@thelazypeon what about a game called DEKARON/2moons... similar to this game but combat is better... hella P2W but i played it F2P and got highest rank with the best gear +10 at the time within a year back in the day a great game...check it out....please, thanks
This was THE mmo for me. Growing up, anxious in school and staying up til the morning. This music hasn't stopped playing in my head to thid day. I would pay a lot to see this game remade as it was in the beginning, just modernized.
As someone mentioned before, the reason why it felt instanced and quests felt more like a single player game rather than an MMO is the fact that you never left tutorial and based your review on that.
@@McClane4Ever. sounds like if it was lacking, you lacked sense to spend your time elsewhere.... 3 80's for a subpar game is a peculiar use of time. Sounds like your dopamine receptors took a hit, so its less enjoyable. The lack of receptors or the ones that died from playing a game a ton, doesnt mean its lacking. Sounds like it hooked you and kept you just as it was supposed to, and you merely hit a phase in life that made you distance yourself from previous emotions. PREVIOUS emotions clearly said "GREAT GAME, lets spend hundreds of hours and make 3 80's!!"
i couldn´t play another mmo after age of conan, none of them made me feel the same. Game was gritty and brutal, although it fell short in many things, it was the best mmo experience i´ve ever had
So, few things from AoC veteran: - Thanks for coverage! AoC was an amazing game! - Game isn't heavily instanced - you just never completed the tutorial area which Tortage is, after that you sail off to one of big open world areas based on your picked race (Stygia, Cymmeria, Aquilonia) which feeel totally different from eachother (Egypt, Barbarian Foresty Cold land, Ancient Greece) - There is a big chance there is still plenty of people around in "main" cities you haven't reached past Tortage
and that's exactly hwy reviewing mmos cannot be a one hour thing. He should know better given his whole review channel is focused on MMOs. but the reason he does all these quickies is just for hits and making money. He hasn't any actual interest in them or doing it properly
I was the one who commented about this game, thanks for covering it! I used to play back when it was in it's prime. A guild could build their own keep, and you could have castle siege battles with other guilds, ride mammoths and rhinos, the whole experience was epic. There was world pvp everywhere. Now the game has less players but it's still an awesome game to play through at least once in my opinion, with enough people still playing that you can find groups. Also, the game opens up after the starter island which is where you stopped, and you would encounter more people adventuring. Anyway thanks again for covering it, this game is still awesome.
@@modumsnus Actually the player base are still active. PvE server is better if my remember as well (Chrom server) and you can find players all day. Of course, the night time is still better, but if you want to do dungeons etc, you will find players
I never comment on videos but really hope you see this; The combat system has three attacks, left, right, down the middle/top. So the three lines represent blocks, and at any time the enemy will have them either all three in one place, indicating the highest block value, leaving two ideal spots to attack. However, one will quickly go to another, leaving one ideal place to attack. It of course is possible for one to be in all three but hitting one direction will cause one to be opened up adjacently. Not really opposite because there is no opposite to upper/middle. So your main critique was that the combat system did not feel rewarding or responsive enough but from what your described in the beginning you were mostly always hitting through a 33% damage mitigation or whatever (one block). You just always want to hit the empty slot basically. Age of Conan was a great game but it actually had too many people on launch playing, right after Blizzard did their largest banwave in history of botters (glider 2.4.3 for reffrence) just before release so the whole launch was really scuffed but not really their fault. They had the huge playerbase/server issue, and a subculture that was looking for new frontiers for goldtrade and whatnot. Glad to see its got an update and i guess i will download. Thanks! Hope the you try the combat again and see if it is more responsive.
Man.. this game... Combats were so satisfying and could be really tough, i have so much memories of it. Lore were actually on point, Funcom really respected Conan universe and ambiance. And that godly soundtrack... It's certainly an old game now, but it will always stays in my heart.
You'd be surprised how many people are still active ! A big issue is that you were still on the starting island too, if you go to the later areas of the game theres people everywhere which is crazy. I played a couple months ago and when a worldboss spawned in an instance so many players showed up that my PC actually started lagging.
This makes me want to play again! I haven't gone back because each time I try, everything feels empty and sad and so different. I leveled up all the way to level 40 through pvp alone before, probably won't be able to do that these dayz
@@xChinobi There is a rather small but active and very friendly player base... problem here is that it´s a first impression, so he was basically still at the beginning, where you´d obviously not meet many people, a handful newbies and alt-players aside. that changes later and if you engage in the chat, you might be surprised :)
I installed the game after watching this video (through Steam). Sadly, I was unable to play, as I couldn't even register an account. Perhaps I'll look up the issue to see if anyone has a solution. The issue occurred via both the client and website.
I came back to Age of Conan now after 13 years., and I was really impressed by the brutality, map design, combat, music, story. Prob is one of the last/few true mmorpgs designed to adults. There are really dark quests there.
@@hariszark7396 I would say they are very similar in gore, meanwhile Exiles takes a step further on the nudity, might be more dismemberment possibilities in Exiles as well. But that's more likely because of the technology leap between the two. I can't speak 100% on that, as I haven't played AoC in 10+ years, but the games are not standing on the same foundation as gameplay goes. Exiles is a open-world survival RPG with building, set in one big location with a few certain "instanced" dungeons, much closer to games like ARK: Survival Evolved, Rust, etc. Your main goal is to escape the purgatory that you were forced in by unlocking your cursed bracelet, but you can decide to stay and rule over your territories. You have to unlock recipes, farm resources, build yourself a home/fortress/castle, depending if you play PvP, PvPvE or PVE. Capture thralls to work, fight and defend for you, some unlock new recipes for better weapons. Not to mention the mod community is sprawling with content, I just wish Funcom gave the same amount of love to Exiles as the modders are. **Forgot to mention that the combat is closer to Dark Souls, if I were to compare it. While AoC is much closer to the typical MMORPG, much bigger world, variety of cultures to explore, quests, cities and bosses, you already know this part. If you want more Conan oriented games, but with a new lens, I do recommend giving it a try if your PC can handle it, it's a good game as survival game goes, the building system is almost perfect, some annoying bugs here and there with placing, I do occasionally just build stuff in creative, highly recommend you check out some builds, people are creative. I'd probably play on at least 2X Resources + faster thrall conversation server, especially if you plan on playing solo, to get quickly into gear as the game can be quite grindy. The biggest issues with Conan as of now, can be performance on highly populated servers and people exploiting bugs; building under the map etc. Also, collision on big mobs can get you stuck into them.
@@phun54321 No, he's right. Also, the devs didn't update the graphics much... it still looked that good when I first played it way back when it first came out. Age of Conan is one of the few MMOs that actually feels like you're in that world.
So so so true, this was a game I got great feelings from, excitement, adventure, exploration, dungeons, it was great and now every game does not do that for me anymore
AOC was a fantastic game. I had so much fun on it. However, it's not the same I briefly touched it again a while back but everyone just does power farming now to fast level up. In it's prime it was a great game it's just a shame funcom didn't expand it more. The end game content was quite bad and that's why it died. The last decent MMO I played was star wars old republic. Since then everything else has flopped. I'm hopeful that there will be a new everquest game like the first one with updates to visuals.
@@chrish813 Same for me too, man. I was so hyped for this game and followed it restlessly up until release. My mother knew I was excited for it and ended up buying it for me on day 1 (best mom ever) and I played the hell out of it every day after school on my shitty little dell with an average fps of 20-25, but hey that's playable for me lol. Those were the days. Such a damn good time. Hell, since it's free on steam I might hop on just to experience Tortage again lol
@14:45 The boss summoned a minion, which is where that mob came from. I still love this game. No other MMO nailed atmosphere and combat the way AoC does. I wish so much that Funcom poured as much into fixing everything quickly at launch and filling in the latter half of the leveling process, but Khitai is such a banger of an xpac that it made up for it in my eyes. To all my fellow PvE'ers on Crom, I salute you!
Huge Robert E. Howard fan. Funcom consistently gets the "sword and sorcery" right. I played this at launch and have returned to it quite frequently for a few months at a time (just in November most recently). I play it when I feel the need to immerse myself in a bloody tale of an age undreamed of before the ocean drank Atlantis!
I started playing Age of Conan about 3 weeks ago, and its really enjoyable. While you are correct its quite instanced in Tortuga, thats not the case at later zones to the same extent. And like other MMORPGs, "the game starts at max level", altho there are quite a few that also focus on gamecontent at lowerlevels/dungeons. 1 week in I joined the guild Guards of Mitra, and the game comes much more alive, with quick access to raids, altho the same is the case for people outside guilds, thru Raidfinder. And the guild is gaining alot of new players, so there are both people joining with alts and new people joining.
So many memories So many good nights raiding with the boys. The music is phenomenal The combat was way ahead of it's time And the setting and story was actually very interesting. I really wish that Funcom comes out with AOC 2 🤞
Age of Conan was the best MMO. First one that hooked me, got me to play all the way to max level, first that I raided in, etc. I wish this came back. Also, the start of the game is heavily instanced but that's not necessarily how the whole game plays.
I love AoC's combat system. Most engaging ever in an MMO. My personal favorite part was the Herald of Xotli's killmove where the character reaches into the chest of the opponent and pulls out their still-beating heart.
HoX was such a badass character design mine was a melee mage that wore cloth but also breathed fire. Such a glass cannon class that was loads of fun in PVP.
Age of Conan is my 2nd favorite mmo of all time and my 1st place in the soundtrack category. I level up a character every few years and then get sad that nobody else plays it anymore. Showed a friend this video and he’s gonna join me next week and try the game for the first time. 2 players will be just barely enough for us to go through many of the group quest lines but I have cheesed my way through many of them solo. We are gonna have a great time.
My favorite mmorpg ever. I retired from it a few years after its release hoping they'd make a sequel. Imagine my disappointment when they released Conan Exiles instead of a proper sequel. Ten plus years later, I'm still anxiously waiting.
I absolutely loved this game when it first came out. Combat was great and the PVP was intense. One thing that sucked was that the voiced over dialogs ended at like level 30. So everything after that you just had to read.. I wonder if they're ever finished voicing over their quests.
They never did haha! Some of the ""newer"" content (read: ~8+ years old) has some selective voice acting that is pretty great, but mostly in the main story quests of the expansions (Ardashir and Rise of the Godslayer). Other than that it's all reading.
