First impressions: Age of Conan: Rise of the Gods Layer

Finally I am back in the lands of Hyboria. It’s nice to run around in the beautiful surroundings with a tiger by my side. The mysterious Khitai is enveloped in controversy, and the East doors open to thousands of adventurous.

I will be equally impressed by the wonderful atmosphere every time I play Age of Conan. Featuring breathtaking graphics and a realism I have hardly seen elsewhere. The music is simply one of the best I’ve heard in a computer game and both graphics realism and music are even more better in the expansion pack Rise of the Gods Layer.

To close a large hole

Age of Conan has always had many strengths. The fight is entertaining, innovative and challenging. The animations are amazing and the graphics are still the best I’ve seen in any MMOG. ‘Age of Conan’s Achilles heel has nevertheless always been the lack of depth.

Considering all the extremely professional and well-made items Age of Conan made of, it is almost impossible to comprehend that the developer Funcom could do such a poor job when it came to create content and game systems that would create long-lasting entertainment beyond a few weeks.

It’s just that they try to fix with the release of Rise of the Gods Layer. So they succeed?

I think they have. I’m still afraid they might have gone a little far. The games manager Craig Morrison led the development team has really taken in when they have made this expansion pack. As they are about to pull the car out of the ditch as they advance in anything violent, and are possibly in danger of sending doningen hovering over the road so it lands in the ditch on the other side.

It’s not small items that you must overcome in order to taste the sweetest fruits Rise of the Gods Layer has to offer. You must collect near infinite amounts of “aaxp” (alternate Advancement experience points, a new game element I explain later) before you get the most helpful new capabilities, heaps and loads of “Faction”-points before you get the chance to try the expansion pack new tiger or wolf, and you need to hoard lots of specific brands before you can swap them in and get the finest new equipment.

How deep is something I’ve wanted the whole way, so we’ll see if Rise of the Gods layer is well-made and entertaining enough that the players have nothing against that “no grind” is very, very long dryg.