this game is known for having the best raids, the best melee combat system, the best graphics, and best sound of any mmo.
the lore of robert e howard, creator of heroic fantasy is also very strong.
the only glitch towards perfection has been Funcom which has been very unresponsive for long
fortunately i think this is turning around

Don't waste your money. I've been playing since the game opened to all players. The beginning island is finished and is fun to play, but the rest of the game is not. PVP, Siege, quests and crafting, something you expect from an MMO, is virtually non-existent. Even though Siege is listed as being in the game - it's not. Funcom's idea of class balancing is to nerf classes and then conveniently forget to put it in their patch notes. After level 35, the game becomes extremely boring and repetitive. There is a complete lack of content, direction and story line after level 35 and to level beyond that, you will spend the majority of your time doing the same 3 level scaling quests. With every patch, performance gets worse along with game play. Simply put, Funcom, even though it has experience with MMO's, (Anarchy Online), has no idea what it's doing with this game. I was a huge fan at first, but after you begin to level, along with the bugs and nerfs, you realize just how much is missing from the game. Funcom released a buggy, machine hog lacking content, direction and story line. The mature themes disappear after level 20 or so, so again - Funcom falls short on their promises. If you spend your $50.00 on this game, you'll get something that's fun to play for about a week. After that, you'll be as angry and frustrated as 90% of the players are. The game forums are no longer an indicator of player satisfaction as each unhappy post or suggestion is merrily deleted by Funcom's "new" moderators. That's the game in a nutshell and from someone who played it to 80. With no end game content, no siege, there is nothing to do after reaching 80.… Expand

I started playing this game in juli.I raided all content availebole and bin part of sieges,minigames all kind of pvp and pve.All i can say is the game lack content and the fun factor goes away fast.Classbalances is very bad in pvp and overall except the usual tank and spank in pve.Game is age of casters in that sense where casterdps and theyr amount off roots/stuns/crowdcontrols hits the roof.Same comes to raidcontent where the meleedpsclasses(ranger,barb,assasin) is a complete joke compare to the casters interms of dmg/usefulness they bring to the raid.Another but similar problem goes to the tankclasses who hardly can dps at all(guardian,dark templar,conqueror) they are totally gimped in pvp compare to the casters.Not to mention how easy it is to play a caster vs the other classes.Fex the healerdps class Tempest of set who dmg like the highest dpsclass(demonologist) and still heals not to mention tempest of set is the most easiest class to play.One of the major sellingpoints in this game was pvp with battlekeeps who where promised to have massive sieges 150 vs 150.In reality its 48 vs 48 not to mention on some servers it laggs as hell when you siege.The raidcontent is very easy and the lootdrops are just to random not to mention all those drops that goes to waste.Crafting is borked and meaningless.All in all i cant advise you to try this game bc you will be bored fast(lack of content/things to do and the balances beetween classes is a joke atm. Secondly i never believe funcom will fix this game at all. cheers.… Expand

The best MMORPG out there.. And its free.

The graphics in this 4 year old game is the best of all MMORPG. Eventhough The secret world have the same engine, AoC still looks better. The biggest argument for playing this game is the combat system. Its fun, and challenging, and its not push-a-button-and-run kind of game.

The Second argument is the story. The 4 main classes, Mage, Rogue, Healer, and Tank, has their own story. Also the setting is appealing. The Hyborian Age is like a dark, decadent, twisted and corrupt version of Euro-Asian history. Mix a bit of the Roman Empire, Mongolian culture and Babylonian mysticism with '30s-era myths of undiscovered Africa.… Expand

The graphics are great, the music is great, the combat is OK. They have no customer support, in game or out. Missing content, and bugs over shadow the things that are good about this game. AOC had great potential, and so far it has not shown me any of it. Funcom should be embarrassed it took them 5 years to come out with this game in it's current state. The release should have been put off a while longer. It does have potential, when will it happen, is the burning question.… Expand

Having been someone whose computer suffered really badly from the bugs and crashes (they have now been fixed), I am still going to give this game a 9. The graphics are incredible (more realistic than oblivion and it runs smoother too), the combat actually feels like combat unlike other MMOs. For me the atmosphere of the game is amazing. A lot of people are complaining about poor pvp "imbalance". I think this is actually a good thing and greatly enhances the atmosphere and realism of the game. It would be a great shame if they changed it. More skill is required this way, hiding in thickets of trees while a group of level 80s rides past etc - I really love the brutality of the pvp in this game - it just makes it feel so much more real and exciting than in other MMOs. As for the instancing, people are already complaining about fps - if it wasn't so heavily instanced, for a lot of people it would be unplayable. Maybe in a few years when people have better computers, they'll change this.... One of my favourite things about this game is the extent to which you can customize your character's appearance and I also love the classes (I have 5 characters all with different classes and I haven't found any big problem with class imbalance ( actually I love all the classes I have played -they all have clear advantages and disadvantages) I do agree that the game is just the skeleton of what it will become - but even in its current form, it is still by far the most fun MMO I have played which is why I won't be canceling my account. It seems people either love or hate this game but for me, it definitely gets a big thumbs up!… Expand

Fantastic game after all the patches and additional content this game is worth a try! Great graphics and combat! Awesome sound and music also!

