Conan

There are a lot of overused ideas in Conan that should by all rights make me very angry, however, with this game it just seems to work.

  There are cheesy one-liners shouted by Conan:

                                                            "Ha!  You scratch like a child!"

That in any other game would make me groan in disgust. Used here they force me to grin from ear to ear. The story has a classic Conan feel.  Many of you probably just remember Conan as those movies with the "Governator" in them.

Those movies, while good, are a sad shadow of what Conan was in the books.  It is Conan from the books that shows up to the game and kicks all kinds of demon butt.  No Conan story is complete without the mention of beautiful, scantily clad maidens in distress.   This game would be remiss if it didn't include them, so it did...a lot.  It's a great time, just don't expect to think too much and learn to go with the flow.

 

With all of that being said, Conan is not perfect.  The platforming elements can be very, very frustrating.  You have no control over the camera and often times are not able to see where it is that you should be jumping to.  This resulted in many a taunting screen telling me that Cimerians should not die so easily.  The AI also appears to be very unbalanced as well.  Often times enemies will just wonder around while their friends shriek in pain and horror while Conan severs their arms.  Other times they will all gather around Conan and attack one after another making it impossible for Conan to do anything other than defend until they get bored and ease up.

The QTE's (QuickTimeEvents) are also strangely suited to most of the Boss fights that await you on your adventure. The combat is blissfully smooth and simple. This kind of hack-n-slash would get very boring if it wasn't for the light RPG elements of the game. You have five different attack sets (Sword, Dual Wield, Sword and Shield, Hand to Hand, and Two Handed-Weapons) each with there own moves that you pay exp to unlock and use to "master". Once you master a move it often rewards you each time you use it with some kind of small bonus such as extra health pickups.

Another small complaint is the utter lack of any multiplayer modes.  I understand that a co-op play through would really break the game, but there should be something there even if it is just a battle arena mode such as in the classic Golden Axe. Replaibility appears to be more for complitionist and gamerscore whores.  If these two categories leave you out then this game is a weekend rental at best.  While by no means a collet-a-thon game, if you plan on getting everything this game offers you will have to put in a bit more time.  Many of the achievements are tied to finding all power ups, mastering all attacks, and defeating a certain number of enemies on certain levels.  None of these appear to be "impossible" just rather time consuming.  For fans of the old books, however, this is a must buy.  All others I encourage a rental first (unless you are able to get it used on the cheap).

OVERALL GRADE:  B