Middle aged

As my 2 main characters approach and pass the level 40 mark in FunComs 'Age of Conan', I feel that now is the time to pass on my observations about the game so far.

Many other sites have covered the first 10 levels and they have done so very well. So, I will be concentrating on the grind proper; the experiences after you leave the starter isle of Tortage.

There are two ways to leave the noob zone at present. You can complete your class destiny quest, the night time single player mode, or you can speak to your class trainer and ask to forego the whole chain and be magically teleported to your homeland.

After completing the Tortage quests once through, the temptation is to just zoom through and get out of it much quicker the second time around. In my opinion this would be a mistake. Once you have played through the zones once, you get a feeling for how things are laid out, which makes your second and subsequent journeys far quicker.

You learn the most expeditious routes to complete your quests. Combine that with the fact that none of the quests are overly taxing and you can pretty much fly through them with ease and very little time spent.

In addition, 'The End Battle' which, as the title suggests, is the final quest in your beginner destiny chain is well worth doing. If not for the XP alone, for the loot that accompanies it. The drops off the bosses and mini-bosses alike are well worth grabbing, as is the reward for taking down Strom - the Tyrant of Tortage. The weapon you receive is class specific and will probably last you well into your 30s.

After kicking the crap out of Strom, Kalanthes of Ibis greets you once more and sends you on your way to your homeland. If you have read other reviews you will remember that Kalanthes is the first character you meet on your AoC journey when you find yourself washed ashore on the beach back at level 1.

One loading screen later and you find yourself in a much bigger world.

There are three Homelands (for lack of better words) in Hyborea for our intrepid adventurers: Aquilonia, Cimmeria and Stygia.

Those classes who head to Aquilonia will find their homeland vaguely reminiscent of ancient Rome. The architecture and clothing appears very much in the vein of Caesar's era and is beautifully rendered, as are all the maps I have encountered so far.

Its capital city, Old Tarantia, is a joy to walk around. Unfortunately, as it is a central location for players travelling through zones, it can become a bit of a lagfest at certain times of the day/week.

Cimmeria, in contrast, appears to have more of a Baltic feel to it. Cold harsh environments, living in a perpetual winter. The NPCs wear armour which has a Mongol feel to it and the bleak mountains and weather effects there lend a depressing air to it

Stygia, the zone which I have had the most experience with so far, is the homeland I am going to concentrate on for now.

The capital of Stygia, Khemi, seems to modelled on the stereotypical Arabic city. And an amazing job the guys at FunCom have done too. The bustle of activity in the Soukh, the distinct background music and the architecture all add up to a very well designed region.

The first thing that hits you as you start to wander around is the sheer scale of the game. As a starter zone, Tortage has three instances which give it a fairly big feel. It should not be confused here with the way in which the term 'instance' is used in other MMOs like Warcraft. AoCs instances are more like other zones which have players other than yourself happily running around inside.

After carrying out a few simple tasks in the capital, you are sent off to the main quest zone for that region. In the case of Stygia, this is a zone called Khopshef Province.

The province has several quest hubs scattered throughout the zone which lead you to find the next one through the quests given at the previous. As you level up, revisiting a hub where you have completed all the quests is advisable as more quests become available.

It is very easy to level up from 20 to 30 in this zone alone and, while the majority of the content can be solo'd, there are some quests which require the presence of companions.

For the most part, AoC tries its best to stay away from the 'Kill Ten Rats' philosophy, but this staple isn't always avoidable and you occasionally find yourself killing spotted hyenas for their tongues (apparently their incessant 'yipping' is keeping the villagers awake at night!). Why the poor spotted hyenas are taking all the shit for this is beyond me...I blame the striped ones myself with their all night oasis parties :P

It's worth mentioning that AoC also has instances in the classic sense of the word. The dungeons I have encountered so far are all graphically pleasing on the eye and are fun to run. On entering, you have the option to select 'normal' or 'epic' mode.

This is completely different from other games of this genre in that normal mode is designed for players to head in by themselves and epic requires a group as the mobs inside have approximately 30-50% more health than regular NPCs.

This is a good call by FunCom imho as they accept that not everyone wants to group to get their quests done. Or more importantly, given the time of day that some people are able to play, not everyone is able to find a group.

The only real issue I have had so far with questing is, on completion of a zone, it is not quickly evident where you should be heading to next. On my first time through, I had to rely on zoning into a new region and checking out the level of the local bad guys. While this does encourage you to explore more and get to know your way around, I feel that this could have been better presented.

Fortunately, players are already releasing levelling guides so the process should get easier as time goes by. But for the uninitiated it can cause teething problems.

Overall, when I compare my experiences of AoC with my past excursions into a new MMO, I'm impressed with what FunCom have accomplished. Bugs and performance issues aside, this game has a lot of potential. Given that sales indicate that they have already reached the 1 million copies sold mark, it's now a waiting game to see if they can rival Blizzard for customers.

There have been several gripes on the forums about the lack of end-level content by the addicts who have already reached level 80 (seriously...get a life?) but FunCom have already released a statement of intent for the next few months indicating that they are aware of this and are already working on it.

As long as they don't take too long on this as NCSoft made a similar mistake in Tabula Rasa which has been the sticking point for players over there for some time now. Players of that MMO have already started to highlight their concerns with their wallets - cancelling their subscriptions.

For now, this is a game well worth investing some time in. Every game needs a little time to settle down after the initial rush. So as long as you are able to accept imperfections from time to time, you wont be disappointed.

I'll report more as my characters progress.