Age of Conan: Unchained

Forever in my heart.

So far so good, i love the world of Conan, this is going to be a very special game, i can feel it, im not one for mmo RPG's at all, i never really cared for them because I like alot of contact and physics in the melee of games, but this one, it gets a pass from me even though its sorta like that, its fast leveling up, i feel engaged by the game and its mechanics, i feel like there's alot of options to pick from in terms of characters and abilities, it does take some extra money to send to the folks at funcom for some privileges beyond whats included for free, but i think that for free, its a pretty damn good deal. and the extra i would pay to have things like, extra character slots, or some quick start kits and stuff, thats allright, this feels like the kind of game i could grind and do alot on my own, but having the option to buy some stuff is allright because it will make playing a new character in a different play style easier, theres alot of different classes to choose from, and they kind of each have their own story and supporting characters here and there, idk if that's how it is the entire game, but in the beginning, it makes it palatable to replay some of those beginning missions that are simple compared to the rest of the game. some of the footage ive seen of missions in the later of the game, seem like they are very intricate adventures that satisfied the players quest for adventure.


i bought the DLC for this, which looks like an extensive list of add-ons, it definately seems worth it for how much game there is to explore already, that i can tell im going to deep dive into the game with some cool story and background, much like how i felt reading the comics.


the community on discord is very helpful, i suggest making a PVE account, because there are alot more players on that server, and they are very helpful on getting you started because there is a bit of a cult fallowing with this game as it is continued to be updated and the servers are still running.

these players have shared with me great tips on getting started, and answered my technical questions as they came, so no need to worry about not getting some support.

make sure to register the CD-KEY for the downloadable content, you need to copy it from the CD key on steam, and then on the Age of conan website, log in and upload the cd-key so you can use your DLC and expansions.

the graphics are nice for an older game, i play conan exiles, but thats not anything like this, it would be perfect if there was a blend of the two, but i suppose in the future combining elements of these two would be a very interesting world to live in online.
what i dont like about Exiles, is that theres not much i feel like in terms of NPC's giving quests, and Age of Conan scratches that itch.

im excited that there is DLC and stories that feature Robert E howard stories as their main inspiration, thats a huge plus.

all the NPC's voice acting is very nice, their animations are a little oldschool, but this game feels like that in a good way, with nicer textures.

ive watched reviews of the game, but it really seems people only reviewing it within the first world, aparrently there is like 5-6 more maps and world to explore, so thats huge for me,

theres alot of love i can tell went into this game, and everyone im talking to, who have been dedicated players, they tell me this MMO is one that is very special, and that seems to be the consensus around the internet threads ive read about the game so far.

im just glad i found it while i could so i can experience it . i hope the servers are running for a long time, because i feel like this is one i could put alot of hours into, and im not even really a fan of the style of game.

GREAT GAME FOLLOWS CONAN BOOK SERIES LOOKING FORWARD TO A TV SERIES?TALKS ARE RUMORED

Best MMO I ever played, the only big downside is lack of voice acting in alot of quests after the Tortage tutorial level. Game is also too addictive & the 10 gold limit on free to play sucks!!! I played the non-steam version from the FunCom website mostly. I have 1000's of hours playing the game logged there. There is an in-game achievement system in place but unfortunately neither version has any achievements or cards to collect on Steam. If you like T & A and adult content in your MMO without the use of mods or alot of blood like chopping off heads & body parts or eating human hearts then this is for you! Definitely not for the kiddies and you can even get STD's from some hookers in this game. WTF!? Even GTA doesn't do that. The realism, gameplay and soundtrack is solid. The graphics are a bit dated but still hold up on max settings with alot of colors, amazing landscapes, a full open-world and day & night cycle. With the DLC you can travel all over the world from ancient Rome and Egypt to China and a lot of countries in between including the arctic wastes of Northern Europe to the deserts and swamps of Africa. FunCom made this award-winning game and owns the Conan license for games. Robert E. Howard (the Godfather of sword & sorcery) would be pleased!

Very "microtransactional" but still a fun mSorpg (massively Solo online role playing game.... thanks f'ing WoW) without having to buy shiz. Groups and guilds exist, but not really necessary for 100's of hours of enterscapement (have played outside Steam). They are down to one PvE and one PvP server.... might die soon.