Simply the best MMO in MMO history bar none! If you like it rough, bloody, real, sexy and combo system that puts ypu into the fight like no other MMO. THis is the MMO which takes a bit of skill to play. Some of the reviews here are old as hell and do not reflect the game as it istands today. The game has been massively over hauled. Population ios going up and up due to the recent massive changes to make the combat more skill based by making CC combos also. This making the combat more fluid and let crowd control going on. I cannot think of any other MMO that makes you feel combat like AoC and on top of that. The graphic are hands down the best in the genre. No other MMO comes close though its recommended to have at least 3-4gb of ram. I don't want to spend all day wrioting reviews but it makes me sick to see all the negative reviews here from people from years ago who have helped to keep this ORIGINAL MMO down. Nothing offers what AoC offers. In a sea of boring MMO's this MMO has the most imortant element in spades, and that is Gameplay. My Official Score is 9 but I am giving it a 10 on the board! If you are sitting on the fence go and buy RISE OF THE GODSLAYER and enjoy this game. No one should miss playing through to level 80 on at least one class of the 12 AoC offers. They are all uniue and far superiour to the hollow versions to get in cheap games like WoW and Rift. Whats on offer? Necro Mancers with 8 pets! .. Demonologists with demon slaves... Assassins with duel daggers, Rangers, Barbarians, Bear Shaman (Twi hander hammer Priest), Tempest of Set, Priest of Mitra, Heral of Xotli, Dark Templars, Guardians and Conqeurors. When you reach the level cap in AoC you will find plenty to do also, and that also goes for solo content. There are T1 T2 T3 T4 dungeons but you can also do hard Mode Khitain dungeons for Epic loot (Best Epic Loot in the game) or you can solo grond for a faction Set. There are 5 PvP arenas, and servers offer full world PvP or PvE servers. I think I have covered most things. Simply the best MMO in MMO history bar none!… Expand

-very compelling game, especially the pvp servers,
-the game stays very true to robert e howard's universe
-award wining music track, and the best graphics any mmo has too offer(you must go in settings to put em on max)
-very smart combat system where tactics and practise are ever so important
blablabla, whatever game u have played before, if you take the time to understand this game, you will fall in love withh it

if u want good old easy stuff u can still enjoy the pve servers, and get coaching from fellow guild mates on how to experience the toughest raids any mmo has too offer… Expand

this game is so refreshing and immersive
if you are in hard-core pvp, or a simply magnificent game, this is for you, if you like boring games go somewhere else.
everything is nearly perfectly balanced, that it be the jumping height of a character or the use of each character in a succesful pvp team

Great potential and an amazing first 20 levels on the Island of Tortage are not enough to overcome the lack of interesting, engaging, and challenging content past level 50. This game is broken and should be avoided. If it survives for a year it might be worth another look.

For what its worth I've played the game all the way up to 80. Graphics: I'm guessing they'd be nice if they worked correctly. If you change your draw distance to max the game looks quite nice, the problems some in many of the smaller zones. Specifically there are repeatable mansion quests that are bland, have some dynamic lighting effect coupled with the engine rendering things behind 2 walls and the celling and suddenly the FPS takes a nose dive, mobs aren't rendered loot doesn't show when it drops. This happens far too often. especially when you try to complete the final quest to leave the newbie zone. The 'brutal' fatalities 80% of the time clip through each other so instead of hacking a guys limbs off with my 2handed axe I beat his limbs off with my elbows. Failed mechanics: The cutscene-esque view for talking to quest npcs is hysterical on a pvp server. You can easily get stuck in a conversation and slaughtered... by someone 50 levels below you. Combat: The mechanics are clunky and require real time micro managing of your timing. Combos trigger by pressing the skill button and playing simon says, the combo itself only activates if the final blow of the simon says time lands thus pvp combat revolves around closing to melee range for that final hit. Caster classes are gettign better but still a joke. Proper use of the active blocking system (consume stam for reduced melee damage) defense system (keycommands to redirect your 'defense' to specific regions of incoming attacks depend on system performance. Which is already substandard. Large class imbalances are in place with nothing being addressed at the current time to resolve that, specific abilities are getting brought to reasonable levels but fundamental flaws in gear, class design are ignored. Itemization: Worse than wow's at the end of beta. Until recently the only effect armor had was on health/stam/mana pools and damage immunities, naked was the same as full plate except for a 4% reduction in slashing damage. Even with the fixes introduced many stats have no effect (con which should be +stam +stam regen and +health only gives a randomly truncated additional hp ranging from 3.5 to 4.1 per point of con). Stats are also itemized to be worth roughly 1/20th of stam/health/mana. Raiding: Tier 1 raiding content has been completed by some guidls, tier 2 is 3-4 months away according to unconfirmed GM reports. Raid lockouts are 1 week + many bugs reported with them. Due to the nature of combat (melee heavy, heavy system requirements and a number of other issues) a raid focus of this game is bewildering. PVP: Several pvp minigames exist in theory, nobody plays them. PVP servers are basically gank fests, luckily stealth/stealth detection mechanic is HEAVILY biased to stealth. Player made battle formations are a joke, yes you cannot run through a player but there are no choke points to take advantage of a wall of well geared tanks blocking access to your squishy ranged dps (most of your dps will be melee and clustered around your tank). You cannot command NPCs as proudly stated in the synopsis. Crafting: Gathering does work and isn't too bad just waste a few hours and get all you need, some idiotic mechanics exist but they're for pretty much a one time thing and not too bad. Crafting: Jewel crafting sort of works now, very complex and obtuse system made harder by terrible crafting control panel. Weaponsmithing not too bad, material requirements for higher tier weapons are beyond stupid. Armorcrafting is terrible requiring vast amounts of resources and time. Architecture is UNBELIEVABLY expensive with plays for a single wall segment costing the same as your inner keep (1.25g) inner wall = 15+ segments, outer wall is MUCH larger. Alchemy is broken, pots are cheap enough up to level 70 that its more expensive making your own. But you can't level alchemy up to 70 the drops needed for it are non existent. PVP endgame: The press releases spoke about player made cities and massive battles between guilds over battlekeeps. Player cities exist and so do battle keeps. The npcs that spawn to attack your city aren't implemented nor is there any space on the map for them to exist (unless they build a city over resource nodes). Battlekeep mechanics are such you can't attack another battlekeep if you already have one. Additional PVP changes are including an outlaw status (repeated griefing ie killing lowbies or camping one person) will ultimately result in players looting money/equipment from your corpse. With the aforementioned lack of itemization this isn't a consequence but an annoyance. _________ TL;DR: Interesting premise and initial design concept could make for an interesting MMO. Execution of concept poor. Game engine a joke (check out your error files, you'll have several hundred pages of mesh errors and bone errors from model rendering). Graphics memory leaks, multiple clipping bugs, poor model design, bad model animation. Combat system is simply a new skin on what 90% of other mmos do 'press these 6 buttons unless I need to press these 9 buttons'. Content: bugged quests, confusing quest options, long clunky initial leveling process and scripted quest chains that adds 'atmosphere' which makes leveling from 1-20 longer than 20-50 that cannot be skipped. Instance quests that don't work (which is noticeable due to an amazing shortage of instances). Support: Petitions automatically time out after 4 hours of 'inactivity'. You have to use a whisper command to bring up a dialogue box, scroll to the bottom of the box and click a hyperlink to maintain activity. Inactive petitions are assumed to have been resolved! Petitions that are answered when you are offline are also considered resolved! Emails to support go unanswered.… Expand

