Age of Conan in spite of its initial success, is a game that has been rife with turmoil since its auspicious debut. I joined in about a week or so after launch, which spurred on a massive computer upgrade for me, and I promptly fell in love with the game, just as everyone else on the web turned violently aggressive and stormed the official forums with torches and pitchforks.
Approaching the game’s first anniversary, I’ve decided to fire up the old account, blow the cobwebs off, and reacquaint myself with the world of Conan. Rather than pick up where I left off after about 8 months absence, I decided to start fresh. Read on for WEEK 2 of my experience with the new and, hopefully, improved Age of Conan.
Ciranno’s time in Tortage continues. It’s been a bit of a busy week for me outside of video game persuits, so I didn’t get to sink as much time into the game as I’d hoped I would (I also had two other MMO trials to put through their paces for a related article), but still, progress was made. I’ve taken steps in recovering my shattered memories by talking to the local warrior trainer, Sigurd, who also happens to be one of the ringleaders of the local resistance against Strom of the Red Hand, and the proprietor of The Thirsty Dog Tavern. Tina’s young brother, Sikhu also needed some rescuing, which led me to my first encounter with Valeria, leader of the Resistance and former ruler of Tortage.
After a brief trek to White Sands Isle in Tortage’s bay, I was tasked with aiding Arias in discerning what the Stygian witch, Mithrelle was up to near one of the local volcanos, and questioned one of her slave masters before cleaving his skull to the teeth. It turns out Mithrelle is bringing in galley after galley of slaves bearing the Mark of Acheron. The mark destroys memories and free will, thankfully the curse was broken on me through the fortuitous intervention of the god, Mitra. Mithrelle is lending this army to Strom in the hopes of gaining a foothold for her true master, the Stygian wizard Toth-amon of the Black Ring, arch-nemesis of King Conan himself. I also dinged level 10 and upgraded my gear.
Meanwhile I still have several others in need of my help, most notably a few quests I have to attend to on White Sands. On top of that there’s still the matter of toppling the stranglehold that Strom has on the Barachan Isles, and Tortage in particular. One or two solid sessions should see these goals met, and Tortage in my rear view mirror.
The strengths of the Tortage section of the game remain every bit as engaging this time around, and it makes for a very enjoyable few hours for people who take the plunge. I also went ahead and broke out Asselar, my original character, and found that there were actually quite a few new quests to grab that remain pretty engaging. The biggest draw for me with Age of Conan is the nature of the majority of the quests you pick up. While you will occasionally get item collection quests that require the killing of a number of foes, drops from said foes are extremely common, and they take relatively little time. The quest structure in the game is never about grinding (unlike World of Warcraft or Lord of the Rings Online) and usually requires a good deal of trekking around, giving you a good chance to tour the setting. For the first chunk of the game you’re never stuck just whacking the same enemies endlessly, and that’s a huge change for the better from most typical MMO’s.
Even with my level 43 character I’m finding a lot more quests to pick up, while before I gave up on him I’d entered the point that my only real options were crafting quests and grinding. Age of Conan is definitely a more interesting game now. I’m looking forward to seeing the higher levels with my Conqueror, as right now he doesn’t seem to have near so many abilities and such as my Dark Templar did.
Until next week…
