The article's lead section may need to be rewritten.(April 2019) |
Age of Conan | |
---|---|
Developer(s) | Funcom |
Publisher(s) | Funcom Eidos Interactive [1] |
Director(s) | Gaute Godager |
Producer(s) | Gaute Godager |
Designer(s) | Andrew Griffin |
Programmer(s) | Rui Manuel Monteiro Casais |
Artist(s) | Didrik Tollefsen |
Writer(s) | Ellen Lyse Einarsen |
Composer(s) | Knut Avenstroup Haugen |
Engine | DreamWorld |
Platform(s) | Microsoft Windows [2] |
Release | |
Genre(s) | Massively multiplayer online role-playing game |
Mode(s) | Multiplayer |
Age of Conan: Unchained (formerly known as Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures) is a fantasy-themed massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) developed by Funcom and published by Eidos Interactive for Microsoft Windows in 2008. [2] Age of Conan is the first installment in the planned Age of Conan series. Age of Conan takes place within the continent of the Hyborian kingdoms, a year after the events depicted in Robert E. Howard's Conan novel The Hour of the Dragon . [5]
Combat comprises striking a target from different angles, such as hacking down against the head, slashing diagonally down from the left or right, and slashing diagonally up from the left or right. These directions are designed to be strung together in combination naturally during combat. Difficult-to-perform combinations cause additional damage and faster strikes. [6]
The developer Funcom stated that their "Real Combat" system, a combat system designed to offer more real-time options than traditional Dungeons & Dragons -inspired "turn-based" combat systems that are more commonly used, will be a prime attraction of Age of Conan: Unchained. This "Real Combat" system is a first-person melee approach in which every enemy has three different areas that players can target. Combinations can be performed by stringing together consecutive attacks in particular directions. Feedback from players has pointed out that this system requires a certain degree of dexterity. Character statistics and item bonuses also play a role in this system, however item bonuses have less effect on a character's power than in comparable games, so that whilst equipment does play a certain role other factors also have an impact, such as the player's skill or their analysis of the scenario. The idea of "Real Combat" is to eliminate the dullness of typical MMO fighting, which often consists of an auto-attack feature. [7]
The "Real Combat" system is used in one-on-one weapon battles, as well as during spell-casting, ranged combat and mounted combat. In some situations however, players will choose to band together and unite their skills to face other bands of players or non-player armies. Players can then work together and build on each other's strengths, for example a character standing in line with a 'Conqueror' when he is running will have a greater resistance to knockback effects. [8]
Players are able to take part in large scale siege operations. Adventurers can cooperate with one another to build cities with walls, towers and catapults that can protect player-owned taverns and merchant facilities.
In July 2011, a Hardcore PvP server was launched for the EU and US servers. This hardcore PvP server removes the guards from the various cities and playfields and re-opened PvP on the instances around the city of Tortage. This hardcore server brings back the basics of MMO PvP combat in that players will have a chance at dropping loot from their inventory when they are killed in player vs player combat. Players are also only able to have one character on these servers. This was a fresh-start server which doesn't allow any character transfer to it, does not allow the use of offline levels, or free level 50 characters.
Characters in Age of Conan are registered to a unique user account on a specific online server, with characters created on one server unable to be played on another. Players are able to create characters which function as their virtual avatars in the online world of Hyboria. During character creation, the player may choose from four playable races. The character is one of four archetypes (in bold) and one of three class selections for each archetype. The Rise of the Godslayer expansion brought on a new race, the Khitan. Earlier only some classes were free to play but on December 13, 2012 all classes were made available in the free model. [9]
Age of Conan is set in a low fantasy pseudo-historical ancient world called the Hyborian Age, created by Robert E. Howard. The warlord Conan has seized the throne of Aquilonia, but ancient evils seek to overthrow him.