Pros: Looks nice, sounds nice, good music. Cons: Game is unfinished, probably needed another year of development. Bad UI. No class balance. Core features broken or not implemented. ZERO customer support, some people have had bugs that caused them to be unable to even log in to their characters for days at a time. Voice acting ends after the tutorial island. Quests are uninspired, not difficult, and never make you think... especially when the game holds your hand for the entire process. Every class has skills, abilities, and feats that are broken, buggy, or just don't work at all. Animations on npcs rarely work. Tradeskills are tedious and completely unrewarding. Enemies can evade, parry, or block your attacks even if their back is turned, or they are stunned, or they are knocked on their back. Fights are either incredibly easy or insanely hard, there is no middle ground. Loot is an absolute joke, every piece of armor of any given type generally looks exactly the same from levels 1 to 80. Rare equipment is often worse than common equipment of several levels lower. Stats do nothing at all. Female characters attack 20% slower than males and do less damage. Combo attacks are treated as a single attack, if your seven attack combo is interrupted on the 7th attack, all damage caused by the preceding attacks is negated and the target is healed as if it was never struck. PVP is so unbalanced that some classes are unable to kill other classes even if one of the people are AFK. Running is based on a percentage of your stamina, yet stamina potions restore a fixed amount of stamina the result is that classes with low stamina can actually out run any other class... fighting a mage class in pvp? they'll just run away until your stamina bar is empty, making you unable to execute a combo, and then nuke you with their full mana bar. This game is so unfinished that anyone who is actually paying a subscription fee after the first 30 days is going to be paying Funcom to beta test their game for them. Do yourself a favor, wait six months or a year or you'll be wasting your time and money.… Expand

Bought Collectors Edition and played early access and first month. Unfortunately the basis of the game is very flawed. The combat system ist simply put broken. They will never come close to balancing the classes due to the combo system for melee classes. On top of this there are tons of bugs. Its a shame as the funcom art team once again showed that their designs are just great. But the game as is, is not worth playing once the awe about the grafics or the newness factor are gone.… Expand

Bugs, crashes, lacking content for the majority of the game, memory leaks, and is full of jerks due to the attraction that is blood, gore, and nudity. Don't let them fool you, they, and this game, are not mature. It is merely unfit for younger audiences.

I'm getting so fed up with these hyped mmo's. It is time for a new game website where we can get honest games reviews, because the reviews for this game are clearly not in line with reality. This game is still a beta. Combat system gets boring and you end up staring at which button to press. Crafting, really Funcom, what were you thinking??? Everything is instanced, it feels like a console game, with fake "walls" where you cannot go. Not a nice, open world. Start a new character and you get to go through exactly the same yawnfest again. Sorry, but I seriously hope this game fails and will have to close, because I am fed up with mmo developers getting away with this kind of crap.… Expand

AoC has some very compelling features and to do it justice they must be addressed. My score of 4 may seem demoralizing but it's my personal belief and is not necessarily a view shared with all other players. I will explain my MMO background, what I like to see in MMO's and why, over-all the pro's couldn't outweigh the cons. First of all, AoC features amazing graphics and beautiful landscaping. These features make for great screenshots (definately useable as desktop backgrounds!) and an overall very immersive experience, for a while. I'm a fan of graphics, but I'd say there is a greater appeal to more casual-MMO gamers than to a self proclaimed veteran such as myself. The graphics are quite system intensive and to be honest, I really can't afford an extra $800 worth of system content to be able to pump the graphical settings higher for gameplay (though I can manage to turn them up for a screen shot if necessary). The combat system is very original. This is a pro to many, to me it's... okay. I don't mean to be negative towards unique ideas because I think they are very progressive in the evolution of games. I want people to know that the combat system is something that needs to be experienced, but generally speaking it wasn't for me. I felt like the defense stacking and directional combat/combo system made me react in different ways based on my opponents defenses, but otherwise speaking I generally was fighting the same way regardless of many other factors (this seems to be a problem in many MMOs recently. Each fight comes down to similar mechanics and not to call-and-response, think-on-your-feet ones. As a little background knowledge, Im a big fan of fast-twich, do-this-move-now-or-you-won't-have-a-chance-later type gameplay (think... spell interruption in WoW or war-spell dodging in Asheron's Call, or Missile Repelling in L2, etc etc.) I felt that I was focusing more on my melee offense in conan than I was on tactical defense (the defensive utilities available are not useful in my opinion. Double tapping to dodge still gets a hit landed on you.) I have not tried magic classes, so I will not comment or adjust my score positively or negatively based on that factor. Crafting is a big part of the game, I like the way crafting works, the instanced world and the extent of how immersive your creations can be. It's a positive for crafting happy people. As I recall SWG tried to make it so that the game didn't have to play combat oriented all the time. People could specialize in non-combat careers like dancing and could enjoy social aspects of the game. I feel the crafting here is... faster to lvl not entirely a gameplay experience all it's own but it definately fun while you do it (remember that you need to lvl a bit before you can jump into it though!) The story is captivating, but I must be honest that I never got into conan before and so none of the names and most of the world doesn't relate to any seeded memories. It's cool anyway but a story can be depleted and eventually will run out leaving me with gameplay to carry me. Overall if the game weren't an MMO it'd get a much higher score, but I feel I must grade it based on one of the most key factors of MMO gameplay. and that's it's Lasting Appeal. I can't see myself playing this game much more than a couple of months. AC, L2, SWG and WoW had me playing for over 6 months, AC and WoW for over 2 years each! The bar keeps getting raised higher and higher and AoC has definately raised the bar for elements of MMOs but sadly, not for lasting appeal in my opinion. If you have money to spare, go try it out. Plenty of people swear by it and needed a new MMO experience after WoW burn-out syndrome. The MMO market is becoming more competative and I'm glad I bought the game to support that market evolution, but I won't expect to be a part of this game when the release of other MMOs such as Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning, The Chronicles of Spellbourne or Pheonix Dynasty Online are released. - Paul Forte. MMO Experience: AC, AC2, Lineage, Lineage2, EQ2, UO, SWG, AO, Eve, SWG, Auto Assault, PotBS, Dungeon Runners Beta, DAoC, WoW.… Expand

