Age of Conan as it stands 'out of the box'

Reviewing massively multiplayer games is a losing proposition. Gamespy recognizes this, and when a new MMO launches they offer up an 'Out of the Box' feature that gives a snapshot of what the game is like at launch. Their opinion is that further exploration is required before any kind of verdict can be assigned to the newly-released Funcom title Age of Conan. We agree, and that's something we've tried to address in our State of the Game / Beta Impressions pieces. So what does the games reporting mega-site think about Hyboria?

They're cautiously optimistic, it seems, offering a yellow light on the endeavor. This "Wait on It" designation was prompted by a few concerns that we've noted as well: some slight technical issues, problems on the website integration side, and UI complaints. The 'spy also notes something we haven't heard reported before: possible exploits already in-game. According to the article, some guilds are already running up to the 50s and 60s via a gold/xp cheat. If this is true, it might be a possible explanation why some guilds already have enough high level members to build a player city. The alternative is just that folks really like grinding on MMOs, and Funcom has already noted that leveling isn't supposed to take an epically long time.

There's plenty more on the game in the writeup, which is well worth checking out. For our own 'out of the box' experience, check out our Age of Conan Collector's edition unboxing.