The website of Rock,
Paper, Shotgun release the perview of the anticipated MMO Age of Conan:
Hyborian Adventures.
An MMO in development is like a souffle made to an improvised
recipe. People know which ingredients to include, but what quantity of each,
what temperature to cook it at, and how long for? So many come out heavy and
inedible, or completely sunk in the middle. Others, well they#DY#re delicious and
we can#DY#t stop going back for another bowl. The difficulty is, spotting which
will be which before they#DY#re out of the gaming.. oh this metaphor has made me
want to die.
Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures has so much potential. So much.
Source material is key, and Robert Howard#DY#s novels could almost have been
written with a computer game in mind. Hardcore, stubby, violent. I#DY#m going to
write that Howard invented fantasy fiction, just so people get cross in the
comments. Howard invented fantasy fiction. The madman mother#DY#s boy demonstrated
a vast amount of historical knowledge, working it into his intense novels,
before offing himself in his 30s. So ignoring the utterly abysmal Arnie movie,
Funcom developers of the Longest Journey games, and previous MMO success,
Anarchy Online have a lot of material with which to work.
Playing a Conan-style hero in the lands of Hyboria (where Conan is
king), AoC immediately differs from most MMOs by throwing you headfirst into the
story. Because you#DY#re not going to be picking different races, etc, the focus is
much more about your background. So, yes, this does mean a version of the tired
old amnesia story, but thankfully presented in an original way. There are two
threads of quests, daytime and nighttime. The latter are your Destiny Quests,
performed solo, investigating the mystery of your past. It#DY#s something unique to
Conan, and intrigues.
Of course, you#DY#ll know that it hasn#DY#t gone completely smoothly. An
aborted public beta revealed some big issues with the build, extending
development an extra six months as they overhauled the combat system.
Continue to Read: Games For 2008: Games
For 2008: Age Of Conan
News Original From: Rock, Paper, Shotgun