While the graphics are good the game is a complete letdown. I along with many bought into the hype and paid $80 for the collectors addition What a complete ripoff!!! The game is drab and boring with nothing to hook you into more hours. Trust me I tried many times to get into the game and just found nothing fun about it. In fact it made me want back in WOW more than I ever imaginged. This game claimed to be the WOW killer? Haaa! There is no and I mean no comparison to the type of game warcraft is. You can say what you want but if you have played both games you can not argue AOC against WOW because there is no comparison. I only gave a four rating because of good graphics but everything else is a sore dissapointment. I even quit Wow to get into this and was left wanting so bad I tucked tail back and learned how much AOC made me apreciate a good game. The hype was a lie!! The first thing I noticed was that you have to instance into the Inn?!? What a burn. everywhere you turn is a load page and the same boring brown atmosphere. just no damn fun no matter where you turn in this game. The combat? Please just play a console if you want to experience this great combat. You could hook up a hand held controler and it would feel more like god of War than an mmor Just another rip off guild wars that has no pizazz and no style with crappy boring features that will turn you off in a week. Go ahead and pay fifty bucks and take the one week challange. All in all aside from very nice graphics which are extremely underused in making this game atractive AOC is dump for your money. I can tell you as a long time gamer you will not like this game after a short time. Please dont think I am a blizz boy because I am not. I simply bought into the hype and left very ripped off beleive me I tried to go with it there is just nothing there. If you like the game and dont agree with me more power to you I just can not see anything that would keep you interested. Thanks for reading my opinion… Expand

If your looking to expand your character by combining different builds and talents - this game isn't for you. The talent trees and class balances are absolutely terrible. The skills are a real blast to use and the combos are fun but its seriously watered down by the fact you have a class specific tree then a general tree. I wouldn't really waste your time with this one.

I was not able to play the game after purchasing it because I was never sent an SMS verification code and got no support from Funcom. The game looks good, but be careful as Funcom will have no qualms about taking your money and not giving you anything in return.

The the Meta Critic readers, those who are intelligent enough to do research on a game prior to purchasing it, I'd like to issue a firm and heartfelt warning about this game. The early portions of this game are fairly polished, with plenty to do; and dungeons that work as they should, but as you progress; and as you advance your character it becomes clear that this game was clearly not what it was hyped up to be by the developers. Those looking for a cut above the average MMO will be sorely disappointed, as this title fails to do anything different from the regular mold; aside from the combat system. But I will give you more information on that later. Let us start with the graphics, which manages to be the most worthwhile, and most detrimental aspect of this title. To put it bluntly, the graphics themselves are amazing, Whether you're traveling through the breath taking conall's valley, or fighting the horrific aberrations of the Field of the Dead, you will be pleased with the visuals. Of course, with these visuals come a very steep system requirement, and even though you may find yourself meeting you exceeding the supposed "recommended" system specs, you may have performance issues with the game. What makes this an even larger problem is that lowering your graphics setting to increase performance has the OPPOSITE effect for no adequately explained reason. The gameplay, as far as Player Vs. Environment is concerned is passable. The combination system works reasonably well; and is a breath of fresh air from the usual MMO fare. But again, this has a huge downside: I of course speak about the PVP ramifications of such a convoluted combat system. Novices and "newbies" alike will have a difficult time managing the excess of hotkeys you must use to be successful in combat; should you choose one of the 5 melee classes. In addition to three manual directional attacks (FIVE at level 40), you must manage an excess of activated abilities, double tap abilities, and in the cases of some classes; both a mana and stamina pool as well as managing shields and the like. Diving deeper into the gameplay subject, those looking for a long lasting MMO experience should look elsewhere at this time, as once you get to around level 50-60; the content dies down almost fully. There are no instanced dungeons to be done, quests are few and far between, and the few quests that you may manage to find are uninspired at best. Those choosing to push into level 80 will find that nobody participates in Mini Game PVP, nobody participates in siege PVP and even the 'contested border kingdoms' lie a muddied ghost town. Facts are facts in the end, and while some may try to defend these current imperfections as typical for the genre, I will state that I have played quite a few of these games in my time; and I have never run out of things to do this quickly. When one combines the patches that seem to introduce more bugs than they fix, sieges that not only have no incentive, but are broken; and a lack of a PVP system this game is only good for about a month of semi casual play. Is 50$ worth a month of game time? That's question you will have to ask yourself; but as this game is now - I cannot in good conscience recommend it to anyone. Thank you for reading.… Expand

Don't listen to the haters or the fanboys. The game is neither groundbreaking nor abysmal. I applaud the mature content, active combat, and beautiful graphics (provided you have the hardware). But points have to be taken away for pretty much everything else. Right now, the only thing to do in the game is grind out quests because almost nothing else works as it should. There are no social activities to speak of - no real reason to interact with other people unless you're sharing a quest. I started on a PvE server but switched to PvP due to the boredom. And now, I'm getting bored of that as well, as PvP essentially means "ganking" in this game. And as much as they claim to be focusing on PvP rewards and punishments, nothing exists as of yet. I would suggest buying the game and using the first 30 days free to play through the rather enjoyable Tortage Island (levels 1-20) with a few characters. Then cancel your account, because after that, the bad outweighs the good (for now).… Expand

Very good game, but indeed its little unfinished, but which rpg game isnt that at the beginning.

Decent MMO. I leveled a character up to the maximum level and played around with a raiding guild for a while, but ultimately I stopped playing because it was just too similar to World of Warcraft which had a lot more content at the time. It was still well made, and by now it probably has a lot more content. I'd recommend it for anyone who's interested in trying out an MMO.