This is by far one of the best MMOs ever made. And still to this date holds the hardest raid content of any MMO. Also houses some of the best tab targeting combo-esque combat. A true gem of a game that should still be played
I was playing as a guardian “tank” as my main character (actually it became my main laters anyways) and i was amazed by the true joy to play as a tank when you compare it with most of the other mmos dull agro systems. Oh old days lol. Anyways back to the topic Funcom had definitely created some of the greatest raid mechanics in MMOs complicated and very well designed. It was pure fun trying to understand the mechanics of new bosses in raids and then trying to apply your own tactics with 24 people all doing some stuff in some periods of fights. If I had time like old days i would be still be playing. Was definitely a great game.
this is absolutely one of my favorite MMOs for me. someone said it before, after Tortage it opens up and is wonderful. i think. the grit and gore of this game is unique. and i absolutely love the world of Conan! thanks!
I desperately miss playing this game, even back in 2016-2017 I still played so much of it. The world, combat, and general gameplay has yet to be surpassed by any other MMO imo. It also had some fantastic class design (herald of Xotli, Black Templar, etc). Its just a shame that it stopped receiving content a while ago.
What a nostalgic feeling! So glad you coverd this game. It was my first MMO and I still love it. I guess I will have to get back for some fun. Best music in a game ever. Unfortunately you just did the Tutorial area of Tortage. The game have much more to offer. Also, this game has the best healer classes to play I ever saw, the Bear Shaman and the Tempest of Set. I never had a good experience playing healers after those. Back in the day, I would rank it as an S tier, but still now I would put it on B tier.
Funcom was never afraid of attempts at innovation, win or lose. Anarchy Online still holds a special place in my heart and had me gripped for years after it's release, simply down to the freedom you had with customising your character. If they ever made an AO2, I'd be there in an instant. Sadly, FC seems more interested in being a publisher these days, which is a damn shame.
I remember playing this at release and the massive drop in quality as soon as you left the tutorial region, still really liked it. I came back to it when the Khitai expansion was release and had a lot of fun, it had some pretty hardcore and unique dungeons.
I played AoC back in the day and loved it. When I saw the first city in this video, the memories flowed back. Would love to see this game pick up in popularity again. It was the first mmo that i had a paid subscription too and forgot about, paid about a year worth without playing it before i realised. GG
Playing this game at its prime was a completely different experience to other MMOs of the time. Fantastic memories of our Cimmerian clan having huge skirmishes with other enemy clans in the open world in Connal's Valley, keep sieges, Shrines of Bori battles... back when the game was active, you'd develop organic rivalries with other players, and many were renowned in the server for their skill. Players I met in this game have been my friends for 15 years now, long after we all left. I have tons of great memories tied to Age of Conan. On top of that, the game looked great, and the world had tons of ambience, the mood was just right. The cities are all full of small easter eggs, details and environmental storytelling. Funcom really holds a dear place in my heart. For all their poor decisions in some aspects of making and running games, they still create games with a huge amount of soul.
This is so true, especially about the ambience and little details. I play at a very slow pace, and wander around to look at every nook and cranny. Recently I was wandering around the Stygian starter town, and was impressed by all the detail in the taverns. The purple carp actually brought a tear to my eye as a storyteller in the corner recited an epic poem to the room. Most games won't bother with that sort of thing. Not related to any questline, just there because it can be.
I came back to the game 5 months ago, I was blown away in the end game content. my only problem is playing in an Australian time zone it can be lean for parties but otherwise what an amazing game it still is. The key like in all older MMOs. Join a Guild!!
I work nights here in the US so I'm on the graveyard shift. Don't know if that's when youre on but I'd be down to do some stuff! I feel ya about not being able to find good groups lol
Little I remember when it was first released it was great to level 20 then after that was very grindy. Also remember trying to get to a friend who had just logged on and he was fighting a player and watching him behead his opponent was pretty epic.
This is 100% what I remember, it was so fresh and new and wonderful up until about lvl 20 and then it really went stagnant. Granted, this was the first couple months it was released and was rather unpolished.
@@grocksauce7422 yeah agreed was early in its life, im unable to comment on how it progressed and the endgame content as I only reached about level 34.
@@grocksauce7422 It really became good when they switched to "Unchained", but that was too late to really save it from drying out their player base... Kinda sad, because I guess it could still be one of the best, if it weren´t for Funcoms bad management.
Absolutely, but Funcom made leveling up from 20 to 80 much more fun later on. I even quit the game at launch because leveling got so dull. Came back a year later and it had so much more content.
I did world first raiding in this game in T3 and T4 back in 2009-12. Still watch fondly back to it. This game will always have a warm place in my heart. If they made AoC 2 just in the style but more modernized, I would not hesitate to play it.
People into the Conan lore and stories tend to enjoy this, along with Conan exiles, because, regardless of some of the other choices Funcom has made regarding updates/dlc etc, they do a good job of handling the lore, and present an interesting universe. I have had loads of fun playing Exiles, and back in the day Age of Conan was ahead of it's time, for mmo combat and story telling. I remember how op my Bear Shaman was back at launch.
Yeah it was also one of the few games where wearing less actually gave yo ubetter stats! LOL.... and man, the combat felt so satisfying because it didn't feel like typical tab targeting. It actually required some skill and tactics, which I love from RPGs.
@@The-Black-Death I would love to hear your explanation on that. Funcom has been extremely true to lore with Conan Exiles, more so than any company ever would have.
@@paulmiller7838 I hope you're joking, because the entire story of the Exiled Lands makes little to no sense and itself BREAKS the actual lore stated by Howard himself, especially including the marvel-made Yamatai and Katanas in the game which really shouldn't even exist during the Hyborian Age anyway. I highly recommend that you go back and read the Hyborian Age essay.
@@The-Black-Death The existence of the exiled lands does not break actual lore depending on what the exiled lands is, which has not been exactly established at this point in time. There are a few different theories on the matter, some ranging from just idiotic to some being rather plausible and well within established lore. I agree with you on the Yamatai issue though, they through that in just to placate their eastern audience for the most part. However, the vast majority of the story of the game and fell well within the confines of established lore. If you want to nit-pick 1 or 2 minor little things, well, funcom OWNS the rights to Conan now anyway so they technically can do anything they want (and yet they STILL do their utmost to stay within established lore as much as possible).
Yeah the player count really depends on the time of day really, as there seems to be a lot of European players primarily. But besides that, there is at least like 500 to 1000 players left playing the game on and off over the years that regularly come back to it.
Imagine if funcom pulled the trigger on Age of Conan 2 in Unreal Engine 5. That would be so bonkers. But keep the combo system it's still best combat system to date
Based on this video and compared to the commentary from the tier video: a) It was a crime this project wasn't included b) This project would easily fit on the A, possibly B, tier - although I'm leaning towards A. Something you didn't delve deeply into, which should impact all projects, is all aspects of monetization. For example, a number of projects you placed on the A tier should be knocked to lower tiers subsequent to how their core mechanics were designed or tweaked to pull every last cent from the player base. Sometimes these designs don't become apparent until you're well into the fray. First taste is free.
Don't be fooled though, this game is unfortunately quite P2W these days as you can buy complete endgame raiding gear sets from the item store, not to mention the many lootboxes and QoL items to be found there as well. On top of that, population is dwindling and the game will not receive any future updates. I wouldn't place it higher than C in its current state, and that's coming from a long-time player with a profound love for the combat, animations, art style and of course Howard's world. Funcom has long buried this game and pissed over its grave.
@@vaadwilsla858 - Thanks for your response (and I'm sorry). Sadly, this appears to be their MO... for MMOs. I was in a similar boat regarding The Secret World. I was thinking about this last night and was going to return and edit my comment to more-or-less reflect what you said (which is why I'm here, but you did it for me). My plan was to then find the original tier video and remark that a number of included projects should be moved lower (in some cases, multiple tiers). Cases in point: The Elder Scrolls Online and Conan: Exiles. Both for the same points you mention and Exiles due to it's incredible lack of polish (I installed it after watching this video, too, to give it another chance - unfortunately, it was worse than I remembered it - although the Howard theme goes a long way for me). As an aside, after watching this video, I installed Age of Conan (which took a long while). Sadly, I was unable to even register an account (which you have to do and is an unnecessarily convoluted, and in my case, broken, process). It did bring back nice memories of the early 90s, though. Ha.
This game actually holds up well and it has plenty of amazing dungeons and raids that 90% of the initial playerbase never got to experience. I wish more people endured the leveling and tried the game in its current state. The playerbase is large enough to do everything the game has to offer. If u want to see some raids or dungeons, i got them all on my channel :)
This mmo was my second one ever after leaving WoW and it's the only one I've ever gone back to 3 times after quitting. The fatalities are just too good an addition.
Still miss the fatalities of the game. There was a khitai faction giving a item if used a 100% chance on fatality kill. Used it a lot on the 2h barbarian chopping arms etc from the enemy :) Or the hox pulling out the hearth of the enemy.
Wow. This game looks more interesting than 95% of "MMO"s out there. I also forgot about this project. Probably because I normally don't like this type of game and the mechanics most groups decide need to be incorporate into them. Not to mention the words free, to and play, which, when combined, send shivers down my spine. What these words, when together, actually mean is "this will be the most expensive cumulative purchase you make in your life" and "this project wasn't designed to be fun, but to further the aforementioned quote" and "it's not about players, it's about our bottom line - and we're not talking short shorts."
this game IS better than 95% of the MMOs out there. Dont worry about the cash shop. The F2P was a necessity for the decline of players, not a business model fom the start. In fact, it started with monthly subs
I played this with WoW guildies when it came out. We had a stronghold and everything but gave up after a month or two. There was no end game at max level back then but and the last 10-15 levels was just grinding villas. I remember I did have fun with the first half of the leveling though. Glad to see it’s still around and may check it out.
Been playing AoC on and off since 2019. This was my first mmo that i really got in to. I got great memories from this game that i'll keep with me forever. Like the open pvp battles in the early years. The world first kills in a few raids, clearing mastertimers in groupinstances and just silly memories with a great community. I've made a lot of friends from this game and i'd say the community is really nice. If you're reading this and thinking about trying the game out, do so. You can do the whole leveling experience as f2p so don't hesitate. Much love, The Ubermiley!
I think the art direction, mob design, environment design, weapon and armor design, architecture, and generally everything wipes the floor with most mmo related things today. The graphics are so pleasant to look at. Sure, they are not up to par with technical standards of today, but I feel you coul give it even more credit. Especially the graphics. I think they look sublime. I would actually play it right now. DAMN. I have to agree about the audiovisual combat feedback.
