Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures Preview

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Fightin' Round the World

All this concentrated (if, well, slightly forced) masculinity will be no surprise to anyone who's been following the development of Conan. However, there have been some pretty big changes to the game since we saw it back in July - perhaps the biggest of them being that it's no longer one of this year's most interesting MMOGs. In August, the game was delayed until 2008 - 25th March, 2008, to be precise - and thus takes its place as one of next year's most interesting MMOGs.

A few hours playtime with the game reveals that the team isn't squandering the extra months it's been granted by the delay. Taking on board feedback from the beta test, Funcom has overhauled some parts of the game - while, as might be expected, some of the more complex systems like PvP are finally ready for their close-up.

The most obvious change we noticed is to the combat system. Conan remains fascinating - if not entirely unique - in that it has a pseudo real-time combat system, where you select a direction in which to swing your weapon much as you might do in a normal action game. However, in the last five months the system has been simplified at lower levels to provide a better learning curve for new players - while a new shield indicator gives more feedback on the effectiveness of your attacks.

New players starting out in the game will now only have access to three attack directions - front, left and right - with a further two being unlocked later in the game. Even more notably, players will now select their combo skills (essentially the game's special moves, and the beating heart of the combat system) from a toolbar, or by pressing a numeric hotkey. The skill is then activated by pressing one of the directional buttons. Previously, players learned key combinations to trigger combos; Funcom assures us that this system is still in the game at later levels, but the new hotkey triggers will make everything a bit more familiar to players of other RPGs.

One of the most visible changes to the combat is the addition of the shield indicator - a set of stylised caret icons which float around the foe you're targeting. Each enemy has three indicators, which they can move either above their heads or to the left or right - indicating how well they're blocking attacks from each of those directions. Three icons in one position means attacks in that direction will be blocked totally; no icons at all means you'll score boosted damage for attacking that angle.

It feels a little artificial at first, but we quickly settled into this system. It gives combat an almost rhythmic feel, as you watch the indicators to work out where you'll score most damage - and while easy enemies will generally take ages to move their shields around, leaving you to hack away merrily at unprotected sides, tougher foes will present a more formidable timing challenge.

Other aspects of the combat continue to impress. We love the fact that all attacks are, to some extent, area-of-effect; swing a sword in front of you, and it'll hit any enemy foolish enough to be within reach, not just the single enemy you're targeting. Characters with ranged weapons get an FPS style aiming system, while magic users also need to aim their spells - they have a "shaped" area of effect, often in the form of a cone in front of the player. Even more so than Tabula Rasa, this is shaping up to be a twitch gamer's MMORPG.

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