For a late night post I’ll cover what I did this evening — try out Age of Conan via the free trial. I passed this game up when it first launched mainly due to the system requirements — my last computer was already several years old when it came out. With my computer now I can easily run it on high and still pull smooth frames. So, now that the game is stable and runs very well for me — how was the one evening test?

The first thing you notice about AoC is the graphics — with high settings they’re pretty damn good, better than most if not all other MMOs on the market currently. The second thing, I noticed, was the sound — it is also good. The character voices and the music is well done.

The third part, game play, is where it just got fairly boring. AoC is no different from any of the traditional MMORPGs in this department. You go through quest after boring quest to get XP and level. You fight mobs by standing around mashing hotkeys. The biggest difference, I found, in the standard combat system was the removal of an auto-attack in favor of three basic melee attack skills — these are < ^ > (left, up, right). When you face off against an enemy they have three arrows around their models, these arrows depict their defenses. You want to use the melee attack that hits the side with the least arrows. Simple. I found the combat just plain and boring — of course this could be due to my recent exposure to The Chronicles of Spellborn and its faster paced, action-y combat.

Storyline-wise, I guess it’s there. I only got around level 10 in one evening and I didn’t really care about the characters or story. It likely gets better on. (I’d hope)

tl;dr version: AoC is a traditional MMO with a shiny coating. If you like pretty graphics and topless female avatars this will likely be for you. If you want something original and niche — give the trial a shot but I’d look elsewhere.