Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures

This system acts broadly as you'd expect an action game to. Each swing has an area of effect, and only affects enemies caught in that zone - so for example, a sweeping attack will hit any enemies standing in front of you. This is unlike conventional melee attacks in RPGs, which only strike the enemy you target. On the other hand, this also means that you have to worry about positioning more. Both you and your enemies can physically dodge out of an attack, which makes battles into much more fast-paced, dynamic affairs. The game even extends the concept of shields using this; you'll do more damage to enemies when you hit them on the side that isn't carrying a shield.

Despite the clear similarities with action game battles, however, it would be disingenuous to characterise this as much more than a unique twist on the MMOG conventions. Under the surface, exactly the same dice rolls which have always determined battles in RPGs are still being made. As you level up and attain more powerful weapons, you'll be able to tackle tougher enemies, just as normal.

Interestingly, the game also uses combos as a key part of its battles - tap a number of the action keys in the correct order and you'll fire off a powerful attack, much like a beat 'em up. Later on, these combos even include Mortal Kombat style Fatality moves. Here, too, the action element is a layer over a more traditional mechanism. You learn these combos as you level up, and must equip them in slots before using them; in essence, they are melee combat skills which are fired off by a combination of button presses, rather than a mouse click or shortcut key.

In simple terms, then, the skill based element is an addition to the traditional RPG progression curve. However, we have no doubt that some players will become very adept at this aspect of the game. Indeed, for them there's a unique PvP system called Drunken Brawling, which allows you to enter taverns and start fights (after imbibing specific drinks which improve or disimprove various battle statistics). This mode is entirely level- and gear-independent - a talented newcomer could easily hand a level 80 his backside on a platter - and sounds very much in keeping with the macho, chest-beating world of Conan.

See Them Driven Before You

Conan's other Big Idea is the introduction of single player elements to the game - an approach which is evident on a number of different levels. On a simple, subtle level, many gamers will appreciate the effort which has been put into the dialogue and conversation options in the game. Most MMOGs are rather basic in this regard, leaving the branching conversations and carefully crafted dialogue to their offline counterparts. Conan promises far better developed characters and narrative - which may seem surprising given its rather barbaric setting, but it's worth bearing in mind that its creators also worked on stunning adventure titles The Longest Journey and Dreamfall.

On a rather less subtle level, the game actually sees players working their way through quite a bit of strictly single-player content in the first 20 levels of the experience. The character creation screen is a rather grim galley, full of unhappy-looking whipped slaves, one of whom you choose as your avatar. It's strictly human-only (tough luck, furry weirdos), and you choose between three races, two of whom are more physically focused (they align roughly with the Romans and the Celts in our world), one of which is more magical (aligning somewhat with the Egyptians).

There's a vast amount of customisation you can perform on your character - tweaking stats like age, scars, piercings and tattoos, along with the usual body shape and facial feature sliders - but no class customisation. Not at this point. The reason for this is simple; your ship wrecks, you are washed ashore on a tropical island, and frankly, a Priest dressed in rags with a lump of timber to defend himself isn't much different to a Warrior in the same position.

Upon waking up on the beach, you start to receive your first quests and fight your first battles - but at this point, the game is entirely single-player. You won't see other players until such time as you arrive in the first city, Tortage, about an hour in. By this time, you'll have chosen (or will be about to choose) the first major refinement to your character, the choice between Soldier, Priest, Mage and Rogue. However, you won't choose a final character class - refined specialists like the Guardian (a tough, armoured melee class) and the Demonologist (adept at firing off area-of-effect spells) - until level 20.

The whole journey to level 20 takes place on this initial tropic island, in the vicinity of Tortage, and is a peculiar blend of singleplayer and multiplayer action. When you log into the game, it is daytime in Tortage, and you can meet up with other players and go out to raid the nearby slaver camps, ancient ruins, dungeons and what have you - much as you would expect from an MMOG. Go to an inn and rest, however, and you'll wake up in the middle of the night - with no other players around, and loads of single-player content to explore.

It's an odd feature, and one we didn't really have a chance to explore in our brief play-time with Conan. The intent, obviously, is to ease players into the game, and to introduce them to story and gameplay elements without forcing them to go through embarrassing trial and error (and withering catcalls of "noob!") in a party of other players. How well it works is likely to seriously colour many people's experiences of the game - but for MMOG newcomers, especially, it's likely that this gentle introduction and the ability to play at your own pace will be very welcome.