@@artofox I'm not sure if I would personally say its the most immersive, although it's tight up there. I would have to play it again for that to be sure, but the only two mmos with unparalleled levels of immersion for me are WoW(classic, at least) and LotrO. Guild Wars 2, ESO and many Asian mmos feel too plasticky, or at the very least not immersive enough. I'm thinking of redownloading conan and getting into it. Is it still worth it?
@@ivansalamon7028 if definitely is, I keep coming back to this game, no other game has - atmosphere, world building, architecture + environments, armors + classes, combat, music and your destiny - story, lots of guild are happy to help new or returning players
As a person who played this game day one, I legit cannot tell what the gfx update is. The game looked this good back in the days if you had a machine that could run it at all.
I would put this game into A tier. Peon if you make it off the first island and move into other zones you’ll see many more players. Also the game is much better played in a group. Would love to see you continue to play the game!
Good first impression review, I have to add that you are still in the tutorial area. The game opens up massively after tortage area. I still play it now and then and it is still my all time favorite MMORPG to this day.
@@xChinobi last time I played it was hard getting groups on my way up to max lvl. But at max lvl there is quite alot of activity. Lots of raiding guild pvp etc...
Most of the things in the video are from tortage, and you dont have that much group stuff to do in there yes, but after level 20 you start to get lots of group quests that you can do with other people (with guild, or with random people). There is a lot of cool dungeons to do "Sanctum of burning souls", "black castle". two of my absolute favourites when i started to play. I still play this game everyday when i come home after work. I do raids, group dungeons, and solo stuff. I never had so much fun in a game has i do in AOC (mainly because i can play with friends). It does not have many players left, and its sad, but i think this is still a game everyone (that likes this kind of game) should play. Once you get to know some cool players and start to be friends with, once you master your class, you will have lots of fun adventuring in it. @TheLazyPeon I wish you could do a video about what you have in AOC after you get level 80, it really becomes harder, more fun, interesting (due to the faction system, and story). Great video, and now i want to make another toon just to play in tortage for a bit 😂
It’s great to see they kept with this game. This was my second MMO, so I was familiar enough with how to level efficiently. The problem this game ran into at launch that lost a huge amount of players was they had no late game content. I don’t remember the exact level, but before max level you ran out of quests or essentially any content to do. We were all looking around like “wtf do we do?”, and after a couple weeks or so most people figured nothing was coming any time soon and left
It was a pitty. I think that if they had secured a good launch, this game would be with good population to this day, like some od rune scape, GW2 or even WoW
There was a leveling gap between 50-60, and then very slow from 70 to 80. They later added a new zone for the mid 50s remedying that a bit - and all leveling is way more lenient now in F2P :D
I still have night mares of bow men running up to me and beating me with their bows, because their ai was so bad at launch, great game wished they polished it more and fixed its late game at launch.
I've walked across all the maps in Age of Conan from end to end. It took me 5 hours to walk across all the maps! This game world is huge and still beautiful and atmospheric!
I played for more then 10 years only this game. Leveling to max was rather time consuming, if you where a beginner, and i leveled all 12 classes plus some more. The real game begins when you can get into a group and do dungeons, and even more in a guild and do the raids, all 6 tears of them. And Peon didnt even leave the tutorial island, where the graphics are the worst.... I just loved this game, but its the most fun in group of friends.
Really? I played at launch and I remember how nice Tortuga looked compared to the rest of the game. It was like they spent all their resources making the starting area look good but it sounds like they've done a lot to improve the rest of the game which I'm glad to hear! 👍
I've played about 12 MMOs and this is my favourite. Every time I quit, I keep coming back. I don't know why maybe its the music, sound score, the fluid smooth animations during fighting, the fatalities, the realism of the atmosphere, the gothic look, the armour and weapons skins (i don't have a 32 foot long sword and armour that lady gaga would wear to a slumber party), spells are not too colourful or fancy, or maybe its just the gore and nudity. One advice I give to people who try the game is to sub for at least 2 months because then you get a fast mount for free for all your characters (present and future) regardless of your level, huge advantage to a level 5 char, even if you unsub after the 2 months, you get to keep that perk.
I'll never forget doing my first dungeon and actually having traps spawn (including and Indiana Jones style giant rock we had to run from !) It took a long time to find a dungeon i liked more.
Did they change the game after the first questing zone though ? It's been many years since I last played but I'm pretty sure that when the game first launch, 80% of the budget had gone to the starting area where everyone was fully voice acted, and as soon as you left the starting area nobody was talking anymore and the game was barebone. I don't think just a single graphical update is enough to bring the game back to life, and I think the lack of players shows that.
I played a new character until the level cap, a couple of years ago, for the first time. The experience was actually good. Your review is quite accurate: I liked the difficulty, higher than in most of the new MMOs, the story was interesting, despite I'm not a good reader, and the combat (chained tab targeting) is a bit slow, but still less boring than other modern tab targeting games, like FF14 (at least if played in solo). Sadly I've never been able to do a group dungeon because despite they added a group finder, no one applied, and you have to ask in chat if someone is interested (not necessarily a bad thing, like in the old MMOs). Moreover, you can't play the early dungeons anymore if you level up too much, so sadly I've never been able to find players before I over-levelled them. But the game wasn't dead: there were players after leaving the tutorial island. It's a good experience for solo players, until you reach the level cap, but if you want to do group contents, it requires some dedication/joining a guild probably.
aww man, nice review! Time to get back to this game! Conan is such an underrated character. His world is massive and brutal and I love it! Funcom does a pretty good job bringing it to life in general, cheers!
The guild system in AoC is just the very best I ever saw in any MMO yet. I remember grinding with people on a map for ressources, scattering out to work on buildings for the own guild city. Also thos city levels up and gets new NPCs this way so it feels more alive. I just had such a blast with that, I wish more games would go for something like that.
This was honestly a really fun game, played it a lot myself as Priest of Mitra, Ranger and Dark Templar, the classes here are really cool. The combat is just a lot of fun to be fair and feels good, and easily the best part, are the fatalities, they are just so much fun, many of the fatalities look really great as well which just brings a lot of enjoyment to the combat. The sad things about Age of Conan is that it sadly had a rough start, had a lot of problems so it lost a lot of players, then later on they came with a very big patch that solved a ton of the problems the game had when it launched, but sadly it was a bit to late as they had lost a lot of the player base :( Would have really loved to see some sort of remake of this game, fully modernized but kept the majority of the tings in the game.
It was a pitty. I think that if they had secured a good launch, this game would be with good population to this day, like some old rune scape, GW2 or even WoW
@@xLeandroIX Yes, they removed combo steps from ranged classes iirc and reduced their length for melee classes. Also added a separate sprint bar instead of costing regular stamina.
You were pretty much the first youtuber I ever became a real fan of and subscribed to, and its fucking great to see you still in your prime. Killin it bro
im still playing this masterpiece from time to time. i just love this game and its lore. Btw the game feels more like an mmorpg and is less instanced when you finished the starting area (~lvl 20).
The graphics for this game were so amazing when it came out. I was playing wow at the time and convinced a couple friends to play AoC, they only lasted a couple weeks, but I made it all the way to max level on a herald of xotli, and did a couple of the raids. Game was awesome, but sadly WoW drew me back in mostly because of friends, but I wish I would have just stuck to AoC.
Age of Conan is a very interesting topic. Back when it was f2p I tried the game and fell in love with it pretty quickly. I bought the add-on and spent quite a few hours on it. Then I stopped and recently picked it up again because I'm bored of all the other mmo's on the market. I have the same crush on the game, the uncoquered mod is very good and gives it a true challenge. The trouble starts when you get more and more immersed in it, because bugs start to surface. The starting zone (Tortage) is brilliant, but after that the voice acting starts to wane and slowly you realise that the quest design is terrible. It sends you back and forth across the map and you have to go back to the same place 4 times later - very annoying after level 20. PvP is also.. dead in the game, I don't understand why they don't merge the two servers and could switch to open world pvp. There used to be supposedly huge clan battles and castles that clans could build and destroy - wiki has info on this, but the playerbase abandoned the game so much back in the day that you can't even find guides on these. The main problem with the game really is that Funcom are a completely incompetent developer team and have abandoned the game. There are no updates or new features, it runs in maintenance mode like Guild Wars 1. The unconquered mod is definitely recommended for anyone looking for a classic mmo experience, it really is a challenging game and extra fun with buddies. The whole world is dark fantasy, gore, brutality and huge boobs everywhere. I love it, it just always makes me sad what a missed opportunity mmo is. In the uncoquered mod after level 20 you get a uniqe vanity armor (transmog) but it looks so lame and the colors are so shitty, that it looked like they had to put some shit together fast... What could make the game really good again? First of all server merge and switchable PvP (PvE-RP), quest design rework, fix lagg problems, maybe a little graphical polish (I like it anyway) but yeah, the npc's look like they were carved with a knife. Doing voice acting all the way through, putting in extra items and reviving the builder-clan war system. Event system wouldn't be bad either and make better use of the Conan lore, because that world is brilliant by the way. Talents should be polished, reaching level 80 isn't that bad. Oh and of course the mobs need a bit of tweaking, because they can react pretty stupidly and can be crystallised, but their location and behaviour should be addressed a bit - hidden/stealth skills could be exploited more. If funcom would do these in the first round, the game would rise again. After that, the zones could be addressed to give a more open world feel. Story quest should not be instanceolt for example. That said, I recommend everyone to try it out! You can find me as Madds!
The game was unfinished on release (~50-60%). Half way through to max level you already noticed that there was no real game anymore, which was a shame. We really liked the combat system thou, the graphics, the gore and the open world pvp was fun too. We quit after 3 weeks already though.
I still have a very vivid memory from this game, I was running around on a ranger and got absolutely gimped by a barb that was significantly lower level than me, he clearly invested all his points in hiding and di mad combos with his dw weapons.
Dual wield Barb was the most OP class i ever played in any mmo, and i played many mmos for sure. You could instantly kill someone from stealth with an ability that had no cooldown. If you got a fatality proc, they could not even CC you to prevent the damage which was like 500% of a players hp.
