perhaps the PC magazine reviewers only got to test the starter Island?
Age of Conan: Unfinished Tales September 10, 2008
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
The age of Conan starts very well, the first 20 levels have the best gameplay of any MMORPG I have played.....
.....I will finish the review when Funcom finish the game.
Overhyped, Unless..... June 2, 2008
5 out of 11 found this review helpful
Let me run through the major ups and downs with this game; starting with the downs...
- If your pc is not the absolute *absolute* best end pc, you will not be able to run this game on the lowest settings.
I cannot stress that enough. Really.
I have never, ever had a problem running a game on maximum quality, the very highest graphics settings. I can only just run this game on low.
- A funny comment that I seem to hear from a lot of people is "Hooray! Finally, an MMO which doesn't consist of button mashing"
May I point out - if you play a melee class in this game - you will probably need to replace the 1,2,3 keys on your keyboard on a weekly basis. I dont think I know of a game where you mash the same three keys so much.
- You can kill any player
To me, this initially sounded like a really nice idea, me being a pvper and all. But after I've witnessed it, I realise what a horrible horrible mess it is.
The fact that a player who is 50 levels above you can come and kill you and get kill points for it is ridiculous - so much so I'm assuming it's a bug which they'll hopefully fix at some point.
You could argue "why did you roll on a pvp server" at this next point, but after a day of it, you wouldn't be saying that.
Imagine you have a quest to kill a certain mob, lets call him "Barry". and lets say at any given time there are 3 - 6 other people going to kill barry as well. Everyone tries to kill eachother and ultimately - to level you have to be the best pvper. If you're really unlucky there'll be a level 70 or 80 camping Barry for some easy pvp kills. Now imagine trying to level like that - about 10 quests per level at the start, slowly increasing
And on the topic of pvp - there is no skill to this game. gear means little - PVP is purely a battle of whose pc runs the best
And the good points?
- The combat system. I know, I know, I just told you it was a buttonmash-fest, and it is. But I'll give it this - it does stop you from falling asleep mid battle. Not because it's not boring (I assure you, it is) but because you need to concentrate somewhat.
- *IF* your pc can handle the maximum quality graphics, they are outstanding.
- (This point is only a plus because it deals with the terrible pvp system, however if the pvp didn't suck, this would be in the "bad points") A big chunk of the game is single player. Hooray, you don't have to die a billion times to get your quests done! Although this kinda defeats the point of an MMO, and I *think* the single player part of the game is mandatory.
So overall 3/2 stars out of 5. There are a lot of mixed opinions with this game. To be perfectly honest though, it seems like the only people who would enjoy it are those that have 3,000 brand new PCs and enjoy an easy mashing of keys.
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