Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures Preview

1UP provides us with a new preview focusing on the starting levels of Age of Conan, though they apparently aren’t too impressed.

I guess Funcom recognized that in most MMOs, the first several levels are basically solo missions; they identified that other players, prior to the 5-man dungeons and raids, generally amount to annoying, unwelcome competition. In offering you a refuge from the rabble, they’ve also managed to concoct a character-driven story of the kind you’d find in Neverwinter Nights or The Witcher.

And this story is downright linear. You wake up on the beach after escaping a slave ship, and work your way through the jungle to the port town of Tortage. You discover you’ve been branded with the mark of an evil sorceress. You hook up with a political rebellion and are tasked with playing a spy, masquerading as this evil witch’s willing slave while you’re really working to undermine her master plan. Missions involve breaking into a drunken sailor’s home to scare him for information about his master’s recent behavior, convincing a prostitute to give you her blood so you can sabotage a volcano-top ritual, and very few “kill ten of these” quests. Scripted, voice-acted cut-scenes with branching dialog options give you the sense you’re interacting rather than simply accepting.

I’m not saying this is Mass Effect. The conversations are cruder and there’s no morality meter judging your actions — but Conan’s night-time escapades engage in a way simple quest-text boxes can’t. To be honest, I haven’t even wanted to click the “switch to daytime” option to play with other people…that’s a good sign, right?