AoC is the first triple-A MMO title to have a mature rating. The rating means that the violence in the game is bloodier than anyone under 17 years should see, but it doesn't go on for so long that only someone 18 or older should see it. In concrete terms, this means that in AoC, when a player's character kills another character with a combo attack, a finishing animation will play. One common such animation depicts the enemy's head coming off and blood spurting into the air (and splashing the screen), but there are several depending on the combo and weapon used.

Gameplay in AoC literally follows two tracks. On the one side there is the single-player game, which is particularly important in the first 20 levels, and then there is the multiplayer game, which is particularly important from about level 40 on. For the first five levels, the player works through a series of solo, tutorial missions as they wash up naked and amnesiac on an isolated beach, rescue a dancing girl from pirates and make their way to the city of Tortage ... where the dancing girl disappears without "showing her gratitude" in anything like the way she implied she would or that the mature rating might leave room for.

For the next 15 levels, the player is locked in Tortage and its environments, where they can switch back and forth between the normal, MMO multiplayer "day" missions and the solo-only "night" missions that happen in an instanced version of Tortage.

An age of blood and dismemberment

It has been said of World of Warcraft that it is a great game that happens to be multiplayer. The same can be said of AoC. Its first 20 levels combine an interesting combat system, voice-acted decision trees and branching quest lines to tell the story of the struggle of the people of Tortage against the tyrant who rules them. Both the overarching tale and the individual quests have a pulp, Howardian feel to them. It is possible to imagine Conan himself, at certain stages of his career, being engaged in just the sort of adventure that begins AoC.

The challenge for AoC's players begins after the characters leave Tortage. It is at this point that they can join a guild, begin crafting (characters can start farming ingredients at 20; they can start actually making things at level 40), quest for a mount (available at level 40) and engage in player vs. player and realm vs. realm combat. There are still branching quests, but the voice acting disappears from the decision trees. The question for each player is whether the variety of things to do and other players to interact with is sufficient replacement for the feeling of being at the center of events that the solo campaign in Tortage gives.

The developers of AoC set out to create the best-looking MMO currently on the market. Whether you can see how well they succeeded depends on how "hot" your machine is. The game is (just barely) playable at the minimum specs, but you'll know you're in trouble if the opening animations for the developer, publisher, graphics engine and video-card maker, not to mention the intro CGI movie starring Conan as the king, all stutter when the game launches. Players will enjoy the game, both how it looks and how it runs, much more if their computer meet the recommended specs.

For those with the hardware to run it, AoC is easily the best MMO to launch since World of Warcraft. It has all the features of a modern MMO, a setting that is fantasy but still feels fresh (owing at least partially to the lack of elves and orcs) and a terrific new player experience. Plus, players who stick around to level 40 get a war rhino to ride and fight on.