The mature, visceral and brutal nature of combat and the game world remains a standout. If you've read the R. Howard works, you'll see frequent hints of the original Conan vision and that is VERY satisfying. When the Howard-Lovecraft syncopy comes through, its mesmerizing *if you're into that kind of thing).

Get a taste b4 it is gone for good.

it is aged. it was at the edge of being outdated when it released. but it is nontheless one of the best MMORPGs that i personally played (and sometimes still do). It had a few modern mechanics in it that alot of other MMOs implemented shortly after, sadly the over-all tech the game used was based on the generation before, and that might be it´s main problem. The Story is nice, mostly with spoken dialogues, which was rather new back then, the action-combat system was rather new back then as well and ist still interesting. it is a mature game in a mature world, yea Conan...

If you like classic MMORPGs with some modern touches, it is always worth to check it out. With the DX10 client it doesn´t even give you eyecancer like some older titles do, the world has some very nicely designed areas to offer which you can enjoy if you aren´t too focused on top-notch grafics or have an older machine. The community is still more than alive full with people to answer you question or lend you a helping hand. As most funcom games, it is niche, but a niche quite alot of people are happy to live in.

i recommend it, but with the addition that it might not be everyones pair of shoes.

ps: ignore the hours played, i played the Unchained version when it came out with multiple characters at mid- to high level and some times between then and now.

Recommended to play after a heavy weight lifting workout for maximum testosterone boost and muscle growth.

Warning: May contribute to increased growth in body hair

This game is too old to have all the bugs it has in it, Quests can be broken, Items that says only can have 1 you can have multiple of and some you cant even delete out of your very limited bag. game has confirmations except where it is really nessary e.g the petition section of where you try to get help dont accidently click delete petition because you can spend 30 minutes or so creating one and then go to respond to it like the support emails say and then the whole petiton and the days you waited was a waste.

extremely outdated look, subpar animation, clunky user interface.

(Edit since some found my review lacking of detail)
its from 2008, its not as old as you would think.

As for compareing it to games of its time Star Wars Galaxies (2003) looked better. While (SWG) slightly dated look now there approach aged better then this because of their style, highly stylised games do not always age well. City of Heros (2004) had better animations, more fluid movements, higher quality (more detail in the movements). Also as much as i hate it World of Warcraft (2004), it has had only some minor animation inprovements over the years its still basically the same game. This list goes on to games MMO or Single player, they chose a visual style that would not age well coupled with probably fairly inexperienced animators, at the time most animations in games were the devs stumbling through the movements instead of a skilled or trained animator.

Additionally just because a game is old does not mean it is above criticism. When you put a movie, game, tv show, ect (any form of art) out into the world it can be critisised forever its age doesnt mean anything although it can lend a form of understanding or lense of "this is the best of what they had to work with at the time". This game however is just visually bad and boreing when compared to games of it generation.

Also the stroy was not gripping in anyway as to overlook the other parts where it falls short.

So... as soon as Conan Exiles came, I had to go back into AoC to see what happened... I played this game for 7 years,with about 2 years of pausing in between. The reviews here? The people crying about the Itemshop,about it being "pay-to-win"? Complete bullshit. And as a true AoC veteran,let me tell you why.

Itemshop? Completely optional. You can get the gear they offer you in not even a month of playing PvP if you do the daily PvP quests,Minigames and the PvP week-events which will give you INSANE amount of PvP xp. So the people saying this game is Pay-to-win are just bad,they need to step up their game and that's it,you have people qqing like this in every game. If you're a really good player,it just doesn't matter if you have the first PvP set (which is earned PRETTY easily) or the last (t3) PvP set,you will kill anyway. That's what the new players nowadays just don't get,they buy this game, have NO CLUE about it whatsoever and the first thing they do is either cry at the itemshop or buy the PvP set from the Shop and get completely destroyed by everybody nonetheless...

