Yeah, you guessed right: Jaran is back on the MMO-wagon, wasting another good portion of his life in yet another virtual universe.
I have had a few weeks in Hyboria now and so far I am loving every little piece of it. I started writing this blog post with the title “I hate you, Funcom!”, and the reason for that is that I am starting to get the good MMO-feeling I had with World of Warcraft a few years back - when you easily can spend several hours in front of your computer just playing, chatting with friends either via voice on Teamspeak, or via in-game chat. You meet new people, you go questing and explore a completely new world.
This must sound so incredibly uber-geeky to some of you that you must start to wonder if I have gained 100 kilo, started wearing unwashed clothes, never see the light of day anymore and only have the weekly 10 minutes shower. Relax. It is not that bad 
But yes, I love MMOs - and while you watch your football matches I play Age of Conan 
Anyways, back to the game. I have so far climbed the level ladder to 34 on a HoX and 29 on a Ranger, which I ditched in a trench somewhere in Conall’s Valley. I think I have found a great class in HoX - the combination of a fire mage and huuuuuge fancy two handed blades is just awesome But it’s not just the character that makes me love this game; it’s the whole composition of scenery, music and atmosphere.
Hyboria is a cruel world. Full of people just waiting to screw you over and stick a blade in your back. But Hyboria is also a beautiful world. Full of extremely well designed zones. The graphics are stunning (no matter what you may say, Eivind ;)). The wild life is a great combination of the kind of animals you expect to find in the different areas, and more both exotic and scary monsters. And have you noticed the mosquito sound effects? I actually start to itch and wave my hands around my head whenever I hear a mosquito sneak up on me… And I haven’t even tested it on a 5.1 or 7.1 system yet, which I have heard will just knock you off the chair.
The next thing which is worth mentioning is the new combat system. In Age of Conan there is no auto-attack, you will need to press keys to make your character swing his or her sword, or throw a spell. For this you use directional keys to tell your character in what direction to hit. Combos, combinations of these directional keys, enables you to do significantly increased damage as these become more and more complicated. As far as I know this combat system is something completely new to MMOs and has also been patented by Funcom? The software-patent debate is something we will save for another post…. Anyways, this new combat system is actually making it challenging to fight. You can’t just tell your character to throw a fire ball or use a special attack; you need to “perform” this spell or special attack. And the more you pratice and the more you memorize, the better a combatant you will become.
Oh, and did I mention how fascinating it is to plunge your fist into the chest of your oponent, rip his heart out, eat a little of it while he’s watching you before you throw it away and he falls to the ground? Or how awesome it is to swing your blade and cut your oponent in three pieces, making his head tumble down the hill?
Well, enough of this Age of Conan “review”, because I want to play and you should really experience for yourself! If you want something new to play, Age of Conan is definitively worth a try! Just make sure you clear your evening schedule for the coming month… Just in case.
Karbina/Karbo of Crom
