A Review of Age of Conan: Rise of the Godslayer

When you say 'Conan the Barbarian' to most people these days, they don't tend to get very excited. Usually they just stare blankly at you and go' yeah?' Despite the indifferent, barely quizzical responses, now and then a decent Conan game does manage to get developed. Well, ignoring the flop that was Conan (or God of War: Conan style) for the PS3 and 360 in 2007. Now the barbarian has set his sights on the PC. Does Age of Conan: Rise of the Godslayer actually slay anything?

Unlike 2007's Conan, Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures is an MMO and (thankfully) is not a sequel to it. For a reasonable subscription fee, gamers can create a character and take part in all sorts of adventures in the Conan universe. Players can choose from all sorts of classes from the Conan mythos such as barbarians (naturally), assassins, bear shamans, necromancers, and more- each bringing along their own abilities and stats.

Age of Conan: Rise of the Godslayer is an expansion to Hyborian Adventures- swimming in similar waters as World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade, though not in as deep a pool. For those not already addicted to Age of Conan: HA, this expansion pack is probably not going to change many minds. The number one reason? Lack of content.

The game adds new mounts, a new race, some new areas, and a handful of new objectives to tackle. As for overall improvements and polish- there's not much to speak of. It does have a more reasonable learning curve for new players hoping to get in on the Conan MMO. Yet at the same time, to truly appreciate the new content, you have to have already been playing HA. It's a tough sell to those that hold tightly to their wallets until they're convinced they're getting something worth it- especially at the not-so-low price tag.

The new 'eastern theme' is a nice change of scenery for the game- admittedly it's more appealing running around in Khitai than I expected it to be. With that said, there are some plots of land that show their lack of polish. The graphical effects are nothing we haven't seen before, though the audio is above decent.

Control-wise, the keyboard is still uncomfortable for those not taken with massively-multiplayer-online games. For those not in love with the keyboard, the Xbox 360 version will eventually be there as an alternative. The combat itself is still a little unimpressive- sporting a similar system of spamming over actual strategy to other MMOs. The only other thing worth mentioning is the fact that it is a lot of fun trekking through the world with a handful of friends with nothing but each other to count on for survival.