Oh boy. Do I miss this game. I was probably something like 7k hours into it when I finally decided that it was time for me to move on. I haven't played it for like 6 or 7 years but I still occasionally think about it wishing that I'd experience something similar again one day. I really have to say that Funcom had some staff that had lots of ideas and the bravery to push them out. Unfortunaly the game was not ready when it launched. Memory leaks, bugs, lack of end-game content, a clear gap somewhere in the level 55-60 range so you had to grind a bit and in general a big pile of undelivered promises. Oh and the lack of polish on quite literally everything. Some of the bigger bugs got ironed out eventually but it took half a year or so. Some new bugs were added in the meantime and some bugs reappeared later on. Content-wise slowly the game was fleshed out but it always felt bit janky and you felt like you had to treat it with care or it could break on you. It was never well balanced for any of the content. There was the gems era when any melee build with full crafted and gemned gear hit like a meteor landing on your face. Then there was the era of Grip of Death which was a channeling spell of necromancer that didn't have a line of sight check besides when the casting started and which dealt enough damage to kill a single enemy if they didn't have a healer who was awake. Then 1.04 was out and the game was kind of balanced... I guess. Dark Templars were still completely useless in pvp and there was clear differences in the usefullness of different classes but I'd say that was the high note in that regard. Somewhere during 1.04 the game took a turn towards a pve-game. 1.05 wasn't that bad really although somewhere during the various 1.05.x versions assassin was buffed and they became gods. Well kind of. They charged you from stealth, killed you and then ran away with a big speed buff just to wait for their cooldowns so they could do it again. Of course good assassins could do more but I recall everyone rolling assassins during this era and the minigames/world was filled with nooby assassin doing this annoying thing I described. Khitai was released. It was a big update. Lots of new pve content. Outside of the coming form-class balance updates there wasn't any new pvp content. The direction had changed and as the time passed it was more and more obvious. I didn't mind that much since I was never a big fan of the world-pvp or sieges (mostly because sieges were always just a laggy and buggy mess) but I most certainly understand why so many pvp-oriented people quit playing. Bori was added at some point but it wasn't that great... In fact it was pretty awful. The only time you could really do it was if there was no fighting going on and you could dig up resources without interruptions. At some point we finally got the Jhebbal Sag minigame which wasn't that great either. Somehow I just liked the 6v6 minigames more. 12v12 was too much, you could usually see how the game was going to end 60 seconds into it and then you'd either just leave or stay and try to catch some random kills there and there while waiting for the match to end. So I'd say post-Khitai the game was 95% pve focused. Not necessarily a problem but the updates were few and far from each other. Content updates even more so. Basically the game was already in the maintenance mode when the Secret World was announced. Such a shame because the game still had a smallish but still healthy player base divided between servers. The population bleeding had already been a thing and now Funcom had no interest to stop it or turn it around. The game was doomed. I kept playing. Took a break of a year or two. I don't remember if it was during this break, before it or after it when Funcom turned the European servers off. That was a big blow at least for me. While the combat system is not perfect in Age of Conan it was strong enough to keep me playing until the hiatus. It was the primary reason why I returned to the game. The combo system might not be anything that special but it adds so much weight to the combat. In general the combat in Age of Conan feels so much more heavy and physical than in any other MMO I've tried. Other games don't have bodyblocking either. Jumping physics are about what you'd expect instead of floaty like in most other mmos. It just felt good. Especially after I had played enough melee characters to learn that I could reposition myself during each combo finisher by timing a jump right when I pressed the final direction. As a result I could execute combo finisher and jump myself behind a tree or rock or whatnot. I started doing that even if there was no tactical advantage to be gained from it just because it was so much fun to do so. One time the game bugged out and I actually got a fatality on another player while I was doing this sort of jump finisher. Normally it doesn't cause anything interesting but for some reason this time the corpse of the opponent got stuck to my polearm and stayed there for a solid 30 seconds or so. It was funny to continue fighting while someone else's corpse was hanging from my weapon. Just a sign that all sorts of weird things could happen in this game if you played it enough. Lol. I wanted to love the game. I still do. However I refuse to install it and give it a try because I just know it will make me sad considering the state the game was in when I finally left it. I really doubt anything significant has changed during the years. If something has happened it is probably just towards the worse. Frankly Funcom just mismanaged this game so badly after the Khitai expansion was out. So so badly. As european player the lack of local server really hurt the gameplay as suddenly I had to play with 150-200 ms ping no matter what kind of connection I had. Pvp was possible to do but it is kind of difficult to enjoy it when while I was chasing someone I basically had to run ahead of them if I wanted to have a chance to land my hits. It was like this when wielding a polearm which had the longest reach. If there was anything new coming up it was super half-assed. Google up "aochideout shadow of vanaheim" for well-written (not by me) review on how bad it was at the worst. (In short: you had to pay for a new content pack in addition of running a subscription and the content was very lazily put together from assets already existing in the game.) If anyone actually read my comment this far I'd like to raise a toast for this game. I loved it. Probably bit too much and now I remember my adventures in Hyboria with great fondness and a bittersweet taste caused by all the disappointment Funcom managed to deliver during the years I spent playing it. Cheers.
I think it looks decent tbh, and the setting is cool. I'd honestly be open to play a more PVE focused version of this game if it had traditional servers and a big open world.
That starting area is actually quite large and a ton of side quests to do before you leave. The main towns for the races have more bystanders, the typical pack of people with impressive looking mounts and armor, but overall in the zones there are few people.
Playing this game on a PvP server was something else. The amount of adrenaline for a mmorpg, looking behind your back all the time and the spontaneous fights everywhere...Never experienced anything like it again.
Age of Conan will always be a part of my life. It was the best MMO I played back in 2008-2009, bringing back so many great memories. The epic music, intense PvP, raids, and midnight sieges made it unforgettable. I played hundreds of hours (reached pvp level 10 Pom).
I had HUGE fun with Age of Conan for about 4 years. Had a big clan, fought for "server 1st kills", did a lot of PvP (even though it was never much my thing). GREAT FUN!
One of the features of the game at launch (not sure now), is that open world free for all PvPl: non-factional. Every player can kill every other player they are not grouped with. So questing, even though it seems kinda empty, any stranger running by can be content. It was great when everyone was rushing to level up at launch, but started to be a bit meh as time went on. Having said that, three level 30s could group up and possibly kill a level 80 griefing them. I mentioned this because you mentioned that the leveling zone was empty or a personal instance. In my first experience of those zones, every player you met raised the heart rate. This will always be the game that had a /drunkpiss emote at launch.
I honestly loved the combat system! Coming off of WoW, City of Heroes, etc. The combat was all samey until I got enamored with the world of Conan. I've been unfortunately one of those MMORPG players where I've always ended up playing a game by myself so I appreciated AoC. Hope you keep playing this!
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@thelazypeon what about a game called DEKARON/2moons... similar to this game but combat is better... hella P2W but i played it F2P and got highest rank with the best gear +10 at the time within a year back in the day a great game...check it out....please, thanks
Install my mod and remove the blur. All videos on my channel.
I know 2 boomers that still play this.
This was THE mmo for me. Growing up, anxious in school and staying up til the morning. This music hasn't stopped playing in my head to thid day. I would pay a lot to see this game remade as it was in the beginning, just modernized.
best music in any game ever. I crave for an new AoC too
Oh yeah, that soundtrack...
I miss that feeling
SAME experience. I loved this game. Never felt the same with other MMOs
Wish i could go back in time, this was my first mmo, don't even wanna know how many hours i spent on it
As someone mentioned before, the reason why it felt instanced and quests felt more like a single player game rather than an MMO is the fact that you never left tutorial and based your review on that.
Sadly the rest of the games leaves a lot to be desired.
@@McClane4Ever. You never left the tutorial island either then lol.
@@evileai7787
3 level 80s. Yeah, never made it off the island.
@@McClane4Ever. sounds like if it was lacking, you lacked sense to spend your time elsewhere.... 3 80's for a subpar game is a peculiar use of time. Sounds like your dopamine receptors took a hit, so its less enjoyable. The lack of receptors or the ones that died from playing a game a ton, doesnt mean its lacking. Sounds like it hooked you and kept you just as it was supposed to, and you merely hit a phase in life that made you distance yourself from previous emotions. PREVIOUS emotions clearly said "GREAT GAME, lets spend hundreds of hours and make 3 80's!!"
i couldn´t play another mmo after age of conan, none of them made me feel the same. Game was gritty and brutal, although it fell short in many things, it was the best mmo experience i´ve ever had
So, few things from AoC veteran:
- Thanks for coverage! AoC was an amazing game!
- Game isn't heavily instanced - you just never completed the tutorial area which Tortage is, after that you sail off to one of big open world areas based on your picked race (Stygia, Cymmeria, Aquilonia) which feeel totally different from eachother (Egypt, Barbarian Foresty Cold land, Ancient Greece)
- There is a big chance there is still plenty of people around in "main" cities you haven't reached past Tortage
You left out that past Tortage the voice acting pretty much disappears and the quest lines play out like WoW. Bit of an adjustment that.
@Mario Broselli True! I just feel like areas after Tortage are bigger, but maybe I'm wrong here :P
Also, back in the day, only the tutorial section was voice lined. I can't image that they changed that and added more voices.
Agreed and Khitai is absolutely stunning in every way.
and that's exactly hwy reviewing mmos cannot be a one hour thing. He should know better given his whole review channel is focused on MMOs. but the reason he does all these quickies is just for hits and making money. He hasn't any actual interest in them or doing it properly
I was the one who commented about this game, thanks for covering it! I used to play back when it was in it's prime. A guild could build their own keep, and you could have castle siege battles with other guilds, ride mammoths and rhinos, the whole experience was epic. There was world pvp everywhere. Now the game has less players but it's still an awesome game to play through at least once in my opinion, with enough people still playing that you can find groups. Also, the game opens up after the starter island which is where you stopped, and you would encounter more people adventuring. Anyway thanks again for covering it, this game is still awesome.
hehe, I mentoined the game too :D
Is there people still playing this? I kinda want to give it a spin again, as the release was kinda of a letdown.
@@modumsnus Actually the player base are still active. PvE server is better if my remember as well (Chrom server) and you can find players all day. Of course, the night time is still better, but if you want to do dungeons etc, you will find players
Oh man I remember playing back in the day. Getting ganged and ganking in return. Open world pvp was the tits.
I never comment on videos but really hope you see this;
The combat system has three attacks, left, right, down the middle/top. So the three lines represent blocks, and at any time the enemy will have them either all three in one place, indicating the highest block value, leaving two ideal spots to attack. However, one will quickly go to another, leaving one ideal place to attack. It of course is possible for one to be in all three but hitting one direction will cause one to be opened up adjacently. Not really opposite because there is no opposite to upper/middle.
