Age of Conan trail review continued
DateTime:9/27/2009 11:20:23 AM

The opening cinematic puts the player on the beach of an unfriendly territory. Fortunately, every NPC that is encountered seems to be OK with aiding a fugitive and the game gets off to an action-packed start.The basic cinematics held mild curiosity, but no real drama.The first real boss encounter turns out to be the slave trader that carried the protagonist to shipwreck on the coast. The design for this fight has an exciting build-up. A fat, wealthy merchant boasts loudly that the protagonist is nothing but a slave.

So the first fight wasn't enough to sate my appetite for cinematic drama. The game had only just begun. Before long, the player finds the protagonist in the first inn of the first town.Before long, players find themselves battling groups of three or four enemies at a time. Apparently, after a near-drowning experience, a person gains super human strength and suffers little or no disorientation.  The protagonist has a few simple choices in conversation and the fight begins. Then the fight ends. Because the protagonist has spent the last ten minutes hacking through groups of people in the jungle, the first boss fight lacks any challenge at all. Within five strikes, the slaver falls and the game play continues.