Conan Exiles Review

This reviewer has been provided a review copy,  for purposes of review/coverage. A humble thank you to Funcom and parties provided for access.

Conan Exiles is one of those type of games, that leaves you dab middle in a desert. Naked, alone or with some buddies, trying to survive harsh conditions, amid dangerous foes and weather. You are given so many options and ways off the bat,  to begin your adventure through the game. It is still in the works so everything to us is a work in progress. The story is as I described before hand: Tossed into a wasteland to work your days away for some randomly generated reason. You are tossed on a crucifix, where you may customize yourself, even down to your “special purpose” or “wine vases”. The detail behind the character designing screen is well enough, where you can make the size and shape of your character, with some limitations, beyond hair and facial features. Which honestly,  is not important to me at this point and time. As long as I could load up the game, and play it.

Gameplay is comparable to games like Rust, or a few others out there on the market. You move as you normally would with the WASD keys, interact with items by picking them up, and carry about things with a weight inventory system. You are limited to items you may carry so carrying around massive structures for temples or whatever is a thing of prepping for in the future. We explored a few servers, seeing things like clan battles – where two sides were battling it out with fancy armor and gore a plenty. This showed onscreen, as  people running around smacking down people’s structures with just their fists (it was a bug, but still pretty funny to see). Gear and loot is mostly dropped or crafted. Random npcs run about the wastlands carrying weapons like steel blades or armor pieces. I found the better option was to just farm, and make the stuff yourself, as most resources were reasonable to find and make. Building houses or larger structures borrows from the SnapMap(DOOM) like system. Where you can navigate and click in pieces to a building, and make your own stuff.

Combat is a blast in this game, you hack and slash for the most part. However, the PVP side of things was not as gripping to me personally. I have more fun running around smacking tough enemies, other then another random player coming at me with a great sword. After a few hours of the fray, I felt a little bored with that aspect. The building bits, were really the meat and potatoes to the whole thing. You feel more atmosphere the more you build, and make. You may also have slave-workers, which is optional. I just choose to keep the encampment bare bones and make a small temple to test out the mechanics to the engine. You basically use your mouse, and find a flat or reasonable surface, and place the piece of wall into place, as the rule of thumb, you then begin to snap in more pieces, making four walls, a roof, and a door. I screwed this up a few items funny enough misjudging the side of certain pieces, leaving holes. Which was something I would point out to others, pick your pieces or remember your parts carefully. You can take them off and reapply, but it is a big burden. Lighting and shadow depth is stunning, and to me, a amazing piece to this game. It all looks amazing. The moving trees,  rustling  grass,  and the wind blowing in the distance. I began to loose myself in just the single player survival aspect. Then swapped to online play with a couple of friends. We all sat down in a PVE server, to share what they discovered about structure building. That was until we were able to connect to one another, as one of the issues connecting was a issue at the time. The wait time for the server to fully load in for a few minutes. But after that it was smooth like silk with some light hic ups.

The exploration in the game lead me and perhaps many to one thing – holy crap things can get crazy quick – Creatures in the game can get pretty massive. Even the tiny imps,  can pose a challenge in packs. Sooner then later it is required to ether have a buddy,  who can make you some strong spears and armor,  simply level up, and learn the traits yourself and smith some gear. Crafting is a interesting, but simple beast in it self. I will lightly go over that here in a bit. Fighting scales to shifting out of the way and simply slashing down monsters. Each weapon has a damage value,  for the most part. Finding the right cutlery/blunt device, depends on what you want to use or think is “over powered”. The big guy down there in the photo,  is something I feared for a bit. I tried using bow and arrow, while a buddy distracting it running around like a fool. He died, but I managed to take it down with a run up sword swipe. No trees were harmed during this. The fight did feel epic to a degree, other fights are just simply a mouse button smash until something dies. You are limited with swings, by things like stamina. So approaching big beasts,  is an act of careful skill. Your character levels like in other games with a RPG system. The level cap is fifty, so plan out your toon/character. Some folks like to run in guns a blazing and figure out things on there own. Some builds work, others do not. One thing I recommend,  is just make a character to your play style and stick to it.

Crafting in Exiles you need a Crafting Station, and the right recipes. Recipes require two to three types of items in the range of ten to fifteen items per required slot. You unlock each catalog of items, ranging from tanning skins, to smithing ingots. If you wish to learn more on crafting, click here.  I found hunting down crafting ingredients. to build items,  was a little easy for the most part. So the numbers I mentioned were not as bad as they might sound  Items wear down and do break,  leaving you naked again sooner or later.  You will feel the burn, finding rare resources and the sort,  as you go along. The down side, is having resources in your pocket to repair your gear in order to survive. So keep that in mind.

In Closing:

Conan Exiles is a blast to play. You are given a lot of freedom, a fair amount to do in this rich world of the wasteland. The game has some early issues in terms of bugs. The issue with the bugs,  is something that can be fixed over time.. If you are a hardcore Conan the Barbarian fan, love some funny physics in terms of breasts or genitals, you are will have the honeymoon phase of giggling about that, then tossing your self deep into the experience of this open, and lush world with so many positives in the future times to come for many fans of survival games.

Recommended!!