Age of Conan: Hype or Hope?

Age of Conan, released to record sales, has been out for three weeks now. The initial sales reflect massive anticipation: the game promised stunning graphics, innovative combat, attackable guild battlekeeps, and boobs. (It also has a lot of men in skirts, a fetish of mine, though oddly this wasn’t a big marketing point.) And reviews have been mostly positive. But not everything is as perky as hoped.

Even before launch things were not entirely smooth. Various retailers offered preorder bonuses which included access to the game servers three days early. The word “limited” could be found in tiny print on the preorder card, but nonetheless, masses were outraged when it turned out that many more early access keys had been given out than could be accommodated on the servers, and hundreds were turned away… some of whom had been planning for months to spend the time getting a head start with their guilds.

When players finally got their hands on the game, it turned out that a number of the hotly-anticipated features were missing. These include DX10 support, much of the guild city building system, and the entire endgame world PvP battlekeep system… and even the boobs got (accidentally) nerfed. There is debate about whether stats on equipment have any effect on characters, or if the effect is merely miniscule. The early game is rich, beautiful, and polished, but there are complaints of quest shortages in later levels, and a lack of variety in the gear (AoC goes for a more realistic look than most RPGs, which means the famous boobs are mostly covered and armor designs are drab). Funcom promises to add missing features, new quest zones and equipment through the summer; and to be fair, patches have been frequent.
Will AoC overcome the issues, and provide the challenge to WoW’s market dominance that many hoped? I like the game, and I hope it succeeds. AoC has a lot to offer the WoW refugee like me. The servers are stable. The combat system is more complex than in similar games, featuring combo moves, a command queue and shielding system; it’s a love/hate thing, but it works for me. The graphics, music and dialog/quest design are all top-notch, as good as the best single-player RPGs. You can get a taste of the first two from the video below.

However, anybody still enjoying WoW or another established MMO may have little motive to switch for some months yet. WoW offers masses of endgame content, an interface polished by years of updates, and a huge library of mods. AoC has a fixed and sometimes clumsy interface, restricted chat and guild functionality, and large content holes. Today, WoW is a far more playable game.
It will be interesting to see where the numbers go. Judging from the forums, many have already canceled due to missing content; some may return when the game is closer to finished, and while others are presumably gone for good, there are likely more waiting in the wings. If Funcom can deliver in the next three months, it may yet earn those 1M early sales.