So your main critique was that the combat system did not feel rewarding or responsive enough but from what your described in the beginning you were mostly always hitting through a 33% damage mitigation or whatever (one block). You just always want to hit the empty slot basically.
Age of Conan was a great game but it actually had too many people on launch playing, right after Blizzard did their largest banwave in history of botters (glider 2.4.3 for reffrence) just before release so the whole launch was really scuffed but not really their fault. They had the huge playerbase/server issue, and a subculture that was looking for new frontiers for goldtrade and whatnot. Glad to see its got an update and i guess i will download. Thanks!
Hope the you try the combat again and see if it is more responsive.
Man.. this game...
Combats were so satisfying and could be really tough, i have so much memories of it.
Lore were actually on point, Funcom really respected Conan universe and ambiance.
And that godly soundtrack...
It's certainly an old game now, but it will always stays in my heart.
I usually return every year for a few weeks.
The memories I made in this game will stay with me until I die
I did not know that this is still playable. Brings back a lot of memories, I loved it back in the days. The graphics were stunning back then.
You'd be surprised how many people are still active ! A big issue is that you were still on the starting island too, if you go to the later areas of the game theres people everywhere which is crazy. I played a couple months ago and when a worldboss spawned in an instance so many players showed up that my PC actually started lagging.
good to know. I guess I will come back to have some fun
This makes me want to play again! I haven't gone back because each time I try, everything feels empty and sad and so different. I leveled up all the way to level 40 through pvp alone before, probably won't be able to do that these dayz
About to download and play now, was about to ask how the population is!
@@xChinobi There is a rather small but active and very friendly player base... problem here is that it´s a first impression, so he was basically still at the beginning, where you´d obviously not meet many people, a handful newbies and alt-players aside. that changes later and if you engage in the chat, you might be surprised :)
I installed the game after watching this video (through Steam). Sadly, I was unable to play, as I couldn't even register an account. Perhaps I'll look up the issue to see if anyone has a solution. The issue occurred via both the client and website.
I had soooo much fun with this game back in 2008, 2009, and 2010. I'm downloading this right now and can't wait to play it again
i am intend to do the very same thing:D But atm i just started aion classic. Not sure if i will do it anytime soon
I may have to as well.
I came back to Age of Conan now after 13 years., and I was really impressed by the brutality, map design, combat, music, story. Prob is one of the last/few true mmorpgs designed to adults. There are really dark quests there.
If you think this game is brutal check out conan exiles
@@OXex_Reclaier I haven't seen Exiles but I always thought AoC was more brutal and gory game.
Am I wrong?
@@hariszark7396
I would say they are very similar in gore, meanwhile Exiles takes a step further on the nudity, might be more dismemberment possibilities in Exiles as well.
But that's more likely because of the technology leap between the two.
I can't speak 100% on that, as I haven't played AoC in 10+ years, but the games are not standing on the same foundation as gameplay goes.
Exiles is a open-world survival RPG with building, set in one big location with a few certain "instanced" dungeons, much closer to games like ARK: Survival Evolved, Rust, etc.
Your main goal is to escape the purgatory that you were forced in by unlocking your cursed bracelet, but you can decide to stay and rule over your territories.
You have to unlock recipes, farm resources, build yourself a home/fortress/castle, depending if you play PvP, PvPvE or PVE.
Capture thralls to work, fight and defend for you, some unlock new recipes for better weapons.
Not to mention the mod community is sprawling with content, I just wish Funcom gave the same amount of love to Exiles as the modders are.
**Forgot to mention that the combat is closer to Dark Souls, if I were to compare it.
While AoC is much closer to the typical MMORPG, much bigger world, variety of cultures to explore, quests, cities and bosses, you already know this part.
If you want more Conan oriented games, but with a new lens, I do recommend giving it a try if your PC can handle it, it's a good game as survival game goes, the building system is almost perfect, some annoying bugs here and there with placing, I do occasionally just build stuff in creative, highly recommend you check out some builds, people are creative.
I'd probably play on at least 2X Resources + faster thrall conversation server, especially if you plan on playing solo, to get quickly into gear as the game can be quite grindy.
The biggest issues with Conan as of now, can be performance on highly populated servers and people exploiting bugs; building under the map etc.
Also, collision on big mobs can get you stuck into them.
@@hariszark7396 No you are correct, Exiles is nowhere near as brutal as Age of Conan.
@@SuprSurfr that's what I thought. 😉👍
This was one of the last MMO's I ever felt any actual sense of immersion in.
very true
Foreal the setting is my favorite thing about it
@@phun54321 No, he's right. Also, the devs didn't update the graphics much... it still looked that good when I first played it way back when it first came out. Age of Conan is one of the few MMOs that actually feels like you're in that world.
So so so true, this was a game I got great feelings from, excitement, adventure, exploration, dungeons, it was great and now every game does not do that for me anymore
AOC was a fantastic game. I had so much fun on it. However, it's not the same I briefly touched it again a while back but everyone just does power farming now to fast level up. In it's prime it was a great game it's just a shame funcom didn't expand it more. The end game content was quite bad and that's why it died. The last decent MMO I played was star wars old republic. Since then everything else has flopped. I'm hopeful that there will be a new everquest game like the first one with updates to visuals.
I grew up with this game… my first true MMO experience. Rise of the God-Slayer was a wonderful expantion.
I built my first PC back in 08 just to play this game ha
@@FairleysWastedTime want like the nvidia graphic card was promoted with this game ? the 8800GT ultra or something ?
Me too brotha,
I remember being 15 playing AOC on my family's potato averaging 20 fps
@@chrish813 Same for me too, man. I was so hyped for this game and followed it restlessly up until release. My mother knew I was excited for it and ended up buying it for me on day 1 (best mom ever) and I played the hell out of it every day after school on my shitty little dell with an average fps of 20-25, but hey that's playable for me lol. Those were the days. Such a damn good time. Hell, since it's free on steam I might hop on just to experience Tortage again lol
@@TheIcarusFalls I'll see you there brotha
@14:45 The boss summoned a minion, which is where that mob came from.
I still love this game. No other MMO nailed atmosphere and combat the way AoC does. I wish so much that Funcom poured as much into fixing everything quickly at launch and filling in the latter half of the leveling process, but Khitai is such a banger of an xpac that it made up for it in my eyes. To all my fellow PvE'ers on Crom, I salute you!
To Hyboria fellow warriors.
Huge Robert E. Howard fan. Funcom consistently gets the "sword and sorcery" right. I played this at launch and have returned to it quite frequently for a few months at a time (just in November most recently). I play it when I feel the need to immerse myself in a bloody tale of an age undreamed of before the ocean drank Atlantis!
"age undreamed of before the ocean drank Atlantis"
Wasn’t Conan set in the Hyborian Age, after Atlantis drowned?
I'm more of a Robert E. Lee guy myself.
I started playing Age of Conan about 3 weeks ago, and its really enjoyable. While you are correct its quite instanced in Tortuga, thats not the case at later zones to the same extent. And like other MMORPGs, "the game starts at max level", altho there are quite a few that also focus on gamecontent at lowerlevels/dungeons.
1 week in I joined the guild Guards of Mitra, and the game comes much more alive, with quick access to raids, altho the same is the case for people outside guilds, thru Raidfinder.
And the guild is gaining alot of new players, so there are both people joining with alts and new people joining.
So many memories
So many good nights raiding with the boys.
The music is phenomenal
The combat was way ahead of it's time
And the setting and story was actually very interesting.
I really wish that Funcom comes out with AOC 2 🤞
Age of Conan was the best MMO. First one that hooked me, got me to play all the way to max level, first that I raided in, etc. I wish this came back.
Also, the start of the game is heavily instanced but that's not necessarily how the whole game plays.
Conan is that super old school fantasy. Very metal. To much fantasy today is a Tolkien rip off. Not enough Conan rip offs. We need more.
jup, it´s much more open in later regions.
I love AoC's combat system. Most engaging ever in an MMO. My personal favorite part was the Herald of Xotli's killmove where the character reaches into the chest of the opponent and pulls out their still-beating heart.
HoX was such a badass character design mine was a melee mage that wore cloth but also breathed fire. Such a glass cannon class that was loads of fun in PVP.
Age of Conan is my 2nd favorite mmo of all time and my 1st place in the soundtrack category. I level up a character every few years and then get sad that nobody else plays it anymore. Showed a friend this video and he’s gonna join me next week and try the game for the first time. 2 players will be just barely enough for us to go through many of the group quest lines but I have cheesed my way through many of them solo. We are gonna have a great time.
My favorite mmorpg ever. I retired from it a few years after its release hoping they'd make a sequel. Imagine my disappointment when they released Conan Exiles instead of a proper sequel. Ten plus years later, I'm still anxiously waiting.
same... although I really started when it was switching to Unchained. Really wish there´d be a remake on a modern framework.
I can recomend you MMO in progress called Ashes of Creation. It looks rly rly good and reminds me AOC a bit.
@@davidpriban6676 Ashes of Creation... I wouldn´t recommend that one in good faith.
@@RSProduxx whats the problem?
I absolutely loved this game when it first came out. Combat was great and the PVP was intense. One thing that sucked was that the voiced over dialogs ended at like level 30. So everything after that you just had to read.. I wonder if they're ever finished voicing over their quests.
They never did haha! Some of the ""newer"" content (read: ~8+ years old) has some selective voice acting that is pretty great, but mostly in the main story quests of the expansions (Ardashir and Rise of the Godslayer). Other than that it's all reading.
That was why I stopped playing! I was so disappointed.
This is by far one of the best MMOs ever made. And still to this date holds the hardest raid content of any MMO. Also houses some of the best tab targeting combo-esque combat. A true gem of a game that should still be played
hardest raids ? how do u compare it to like FF14 ultimate or WoWs Mythic raid brackets ?
@@semiramisubw4864 much harder than those
@@semiramisubw4864 there was no I win taunt button for tanks. You had to hold aggro in other ways
@@SadisticStang yup, its the old sch building of aggro meter. Really awesome as this means ur dps cannot go ham recklessly.
I was playing as a guardian “tank” as my main character (actually it became my main laters anyways) and i was amazed by the true joy to play as a tank when you compare it with most of the other mmos dull agro systems. Oh old days lol. Anyways back to the topic Funcom had definitely created some of the greatest raid mechanics in MMOs complicated and very well designed. It was pure fun trying to understand the mechanics of new bosses in raids and then trying to apply your own tactics with 24 people all doing some stuff in some periods of fights. If I had time like old days i would be still be playing. Was definitely a great game.
this is absolutely one of my favorite MMOs for me. someone said it before, after Tortage it opens up and is wonderful. i think. the grit and gore of this game is unique. and i absolutely love the world of Conan! thanks!
