I can't say that I'm all that impressed with it. Its not bad, but its not revolutionary.
Graphics -
They're realistic, if you like that sort of thing. Honestly, I'm not too huge a fan, it lets you excuse having randomly tossed on armor and weapons, but it just lacks a certain coolness factor. I see people wandering around and I can't tell at a glance what level they are, and higher level people don't look 'cool' enough to make me want to ratchet up to their ranks.
Also, since all of the playable races are human (and Cimmerian and Aquollian share a lot of similiarity in appearance), you'll run into a lot of similiar looking characters. Now, I know what people are going to say, with the slider bars, the number of selectable hairstyles, beards, tattoo's, facial features etc. etc. etc. your looks are very customizable. But the problem is that once you throw armor and a helmet on someone, those little features are practically unnoticeable.
The areas are nice, but a bit bland. The strain for a more realistic fantasy makes everything quite pretty but you never feel too terribly compelled to adventure somewhere just to see something neat or marvel at the scenery.
Audio -
Haven't had a complaint about it myself, satisfying grunts and the music seems alright, but like most MMO's I've got it muted to listen to my own soundtrack or put a movie on in the background, so I can't really say that it factors into my review.
Gameplay -
This is really the important part isn't it? Well, while its not bad, I can't say that its as 'innovative' as everyone wants to say it is. It just feels like they've put another step in between me and the action which keeps my focus on it.
Since you have to hit a lot more buttons to fight than in other MMO's, you'll be more interactive, but after awhile it still feels very MMO standard. You even fall into the habit of patterns, like opening every fight with two swings to the left to make sure your enemy allocates shields there so you can do a combo that hits from the right. Similiar to Mass Effect, it's still a dice rolling, hotkey'd, toolbar'd RPG that puts on airs and pretends to be the action game that it isn't. This isn't bad persay, but anyone attracted to the idea of more 'visceral' combat will probably find themselves realizing that they've been duped after awhile with the game.
Community -
MMO's live or die based on this, but so far, I haven't really been able to find much of one. Grouping doesn't seem to be very common, though I'd also note that despite being open for PVP I haven't really been attacked all that often. People seem to be running around but interaction doesn't seem to be much of a premium, for as far as I've gotten. I blame that in part to the UI, while I'll get more into below.
UI -
It's awful, and unfortunately, that's really keeping me from getting into the game. Special mention goes to the chat window which is clumsy and almost impossible to use properly, which I find really hurts player interaction since you'll often seem to ignore it and just go about bashing in skulls. The fact that, as of now, it can't be modded just makes it all the more frustrating. I'm not usually a huge fan of mods but, this one needs it.
Blood, Gore, Nudity -
Can't say that I care. It's there, (though the fake blood splatter on the screen that doesn't match up at all to the action is a bit silly), but its not why I, or anyone, would stay with an MMO. It might appeal to someone for a few minutes but if you have access to the internet, you can find more satisfying violence or nudity quite easily, and don't need to slog through levels to get it.
Anyways, a breakdown doesn't really give a good review, so here's the honest part of it, now that you know my stance on all the various parts.
Review -
I'll start by being honest. Age of Conan never fired me up in previews. Mature content didn't sell me on it, and the combat never seemed that much more to me than replacing click 1 once with click 1 five times. Most MMO's nowadays aren't just fire and forget, even for melee classes, and since I often find myself juggling hotbar abilities anyways, i didn't see how taking autoattack away would do anything other than just making attack another ability to juggle.
For the most part, I fealt about what I expected when I played it. Combat, when you get down to it, feels very similiar to what I've experienced in other games, just dressed up in a new suit. The Mature content is there but, it lacks some degree of subtlety and depth. For a game to have mature content but to only have one 'faction' of player characters for the storyline makes me feel oddly limited. Also, since the single player starting tries to make you feel like an important hero (instead of say, in many MMO's where you're just a cog in the war machine that's as important as you can make yourself), it feels a bit odd when the later game starts to break down into grinding with other people who've... had the exact same backstory as me.
Quests are of all the same veins as you've seen before, and the game quickly devolves into either quest grinding or mob grinding, depending on your interest. And so far, I haven't really been interacting much with other players (not for want of trying, the whole reason I play an MMO is to socialize), but the community doesn't seem to be decided on being friendly or agressive yet, and I just get a few people who I talk with about confusion with new areas and things, and very little grouping, or PVP'ing.
If you like MMO's, you want to play a new one, and the setting appeals to you, then its probably something you should try. If that doesn't apply to you, but you hear someone talk about the game being 'not the same kind of MMO you've played before', then I'd suggest avoiding it, because for all of its new dressings, AoC is pretty much what you've seen before.