Great MMO, really good. Don´t know about launch problems some years ago, anyway version 4.0 rocks and I got all expansions and adventure packs. Everyone should check it out and make sure to get the expansion because Kithai is massive and beautiful

This is the best MMO out there period, best graphics, best stories and it's such a massive open world you can get lost with a sense of who cares im doing fine, there's no arguing pansy boys just shut up and play.

The game is a lot of fun. It has great graphics for an mmo. I'm surprised how low the average user rating is. My guess is people felt ripped off about the patches and downtime during EA and game it a 0. So far I think it's a great game.

Beautifully rendered boredom. Once you arrive at the first city you're hit with huge lack of clear direction as to where to level or what to do. If their goal is to keep you guessing and wandering around, they succeeded. What i love about and while i'll be staying with WoW is that I always know what I'm suppose to be fighting next and why. This game just has too much guesswork and the leveling tedium is going to be outrageous compared to WoW.… Expand

Horrible game, no balance and spawn camping ruins ffa PvP.

Assuming, and granted it's a big assumption, Funcom stays the course and keeps with the incessant patching, works out the kinks, and people don't jump ship first -- this becomes THE game. If not, it's the chaperone for the next ambitious mmo.

First off, i was really hoping this game would be in a state i could handle to hold me for a while. Unfortunately i was pretty let down upon release. I do not like the combat system at all. Although it is different and i give them credit for trying something new, jousting and seeing who can put out more white damage(coming from a melee perspective) is just not my idea of fun in pvp. Travel is HORRID. Quests. I'm not a big quest fan. If you don't like questing this game will probably do you in. If you do like questing, then the first 40 levels should be easy sailing. Ease of use/playability - I think this game is fairly demanding on resources and somewhere in the middle as far as compatibility with all rigs. Many users have configurations it just doesn't like or work well with. It most likely will require tweaking and adjustments on the part of the user to run good fps. Graphics - I give it pretty good marks on graphics. I'm more a fan of these type of graphics than WoW style graphics. I think they did a good job on the looks. Stats don't work, class abilities are bugged, class imbalance is pretty bad(somewhat expected), and hiding/perception seem broken. You can't be attacked by melee in the water. Just a huge list of odd problems that i don't have room to go into. In closing i would say the game is unpolished, unfinished, and just didn't grab me. I'll be setting my hopes on warhammer and giving that a try when it comes online. I hope my 50 bucks helps pay for some coding and fixes so that the die-hards that stick with AoC get some enjoyment out of it. Unfortunately the cash didn't buy me much in the way of fun. -Typhoid… Expand

Best MMO Game! The game getting better and better every month ;D

Played for 3 days now and I'm already hooked. A bit to early to actually give it a review but my impression so far is excelente.

This game is simply awesome.

Great game woudl get a 10, but just launched, need a bit of work. other then that this game has TONs of potential!

Good, but not great. This MMO could go either way; it could end up being mind-blowing, or die out quickly.

The best MMO game ever!!!! Everything is just great.. great sound, great playstyle great great GREAT!!

Amazing graphics, but thats not what is important about in MMO. World is looking great, but for me PvP is the real thing. And PvP at this stage is so unbalanced and bugged that it is PATHETIC. Spawn kills, unballanced classes... siedges that they are so proud of where not even tested ONCE during beta and i can see those chokepoints in cities and catapult abuse. To sum up if you dig pve and only pve its for you and its great, but if you are at least a BIT interested in pvp then that game is going to be a big dissapointment for you.… Expand

Best online game i have played on a pc.

Gorgeous graphics, great story and well thought out combat system. If this was an FPS it would be a 10 but as an MMO...it fails on many levels. Many aspects of this genre were seemingly given little or no thought, making it difficult and at times frustrating to play. Beginner levels are too long and difficult to complete...mostly due to to lack of a meaningful quest chain progression. Frustrating chat system...Rather than being ground breaking it is an semi-quasi FPS version of EQ, likely to have it's rabid followers but unlikely to gain the mass appeal of a WoW.… Expand

One of the best MMO launches in history. Great fundamental gameplay that lays down the ground work for an amazing MMO. The game has a few bugs, however the amount of bugs is on par with any other MMO at launch (yes yes fanboys even WoW was riddled with bugs at launch). If you are looking for an evolutionary game (no it is not revolutionary) that puts a twist on combat as well as PvP then Age of Conan is going to be an excellent choice. This is coming from someone who has been playing MMO's since Ultima Online in 1998.… Expand

Amazing graphics and gameplay

This game should not have been released. The majority of quests are botched and pure garbage. No interactions, rare animations from the worlds quest npcs. This is a joke to pc gaming. The only thing this game brings new to the table is its combat system which basically gets old after a few days of play. I have yet to enjoy what this game has to offer. For a 2008 MMO, it sure is behind in world interaction.… Expand

Absolutely great! WoW is gone.

After 50 the game just isn't complete... lack of quests, forced grinding to level, small, instanced zones. Massive amounts of bugs, extremely unbalanced classes, no directx 10, crafting doesn't really work, can't get to tier two city, no pvp system, etc. I could go on for pages but this game doesn't deserve that much effort. When it launches for console it will be done... simple as that. PC gamers are paying to beta test. Do not but this game till it launches on console if at all.… Expand

Great graphics, about it. About a tenth of the content advertised is missing (DirectX 10, PvP ranking), half is broken (quests, instances), and the other half is sub-par to the hype (PvP, sieges, guild cities, crafting). Yet another MMORPG that bit off more than they could chew.

A very unpolished, tedious game which doesn't do the name of Conan any justice. No motivation to drive the interest of players. The combat system is awful and the quests feel repetitve. "There goes 2 cartons I'll never get back."

AoC is - An advanced graphics engine combined with a - very basic questing system featuring a - BAD, but refreshingly different, melee combat for 50% of the classes. There is not much to do at max level and you it is very easy to get to max level. This MMO will basically be replayed by the next one. The only hope there is are the millions FunCom made because of the advertising (that spread lies!).… Collapse

Everything bugged in this game. The more patch it comes the more bug it shows.

To much stuff not in the game that was supposed to be there at launch.

