Age of Conan Upgraded

11 February, 2010. 380 words.

I enjoyed the Age of Conan trial enough to plop down the measly $20 to upgrade to the full version (which gets you 32 days of playing time).

I can now report that each class still starts with a shipwreck on the same beach on the same Tortage Island. So the first 5 levels are exactly the same for each class, which is tedious and painful when trying different classes (especially since the real class-specific stuff doesn’t start until you reach level 10). So do some research and choose wisely to minimize your frustration.

Fortunately, it only takes 10-15 minutes to blow through that first part in the jungle. Then once you enter Tortage City at level 5, the “destiny quest” (aka. single-player campaign) starts to diverge and the nighttime quests are different for each class (or at least, for each archetype). It’s still the same story, just told from different perspectives. Of course, if you prefer hanging out with other people, you’ll find that the daytime quests are all the same.

So after finishing with Tortage City at around level 20, you’re sent to your “homeland” (one of three, depending on your race), where the destiny quest disappears, not to return again until you reach level 30. The result is that you have to stay in the level 20-30 area of your homeland questing and grinding like a normal MMO. (At least, I haven’t figured out how to go anywhere else yet.)

My main character is Cimmerean, so I went to this place called Conall’s Valley. It was very cool at first (the scenery in this game is really nice), but at level 27 I’m starting to get tired of it, especially since you have to keep running back and forth through hordes of mobs. What I mean is, in order to get from the quest giver to the quest area, you have to run through a bunch of hostiles, and then after you’re done, you have to run back through the same hostile mobs (which have respawned by then) to complete the quest. It’s kind of annoying.

On the plus side, melee combat continues to be very cool. It’s definitely the best part of the game. Did I mention it’s cool? Watching the animations is half the fun.

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