The Hyborian Age is like a dark, decadent, twisted and corrupt version of Euro-Asian history. Mix a bit of the Roman Empire, Mongolian culture and Babylonian mysticism with '30s-era myths of undiscovered Africa... [10]
The lead artist Terje Lundberg said that the look and feel of Hyboria was based on the interpretation of the stories written by Howard:
When you read Howard's work you're immediately drawn into a gritty world of dark and ancient forces, and mighty and decadent civilizations. You feel the great weight of the ages and sense the very history in the crumbling mortar and the ruins. Therefore we've been mindful from the outset to create a world which is true to Howard's writing. There is majesty in Hyboria but it's of a monolithic, brutal and primitive kind – it certainly isn't "high fairie" where everything appears as though it was built only yesterday and is devoid of context. [11]
Lundberg said the game at launch will contain three countries, Cimmeria, a northern country with snow and highlands, Aquilonia, which contains "green hills, lush riverbeds, and the marvelous city of Tarantia", and Stygia, which consists mostly of deserts and "some beautiful cities"—as well as the island of Tortage which "has a diverse geography ranging from jungle to harbors". [11]
Between March 2005 and January 2006, Funcom periodically revealed concept art and screenshots from Age of Conan. The art director for the Conan project have been Didrik Tollefsen, previously known for The Longest Journey and Anarchy Online – Shadowlands, which won the Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction award in 2003. [12]
In January 2006, Funcom unveiled the community portal for Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures. By this time, much of the pre-launch community had gathered around the forums and IRC chat of the official Age of Conan website. There were informal events such as IRC chats with the developers and, in summer 2006, community contests. In April 2006, Funcom created a forum for guild recruitment entitled the Guild Hall for its pre-launch community, allowing forum members began organizing their player guilds. [13]
In January 2007, several important updates were announced regarding the expected launch window for the game. Funcom also announced the original twenty-three classes had been merged down to fourteen classes to avoid the lack of diversity between them. [14]
On February 7, 2008, Funcom and Eidos announced that over 500,000 people had signed up for the Beta Testing of Age of Conan. [15]
Five principal individuals worked on the music and audio for Age of Conan. The audio director was Morten Sørlie, who created the soundtrack for Anarchy Online – Shadowlands. Simon Poole (lead sound designer on Dreamfall – The Longest Journey) took over as audio director in May 2007, and saw the project through to completion. The sound designers are Tord D. Nikolaisen and Fredrik Martol. Composer Knut Avenstroup Haugen wrote the musical score for the game. [16] To create a musical score for the Hyborian universe, Haugen turned to many different sources: For the music of the different ethnic groups, Haugen studied traditional music from relevant parts of the world. For the overall sound of the Hyborian Age, Haugen studied ancient and medieval music as well as the romantic orchestra repertoire and film scores, while avoiding conventions that connect too closely to specific historical periods. [17]
The female vocalist heard in the score is Norwegian singer Helene Bøksle. [18] The lyrics of the music is in the Old Norwegian language and comes from the Völuspá, the first and best known poem of the Poetic Edda. [19] Norwegian punk rock artists Turbonegro contributed three bonus songs to the soundtrack CD, one of which was written specifically for the album. [20]
Over 40 actors voiced the cast of characters. [21] The recording was done at Side UK [22] in London, Side LA in California, and at Funcom in Norway. [23] The dance moves were made using motion capture on the dancer Hallgrim Hansegård, who is a backing dancer for the winning song of the Eurovision Song Contest 2009: "Fairytale" by Alexander Rybak. [24]
Funcom delayed Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures on January 21, 2008 [25] and again on March 24, 2008. [26] The delays were widely reported by online game magazines such as IGN. [27] Once released, the game sold over 500,000 copies worldwide by June 1, 2008. [28] Six days later one million copies had been shipped in total. [29]
Since release, Funcom has made improvements to performance and changes and additions to the game which were not ready in time for launch, as well as in response to feedback from players. Additions have included new adventuring zones, and revamps of existing dungeons.
