GDC10: A look into Age of Conan’s Rise of the Godslayer expansion

Uncategorized | 18. Mar, 2010 by Jef Reahard | 0 Comments

We here at Massively are unabashed fans of Robert E. Howard's Conan mythos, so naturally we jumped at the chance to sit down and talk with Funcom's Craig Morrison at this year's Game Developer's Conference. Morrison, executive producer and game director for the Norwegian game maker's Age of Conan MMORPG, gave a presentation on the forthcoming Rise of the Godslayer expansion and then took a few of our questions about the additions in store for the sword and sorcery title.

First things first: the eye-catching title refers to the expansion's place in Howard lore, and the game makes use of the events in The Tower of the Elephant, one of the most highly regarded Howard short stories. In a nutshell, twenty years prior to the setting of original game, a young thief named Conan managed to slay the god Yag-Kosha. Unaware of the god's role as a protector of the lands of Khitai, the barbarian unwittingly loosed a tide of dark forces on the eastern lands which have coalesced into a threat to the modern day Aquilonian kingdom, which of course is now ruled by King Conan.

Players will be swept up in the story of Khitai as they travel to the far east and attempt to deal with the dangers presented by the evil that has been corrupting the lands for the last two decades.

Follow along after the cut for our expansion impressions, highlights from our Q&A with Craig Morrison, and the teaser trailer. Finally, don't forget to check out the gallery below

Gallery: GDC10: Rise of the Godslayer