I’m reletively new to MMOs, I’ve tried Guild Wars a little and I’ve been playing Funcom’s Age of Conan (AoC) for almost a year. There was a lot to discover for a newcomer like me and it was kinda difficult to grasp the sheer amount of options to choose from like classes, professions, crafting, economy, tweaking of skills and obtaining gear. What’s new in AoC are massive siege battles between guilds in order to conquer battle keeps in the so called border kingdoms. These consist of 48 versus 48 players, include siege weapons, war mammoths and lots of other fancy stuff that make player versus player (PvP) combat a whole new experience compared to what simple matches used to offer.

What fascinates me most, however, is the aspect of team work in MMOs. This is, with no doubt, present in the PvP area but in my opinion it has this sour taste of class and equipment imbalance between competitors. I rather prefer raiding which requires even more team work and a considerable amount of discipline and patience. Raiding in AoC allows 24 people to join up to master challenges that the game developers created (which is why this aspect is called Player versus Environment, short PvE).  Raiding comes in many phases and normally starts with the frustrating part to find out strategies at the cost of a lot of time and usually followed by a phase of repeatedly completing the challenge in order to receive larger quantities rewards in form of equipment for the players.

Most of this isn’t new and many other games have offered similar features. What makes AoC stand up from the crowd so far is the more brutal and savage setting as outlined in Robert E. Howard’s novels. Compared to World of Warcraft, Warhammer Online or even Everquest, AoC looks much more mature, which might also explain the high average age of players I’ve come across. On top of that there’s currently no MMO which is as good looking (and thus hardware demanding) as AoC – a brave step from Funcom, in my opinion, who didn’t take the safe mainstream path of cartoon-like graphics which run smooth on every average PC. Instead we see details and graphics quality even seldom seen in usual games up to date. As a side-note: AoC is the only game so far which my system can’t fully satisfy.

While Age of Conan is great, it’s setup is an almost worn down genre: Fantasy with swords and magic. That’s why I’ve always payed close attention to new experiences like EvE Online, a Sci-Fi space MMO or Richard Garriot’s Tabula Rasa, a Sci-Fi MMORPG. Unfortunately I didn’t like them too much due to their gameplay and the setting wasn’t very fancy either and seemed rather purposeful instead of innovative.

Recently I’ve come across a new kid on the block though. Also developped by Funcom, The Secret World looks very promising. It features the same excellent engine than AoC and is bound to be released by the end of this year.  The best part for me, however, is the background story, revolving around present day mystery and occult happenings, a topic which the world hasn’t yet seen in an MMO outfit. While that alone doesn’t justify yet another MMO-production, it surely offers a lot of new options and ideas which hopefully find their way into it. There’s a trailer available at the official promotional site which makes waiting even more painful.