orwegian developer/publisher Funcom is getting set to release its second massively multiplayer offering (2001's Anarchy Online was its initial effort), and we took the late beta for a spin to see how it's shaping up. While we only had the opportunity to check out the first several hours of gameplay, the combat system and overall vibe of the world are encouraging enough to keep us logging in despite some technical issues still being ironed out.

The original plan of sending players on a 20-plus hour single player quest before introducing the MMO aspects of the game has thankfully been scrapped in favor of a brief instanced tutorial. Tossed ashore when the slave ship you were held captive on wrecks in a storm, you've got to kill the surviving crew in order to build a new life as a free man or woman. Accomplishing this brings you to the pirate-run city of Tortege, as wretched a hive of scum and villainy as can be found in Conan's barbaric world – and the adventure truly begins.

Age of Conan's dank, dirty, and often brutal world springs to life vibrantly thanks primarily to cleverly written dialogue and surprisingly solid (and pervasive) voice acting, though the state-of-the-art graphics engine certainly doesn't hurt. Much more so than in most MMORPGs, it's easy to be immersed in the storylines and characters presented throughout Tortege. The quests are often standard-fare collection or monster-slaying tasks, but the fiction that Funcom has created is an outstanding backdrop for getting some levels and loot. Following the main storyline is particularly rewarding, as the quests expertly lead you through layers of mystery and intrigue surrounding the pirate city.

The game's unique combat system, where each individual strike must be manually activated via hotkeys, proves entertaining. At its heart, Age of Conan is running a spreadsheet not unlike those used in the rest of the genre, but being involved on this closer hands-on level is amusingly different. You'll find yourself inadvertently getting into the rhythm of sword and spell as you slay your way across Hyboria, and that goes a long way toward making "kill 10 panthers" enjoyable rather than tedious.

At the high end, Age of Conan offers a slew of player-versus-player content to go along with the expected epic monster encounters. Guilds large and small have the opportunity to carve out their own domains in the Borderlands, which must then be defended against any other players who would seek to conquer your lands. We haven't gotten a chance to see it firsthand, but the concept definitely has potential.

We'd be lying to you if we didn't say that Funcom has its work cut out for it between press time and the game's May 20 release, with technical problems crashing us out of the beta client regularly, jarringly jerky content streaming, gameplay imbalances, and noticeable texture load delays. Still, they call it beta for a reason, and we're excited to see how the final product turns out.