Age of Conan - Reviews @ Play.TM, TrustedReviews

Play.TM does a review of Age of Conan giving it 84%. It might perhaps be criticised for being a "Tortage review", because there's nothing in it that indicates the reviewer have played beyond the first 20 levels:

Overall, the first 20 levels were very enjoyable and a great introduction to the game. Primarily it gives you the chance to get used to the real-time battle system which is pretty different from other MMORPGs. There is no auto-attack, if you have a ranged weapon and a primary weapon you need to manually change weapons (albeit with a simple key combo) rather than auto switch a la Warcraft. You can dodge and sidestep attacks and in later levels form together combo attacks. Each mob has shield indicators on either side of it to show where it is defending, attack an unshielded area with a tap of a key and you cause more damage. It's a simple but effective system, that although obviously geared towards the forthcoming 360 version of the game, works well and is a breath of fresh air from the usual method of turning on auto attack and going through the motions of the same attacks over and over again. There are also fatality moves which cause blood spatters across the screen, an example of why it gained an 18 certificate in the UK. It is definitely a violent and grim looking game, gone are the Warcraft, near-cartoony style graphics. This world is brutal and cruel, but also visually stunning, if you have the PC specifications to back it up. It's no Crysis but it is a big advantage to have a fast PC, especially if you like to run at higher resolutions.

TrustedReviews have also reviewed Age of Conan giving it 7/10. Here's one of the criticisms in the review:

It also has to be said that quest design is not a consistent strength. Even the Tortage story missions have their weak points, but switch out to the multiplayer quests and you'll find an awful lot of uninspired 'gather venom from twenty dead snakes and twenty dead scorpions' stuff, not to mention quests that come down to nothing more than killing 30 picts or 50 Red Hand guards. Compare this to some of the excellent, multi-staged quests we saw in World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade or LOTRO - quests that were instantly engaging yet worked constantly to further the plot and deepen your interest in the world - and Conan suddenly feels formulaic. Is this the next-generation MMO we all expected? Are paths and chambers peppered with enemies who simply stand around until you enter their alert zone still all we can expect over three years after WoW?