First off, for the people who have played beta and complained about bugs, I beg you to re-consider buying this game. Everyone is saying how polished it is since beta.
Also this is not a full review, I've been in Early Access and played the final product alot so this review is to try and give you an idea of the game and what to expect. I will delete this review eventually and write a full blown review when I reach end-game level.
Do you remember when you played your first MMO and you got that magic feeling in your stomach that you just couldnt get rid of?
I never thought I'd feel that again... untill now.
Well first things first, character customisation. You can make anything, from a rugged bearded barbarian, to a beautiful femme fatale. So the girls who were worried about not being able to create a 'pretty' character do not fear because you can.
This game is very similar in the way Oblivion's character customisation worked with sliders, but the face models for AoC look completely different, and in a good way.
They have some really interesting classes also. But I'll leave that for you to read up on. But dont expect if your playing a Bear Shaman for it to play out like the WoW shaman. Remember this is a different game and this means the classes are regarding Conan Lore.
Okay next part, you enter the world, first thing you notice, talking NPC's. This does add that next level of immersion in games. Your not required to read a wall of text before you do quests. You can sit back and listen to the NPC talk or just skip and quest.
Firstly the Guide will pop up onscreen.
This is basically there to remind you that this is not a 'point and click' game. You still have to point and click at times, but YOU designate where your sword is going to swing.
Sounds difficult? it isnt.
Imagine the AI enemy your character is about to fight has 100HP.
Three arcs will appear on him indicating which side of his body he is defending, if he is fully shielding one side and you hit the side he is shielding, then it will knock about 5HP off and he'll probably kill you before you kill him if you keep hitting that side. If you hit the side he ISNT shielding, you will take roughly 30-40 HP off. But the AI are very clever, if you continue to hit the same side, they will change their shielding to that side and so on.
I was quite surprised to see the enemy constantly changing their shielding arc to where I was hitting.
Very clever indeed.
I was mowing down three enemies at a time within five minutes.
The graphics are by far the best graphics on any MMO to date. You can argue all you want, but on DX10 with high settings... I havent seen anything as good as this in the MMO genre. The sound and environment immerses you instantly. Sound is a big part in any game for me, and from the wild grunts of me swinging my sword, to the background music in new area's it really is to put it bluntly... awesome.
I've already shown my friend this game, he started as an Assassin. After getting through the first few levels he got the ability to hide. He hid, then walked up behind an enemy, and did a fatality move. Which is basically a death move, remember Mortal Kombat?
His dagger flung straight into the back of the enemies head, and then watched his corpse just drop to the floor with a massivle critical. His next words were 'I'm buying this game'.
The brutality is always there in this game, so if you like easy point and click and fairies, then dont get it. If you like decapitations, blood and gore then get it. Its quite polished, I have not encountered any bugs yet. The interface could do with some improvements as with other things, but these will come as the game develops.
I'll see you in Hyboria.