Great game, new, fresh, original. Not quite done, but it will be in time.

Age of Conan is absolutely one of the greatest (if not THE BEST) MMO out there! In my opinion, it beats crap out of WoW with its superior combat, great quests and amazing graphics and mature content (screw WoWs orcs and dwarfs)! I can't really say any bad things about AoC (well, there is some bugs, but tell me one MMO game which didn't have any bugs in launch) because it's just so cool game, and fresh! Heads won't roll anymore, they have already been rolled!… Expand

Do not listen to these people. By and large people are judging this game based on preconceptions from WoW - it is not like it at all. The developers have (thank God) gone into development with a different perspective on how things work; all this criticism may just force developers into creating the infuriating cookie cutter buttons. The loss of an immediate 'I WIN' button is alienating a lot of narrow minded people. No doubt there are balancing and it is a technically demanding game, no doubt. But it is an excellent game and one well worth following as time goes on. For me WoW was too childish in community and had repetitive gameplay as well as numerous recent changes such as PvP 'welfare epics' and such were spoiling the game. WoW just takes time not skill and has a large 10 year subcriber base. I look forward to how AoC will develop. :)… Expand

Negatives: The game has some bugs and minor issue's like most mmo's do. -- Sometimes it feels a little like Guild Wars with all the paths and instances. -- I think it lacks in armor variety, everyone is runnin around wearin the same stuff. The first 30 levels you spend the majority of it by yourself which I didnt care for. Posatives: Theirs alot of players so it makes the world more fun and active. -- You level fast, it took me 5 days to reach lvl 45. -- The combat is fun and makes every other mmo I've played look juvenile and boring. -- Putting Fatalities in a fantasy mmo is genious and extremely entertaining. -- The graphics, especially the water are the best I've seen in an mmo. -- Most of the time you don't notice the instancing. -- All in all I think the game needs improvements but I love it and I cant wait to see what happens next and I would deffinitly recommend it. Around the end of the Tortage story line - lvl 18ish is when the game really started to grab me.… Expand

The game has it's advantages, but also many weaknesses. One of the bigger problems is that the game is still in development..yes thats right you are paying for a game that is not finished yet. Wait about 6 months or so with buying it, then they might have fixed all the bugs from the beta that should have been fixed before they released it..also the game does NOT support directx10 as they state on the box....… Expand

This game is terrible. It's not really any different than World of Warcraft or any of the other MMORPGs. It drags its feet right at the beginning, and you have to be a whopping level 15 or so before you can start exploring the world. Even when you get to that point, you get the feeling you're not actually traveling very far when you do move around. There's nothing exotic about this game, it just looks different and promises more, and then proceeds to deliver exactly what games that have been around longer (and already worked out all their kinks) have managed to do already.… Expand

I was very pleasantly surprised by this game, which I've read a lot of varied views on after launch. A friend recommended I try it, and now I'm joining the Conan fan club!
I've now reached lvl 34 and Ive been enjoying the ride all along. My guild is a bit too casual for building cities and such, but just the combat, immersion and general feel of the world is enough for me to stay hooked.
Yes, there are a few rough edges, but the makers of the game have been fairly diligent in getting out patches and updates, and the improvements in the game are noticable.
I won't cancel my WoW account just yet, but I'll definitely spend more time playing AoC in the weeks and months to come. For my two cents this is the best alternative experience to WoW currently on the market.… Expand

This game, after reaching level 80, is terrible: big lack of content and massive class unbalance and 1 shots, I wonder if Blizzard took over this game it'd be completely different.

This game has some major technical issues to overcome. The game engine is buggy, the graphics engine requires (REQUIRES, I say) the latest GPU to run smoothly, and the upper level content is lacking. This game is still undergoing beta testing and debugging: there are still screenshots of players-PLAYERS, mind you, getting debugging messages to their chat window.. Now, the plus. The first 20 levels are very well done and polished. The graphics are nothing short of incredible at times (There are some spots where it is worth throwing all your graphics options on high, accepting the 2-3 fps rate just to play tourist), and the first time you get a "Fatality Move", you will be impressed. After the 50th or 60th, it loses its appeal-especially if you are fighting 4 to 5 other mobs at the same time, and are frantically hitting keys trying to keep said mobs from slaughtering you while you're twisting someones head off.. All in all, I'd wait. It has potential- in 6 months or so.… Expand

Great game, insane graphics but lack of content gives it only 8. Content is much better now after the summer by the way.

Horrible. The only reason this game got above a 60 rating is because half of those critics didn't play the game past level 20. Do not waste your money.

I played from launch, and the game ran smoother then, than it did when i stopped playing, but if anyone is sariosly interested in the game, get it grind to lvl 80, and wait for funcom to fix the entire game , that is when every one will be back, lets just hope they can do that before the tank. GL Funcom.

Absolutely....the most highly honored amount of fail ever introduced to the internet. What the hell are you guys thinking posting positive things about this game? I didn't see one positive thing to even post and I thought long and hard about it. It's BAD...so bad it saddens me to think about it. The amount of suck is such that a giant black hole will open and swallow the earth. The fail that is involved is such that 8th grade stoners look at the game and go....MASTER! I'm amazed it's even still being talked about or advertised. I've never seen anything quite like the horrid display of insult that this "game" gives the genre of mmo's and somehow still manages to stay alive. What were you assholes that still play this playing before now? Super Mario Brothers? This game is TERRIBLE....and I say that with no qualms....it is absolutely....TERRIBLE....don't believe me? Try it, new players. I only ask that you think about this short, simple, completely biased review about a game that never should have been, when you post about how much of an absolute epic fail the game is. I could have made a better game in visual basic. For those of you that like this game, I am sorry....truly....I am.… Expand

By far the best MMO I've played - and I've tried all of them from the early day MUDs to the most current. Dense background to draw from, amazing story, incredible immersion, Innovative ideas around every corner. Combat is new and exciting. Adventures cater to soloist as well as groups. No reason to ever stop playing. (other than to eat).

Well, I've tried it an guess what? It rocks!