On May 19, 2008, GameZone.com presented a series of original fictional stories by Michael Lafferty, stemming from the massively multiplayer online world of Age of Conan – Hyborian Adventures. The stories were written with the permission and cooperation of Funcom. The tales explore the world, the characters and the lore involved in Hyboria. [30]
In September 2008, Gaute Godager, the producer and game director resigned from his role in Age of Conan and from Funcom, a company he had been involved in for over 16 years. [31] In his press release, he revealed that he was not happy with elements in the game's development since release. He was succeeded by Craig Morrison, previously game director of Anarchy Online, and community manager for various Funcom community forums.
On June 30, 2011, Funcom began marketing the game with the new title, Age of Conan: Unchained (as opposed to Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures), and altered the subscription model to a hybrid one. A hybrid model incorporates free-to-play (no monthly fee is charged) and premium plans. Premium players may choose from 1-, 3-, 6-, and 12-month recurring payment, while free-to-play players have limited access to characters, features, and areas. Some of the limitations can be removed with the use of the new "Item Shop" (available only in the game), where items can be bought with the help of Funcom Points. Funcom Points can be earned either by subscribing or by buying them with real cash.
On February 22, 2013, Age of Conan was released on Steam. [32]
In his monthly letter for August 2013, Joel Byos revealed a new major PvP event titled The Great Hyborian Race. A new server called the Blood and Glory ruleset server which will be started specifically for this event. The players will have to create a new character on this server in order to participate in this event. The objective is to reach level 80 in all classes by joining a guild or by going it alone. Those first to reach the level will be awarded special prizes. Those who reach a certain threshold of PvP experience within a given timeframe will be given bonus rewards. For the duration of the event, participants will be unable to use offline levels and restrictions will be placed on XP potions. Players have to earn experience through PvE and PvP fights. The developers are aiming to start the event after the server merge which was delayed due to office move by Funcom. [33]
An expansion titled Age of Conan: Rise of the Godslayer was released on May 11, 2010 and can be bought for Funcom Points from the item shop by all players. It provides new areas for medium-level characters in the form of a home zone for the new playable race, the Khitans; and four additional regions for high-level characters. The new content also includes new companions that can be trained for use as combat pets, or as mounts. A faction system was introduced in order to add variety and re-playability to the new zones. Through new quests, group instances, and raids, players are able to gather tokens to buy new armour sets. An additional incentive is the Alternative Advancement system; a new tree of character feats or perks that are acquired by means of a dedicated point system. It also expanded the raiding in the game to add Tier 4. [34]
On August 31, 2011, Funcom released The Savage Coast of Turan adventure pack, which can be bought for Funcom Points from the item shop by all players. The pack includes a new playfield known as "Coast of Ardashir", two new solo instances, a group instance, a new 24-man raid instance called "Temple of Erlik" and a new combat pet. The new content was aimed to launch along with the 2011 film Conan the Barbarian , so that players had the chance to see some of the characters, armor, and weapons from the film. [35]
On September 3, 2012, Funcom announced that it is planning a new adventure pack called Secrets of Dragon's Spine which was released in a series of updates. The pack introduces a new zone called Dragon's Spine, a row of small peaks in the southern wastes of Stygia. It will feature new quests, dungeons, challenges, a new mount type, a new raid instance and a new PvP area. [36] The first update was released on live servers on January 10, 2013. [37] On August 13, 2013, a new dungeon which also contains a city of the Serpent Men was added in the Dragon's Spine. [38] A Serpent Man boss called Oldblood along with a new area was added on 6 March 2014. [39]
A third adventure pack titled Shadow of Vanaheim was released for the game's seventh anniversary in May 2015. The story takes place in the Blue Mountains, which border the regions of Vanaheim and Asgard. [40]
This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (April 2019) |
Aggregator | Score |
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GameRankings | 81.47% [41] |
Metacritic | 80/100 [42] |
Publication | Score |
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Edge | 7 out of 10 [43] |
G4 | 4/5 [44] |
Game Informer | 8/10 [45] |
GameSpot | 8.5/10 [46] |
GameSpy | 4/5 [47] |
GameZone | 9.4/10 [48] |
IGN | 7.8/10 [49] |
Gamersnet | 9.0/10.0 [50] |
Gamereactor | 9/10 [51] |
The game received "generally favorable reviews" according to Metacritic. [42] Seth Schiesel, writing for The New York Times , opined that the development of the game would have benefited from a few extra months of production. [52]
Knut Avenstroup Haugen won the IFMCA award for Best Original Score for a Video Game or Interactive Media for his score. [53]
The game had sold 1.4 million copies in 2011 when it switched to free to-play model. [54]
Conan the Barbarian is a fictional sword and sorcery hero who originated in pulp magazines and has since been adapted to books, comics, films, television programs, video games, and role-playing games. Robert E. Howard created the character in 1932 for a series of fantasy stories published in Weird Tales magazine.
