src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/77727/preview" align="left"> style="width: 200px; height: 172px;" alt=""
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/77728/preview"
align="right">Over 120 years ago there was a bearded dude by the name
of Charles Darwin, or Chucky as he’s known around here. This guy had a
theory that all life started from a single celled organism and evolved
over millions of years to the people and animals you see
today—everything from the href="http://green.ca.msn.com/green-living/gallery.aspx?cp-documentid=22580760">axolotl
to the Leeroy Jenkinses of this world. Well, I don’t know about all
that, but if Chucky had been a gamer, he would have surely included
Funcom’s Age of Conan in his
book, Origins of the Species.



Age of Conan has been evolving
since its launch in May of last year. Love it or hate it, Funcom has
proven that they’re committed to the game and they continue to show
that commitment by adding new content updates for players and evolving
the game to its next stage. The not-so-distant phase of evolution that
we’re looking at now comes in form of AoC’s full-blown expansion, style="font-style: italic;">Rise of the Godslayer.



Xfire hosted a Live
Broadcast of the Rise of the
Godslayer expansion today and Ten Ton Hammer was there to check
it out. If you don’t have an hour to watch the video, we’ve put
together some highlights for you that demonstrate Funcom’s drive to
evolve the game through the expansion. The demo was hosted by Joel
Bylos, Lead Designer and Craig Morrison, Game Director and Executive
Producer.



We took a walk through the Chinese-inspired Khitai, and first things
first, the game continues to wow with its graphical beauty and
attention to detail. The region itself is quite vast and ranges from
deep reds and an autumnish look to lush green hills to dimly lit caves.
Cities have a very Asian feel, as do the loping plains and soft flowing
rivers. Funcom has never had a problem with making the game look good,
and the same holds true for the upcoming expansion.

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A wisp in
Rise of the Godslayer

To populate the lands the AI has been cleverly designed. A flock (or
gaggle?) of firebirds will run away if you approach them. Should you
want to kill them, you’ll have to be sneaky about it. You’ll need to
find one who has its head buried in the sand, and then attack it from a
distance. Once you’ve adequately peeved it off, its mates will join in
to smack you around a bit. This intelligent behavior reaches beyond the
ostrich-like creatures too. Wisps will quickly fly away when attacked
in order to summon souls to defend them. Water buffalos may seem
passive, but attacking one of their bison (that’s a baby buffalo for
you city-slickers) will bring the wrath of angry buffalos upon your
party. Wolves will attack on sight, but should you alert the alpha
male, he’ll let out a howl that will cause the entire pack to swarm
you.



Angry packs of vicious man-killing birds and wicked witch wannabe wisps
aren’t the only new animals you’ll see in the expansion. Two new mounts
are being introduced in the form of tigers and wolves. Don’t expect to
just run up and buy one from your local merchant though. To get one of
these fantastic creature mounts you’ll need to perform a quest which we
were told has a deep story to it. The animals will be hostile to start,
and you’ll need to raise them from infancy and earn their trust and
loyalty. This sort of mechanic should have you feeling much more
attached to your mount by the time you’re riding it.

One of the foremost complaints players have had about style="font-style: italic;">Age of Conan has been its somewhat
linear and closed-off environments. Each region has been almost
independent of the others which has taken away from the feel of a much
larger world. We were pleased to hear that Funcom has taken this
complaint seriously and the expansion has been designed as a much
larger, less linear world. Not only are the playfields the largest play
space yet with paths, caves, cities, and rivers contributing to a large
and epic feel, but all playfields are connected logically. You can swim
across a river or cross a bridge to the next region. You’ll be able to
actually see the next region from the adjacent areas. No more will you
click a seemingly out-of-place door and magically be transported from a
swamp to a snowy mountain.

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The world
is more open and less linear

A hazard that some games face when they create a large playfield is
that it goes largely unpopulated. Sure, it may be big, but is there
anything to actually do? Rise of the Godslayer answers this with a
great big “yes.”


All cities were designed to be PvP friendly, with lots of nooks and
crannies and walls and rooftops on which you can climb. You can
strategically place your comrades for battle, or try to break enemy
defenses. The guards won’t bother you unless you’re one of those
merciless gankers preying on the weak, in which case they’ll wedge a
boot up your rear.



Additionally the play fields have lots of hidden areas to make
exploration interesting. You’ll find hidden caves and some cool easter
eggs. Shrines are placed all over the map and it will be up to you to
find them. The shrines can either buff you or curse you depending on
the emotes you perform in front of them.


Dig spots are placed everywhere. These are small areas that will allow
you to dig a hole should you be carrying a shovel. Ok, granted, digging
ditches in a MMOG may sound a little unconventional, but it’s worked in
other games. By
digging you can uncover treasures or quests.

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Four tiers
of all new armor sets for each faction

Faction is going to play a very large part in the expansion. There are
several factions you can either go to war with or befriend, and each
faction has several ranks with rewards. As you rank up you’ll unlock
more rewards at the cost of perhaps making travelling through opposing
faction-controlled areas a little more challenging. There are so many
factions, ranks and rewards that a whole new addition to the UI was
required to help you keep track of it all. Each faction has four tiers
of armor that you can attain, making partaking in the war not only fun,
but well worth your time.



And the Khitan war is 24/7. As you travel through the lands you’ll come
across battlefields that have many computer controlled entities
fighting each other for the upper hand in the war. You can join in the
fight for the side of your choice and earn rewards there as well.



The expansion does look to be promising from what we saw today. Keeping
players busy and having fun is always the challenge of a MMOG and no
game is ever “done.” Funcom realizes this with style="font-style: italic;">Age of Conan and they’re not giving
up. All of this new content and new mechanics can only extend the
game’s overall lifespan and would have someone like Chucky giggling
with glee at its evolution over the past year and a half.



The release date of Rise of the
Godslayer has not yet been announced.