There are only 2 REALLY important factors about PvP in this game:

AA Feats (Alternate Advancement system,kind of hard to explain,but long story short: You get AA points if you play and you spend it on your character's AA feat so he gets better at resisting for example crowd controls, or you get special abilities. However, if you take your time and show patience by skilling the right things,you wont have to worry ONE BIT about AA's because with the PvP AND PvE quests that exist you get them EASILY nowadays.)

Movement. You need to aim in this game,not point and click. This is what makes Age of Conan so awesome, if your movement is good,you can kill anything worse than you. New players don't get that even though that's the most important thing about the game... You run around the enemy,predict his moves and try to counter them, you try not to get hit by certain things and and and...

Try this game. You will have many people crying out loud here on Steam saying how incredibly bad it is or something like that but those are ALL people who do simply suck at the game and it's mechanics. It's a skill game after all...
Take your time with it, look at the lore, listen to the music, and own shit when you hit lvl 80 (which you can reach easily in a week or two). YOU NEED PATIENCE TO GET INTO THE GAME!

This game has more than enough people to play it by the way,so don't just think this game is dead..this game is alive and running and they improved it A LOT

also very important: PROBABLY 95 PERCENT OF THE AOC PLAYERBASE DON'T PLAY THIS GAME VIA STEAM! So don't get confused by the steam count, This game has been around since 2009.

It's a decent game, with a tremendous community! Give it a go - it's free and fun!

I played this game long time ago, when the game just came out. It was a very positive experience, whole a lot more than the new Conan MMO. Now the game is quite old and graphically outdated, but the entire experience of exploration, quest making and cooperative play is still strong and satisfying.

pay 2 win shit

THIS WILL HAVE TWO PARTS PVE AND PVP.

PVE
so i got the game. make a toon it has 1,2,3,4, pages of making one. then time to give it a name. name i want is taken ok but... it backs me out to page 1 and i have to repick everything for my toon again. this took like 15m as i really wanted a variant of that name. so now i get to long into game. befor i even move using w,a,s,d, i fall thro the floor of the viking area into water. ok its a new game so i relog get back into game now i am on a floor and i am able to use w,a,s,d, and read all the tool tips. now this part of the game i loved the graphics looked good, sound was great. i leave the main town i am atked by and npc right near the exit of the main town. i ran not knowing what lv the npc was and the town guards killed it. the controls are close to mount and blade warband and so is combat. i join a guild all nice guys and gave me a few tips. also i read a bit about the game befor i got it so i would know how to spend my str, dex, hp, points. so i was told i should go at lv 1 and kill lv 1-9 npcs near town i did but i found a lv 23 when i was only lv 2. i was able to kill it and i had 75% or so of my hp left. only do this if you are good at mount and blade warband as the exp is well worth it. so imo pve is great

PVP
ok so i goto a town with pplz from my clan we atk said town it had no players that i could see. a few npcs. we break a few gates with our spears and swords and take said town. i get paid for helping kinda like a mini quest i guss. then i goto a tournament where if you die you lose nothing ok great good way to get exp and test my skills. haha lol. its 19 vs 21 we had the 21. so its what team can get more kills in say 10m. its was 13 to over 100 near the end of the tournament my side lost. the lag i went thro was bad. i would be hitting someone and think i am doing great next thing i knew i was on the floor dead while the person i thought i was atking had little to no dmg. so imo PVP needs a lot of work befor its worth anything and since its the main part of the game well to me anyways i would say wait to get this game till they fix lag also i would say game is worth as is 10.00-15.00 so wait for a sale.

I could not even paly, the game launcjes but I can not even click the settings options it thows me back to the desktop and mouse clicking seems not to be enabled so I could not even create a character.

Age of Conan

First let me say I play a lot of MMORPGs and am subscribed to three of the largest and play others. Age of Conan was a game I was excited for when it was released in 2008, as were many of my friends I played other MMOs with. It was a hopeful challenger to the older and "Gold Standard" of MMOs, World of Warcraft or WoW. It appeared to be a hit for the first couple of months by the sales and the community, patient as they were for the promised game, hung in for a few more months. Hawever, by the 5th month the game qucikly died off, like several other MMOs that didn't meet expectations of the consumers, leaving only the hopeful fans.