Dungeons & Dragons is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG) originally created and designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. The game was first published in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules (TSR). It has been published by Wizards of the Coast, later a subsidiary of Hasbro, since 1997. The game was derived from miniature wargames, with a variation of the 1971 game Chainmail serving as the initial rule system. D&D's publication is commonly recognized as the beginning of modern role-playing games and the role-playing game industry, which also deeply influenced video games, especially the role-playing video game genre.
Anarchy Online is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) published and developed by Norwegian video game development company Funcom. Released in June 2001, the game was the first in the genre to include a science-fiction setting, dynamic quests, instancing, free trials, and in-game advertising. The game's ongoing storyline revolves around the fictional desert planet Rubi-Ka, wherein a valuable mineral known as Notum is found. Players assume the role of a new colonist to Rubi-Ka. With no specific objective to win Anarchy Online, the player advances the game through the improvement of a character's skills over time. After more than 20 years, Anarchy Online has become one of the oldest surviving games in the genre.
Funcom Oslo AS is a Norwegian video game developer and publisher that specializes in online games. It is best known for the massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) titles Conan Exiles, Age of Conan, Anarchy Online, The Secret World – and The Longest Journey series of adventure games. The company has offices in Oslo, Norway; North Carolina, US; Lisbon, Portugal; Bucharest, Romania; and Stockholm, Sweden. It also had offices in Beijing, Dublin, and Montreal previously. It is now owned by the Chinese media conglomerate Tencent.
Neverwinter Nights is a role-playing video game developed by BioWare. Interplay Entertainment was originally set to publish the game, but financial difficulties led to it being taken over by Infogrames, who released the game under their Atari range of titles. It is the first installment in the Neverwinter Nights series and was released for Microsoft Windows on June 18, 2002. BioWare later released a Linux client in June 2003, requiring a purchased copy of the game to play. MacSoft released a Mac OS X port in August 2003.
Dreamfall: The Longest Journey is an adventure video game developed by Funcom for Microsoft Windows and Xbox platforms in April 2006. In 2007, a sequel entitled Dreamfall Chapters was announced, and Funcom reportedly considered the idea of a massively multiplayer online game set in The Longest Journey universe.
The Secret World is a massively multiplayer online role-playing video game with a dark urban fantasy theme, in which players play characters defending the world from occult threats.
Guild Wars 2 is a free-to-play, massively multiplayer online role-playing game developed by ArenaNet and published by NCSoft. Set in the fantasy world of Tyria, the core game follows the re-emergence of Destiny's Edge, a disbanded guild dedicated to fighting Elder Dragons, colossal Lovecraftian-esque entities that have seized control of Tyria in the time since the original Guild Wars (2005), a plot line that concludes in the third expansion End of Dragons (2023). The game takes place in a persistent world with a story that progresses in instanced environments.
The history of massively multiplayer online games spans over thirty years and hundreds of massively multiplayer online games (MMOG) titles. The origin and influence on MMO games stems from MUDs, Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) and earlier social games.