I desperately miss playing this game, even back in 2016-2017 I still played so much of it. The world, combat, and general gameplay has yet to be surpassed by any other MMO imo. It also had some fantastic class design (herald of Xotli, Black Templar, etc). Its just a shame that it stopped receiving content a while ago.
Only MMO that I had fun playing healers. Bear Shaman and Tempest of Set are the best healer classes I have ever see until today
@@insertcoin1981 Yeah man Bear Shaman was awesome, one of the least healer feeling healers i've ever played.
i loved the templar due to it's life steal unfortuatly in most mmos the life steal classes are DPS and not tanks which the templar was
What a nostalgic feeling! So glad you coverd this game. It was my first MMO and I still love it. I guess I will have to get back for some fun. Best music in a game ever. Unfortunately you just did the Tutorial area of Tortage. The game have much more to offer. Also, this game has the best healer classes to play I ever saw, the Bear Shaman and the Tempest of Set. I never had a good experience playing healers after those. Back in the day, I would rank it as an S tier, but still now I would put it on B tier.
No doubt ToS, BS is so fun to play and heal.
@@remigijuspastarnokas6385 wow TOS, i remember it was so broken at launch. Just keep zapping people, and heal back any dmg.
@@mizaru84 ha ha indeed!! :D
Funcom was never afraid of attempts at innovation, win or lose. Anarchy Online still holds a special place in my heart and had me gripped for years after it's release, simply down to the freedom you had with customising your character. If they ever made an AO2, I'd be there in an instant. Sadly, FC seems more interested in being a publisher these days, which is a damn shame.
AO was my first MMO in 1999 over dialup! And it’s still running btw 😁
Same my 1st MMO and I still jump back in few times a year for abit
AO will awlays be number 1 for me :)
...or afraid of shelving their games, over monetizing them and short-shrifting their player base (Hello, The Secret World).
I remember playing this at release and the massive drop in quality as soon as you left the tutorial region, still really liked it. I came back to it when the Khitai expansion was release and had a lot of fun, it had some pretty hardcore and unique dungeons.
I played AoC back in the day and loved it. When I saw the first city in this video, the memories flowed back. Would love to see this game pick up in popularity again. It was the first mmo that i had a paid subscription too and forgot about, paid about a year worth without playing it before i realised. GG
A "fatality" animation after a good fight was something I still remember enjoying so much and missing in moderns MMOs.
I tried this one day when bored and was stunned at how well it captured the conan world. Very good ambience and environment.
Why does this already look more enticing than most mmo's on the market right now?
cuz most modern MMOs are either dead or are Skinner boxes designed to brainwash you into spending money
Playing this game at its prime was a completely different experience to other MMOs of the time. Fantastic memories of our Cimmerian clan having huge skirmishes with other enemy clans in the open world in Connal's Valley, keep sieges, Shrines of Bori battles... back when the game was active, you'd develop organic rivalries with other players, and many were renowned in the server for their skill. Players I met in this game have been my friends for 15 years now, long after we all left. I have tons of great memories tied to Age of Conan.
On top of that, the game looked great, and the world had tons of ambience, the mood was just right. The cities are all full of small easter eggs, details and environmental storytelling.
Funcom really holds a dear place in my heart. For all their poor decisions in some aspects of making and running games, they still create games with a huge amount of soul.
This is so true, especially about the ambience and little details. I play at a very slow pace, and wander around to look at every nook and cranny. Recently I was wandering around the Stygian starter town, and was impressed by all the detail in the taverns. The purple carp actually brought a tear to my eye as a storyteller in the corner recited an epic poem to the room.
Most games won't bother with that sort of thing. Not related to any questline, just there because it can be.
I came back to the game 5 months ago, I was blown away in the end game content. my only problem is playing in an Australian time zone it can be lean for parties but otherwise what an amazing game it still is.
The key like in all older MMOs. Join a Guild!!
Playing on Aussie time zones will always screw you for group content on any MMO/Multiplayer game that doesn't have Oceanic Servers unfortunately.
I work nights here in the US so I'm on the graveyard shift. Don't know if that's when youre on but I'd be down to do some stuff! I feel ya about not being able to find good groups lol
Little I remember when it was first released it was great to level 20 then after that was very grindy. Also remember trying to get to a friend who had just logged on and he was fighting a player and watching him behead his opponent was pretty epic.
This is 100% what I remember, it was so fresh and new and wonderful up until about lvl 20 and then it really went stagnant. Granted, this was the first couple months it was released and was rather unpolished.
@@grocksauce7422 yeah agreed was early in its life, im unable to comment on how it progressed and the endgame content as I only reached about level 34.
Part of it was that all of the dialogue was voiced on the first island and then as soon as you left there was no more voiced dialogue.
@@grocksauce7422 It really became good when they switched to "Unchained", but that was too late to really save it from drying out their player base...
Kinda sad, because I guess it could still be one of the best, if it weren´t for Funcoms bad management.
Absolutely, but Funcom made leveling up from 20 to 80 much more fun later on. I even quit the game at launch because leveling got so dull. Came back a year later and it had so much more content.
I did world first raiding in this game in T3 and T4 back in 2009-12. Still watch fondly back to it. This game will always have a warm place in my heart. If they made AoC 2 just in the style but more modernized, I would not hesitate to play it.
absolutely. My biggest gripe with Conan Exiles is that it´s not just AoC2 but just another survival game :)
@@RSProduxx true and real friend!
@@xMovingTarget T3 was so hard, and I never tried T4. But still amazing game.
People into the Conan lore and stories tend to enjoy this, along with Conan exiles, because, regardless of some of the other choices Funcom has made regarding updates/dlc etc, they do a good job of handling the lore, and present an interesting universe. I have had loads of fun playing Exiles, and back in the day Age of Conan was ahead of it's time, for mmo combat and story telling. I remember how op my Bear Shaman was back at launch.
Yeah it was also one of the few games where wearing less actually gave yo ubetter stats! LOL.... and man, the combat felt so satisfying because it didn't feel like typical tab targeting. It actually required some skill and tactics, which I love from RPGs.
That's actually wrong when it comes to lore and Conan Exiles, the story of that game conflicts with the actual lore quite badly. :(
@@The-Black-Death I would love to hear your explanation on that. Funcom has been extremely true to lore with Conan Exiles, more so than any company ever would have.
@@paulmiller7838 I hope you're joking, because the entire story of the Exiled Lands makes little to no sense and itself BREAKS the actual lore stated by Howard himself, especially including the marvel-made Yamatai and Katanas in the game which really shouldn't even exist during the Hyborian Age anyway. I highly recommend that you go back and read the Hyborian Age essay.
@@The-Black-Death The existence of the exiled lands does not break actual lore depending on what the exiled lands is, which has not been exactly established at this point in time. There are a few different theories on the matter, some ranging from just idiotic to some being rather plausible and well within established lore. I agree with you on the Yamatai issue though, they through that in just to placate their eastern audience for the most part. However, the vast majority of the story of the game and fell well within the confines of established lore. If you want to nit-pick 1 or 2 minor little things, well, funcom OWNS the rights to Conan now anyway so they technically can do anything they want (and yet they STILL do their utmost to stay within established lore as much as possible).
This was my first MMO. Did a lan-party with friends. Met some amazing ppl in my guild. Good times.
Tortage was such a beautiful starting city.
Yeah the player count really depends on the time of day really, as there seems to be a lot of European players primarily. But besides that, there is at least like 500 to 1000 players left playing the game on and off over the years that regularly come back to it.
I still remember playing this when i was a borderline kid. Brings me back
The music has been playing in my head since launch
Imagine if funcom pulled the trigger on Age of Conan 2 in Unreal Engine 5. That would be so bonkers. But keep the combo system it's still best combat system to date
Based on this video and compared to the commentary from the tier video:
a) It was a crime this project wasn't included
b) This project would easily fit on the A, possibly B, tier - although I'm leaning towards A.
Something you didn't delve deeply into, which should impact all projects, is all aspects of monetization. For example, a number of projects you placed on the A tier should be knocked to lower tiers subsequent to how their core mechanics were designed or tweaked to pull every last cent from the player base. Sometimes these designs don't become apparent until you're well into the fray. First taste is free.
Don't be fooled though, this game is unfortunately quite P2W these days as you can buy complete endgame raiding gear sets from the item store, not to mention the many lootboxes and QoL items to be found there as well. On top of that, population is dwindling and the game will not receive any future updates.
I wouldn't place it higher than C in its current state, and that's coming from a long-time player with a profound love for the combat, animations, art style and of course Howard's world. Funcom has long buried this game and pissed over its grave.
@@vaadwilsla858 - Thanks for your response (and I'm sorry). Sadly, this appears to be their MO... for MMOs.
I was in a similar boat regarding The Secret World. I was thinking about this last night and was going to return and edit my comment to more-or-less reflect what you said (which is why I'm here, but you did it for me).
My plan was to then find the original tier video and remark that a number of included projects should be moved lower (in some cases, multiple tiers). Cases in point: The Elder Scrolls Online and Conan: Exiles. Both for the same points you mention and Exiles due to it's incredible lack of polish (I installed it after watching this video, too, to give it another chance - unfortunately, it was worse than I remembered it - although the Howard theme goes a long way for me).
As an aside, after watching this video, I installed Age of Conan (which took a long while). Sadly, I was unable to even register an account (which you have to do and is an unnecessarily convoluted, and in my case, broken, process). It did bring back nice memories of the early 90s, though. Ha.
Age Of Conan is the only MMO i have played through to max level. Many fond memories.
This game actually holds up well and it has plenty of amazing dungeons and raids that 90% of the initial playerbase never got to experience.
I wish more people endured the leveling and tried the game in its current state. The playerbase is large enough to do everything the game has to offer.
If u want to see some raids or dungeons, i got them all on my channel :)
You basically gave this game a mini revitalization. I downloaded it to check it out again and I saw a ton of new players in the starter town.
This mmo was my second one ever after leaving WoW and it's the only one I've ever gone back to 3 times after quitting. The fatalities are just too good an addition.
Still miss the fatalities of the game. There was a khitai faction giving a item if used a 100% chance on fatality kill. Used it a lot on the 2h barbarian chopping arms etc from the enemy :) Or the hox pulling out the hearth of the enemy.
