Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures E3 Previews

A few more E3 previews have surfaced on the web, this time taking a closer look at Funcom’s Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures. The first is at GameSpot:

We then watched demonstrations of the game’s “action combat” system, which will let players fight manually by swinging their melee weapon in one of six directions. By swinging their swords in different directions in a certain order, players will also be able to unleash devastating combination attacks, such as a multiple-hitting attack we watched that began with a sword thrust in the gut and ended with a sweeping arc that cleanly decapitated a thug. We then watched a few other vicious melee attacks (such as one that lets players impale their opponents with a sword, then kick the corpse off the blade) which game director Gaute Godager explained were influenced slightly by the PlayStation 2 game God of War, but primarily by the violent and brutal world of Robert E. Howard’s Conan. Apparently, defending oneself in close combat is something that will be handled automatically, based on how skilled characters are in blocking, dodging, parrying, and the art of riposte (quickly reversing an oncoming attack into a counterattack)–Godager explained that although the combat will be action-based, the game will still be online and may still have issues with network lag that could make active, manually-controlled defense frustrating.

The second is at Ten Ton Hammer:

Characters begin their life in Hyboria as one of three races–a Cimmerian, an Aquilonian, or a Stygian–rowing away on a slave ship, decked out in rags. For the first five levels you are a (commoner.) Then at level five you choose your base class from four archetypes: Mage, Priest, Thief or Warrior. Godadger demoed his character receiving a quest from an NPC, complete with voice-over. Then he drew a massive, ornate broadsword from a nearby table (a very real-looking sword, nothing like the inflatable ones I’ve seen handed out at the Funcom booth I’m still bitter about not receiving one), and said to the media seated in the room, (Who wants to help me demonstrate combat? I promise I won’t decapitate you or anything.)

The third is at GameSpy:

After (ahem) horsing around for a while, Godager proceeded to demonstrate the initial stage of a siege on a player-made city. If you’ve played Funcom’s other MMO, Anarchy Online, then you’ll be familiar with the basic structure: you and your guild will build a city, and outfit with all sorts of structures. Some will spawn NPC soldiers, while others will bolster the skills of your guild’s crafters. As your city’s stature grows, it becomes more of an attractive target for marauders, whose camps will begin to spring up near budding player-built settlements. Godager caused one to spawn during the demo, and accelerate the rate at which it grew; what would take about two in-game weeks came into being in three minutes. Not long after, a formation of bandits came marching to Godager’s city. Luckily, he had a trebuchet at the ready. As they approached, he launched the missile. It hit the formation of bandits dead-on, and a bunch of numbers appeared over their heads. They then died.

And the fourth is at MMORPG.com:

Magic in Age of Conan will be toned down just like it is in the Hyborian world. Demons and undead will have strong impact on game play because it will take a lot of work to summon them. The magic will be more about manipulating objects and real things rather than flashy flying spells. Instead of having lots of bonus magic swords and weapons, the magical armor and weapons will be more about resources like Old Atlantium. Weapons can be socketed with gems which can be reused. Casters will be able to use a technique called (Spell Weaving) which will trap spells in a container and allow you to use them for combos. Sadly we did not get to see much of the magic during the demo.