TMC Reviews: Age of War

(Review Date: March 27, 1999)
TMC Reviewer: Cris Olivieri
Mud Theme

Age of war is advertised as a hack n' slash game with no strong theme. It has no theme whatsoever from what I saw, which is fine for a hack and slash game. One of the things which seems to really draw hack and slash players to this game is the policy of allowing 3 multis on at one time. You are not, however, allowed to create more than three characters total. There are a total of 50 mortal levels with no multiclassing or remort. There are usually an average of 15-50 people on at any given time.

Mud Atmosphere

I would describe the atmosphere of the mud as somewhat friendly. I met a couple of very nice immortals there, Lightbringer, and Bob who were very interested in player concerns, and even wanted input from a newbie player like myself. The players were also pleasant, I did not see a lot of tension or mean spiritedness. And the players were always willing to answer any dumb questions I had. One thing I found very disturbing was the presence of an invisible imm who was forcing everyone in the game to gossip dumb things then asking the entire mud in a threatening way if all the players wanted to see the new "jail command". This experience only occurred once but it gave the game a very unprofessional and unpleasant feel when it happened and it left a negative feeling that stayed with me for awhile. Some players may enjoy these experiences...

Mud World

I noticed many stock zones, such as Midgaard, Rome, Newbie Area, and Moria. In addition to the standard stock zones they also have new areas such as Transylvania, Prysania and this neat newbie circus area which was introduced to me by "Bob", one of the higher level Gods of AoW. Some of their "new areas" are redos of stock zones, but they do give credit in their homepage, which I found refreshing. When you log into the game as a new player you will encounter a neat newbie guide prog named Bolt. The newbie prog has some problems. When bolt says, "If you will follow me, I can give you a quick tour of Midgaard. Just type 'follow guide' and I'll do the rest!". If the player then types 'follow guide' it will say "No-one by that name here". I suspect this could be very confusing for a true newbie player who may not realize they need to try a different name with the follow command.

Additional Comments

Age of war has 6 classes (the 6th is in early development according to the menu):

  • Cleric
  • Thief
  • Warrior
  • Magic-user
  • Vampyre
  • Necromancer

    I decided to try one of their non-stock classes, and chose vampire. I was pleased to see that the vampire code required that I bite mobs to feed, and that food and water were unacceptable. I was disappointed in the skill selection. The skills consisted of the stock magic user spells. What makes the vampire different is that they can only cast these spells when their alignment is evil.

    For races they have 8 choices:

  • Human
  • Elf
  • Gnome
  • Dwarf
  • Sivak
  • Kender
  • HalfElf
  • Giant

    I chose a Kendar for which the only trait I noticed is increased dexterity. This would likely be the best race for a thief.

  • Summary

    The world and the code still seem to be very young in development. I would not recommend it to anyone looking for a roleplay mud due to its unoriginality in theme, zones and code. If you are looking for a hack and slash mud this could possibly be the mud for you, but bear in mind that you may not find anything new or original here once you have levelled all three of your multis. The fact that the people there are so nice makes up for a lot that the mud may be missing in other areas.

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