Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures Preview

VideoGamer has a 3-page hands-on preview about Age of Conan, focusing almost exclusively on mounted combat.

He summons an Armoured Buckskin Horse. It appears with a neigh and a click of its hoofs. It bows ever so slightly, almost nonchalantly, and allows Thrud to place one foot in a stirrup and clamber up and onto the ornate saddle. The Buckskin has an air of snobbery about it. It looks like the kind of horse the Royal Family might have perched on had it been a part of Robert E. Howard’s barbaric fantasy world. Face armour and an impressive flare adorn the beast. Thrud grabs the reins and encourages it forwards. It trots at first, but soon explodes into a gallop, heading straight for one of the Nadir encampments. Call it a hunch, but we reckon this is going to be messy.

The Buckskin charges straight into one Nadir, knocking it flying. It then kicks forward, and backwards, causing chaos in the enemy group. Thrud himself is reigning death from above, striking with his swords from both sides. The Nadir were dead before they knew what was killing them.

This is what you can expect from Age of Conan’s mounted combat, what we think is the fantasy MMO’s most compelling feature. For all the blood, sex, gore and Oblivion-quality graphics in the game, it is, for us, the prospect of charging into a group of enemy players on a horse, kicking them about with mount specific attacks and slicing them up with your own weapons that has got us most excited It’s the prospect of this, we feel, which may help Age of Conan attract World of Warcraft players to give it a shot.

Spotted on Blue’s News.