TL;DR

The game in general is lack luster by todays standards. For a game still trying to get money out of your wallet via micro transactions and subscriptions, Funcom has done little to the graphics engine, combat system, and UI to make it feel current, fluid, and fun. Play this if you are a fan of the Conan lore and old school RPGs and can adapt to the awkward combat system.

Faults

The chief complaints were that the game was buggy and the zones following the starting area felt unfinished and lacked end game content. Although Funcom has fixed many of these issues over time, the game struggled to produce revenue with a small community. As a result it was repackaged as a FTP in 2011 (Unchained edition) with a business model that limited your ability to play this game as an MMO if you do not purchase the expansions/subscription packages. This also had problems, much like Rift faces today, with step prices for content and pay-to-win/ pay-to-progress debates.

Current Business Model

Funcom has recently removed some, not all, of the pay restrictions for non-subscribers to access content such as zones and instances. You can purchase game packages including expansions, T1 & T2 gear sets, mounts, loot boxes, consumables, and bonuses via micro transactions. A set of Tier armor will cost you $60 USD while mounts range between $10-20 and expansions will cost just under $20 each. Subscribers still pay $15 a month and recieve increased XP, loot, and currencies.

Gameplay

Age of Conan offers a unique love/hate combat system. The combat system is designed so that you can attack and block in multiple dirrections with combos. However, the system feels unnecessarily complex, slow, and clunky with animations that lack a wow factor. The combat performs more of what you would expect from a small indie team rather than a triple-A studio supporting a giant MMORPG. And compared to a MMORPG like Black Desert Online (BDO), the combat system is aweful.

You can chose to play in two game settings, PvP and PvE, on three server types, PvE, PvP, and RP. Player vs Player is enabled when you want to play in the sunlight with other players. On a PvE server, enemy NPCs are in the world to attack rather than actual players. Player vs Enviroment is the night phase and you will not encounter other players as well as have completely different quest lines. This is a open world game however some areas are instanced and the world lacks the size of WoW, ESO, Rift, and BDO.

Graphics

Age of Conan was a beautiful game when it was released and pushed the boundries of MMOs of the time period. However, by today's standards it is lack luster at best. The game lacks brilliant attack/spell animations leaving you with a feeling of blah when fighting with your character. Some people may not mind this but when combined with the slow awkward feel of the attacks, it is not very satisfying. While other MMOs have updated the engine, combat, and textures to ncrease the graphical fidelity of the game world to current standards, Funcom has done very little to Conan. Compared to other triple-A MMOs you can play for free like WoW, SWTOR, ESO, Rift, and BDO, Age of Conan is a jewel in the rough and only shines in the story.

Story

The story is set in a great lore based world and this would be the only reason to recommend this game to anyone. The writing is great and interacting with the quests NPCs can be very enjoyable. I found myself laughing several times at the dialog. The voice acting isn't bad, but I wouldn't call it great either. You will encounter a wide range of accents which can aid with immersion and also break it when the large white viking looking barbarian suddenly speaks to you with an East Indian accent. However, this is by far some of the best dialog I have experienced with NPCs in an MMO.

Recommendation

If you are a fan of the Conan lore and enjoy RPGs, then this may be a game for you provided you can adapt to the awkward combat system. If not, then there are several other FTP MMORPGs that offer a more enjoyable experience.

Awesome MMORPG!!!

If the only thing they changed about the game is removing the character slot restriction (you can only have 1) for free players, I would recommend.

So tried to play the game and oh get an authentication failure.
I go to the website and login, no problem.
Need to add the game to my acocunt since I got the account via another title.

Go to the menu to add game,click on the "Go" button for the game then NOTHING USEFUL.
I get a generic page with some information about the game but nothing else of any importance.
Nothing about any extra steps to add the game to my account.
No information about the game being added to my account, or any buttons or ANYTHING!!!.
Check my acocunt and the game is still NOT added.
Got basically stuck in a repeating loop of ZERO PROGRESS!!!
End result, the game is a paperweight of software that does nothing. UNPLAYABLE!

Not a good first impression for a tile. Make it almost impossible for a player to get into the game right out of the box.
The last thing I want to do is spend hours pooring through user forumes, and troubleshooting and tech support and a bunch of hoops just to start the game.