Dragon Quest Characters: Torneko's Great Adventure 3 – Mystery Dungeon is a 2002 role-playing video game developed by Chunsoft and Matrix Software and published by Enix for the PlayStation 2. It is part of the Dragon Quest and Mystery Dungeon series and contains randomly generated dungeons and uses turn-based action combat. The game was also made for the Game Boy Advance in 2004 as Torneko's Great Adventure 3 Advance.
Conan Unchained! is a 1984 adventure module for the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game that centers on an adventure of the fictional hero Conan the Barbarian and his companions.
Conan Against Darkness! is a 1984 adventure module for the first edition of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons fantasy roleplaying game, set in the Hyborian universe of Robert E. Howard's character Conan the Barbarian. It is designed for four player characters at character level 10-14 and uses some minor rule variations in an attempt to recreate the setting's atmosphere. It was publicized as containing a "journey of epic proportions".
Conan is a 2007 action-adventure game developed by Nihilistic Software and published by THQ for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Players take control of the titular hero, Conan the Barbarian, from Robert E. Howard's fantasy literature.
The works of Robert E. Howard (1906–1936) have been adapted into multiple media, the most famous being the Conan films starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. In addition to the Conan films, other adaptations have included Kull the Conqueror (1997) and Solomon Kane (2009). In television, the anthology series Thriller (1961) led the adaptations with an episode based on the short story "Pigeons from Hell." The bulk of the adaptations have, however, been based on Conan with two animated and one live action series. Multiple audio dramas have been adapted, from professional audio books and plays to LibriVox recordings of works in the public domain. Computer games have focussed on Conan, beginning with Conan: Hall of Volta (1984) and continuing on to the MMO Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures (2008). The first table-top roleplaying game based on Howard's works was TSR's "Conan Unchained!" (1984) for their game Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. The first comic book adaptation was in the Mexican Cuentos de abuelito - La reina de la Costa Negra #8 (1952). Howard-related comic books continued to be published to the present day. Howard is an ongoing inspiration for and influence on heavy metal music. Several bands have adapted Howard's works to tracks or entire albums. The British metal band Bal-Sagoth is named after Howard's story "The Gods of Bal-Sagoth."
Age of Conan: Rise of the Godslayer is an expansion set for the MMORPG Age of Conan. It was announced on August 18, 2009, by Funcom. The expansion is set in the mythical land of Khitai and features a new eastern theme. It was released on May 11, 2010.
The Conan Role-Playing Game is a fantasy role-playing game published by TSR, Inc. in 1985 that is based on the Conan the Barbarian stories by Robert E. Howard, Lin Carter, Andrew J. Offutt. and Robert Jordan.
Conan: The Roleplaying Game is a sword and sorcery British role-playing game based on the D20 System first published in January 2004 by Mongoose Publishing, mainly designed by Ian Sturrock and set in the fictional Hyborian Age of Conan the Barbarian, created by Robert E. Howard in the 1930s.
Robert E. Howard's Conan: Adventures in an Age Undreamed Of is a sword and sorcery pen-and-paper role-playing game set in the world of Conan the Barbarian, the fictional Hyborian Age. Both the character and the setting were first imagined by author Robert E. Howard. Howard's original literary work has since spawned a vast franchise of novels, comic books, films, video games, board games, role-playing games, etc. Following this tradition, Conan: Adventures in an Age Undreamed Of is the third officially licensed Conan role-playing game. The two precedent games were Conan Role-Playing Game (1985–1988) and Conan: The Roleplaying Game (2004–2010), although there also had been supplements for independent generic systems, like GURPS Conan (1988–1989).
Conan Exiles is a survival video game developed and published by Funcom for PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One. The game is set in the world of Conan the Barbarian, with the custom playable character being rescued by Conan, beginning their journey. Early access versions of the game were released in early 2017, leaving early access on 8 May 2018. An enhanced version of the game for Xbox Series X and Series S was released on 8 June 2021.
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