Conan's Second Coming
Funcom bridges the content gap.
It's hard to avoid comparisons with WOW's new Wrath of the Lich King zones when you play through Ymir's Pass. Here, too, is a northern wasteland, scarred with battle and filled with lore-heavy races and locations - Frost Giants, forces of Atzel burning and looting their way into Cimmeria, and various dodgy black magic types. Ymir's Pass sees Age of Conan wearing its "mature content" badge with pride again - not just in the form of naked breasts for the teenage contingent, but also by being downright nasty in a way most MMOs just don't do. There's screaming, blood, pain and unpleasantness, but there's also a solid narrative supported by a number of key, well-composed quest chains which put the nastiness in context.
Between Ymir's Pass, a little more work on my Destiny Quests (a character-specific quest chain which runs from the start of the game the whole way to level 80) and a handful of trips into group dungeons, I made 70 in no time: clean across the former content gap. Moreover, the whole journey was incredibly good fun - the best fun I've had in an MMORPG since I first got to rampage through the Death Knight's starting zone in WOW. But in Conan's case, the enjoyment lasted for a couple of weeks rather than a couple of hours.
Yes, I just compared Age of Conan to WOW, and favourably. Don't misunderstand - Conan still has issues with content and polish which WOW worked past years ago. The forthcoming changes to the game's itemisation are desperately needed, with Conan's armour and weapon systems still being utterly dull and uninspired. It's not the realistic models that are the problem, it's the fact that upgrades are largely meaningless - you find yourself discarding level 60 items because they're no better than the gear you first wore at level 40, which simply shouldn't be happening.
Moreover, Conan's endgame still needs work, even if it's getting there. Resurrecting my level 80 character, I managed to blag my way into a quick run around one of the new endgame raids, Xibaluku. I say "quick" - it actually turned out to be quite a time-sink, filled with boss encounters which turned out to be taxing even for a pretty decent six-man team. It's clear that Funcom is toying with ideas for evolving its endgame PVE encounters; several of Xibaluku's bosses came with mechanisms that had to be puzzled out, rather than being straightforward tank-and-spank fights. It's a step in the right direction, as are the technical fixes to the endgame PVP sieges, which are pretty much in working order now. The game is moving towards having enough to entertain its level 80 population.
On the downside, finding a group to enjoy all of this content with can be a little tricky. Age of Conan is, for the most part, extremely friendly to solo players. But even after the server mergers, it seems that the populations aren't high enough to make finding a group easy, and as ever, there's a chronic shortage of tanks and healers. Other MMOs solve this by diversifying those roles to make them available to other classes, a trick which Funcom could certainly do with learning. However, the community itself, after the mass exodus of the first few months, is for the most part friendly, helpful and mature.
The final test of Conan's newfound quality (and quantity) was the toughest. Having brought my Guardian up to 70 (he'll make 80 in no time, I'm sure), my eyes fell on another character on my login screen - a Tempest of Set, abandoned at level 30 but now apparently one of the best characters to play in PVP. Could I face going through the levelling curve all over again, so soon?
My cursor hovered uncertainly over the Tempest's character panel for a moment - but really, there was little doubt in my mind. Age of Conan isn't perfect yet, by any means, but the game is finally living up to its early promise. It's intense, entertaining and rewarding to play - and bringing a third character up to the level cap is looking like a pleasure rather than a chore. If it can sustain this rate of improvement - and that is a big "if" - it won't be long before Funcom has one of the best MMOs in the world on its hands.