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Gamespy 'hands on' preview

Gamespy's Allen Rausch reveals his in-depth 'hands on' preview of Age of Conan. Taking the fight to the local pict populations seems to be the the thing to do! Here is a little of what he had to say:

"In the end, though, I went with a Stygian. The Stygians are denizens of a corrupt desert civilization. They're more comfortable around magic, spell casting, and demons than the other races. This would come in handy if I decided to become a spellcaster because all magic in Conan's world is the product of deals with demons and cavorting with dark forces. As a result, every player has to deal with a "corruption" statistic that details the amount their soul has decayed because of exposure to the forces of magic. While divine power and priests can cleanse a person's soul, no one is able to escape the unclean touch of magic entirely. In fact, some don't want to because corruption offers players more power and abilities that virtuous characters won't be able access. This is especially important for magicians and demonologists who rely on soul corruption to fuel their powers. Players must walk a fine line between increased strength and losing control of their character's abilities, which will cause them to strike at friends and foes alike in a frenzy.

The game sports plenty of player-customization options when it comes to defining a physical look for their character. Sliders are available to adjust various facial features including eye size and angle, the width of the mouth, and the fullness of the character's lips. Players can also adjust height and weight and even the proportion of various body parts, creating characters with slightly longer or thicker forearms, for example. Amusingly, it's a mark of how seriously Funcom takes the sensuality aspect of the game that there are even sliders for chest and "arse" size. If your character isn't a hottie, that'll probably be a conscious choice. Once I had created my Stygian, I was ready to begin my adventure.

My first problem, of course, was how to get off the Aquilonian ship where I was a galley slave. That problem was solved when a Stygian vessel decided my ship looked like a tempting target and decided to take it apart, use a good chunk of the crew as human sacrifices, and laugh hysterically while watching the rest of us drown. Fortunately, my character was a little tougher than your run-of-the-mill galley slave and ended up washed up on the beach of a small island, ready to start my new life."

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