An MMORPG set in a world supposed to be filled with "civilized men" in contrast to barbaric Conan, where you don't play as Conan, can only play as three (out of like 15, omitting such important races as picts, aesirmen and vanirmen, kothians, hyrkanians, and more) of the races at the beginning, with art student low-res gloss map graphics, programmed and written by the troglodytes at Funcom (Anarchy Online still hardly runs on modern computers), and designed to basically mirror World of Warcraft (another terrible game). Did anyone really expect this to be good? Hopefully the Conan franchise can survive the onslaught of awful adaptations such as this, the Xbox game, and the newer Dark Horse comic series.… Expand

This game will have you loving it one day and absolutely hating it the next. It is NOT a game where you can sit down with a half hour and have a good time.... There is bloody gore and excitement to be had..at a price... and sometimes a very costly one at that. The graphics are amazing.. sometimes..and incredibly boring at others.. The views are breathtaking.. occasionally.. if it is the right time of the day.. the rest of the time you will struggle to see in the gloominess not unlike you would have to if you were living in that era. Adjust your monitor and be blinded by a blindingly white sky. See the sky in the splendor of its natural hues and struggle to make out the path in front of you. Get lucky and find out where your supposed to go... the rest of the time could be spend in endless travel. Travel 50 miles to deliver this.. then walk back. Get rewarded at lvl 40 w/ the almighty mount.. if you can scavenge 1000's of pieces of loot and sell it to vendors for pennies on the dollar. On to the good: Happen across another traveler in the vast world of Hyboria and have bashing time cutting through enemy after enemy. Combat is quite satisfying.. IF you can figure out a satisfactory control set up. Final Recommendation: Not for beginners. Good times to be had... also expect some frustrations.… Expand

The game is simply fun. In the end that is all that matters.

The world is brilliant. It feels so realistic, that you are actually apart of something big. It's violent, rough, sexy. This game has everything going for it.

The combat is something totally new and different you have the freedom to swing how fast, combos etc... Plus you have to use your head a bit more, because sometimes the enemy will block a certain area and you have to use combos to hit him where he isn't blocking.

I recommend this game to any old and new MMOer alike. If your first game was WoW, and your looking for something totally new and refreshing. Age of Conan is probably that game. At the same time it gives the hardcore MMO players that have been around since the UO and EQ days something totally new and refreshing with the whole concept that it delivers a new style of game.

Sure, you need a beefy system to run this game on high, but you can still get away on medium and low. I have a 8600gts and run this game nicely on med-high settings.

This game is going to be here for awhile. It's fun, it's fast and it's the opening of the 3rd generation of MMOs. Finally… Expand

Best graphics and gameplay I've ever seen. Well done funcom. Already 700,000 subscribers and its the first day.

I play it, and it is definately an awesome play experience that captures my interest more than any other game i have played.

Wonderful MMO. Great graphics, incredible atmosphere capturing the strangeness and brutality of Robert E. Howard's writing. Pick it up and play it - you won't be dissapointed. Best of all: no elves! No orcs! No high fantasy tropes at all.

Amazing! Simply Amazing. Gorgeous to look at, absorbing to play and waaay too much fun!

The best MMO ever provided the player is over 18 and don't mind action-combat. Period! For others its not a 10/10, but for this user group, its perfect. Easy to get into, difficult to master.

So far the game is fun, the graphics are impressive, the voice acting is superb, the game is a tiny bit sloppy, but for just being launched I am so far impressed at how smoothly it seems to be going.

This game really delivers! Tactical combat, awesome music score, best ever MMO graphics and a very stable ride. I'm really impressed with what Funcom got out of this game. I'm an old Conan fan, and this game surely has revitalized my interests for Hyboria and the lore. My specs are an AMD64 3800+, 3 gigs of RAM, winxp pro32 and a 7600GT, and I run the game on 25-30 fps mostly on a high to med settings w/o bloom and shadows with a little tweaking. So the requirements for playing this game are not as high as you can get an impression of.… Expand

Rock solid game with innovative combat. The few technical issues the game is experiencing keep it from a 10, but still well worth the purchase. This game could easily be a 10 in a few months (if the few glitches get sorted out

Simply put, this game is amazing! The Story line wraps you up and guides you beautifully. I actually enjoy doing the quests, I feel like I'm actually part of the world. The graphics are amazing. I haven't had any issues at all, an Extrememly smooth Roll out for a new MMORPG. The Combat is intuitive and engaging. I am very pleased with this and will probably be playing it for quite some time. I haven't enjoyed another MMO like this, It is a step above the all the rest. Excellent and intuitive UI, I could just keep on praising it...… Expand

So far so good. It's hard to review an MMO after only a few days, but that being said, the game is great thus far. The game starts off laughably easy until about lvl 7. Once you start the night missions, the difficulty feels right. The combat is engaging and fun. Funcom definitely pulled it off. The story, music, voice acting and quests have all been top notch up to this point. Climbing a volcano to disrupt a ritual, causing the volcano to erupt was my favorite quest so far. The bad: the UI is really bad. The little info they provide for ui management and skill management is mediocre. I don't really care about this all that much, since I know tweaks and custom UI's will almost certainly be introduced in the very near future. The game does require a beat of a pc to run well. If you've been waiting to update your older box, this could be the game that makes it worth the investment. First 20 levels get a 9 for me.… Expand

Pros: Amazing graphics. It's Conan. Combat mechanics are much, much more realistic than other MMOs. Cons: Tutorial levels just aren't fun (1-20). You end up dreading ever making a new character just because you don't want to ever go back to Tortage. The combat system isn't entirely knew, it just requires more time to master (auto attack is split onto direction attack hotkeys). It's still just hitting hotbar buttons, but it is disguised well and requires your full attention at every moment. It's just like every other MMO in the fact that it's a major grindfest. Also, the quest system is the same as every other MMO (collect this, fetch this, kill this, deliver this, etc). Certain things completely kill the immersion: e.g. The Stygian Tempest of Set's heritage quests revolves around doing tasks for Mitra (rival God), helping Mitra's priests who constantly bash Stygians, and helping the weak and powerless (Set is merciless). It just makes no sense and would be an easy fix (replace a few quest mobs or change the dialog slightly). Conclusion: Funcom is a master of PR and capitalizes on/generates hype better than most companies, but the game itself isn't as great as everyone claims. However, if you're the type of person who only cares about being number 1 on the PvP scoreboard, then you'll probably love this game. I suggest you play something else and read the Conon stories if you want to be immersed in the world of Conan.… Expand

Great game, runs smooth on medium spec computers, no lag at all.

