"Age of Conan Unchained is a decent but ageing MMORPG that relies too heavily on now outdated mature content at the expense of appealing to a wider demographic."
The MMORPG genre in the mid-2000s was in a very similar state to today. The big players had already arrived on the scene, and the genre was an almost universally T-rated affair. Funcom set out to change that by releasing the nudity- and gore-filled adventures of Conan the Barbarian into the hands of Conan fans and hormone-driven gamers worldwide.
Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures sold over one million copies at launch, and while it was still clearly not ready for release despite having been delayed twice, 2008 was a radically different time. The Reddit hivemind had not yet been formed, and while gamers pushed for and wanted improvements, they were not howling in rage and demanding death for the title and its developers.
Adapting to the changes in the genre, Funcom relaunched Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures in 2011 as Age of Conan Unchained, opting for a new freemium business model. Riding high on the success of its recent expansion pack and upcoming adventure-pack content releases, Age of Conan Unchained seemed to find a niche to flourish in,or so it would seem.
Age of Conan Unchained seemingly dried up shortly after its Steam re-release, and content updates became a thing of the past as years went by without any substantial new material.
Funcom kept the lights on and a small community formed around the non-Steam client. Still, it seemed Funcom was done with Age of Conan Unchained, especially with Conan Exiles becoming one of the best-selling titles in the company’s history.
Then it happened,the 10th anniversary would receive a content update of sorts. Funcom announced the creation of Saga servers; these limited-time servers functioned in a similar way to Diablo 3 seasons, and while it did little to boost overall community numbers, it did serve to galvanize the remaining community and provide some much-needed incentive to play what was now years-old content.
The biggest surprise came in 2020 with the announcement of actual new content. When Funcom revealed a Horde mode was coming to the decade-old title, many were sceptical they could pull it off; after all, Age of Conan Unchained had sat mostly neglected since the Steam release in 2013. Yet it worked. Onslaught was fun and engaging and provided a challenging endgame for those who wanted more than seven-year-old dungeons and PvP, and while the Age of Conan is unlikely to re-enter full development, the community finally had something they had lacked since 2013,hope that new content may still drop for their favourite MMORPG.
Age of Conan is showing its age. While the world design is fair and certainly large enough to hold a thousand adventures, character models show their age and at times can appear almost nightmarish, with broken animations and missing textures. It is not a deal-breaker, but it remains one of the larger areas in which the game fails.
Age of Conan has decent customization for 2008; however, it pales next to modern games. Considering humans are the only playable race, it is off-putting that certain ethnicities and cultures, such as (Khitan) Asian, require the purchase of DLC. Players can choose from 12 classes; however, no single race can play all 12, with most races restricted to about eight playable classes.
Age of Conan is one of the few MMORPGs to offer players a unique combat system,a blend of action and tab-targeting that grants access to a wide array of skills and abilities while allowing near-unparalleled freedom of directional combat. The result is a system where players have vast control over their character’s abilities without losing the familiarity of a traditional MMORPG combat model.
Open-world PvP is available on the Fury server. While instanced PvP is offered on both Crom and Fury, many in the community regard PvP on Crom as being awful and full of AFK players. We cannot verify these claims, but many in the community believe them to be true.
Age of Conan is an MMORPG from another time. Players looking to reach cap are facing a 75-plus-hour journey even with a levelling guide. Due to a diminished player base, much of this progression will be solo, and the endgame reward isn’t there for me. Spending that long to reach a near-dead endgame with a few hundred players is hard to justify, though your mileage may vary.
Age of Conan has plenty of solo content drawn from the lore of books, movies, comics, and other games. Everyone knows Conan the Barbarian, and being part of that world is a huge part of what makes the game so inviting to fans of the franchise. Unfortunately, much of the narrative content is ruined by poor voice acting.
While the game features talented actors,Troy Baker, Sandra De Sousa, and Alex Norton,most minor female characters sound like they learned to act in 1970s convenience-store films, speaking with breathless voices that turn even serious moments into parody. Minor male characters fare no better, often reduced to stereotypical barbarian grunts. Text-only dialogue would likely have been more immersive.
Funcom is not deluding itself about player count. Age of Conan is no longer massive, with only two servers remaining. Yet by forcing all players onto these servers, Funcom inadvertently created a tight-knit, friendly community. Crom (PvE) is larger, but Fury (PvP) is still active, and whichever you choose, you’ll find welcoming guilds and chat activity even at off-peak hours.
Age of Conan Unchained is free to play. Players who do not wish to subscribe can experience most content as free-to-play or premium players (by purchasing DLC individually). It’s a solid system for those who want access to everything without a monthly fee.
Age of Conan has a cash shop filled to the brim with pay-2-win items such as stat boosts, self-revives, PvP insurance, and loot boxes that contain PvP currency, XP, and equipment. A credit-card warrior can easily outpace free players if they spend enough. Drop rates for good items are extremely low, which slightly balances things but also creates risk for players prone to gambling behaviour. For me, this alone is a deal-breaker.
I am not opposed to nudity in games when it makes sense (people don’t bathe with their clothes on), but to make nudity a selling point is degrading and attracts the wrong crowd. True warriors would not charge into battle naked unless absolutely necessary. Age of Conan has much more to offer than shock value, and leading with it was a mistake.
Similarly, gore has its place, but making every encounter a splatterfest does little but reinforce the game’s reputation as a male power fantasy.
Age of Conan: Unchained is a free-to-play massively multiplayer online role playing game developed by Funcom and published by Eidos Interactive, it released on 20 May 2008, and is available exclusively on PC.
Age of Conan: Unchained offers the following matchmaking options:
The Age of Conan: Unchained in-game store sells:
Age of Conan: Unchained supports the following peripherals:
Age of Conan: Unchained is rated PEGI 18+ and contains:
Age of Conan is a piece of MMORPG history. For those looking for a small but active community, it’s a fine choice. However, there are better options today, and I recommend playing Conan Exiles on an active community or role-play server instead.
We found Age of Conan: Unchained to be a good game, meaning it is likely to be enjoyable for most players, despite having a few areas that could be improved upon.
"15 years ago, Ship of Heroes may have lived long enough to die with dignity, but in today's market, its chances of survival are slim to none."
"While it is starting to show its age, no other video game has brought to life JRR Tolkiens' Middle Earth in the way The Lord of the Rings Online has for over 15 years."
"Black Desert offers a lot of content for a small admission fee; however, once inside, players will quickly discover that looking good can cost as much as 20X the box price"
