Aoc PvP Weekend Review

Ok the NDA for the PvP beta was officially lowered so it seems it's time for me to test my jurnalistic skills, so here we go:



After crying for 1 day that i didn't get into the pvp beta and i can't get into the open beta Set smiled upon me and gave me a PvP weekend beta key.
I took a look at my watch and noticed that the PvP beta has already started. So i downloaded it asap installed it patched it and then after about 4-5 hours of waiting i finally launched it.
The first thing i noticed was that when you launch the game it takes a bit (about 3-4 minutes) till the logos and cinematics start appearing on your screen, including the local file scanning that happened each time you double clicked the Age of Conan icon. The reason this is an annoying part for me is that i was getting alot of game and computer crashes.
After logging i, of course, created the class i plan to play when the game comes live, a barbarian. The character creation is really well made, the customization level reminded me of Oblivion. You start by selecting your gender, race and class and then you can press the advanced button where you can model your characters face, body hair and tattoos/scars. After i was done creating and tweeking my character's look and pressed the enter game button, i was asked if i wanna go and experience the first 5 levels of the game (until the gates of Tortage).



As i first entered the game i firstly noticed that the graphics are no doubt High End. Although not 100% stunning (maybe because i am running on DX9) but certainly the best graphics in any MMORPG so far. Maybe the best graphic feature is the realistic body movement which is the best i have seen so far in any game. My computer is mid-high end and it runs the game at High at a 1400x990 no AA with 30-40 fps.
As you start the game as a washed out slave on a beach and after Kalanthes had a talk with you, you go and save a prostitute from some chains and start chopping your way through the jungle to get to Tortage City. The experience is pretty linear but that's what you have to expect from a newby tutorial zone. The combat as a melee in PvE seemed really polished and i can say it kept me on my toes through the whole walk though that jungle. There are some mobs tagged as [Boss] that are scattered around and they each can be a challenge if you don't approach the fight in the right way.
The PvE aspect of the game seems to be extremely well made and i will give funcom a big round of cheers and applause for it



After the glimpse at the PvE content i was trown in the PvP Lobby which had no exits (not good for claustrophobics ) and a PvP mini tutorial popped up from which you could learn how to get into a PvP mini-game (which is the best PvP battleground queue system i have seen so far). After i rearanged my feats and the combos on my bar i hoped into an Team Death Match which was actually called Annihilate Opposite Team. When you enter the Mini-game, if you get in at the start, you will wait at the middle of the map with all the players (12 in total a full party on each side) that will play in that battleground and you will join one of the two randomly made groups (and i really mean randomly ). You wait for about one minute till the actual mini-game really starts. When the game starts there are two bases at which players ressurect when they die and other 2 basses that teams can capture to have multiple ressurecting points. So the goal of the mini-game is to of course kill allot of unfortunate people that were in your way, to capture the two spawning points and to destroy the other team's ressurecting totem so they can't ressurect anymore. So once you have done that you just need to kill the remaining members of the opposite team and win the match.
Now it's time for me to a bit of a critic... Every single time you die and press the ressurect button that pops up you will have a loading screen even if you died right next to the spawn point. The wait is not annoying, it's actually good after you have been through a intense fight, but the fact that there is a loading screen seems to interrupt the exciting battle atmosphere and after a few times dieing it will get realy annoying. The second issue the PvP content has at the moment and which is the biggest is the balance of classes which lacks at certain degree. First of all Rangers are waaaaaay overpowered they can actually on shot mage classes sometimes and as much as i heard so do the assassins but this one i haven't seen. These 2 are overpowered classes i have seen so far. There are some underpowered classes as well such as Priest of Mithra which usually get owned by anyone.
Funcom has stated although that the Rangers are bugged and that on they are gonna fix it till launch (i certainly hope so).
The other type of mini-game is the Capture The Flag which i personally enjoy more then the TDM. The 3 maps available are considerably bigger then the TDM one so they kinda lack the intensity. The goal in CTF is like in other games to steal the flag of the other team and bring it at your home base. There is no score limit (like in wow) but there is a time limit (20 minutes) if the game end and nobody won then the team with the most kills wins (fair enough).

In the 2 days i have played so far i clearly think that the PvP content is not the strong spot in AoC. The TDM is not that much fun and the CFT should support two groups per team instead of one. I am still to experience the mass end game battle keep PvP. But the PvP mini-games are under the standards that i have expected but it is still pretty fun overall. But that was lvl 20 PvP and i wonder who will pvp to much at that lvl 20 anyway.
I actually enjoyed more the 45 minutes of the PvE content then the almost 2 days of PvP mini-games (when i was not restarting my computer or waiting for game start)

Besides the memory leaks this game seems to have (which every game of this magnitude has, and they will eventualy fix it) and the slightly dissapointing PvP content, Age of Conan seems to be on the right direction. As no game can be bug and issue free at launch Age of Conan after a few patches (depending in what state it will be at launch) will be one great game that can easily overcome World of Warcraft in number of subscribers if they will have good marketing program. The only thing that may stop them to achieve that is the High computer requirements which not everyone can afford.

4/5 Not a bad review buddy

Even if a priest Rez's you,you get a loading screen? That is a bad point about good graphics constant loading.

Nice write up.

I'm glad to hear all the good things about Pve aspect of the game. PvP is not really a big concern for me and by the time it will get impoortant for our guild things will be much diffrent, more balanced and polished.

Cant wait to "own" some of those "boss" mobs you mentioned:)

haven't honestly looked into age of conan that much (lazy...) this review is fairly good, answered many questions i did have on the game.
Sounds like i might need to get new PC / upgrade PC components a fair bit lol, this old banger dies on runescape =[
Good review anyway

Nice review, thanks Prost

Some nice vids of diff classes during PvP

Good review Alex
PVP was never my game anyway so no big loss there hehe.
Im a bit worried about my comp as well now. Not sure it will keep up the good work in AOC
Oh well, will see when the game pops into my mailbox.