The combat is a lot more involved, and along with collision detection it makes for great fun. You have a lot of control over you combat and defensive moves. Such as what direction to attack, where to block, and how to string together combos. There is no auto attack, and you have to pay attention and be involved in all fights. This is not to say that the game is ¡®twitchy¡¯ or requires super fast reflexes. I am not one of the greatest video gamers out there, but I do just fine while battling in AoC.

 

There are also areas with room for improvement. In particular I want to see more interesting quests as we progress up the leveling scale. I want to see the game being tweaked to perform well on most hardware, and I want the map and grouping interfaces to be improved upon. I have not run into any major bugs myself, but we know they exist, and Funcom needs to make sure they are on top of those. You only get one chance to make a first impression!