Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures Interview

ToTheGame had the opportunity to chat with an unnamed Funcom developer about their upcoming single and multiplayer RPG, Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures. A snippet:

Q: Let’s get one thing on the record; is Hyborian Adventures edged towards more of a single player or multiplayer experience? If you could, expand both branches and give us a slight peak in what we can expect from both facets.

A: The game is geared towards both, but the beginning of the game is definitively a single-player experience, whereas the later part of the game allows you to do both soloing and group and guild gameplay.

The single-player part has four branching story arcs depending on which of the four base classes you choose. You start out your life as a galley slave (here you create the looks of your character), but as events unfold you are eventually able to break free from slavery, ending up on a beach with only a broken oar as a weapon. Your first mission then is to get to the pirate city of Tortage at the far side of the island, but to get there you must first figure out how;) In this part of the game, and all parts of the game, we have really tried to focus on a deep and involving (and quite brutal;) story experience, drawing influences from games like God of War, Knights of the Old Republic and of course our own Dreamfall: The Longest Journey. With the singe-player part we have truly tried to do something about how you are introduced to online worlds, and it is a lot more than just a glorified beginner area.

In the multiplayer parts of the game you are suddenly given a lot more options, not only in terms of social interaction and group and guild gameplay, but also in terms of getting access to a gigantic gameworld, filled with untold horrors and amazing explorations to be had.

So, we are trying to deliver both a single-player game and a massively multiplayer game, and we believe that all fans of RPGs should find something they like in Conan.