Wow. This game looks more interesting than 95% of "MMO"s out there. I also forgot about this project. Probably because I normally don't like this type of game and the mechanics most groups decide need to be incorporate into them.
Not to mention the words free, to and play, which, when combined, send shivers down my spine. What these words, when together, actually mean is "this will be the most expensive cumulative purchase you make in your life" and "this project wasn't designed to be fun, but to further the aforementioned quote" and "it's not about players, it's about our bottom line - and we're not talking short shorts."
this game IS better than 95% of the MMOs out there. Dont worry about the cash shop. The F2P was a necessity for the decline of players, not a business model fom the start. In fact, it started with monthly subs
The F2P only hurts when youre going into raiding as buying raid gear from vendors costs more than your gold limit a few tiers up.
I played this with WoW guildies when it came out. We had a stronghold and everything but gave up after a month or two. There was no end game at max level back then but and the last 10-15 levels was just grinding villas. I remember I did have fun with the first half of the leveling though. Glad to see it’s still around and may check it out.
This was one of the, if not THE... FIRST MMO that forced people to change and upgrade their PCs.. but it was glorious back in the day!
Yep, I was one of them.
true...very true lol
Been playing AoC on and off since 2019. This was my first mmo that i really got in to. I got great memories from this game that i'll keep with me forever. Like the open pvp battles in the early years. The world first kills in a few raids, clearing mastertimers in groupinstances and just silly memories with a great community. I've made a lot of friends from this game and i'd say the community is really nice. If you're reading this and thinking about trying the game out, do so. You can do the whole leveling experience as f2p so don't hesitate. Much love, The Ubermiley!
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I think the art direction, mob design, environment design, weapon and armor design, architecture, and generally everything wipes the floor with most mmo related things today. The graphics are so pleasant to look at. Sure, they are not up to par with technical standards of today, but I feel you coul give it even more credit. Especially the graphics. I think they look sublime. I would actually play it right now. DAMN. I have to agree about the audiovisual combat feedback.
that sums it, most immersive mmo by far
@@artofox I'm not sure if I would personally say its the most immersive, although it's tight up there. I would have to play it again for that to be sure, but the only two mmos with unparalleled levels of immersion for me are WoW(classic, at least) and LotrO. Guild Wars 2, ESO and many Asian mmos feel too plasticky, or at the very least not immersive enough.
I'm thinking of redownloading conan and getting into it. Is it still worth it?
@@ivansalamon7028 if definitely is, I keep coming back to this game, no other game has - atmosphere, world building, architecture + environments, armors + classes, combat, music and your destiny - story, lots of guild are happy to help new or returning players
As a person who played this game day one, I legit cannot tell what the gfx update is. The game looked this good back in the days if you had a machine that could run it at all.
I would put this game into A tier. Peon if you make it off the first island and move into other zones you’ll see many more players. Also the game is much better played in a group. Would love to see you continue to play the game!
Good first impression review, I have to add that you are still in the tutorial area. The game opens up massively after tortage area.
I still play it now and then and it is still my all time favorite MMORPG to this day.
How’s population higher up?
@@xChinobi last time I played it was hard getting groups on my way up to max lvl. But at max lvl there is quite alot of activity. Lots of raiding guild pvp etc...
@@xChinobi I have add that even though it was hard getting group for dungeons, the world had alot of players leveling all over the place.
Really nice ! Thanks for covering the game we love !
Most of the things in the video are from tortage, and you dont have that much group stuff to do in there yes, but after level 20 you start to get lots of group quests that you can do with other people (with guild, or with random people). There is a lot of cool dungeons to do "Sanctum of burning souls", "black castle". two of my absolute favourites when i started to play. I still play this game everyday when i come home after work. I do raids, group dungeons, and solo stuff. I never had so much fun in a game has i do in AOC (mainly because i can play with friends). It does not have many players left, and its sad, but i think this is still a game everyone (that likes this kind of game) should play. Once you get to know some cool players and start to be friends with, once you master your class, you will have lots of fun adventuring in it. @TheLazyPeon I wish you could do a video about what you have in AOC after you get level 80, it really becomes harder, more fun, interesting (due to the faction system, and story). Great video, and now i want to make another toon just to play in tortage for a bit 😂
It’s great to see they kept with this game. This was my second MMO, so I was familiar enough with how to level efficiently. The problem this game ran into at launch that lost a huge amount of players was they had no late game content. I don’t remember the exact level, but before max level you ran out of quests or essentially any content to do. We were all looking around like “wtf do we do?”, and after a couple weeks or so most people figured nothing was coming any time soon and left
It was a pitty. I think that if they had secured a good launch, this game would be with good population to this day, like some od rune scape, GW2 or even WoW
There was a leveling gap between 50-60, and then very slow from 70 to 80. They later added a new zone for the mid 50s remedying that a bit - and all leveling is way more lenient now in F2P :D
I still have night mares of bow men running up to me and beating me with their bows, because their ai was so bad at launch, great game wished they polished it more and fixed its late game at launch.
I've walked across all the maps in Age of Conan from end to end. It took me 5 hours to walk across all the maps! This game world is huge and still beautiful and atmospheric!
I played for more then 10 years only this game. Leveling to max was rather time consuming, if you where a beginner, and i leveled all 12 classes plus some more. The real game begins when you can get into a group and do dungeons, and even more in a guild and do the raids, all 6 tears of them. And Peon didnt even leave the tutorial island, where the graphics are the worst....
I just loved this game, but its the most fun in group of friends.
Really? I played at launch and I remember how nice Tortuga looked compared to the rest of the game. It was like they spent all their resources making the starting area look good but it sounds like they've done a lot to improve the rest of the game which I'm glad to hear! 👍
I've played about 12 MMOs and this is my favourite. Every time I quit, I keep coming back. I don't know why maybe its the music, sound score, the fluid smooth animations during fighting, the fatalities, the realism of the atmosphere, the gothic look, the armour and weapons skins (i don't have a 32 foot long sword and armour that lady gaga would wear to a slumber party), spells are not too colourful or fancy, or maybe its just the gore and nudity. One advice I give to people who try the game is to sub for at least 2 months because then you get a fast mount for free for all your characters (present and future) regardless of your level, huge advantage to a level 5 char, even if you unsub after the 2 months, you get to keep that perk.
I'll never forget doing my first dungeon and actually having traps spawn (including and Indiana Jones style giant rock we had to run from !) It took a long time to find a dungeon i liked more.
I absolute would give everything for them to remake it & Modernise it!!
I love this game! I have requested it so much on the Conan Exiles forums
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Did they change the game after the first questing zone though ? It's been many years since I last played but I'm pretty sure that when the game first launch, 80% of the budget had gone to the starting area where everyone was fully voice acted, and as soon as you left the starting area nobody was talking anymore and the game was barebone. I don't think just a single graphical update is enough to bring the game back to life, and I think the lack of players shows that.
I played a new character until the level cap, a couple of years ago, for the first time. The experience was actually good. Your review is quite accurate: I liked the difficulty, higher than in most of the new MMOs, the story was interesting, despite I'm not a good reader, and the combat (chained tab targeting) is a bit slow, but still less boring than other modern tab targeting games, like FF14 (at least if played in solo).
Sadly I've never been able to do a group dungeon because despite they added a group finder, no one applied, and you have to ask in chat if someone is interested (not necessarily a bad thing, like in the old MMOs). Moreover, you can't play the early dungeons anymore if you level up too much, so sadly I've never been able to find players before I over-levelled them. But the game wasn't dead: there were players after leaving the tutorial island.
It's a good experience for solo players, until you reach the level cap, but if you want to do group contents, it requires some dedication/joining a guild probably.
aww man, nice review! Time to get back to this game! Conan is such an underrated character. His world is massive and brutal and I love it! Funcom does a pretty good job bringing it to life in general, cheers!
The guild system in AoC is just the very best I ever saw in any MMO yet.
I remember grinding with people on a map for ressources, scattering out to work on buildings for the own guild city. Also thos city levels up and gets new NPCs this way so it feels more alive. I just had such a blast with that, I wish more games would go for something like that.
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This was honestly a really fun game, played it a lot myself as Priest of Mitra, Ranger and Dark Templar, the classes here are really cool. The combat is just a lot of fun to be fair and feels good, and easily the best part, are the fatalities, they are just so much fun, many of the fatalities look really great as well which just brings a lot of enjoyment to the combat.
The sad things about Age of Conan is that it sadly had a rough start, had a lot of problems so it lost a lot of players, then later on they came with a very big patch that solved a ton of the problems the game had when it launched, but sadly it was a bit to late as they had lost a lot of the player base :(
Would have really loved to see some sort of remake of this game, fully modernized but kept the majority of the tings in the game.
It was a pitty. I think that if they had secured a good launch, this game would be with good population to this day, like some old rune scape, GW2 or even WoW
they didnt change also the combat? was like more engaging and complex first?
@@xLeandroIX Yes, they removed combo steps from ranged classes iirc and reduced their length for melee classes. Also added a separate sprint bar instead of costing regular stamina.
You were pretty much the first youtuber I ever became a real fan of and subscribed to, and its fucking great to see you still in your prime. Killin it bro
I love the animations and the movement feels in this game, that was my favorite thing about it. Also the atmosphere and the music is very nice
im still playing this masterpiece from time to time. i just love this game and its lore. Btw the game feels more like an mmorpg and is less instanced when you finished the starting area (~lvl 20).
I loved this game. Played from day one, did raids, dungeons, it was so good. Too bad funcom abandoned it all together.
The graphics for this game were so amazing when it came out. I was playing wow at the time and convinced a couple friends to play AoC, they only lasted a couple weeks, but I made it all the way to max level on a herald of xotli, and did a couple of the raids. Game was awesome, but sadly WoW drew me back in mostly because of friends, but I wish I would have just stuck to AoC.
"If only it was 2 handed" to the guy with 1 less arm 😂
Age of Conan is a very interesting topic.
Back when it was f2p I tried the game and fell in love with it pretty quickly. I bought the add-on and spent quite a few hours on it. Then I stopped and recently picked it up again because I'm bored of all the other mmo's on the market.
I have the same crush on the game, the uncoquered mod is very good and gives it a true challenge.
The trouble starts when you get more and more immersed in it, because bugs start to surface.
The starting zone (Tortage) is brilliant, but after that the voice acting starts to wane and slowly you realise that the quest design is terrible. It sends you back and forth across the map and you have to go back to the same place 4 times later - very annoying after level 20.
PvP is also.. dead in the game, I don't understand why they don't merge the two servers and could switch to open world pvp.