Buggy, Slow, and most importantly Boring. I'd rather go back to play EQ again than play this sadly =( Was hoping this game would be great too.

Best MMORPG since WoW. Been playing WoW since it came out but now the game has lost its edge. AoC feels right at home for gamers like me, familiar keyboard/mouse bindings, a great storyline, voice quest givers, gore (yes, it's rated M), sexual innuendos, language - all the stuffing of a good game ;-). Did I forget to mention that this is one of the best-looking games to come out in recent years? The game has two interesting modes: Night (single-player, more storylline advancing and day (multiplayer, questing). Familiar archetypes, somewhat more granular and none of the WoW cartoonish look. Still some quirks to iron out but the game is backed by Micro$oft so we can expect a huge push to break into the existing WoW market. Blizzard watch out: This is a WoW killer!… Expand

Great graphics, great concept from storyline to fighting. Wicked terrible lag ... and I more than meet specs for this game. They fix these issues and I will gladly up my vote ... until then mediocre at best.

Fantastic game, exceeded my expectations in every way. I've found my new MMO home!

WOW whata great game, best one I have ever played. Great Graphics, Gameplay, and of course Gore lots and lots of guts and blood flying around.

Very amzeing game great supor,t graphics, and gameplay. Good pve/pvp content as well. very unique classesand cool content not seen before in any other mmo.

Great graphics, sound and gameplay. Downside is if you order the Collectors Edition you may have problems getting into the game in the first place as they shipped with bad codes. Service support was good on launch day (Friday) but non-existant on Saturday, which is pretty poor for a new title being released on Friday.

The amazing graphics are the highlight of the game in my eyes. Creating a game for mature adults is spot on. The only flaw I've found is that you're bound to a relatively small island until you hit level 20 and complete a quest line. You can't rush it, as there are level requirements to the quests. However, the game does a great job of making you feel important in a struggle that you learn to feel something for. Each class (warrior, priest, scout, and mage) have their own quest roll, which eliminates some of that repetition that we all love in our early days of gaming :) Great work FunCom!… Expand

Feeling of loneliness in a MMORPG what a strange paradox The interface is shamefull for a 2008 game quests haven't anything different from other MMORPG Nothing new except the graphism which are really good.

Loving this one so far. Story mode is awesome, much better than any other MMORPG on the market. Combat is engaging! Graphics are amazing, but you need some serious machine horsepower to play it at full settings.

Lot of fun and after WoW finally a new great game.

Not perfect... of course not, but what game (especially MMO) is? What this is is a damn fantastic start to a game that will only become more and more enjoyable. The visceral world and deep combat is a breath of fresh air in this stale, McWoW market. PLEASE do not believe the small group of bashers making a front on the general forums. Who knows why they are doing what they are doing, but it is clear they are NOT the voice of the AoC community... just currently the most heard (in General) as the rest are enjoying the game. Give it a shot, you will not regret it.… Expand

Its ok. The leveling is very tedious, and once you hit the main cities you don't really know where to go or what to do. A little direction would be nice. The PVP system is different, but gets boring after a while. Make sure you have a decent PC before you play this. Also, world PVP is very annoying, there is lots of corpse camping as you have to resurrect in a static place. Its ok, but it doesn't break any boundaries.… Expand

Just incredible. Also an avid WoW player for nearly last 2 years. The Good : Graphics Amazing. Control System great. Quest system really good and helps you alot. Talent System similar to WoW so easy to pickup. Additional Stat placement. Running Speed mana regen etc is brilliance on funcoms behalf. Certain aspects of the UI are good. Player movement. Collision Detection is fantastic. Mellee combat system is way too good. Quests have some depth and storylines are really good (not just a click accept and finish it) do the Destiny quest chain in starter zone. its worth it. The Bad : The chat system really sucks coming from WoW which is refined nicely, but i guess will be fixed quickly. Other than the minimap and menu selectors the UI not so hot. But mods already enroute, i haven't used WoWs default UI for a very long time so not even sure what it looks like anymore, but im sure similar addons will be available for AoC soon enough. Its a great game and if you finding WoW getting repetitive and somewhat boring outside new boss drops then grab this game its that good.… Expand

Best MMO iv played. Great combat system, Great graphics, Great Quests, Great Game!!!!!

Huge disappointment, Explore a World ? not... just a series of small hubs of quests totally instanced and with dozens of copies of the same zone making so that the sense of immersion of being in a "world" completely disappears, it can vary from a beautiful scenery to the worst junction of polygons with a lousy texture like the volcano area.... white sands isle on the other hand is very nice. UI is so bad it can make an amateur programmer cry, bugs by the tons.... NEXT GEN MMO ? my god hope not... feels like a single player game with some intruders running around sometimes on your private world.… Expand

WELL DONE FUNCOM! The attention to graphic detail,unique play style,diversified quests,and so far a lack of immaturity on the PVE servers,has won over a LOT of adult gamers. If you meet the recommended requirements,you will be enthralled by the graphics! Leave WOW now before another "tired" old news expansion keeps you bored.

Way too much pre-game hype from folks that don't really look for depth in their MMOs. This game has zero depth beyond leveling. The loot is mediocre, the leveling curve is extremely simple (there were level 80s within 3 days of release) and whats more theres nothing much to do other than grind resources and build guild cities that can't even be attacked yet because battle keep sieges aren't active yet. The top level of AoC looks awesome, its when you start looking underneath the hood and looking for important dynamics like social content, variable adventuring lines, quest rewards and world drops that give you a sense of accomplishment....when you start noticing what an unfinished project this game is. The combat system is good, but seriously it gets very old after about the 4000th time your character does the exact same fatality animation its done the other 3999 times. Just don't accept the top level reviews, people that haven't played this game past Tortage really don't start getting a feeling for the massive failures in this games concepts.… Expand