By: John "Boomjack" Hoskin - Editor-In-Chief
[Note: a video of the entire Age of Conan launch event presentation is available here for those that prefer to watch rather than read. ]
TenTonHammer.com was fortunate enough to be invited to the Age of Conan launch event being held in Oslo, Norway. This may seem like an unusual place to hold a party and it would be for any game but Age of Conan. Not only is Oslo home to Funcom, the development team behind the title, but Norwegians may be the closest race on this planet to Conan himself. The average Nord towered over my meager six-foot frame, and that was just the women, don't get me started on how tall the men were. One guy was so tall that it was snowing at his head and raining at his feet.
Day 1 was a non-event day where press from across the globe arrived, checked-in to the beautiful downtown Oslo hotels and discovered that Norway may be the most expensive country on Earth. A couple of slices of pizza and a couple of Cokes were a measly $100 US. Once the shock of pepperoni pricing wore off Jeff and I headed back to our rooms to prep for the next day. Unfortunately, the six-hour time change and the excitement of the event messed with our internal clocks and neither of could sleep. We worked through the night, met for breakfast and caught the Funcom bus to the event low on sleep, but filled with anticipation.
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Juggling fire at the launch event.
Approximately 200 fans had traveled the globe arriving before us to form an enormous line that snaked out from the building. It seemed like an uneven fight as there also approximately 200 press in attendance, but only about 40 of the camera toting, paper waving pansies seemed likely to be able to handle themselves if the fan versus press brawl ever became a reality. Fortunately for us, we had a special entrance that kept the press beheadings from becoming fact rather than fiction.
Once inside and past the rowdy fans we were greeted on stage by Erling Ellingsen, the Product Manager and Gaute Godager, the Game Director. Gaute opened by discussing some of the hopes and dreams of the development team and how they had progressed beyond their wildest imaginations, culminating in the product that will launch on May 20th in North America and May 23rd in Europe.
"Age of Conan has become something bigger and better than we ever imagined." - Gaute Godager
Many of the journalists in attendance were from main stream media and were not gaming savvy. With this in mind Gaute began by covering the broad stroke ideas behind a massively multiplayer online game. He went through character creation and broke down the character classes for those unfamiliar with the nuances of MMOGs.
The TenTonHammer.com class explanations, skills/spells lists, etc. can be found here for those you who are neophytes to this wonderful pastime.
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Funcom put on a great show for the press.
Though this was a necessary educational process for the broad-stream press, it wasn't especially enlightening to the few of us who always cover gaming. It was over in no-time, and we were on to the good stuff!
For starters, the game from levels 1-20 is broken into both a multiplayer and a single-player game. Funcom felt that MMOGs deserved a good story, but great stories are filled with conflict, which often changes the face of the world. Multiplayer gameplay is not conducive to allowing one player to change the world for everyone. Everyone wants to be the hero, so the single-player experience was formed. This allows the player to change the world without irritating others or ruining their opportunity to also experience world changing events.
Taking ideas and experience from their hit single-player games, Longest Journey and Dreamfall, Funcom crafted a single-player experience into Age of Conan that has its own quest lines and story, separate from, but entwined with the multiplayer experience. It is something that all players should experience as it delivers worthy rewards in the form of money and loot. The single player experience takes place at night in Tortage. The multiplayer experience is played during daylight hours. Players can swap back and forth at their heart's desire. Those of you interested in a Daytime Quest Guide need not look any further.
I liken the starter zone, Tortage to Mos Eisley from Star Wars.
"You'll never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. We must be cautious" - Obi-Wan Kenobi.
Nearly everyone is a pirate, vagabond or charlatan. The area abounds with non-player characters, many of which have nefarious motives that they are pleased to share with you, if only you would complete a quest for them. It's probably a lot like the place insurance executives go to conduct focus groups. According to Gaute, it should take a player between 15 and 20 hours to complete the Tortage experience. The starter zone is instanced, but you can pull a friend to your instance easily. There should be no worry that you won't be able to play with your pals at launch if you all choose the same server.
While we were being shown a few of the Tortage quests Erling mentioned that sneaking is an ability that is implemented much like the 'Thief' games. What armour you wear, what you are waking on and of course how well lit the area is will all affect your ability to sneak past NPCs. The developer who was running the demonstration showed off the sneak ability before purposely being seen which took the presentation into an explanation of combat.
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An "M" rated game is no place for a child.
Combat may be the most unique aspect of Age of Conan. It is an element that the development team has stressed on each of our interviews. Unlike most MMOGs which rely on auto-attack coupled with some special attacks, each combat move in Age of Conan is purposeful and aimed. Players are able to choose where to attack. Right, left and middle are the beginner's choices. These attacks can then be used in combinations that if delivered successfully result in bonus damage or other other bonus effects. Combat also has a finishing move, called a fatality which results in the gory beheadings that you have seen in various trailers. The fatality is different based on the class. Necromancers for instance spawn a special pet when they trigger a fatality. For the sake of the presentation the chance to trigger was cranked way up, but in normal game play it is approximately 10% according to Gaute.
Ranged combat, like melee combat is also aimed and combos are available almost from the first level.
Casters receive a different combat system. Since they are not in the midst of the fray pummeling opponents physically, they were given a system called spellweaving. We were shown how it worked with the Priest of Mitra. The priest went into a trance which boosted their casting power while diminishing the stamina. As their power increased they received new spells and according to Erling, the way in which some of their old spells worked also changed. While in the trance the player must choose appropriate combinations of spells to cast or they can and will end up hurting or killing not only themselves, but their group mates. The animation for the Priest of Mitra was superb. First four ghostly avatars appeared followed by huge statues hurtling to the ground in pieces, before as a climax the pieces rose into the air to form into their fully rejuvenated state. It was incredible to see. Four classes will receive spellweaving, the Priest of Mitra, the Necromancer, the Demonologist and the Tempest of Set.
"Evil sorceress summons the demon and then they do something wrong and the demon turns on them. That's basically what we have implemented [with spellweaving]" Gaute Godager
Though the developers would not give us a confirmed level for spellweaving we were told that it would be accessible at "mid-levels" and "around 20". It was very interesting to see the proactive combat in action, though the spellweaving demonstration was very short.
At this point we broke for lunch. Raids, Siege PvP, Mounted Combat and Guild Cities would come after the break. More on these and other topics from the AoC launch event will be posted soon.
To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our Age of Conan: Unchained Game Page.