There used to be supposedly huge clan battles and castles that clans could build and destroy - wiki has info on this, but the playerbase abandoned the game so much back in the day that you can't even find guides on these.
The main problem with the game really is that Funcom are a completely incompetent developer team and have abandoned the game. There are no updates or new features, it runs in maintenance mode like Guild Wars 1.
The unconquered mod is definitely recommended for anyone looking for a classic mmo experience, it really is a challenging game and extra fun with buddies. The whole world is dark fantasy, gore, brutality and huge boobs everywhere. I love it, it just always makes me sad what a missed opportunity mmo is.
In the uncoquered mod after level 20 you get a uniqe vanity armor (transmog) but it looks so lame and the colors are so shitty, that it looked like they had to put some shit together fast...
What could make the game really good again?
First of all server merge and switchable PvP (PvE-RP), quest design rework, fix lagg problems, maybe a little graphical polish (I like it anyway) but yeah, the npc's look like they were carved with a knife.
Doing voice acting all the way through, putting in extra items and reviving the builder-clan war system.
Event system wouldn't be bad either and make better use of the Conan lore, because that world is brilliant by the way.
Talents should be polished, reaching level 80 isn't that bad.
Oh and of course the mobs need a bit of tweaking, because they can react pretty stupidly and can be crystallised, but their location and behaviour should be addressed a bit - hidden/stealth skills could be exploited more.
If funcom would do these in the first round, the game would rise again. After that, the zones could be addressed to give a more open world feel. Story quest should not be instanceolt for example.
That said, I recommend everyone to try it out!
You can find me as Madds!
And I was the other one, who mentioned the game to you :))
The game was unfinished on release (~50-60%). Half way through to max level you already noticed that there was no real game anymore, which was a shame. We really liked the combat system thou, the graphics, the gore and the open world pvp was fun too. We quit after 3 weeks already though.
Another review that has peaked my interest! I will be trying this game in the near future! Thnx again Peon!
I still have a very vivid memory from this game, I was running around on a ranger and got absolutely gimped by a barb that was significantly lower level than me, he clearly invested all his points in hiding and di mad combos with his dw weapons.
Dual wield Barb was the most OP class i ever played in any mmo, and i played many mmos for sure. You could instantly kill someone from stealth with an ability that had no cooldown. If you got a fatality proc, they could not even CC you to prevent the damage which was like 500% of a players hp.
damn, i would really play this game if it would be updated to the 2023 standards... really nice game, A tier at least
Oh boy. Do I miss this game. I was probably something like 7k hours into it when I finally decided that it was time for me to move on. I haven't played it for like 6 or 7 years but I still occasionally think about it wishing that I'd experience something similar again one day. I really have to say that Funcom had some staff that had lots of ideas and the bravery to push them out. Unfortunaly the game was not ready when it launched. Memory leaks, bugs, lack of end-game content, a clear gap somewhere in the level 55-60 range so you had to grind a bit and in general a big pile of undelivered promises. Oh and the lack of polish on quite literally everything.
Some of the bigger bugs got ironed out eventually but it took half a year or so. Some new bugs were added in the meantime and some bugs reappeared later on. Content-wise slowly the game was fleshed out but it always felt bit janky and you felt like you had to treat it with care or it could break on you.
It was never well balanced for any of the content. There was the gems era when any melee build with full crafted and gemned gear hit like a meteor landing on your face. Then there was the era of Grip of Death which was a channeling spell of necromancer that didn't have a line of sight check besides when the casting started and which dealt enough damage to kill a single enemy if they didn't have a healer who was awake. Then 1.04 was out and the game was kind of balanced... I guess. Dark Templars were still completely useless in pvp and there was clear differences in the usefullness of different classes but I'd say that was the high note in that regard.
Somewhere during 1.04 the game took a turn towards a pve-game. 1.05 wasn't that bad really although somewhere during the various 1.05.x versions assassin was buffed and they became gods. Well kind of. They charged you from stealth, killed you and then ran away with a big speed buff just to wait for their cooldowns so they could do it again. Of course good assassins could do more but I recall everyone rolling assassins during this era and the minigames/world was filled with nooby assassin doing this annoying thing I described.
Khitai was released. It was a big update. Lots of new pve content. Outside of the coming form-class balance updates there wasn't any new pvp content. The direction had changed and as the time passed it was more and more obvious. I didn't mind that much since I was never a big fan of the world-pvp or sieges (mostly because sieges were always just a laggy and buggy mess) but I most certainly understand why so many pvp-oriented people quit playing. Bori was added at some point but it wasn't that great... In fact it was pretty awful. The only time you could really do it was if there was no fighting going on and you could dig up resources without interruptions. At some point we finally got the Jhebbal Sag minigame which wasn't that great either. Somehow I just liked the 6v6 minigames more. 12v12 was too much, you could usually see how the game was going to end 60 seconds into it and then you'd either just leave or stay and try to catch some random kills there and there while waiting for the match to end.
So I'd say post-Khitai the game was 95% pve focused. Not necessarily a problem but the updates were few and far from each other. Content updates even more so. Basically the game was already in the maintenance mode when the Secret World was announced. Such a shame because the game still had a smallish but still healthy player base divided between servers. The population bleeding had already been a thing and now Funcom had no interest to stop it or turn it around. The game was doomed.
I kept playing. Took a break of a year or two. I don't remember if it was during this break, before it or after it when Funcom turned the European servers off. That was a big blow at least for me. While the combat system is not perfect in Age of Conan it was strong enough to keep me playing until the hiatus. It was the primary reason why I returned to the game. The combo system might not be anything that special but it adds so much weight to the combat. In general the combat in Age of Conan feels so much more heavy and physical than in any other MMO I've tried. Other games don't have bodyblocking either. Jumping physics are about what you'd expect instead of floaty like in most other mmos. It just felt good. Especially after I had played enough melee characters to learn that I could reposition myself during each combo finisher by timing a jump right when I pressed the final direction. As a result I could execute combo finisher and jump myself behind a tree or rock or whatnot. I started doing that even if there was no tactical advantage to be gained from it just because it was so much fun to do so.
One time the game bugged out and I actually got a fatality on another player while I was doing this sort of jump finisher. Normally it doesn't cause anything interesting but for some reason this time the corpse of the opponent got stuck to my polearm and stayed there for a solid 30 seconds or so. It was funny to continue fighting while someone else's corpse was hanging from my weapon. Just a sign that all sorts of weird things could happen in this game if you played it enough. Lol.
I wanted to love the game. I still do. However I refuse to install it and give it a try because I just know it will make me sad considering the state the game was in when I finally left it. I really doubt anything significant has changed during the years. If something has happened it is probably just towards the worse. Frankly Funcom just mismanaged this game so badly after the Khitai expansion was out. So so badly. As european player the lack of local server really hurt the gameplay as suddenly I had to play with 150-200 ms ping no matter what kind of connection I had. Pvp was possible to do but it is kind of difficult to enjoy it when while I was chasing someone I basically had to run ahead of them if I wanted to have a chance to land my hits. It was like this when wielding a polearm which had the longest reach. If there was anything new coming up it was super half-assed. Google up "aochideout shadow of vanaheim" for well-written (not by me) review on how bad it was at the worst. (In short: you had to pay for a new content pack in addition of running a subscription and the content was very lazily put together from assets already existing in the game.)
If anyone actually read my comment this far I'd like to raise a toast for this game. I loved it. Probably bit too much and now I remember my adventures in Hyboria with great fondness and a bittersweet taste caused by all the disappointment Funcom managed to deliver during the years I spent playing it. Cheers.
Brotha I miss this game so much
Loved this game. Cool loot and great setting. Played this for many many years
S tier imo as someone who raided top tier and was top pvp in most rpgs out there .
I still play every once in a while. I really love the Bear Shaman.
Best healer class in MMO history! I liked the ToS too. Never had a good experience playing healer in other MMOs after those.
A tier for sure. One of the last games in the golden age of MMORPGS.
I think it looks decent tbh, and the setting is cool. I'd honestly be open to play a more PVE focused version of this game if it had traditional servers and a big open world.
The group dungeons and raiding are still veyr much alive on the populated PvE server. Quite different from this tutorial island shown.
@@Guildm4ster how are the servers? No mega servers or layering?
@@chillybunz The servers have reduced down to two. One PvP, and one PvE. Two normal servers, although the PvP one is quite dead.
Best MMO soundtrack ever, game gave me a lot of great memories with old friends that are long gone. Was a lot of fun!
That starting area is actually quite large and a ton of side quests to do before you leave.
The main towns for the races have more bystanders, the typical pack of people with impressive looking mounts and armor, but overall in the zones there are few people.
This game is “SAVAGE”. Age of Conan forever!
Playing this game on a PvP server was something else. The amount of adrenaline for a mmorpg, looking behind your back all the time and the spontaneous fights everywhere...Never experienced anything like it again.
It blew me away that this was even still online.
Age of Conan will always be a part of my life. It was the best MMO I played back in 2008-2009, bringing back so many great memories. The epic music, intense PvP, raids, and midnight sieges made it unforgettable. I played hundreds of hours (reached pvp level 10 Pom).
Heedun has really been going ham these past couple of videos. Really love his little edits and sound effects.
After Tortage it is different, but the world gets MUCH bigger and it will feel like an MMO. You should go deeper with this game.
I've never heard of this MMO until now, it still looks great. Was a World Of Warcraft nerd back in 2008. Might check this out!
I had HUGE fun with Age of Conan for about 4 years. Had a big clan, fought for "server 1st kills", did a lot of PvP (even though it was never much my thing). GREAT FUN!
One of the features of the game at launch (not sure now), is that open world free for all PvPl: non-factional. Every player can kill every other player they are not grouped with. So questing, even though it seems kinda empty, any stranger running by can be content. It was great when everyone was rushing to level up at launch, but started to be a bit meh as time went on. Having said that, three level 30s could group up and possibly kill a level 80 griefing them.
I mentioned this because you mentioned that the leveling zone was empty or a personal instance. In my first experience of those zones, every player you met raised the heart rate.
This will always be the game that had a /drunkpiss emote at launch.
Played beta and launch. Still miss my Bear Shaman to this day. One of my favorite MMO classes of ever.
I honestly loved the combat system! Coming off of WoW, City of Heroes, etc. The combat was all samey until I got enamored with the world of Conan. I've been unfortunately one of those MMORPG players where I've always ended up playing a game by myself so I appreciated AoC. Hope you keep playing this!