Conan

The Good
Returning to visit his village in Cimmeria's grim, grey hills, Conan finds his people slaughtered and his village sacked. A village elder, crucified as a warning, lasts long enough to tell Conan about the Vulture Cult who put every last villager to the sword in order to obtain a magical artifact. Vowing vengeance on the Vulture Cult, Conan turns south in pursuit of the villainous riders. Black-haired? Check! Sullen-eyed? Check! Sword-in-hand? Check!

Conan plays out from a third person perspective, acting as a combat-based barbarian simulator. On his march south, Conan encounters scores of enemies to be hacked, slashed, and (occasionally) bludgeoned. Starting with his father's sword, Conan first encounters a solitary wolf. Using both mouse buttons and some keyboard maneuvers, Conan easily adds another pelt to his collection. Before long Conan encounters packs of wolves, requiring a little more finesse. Luckily, the more experience Conan has in combat the better he becomes.

An RPG element is just one nice feature that keeps Conan from feeling like a basic hack and slasher. Conan earns experience points with each kill which he can use to purchase powerful combos, strengthen existing attacks, and lengthen his life and stamina bar. Conan's repertoire ranges from basic slashes and thrusts, to complicated attacks which hit groups of enemies or combinations that feed off each other. The stronger the attack, the more damage Conan does, but his stamina also takes a hit—so there's a bit of strategy too.

If you play this game expect tons of combat and tons of enemies—human and otherwise. Combat animations look convincing and the weaponry makes nice clashes and clatters. Conan has three weapon types available: sword, hammer, and axe. As he journeys, Conan finds upgraded weapons of each type and hidden pieces of the tantalizing Atlantean Sword. Conan has few usable inventory items. There are the standard health and stamina drinks, occasional puzzle-based inventory items, the odd armor, and perhaps a map. More important are the rune stones Conan must find.

Crom, Conan's god, is typically portrayed as being… indifferent. Here, not so. Crom has left rune stones, so Conan can save his progress. Conan can have up to four rune stones at a time, but since there is no autosave feature, he might want to think about when to use them. Crom also has a nice backup plan if Conan falls in combat. If Conan can defeat enemies in Crom's otherworld arena, then he is resurrected on the spot. If Conan doesn't die in combat though, he's SOL.

Conan traverses through large, but linear, levels and makes his way through a good chunk of the Hyborian Age map as described by Robert E. Howard. His pursuit takes him through the land of the savage Picts, sand-blasted Stygia, green and deadly Darfar and far beyond. Level design is largely good, but begins to feel similar due to linearity of design—it doesn't matter if you are in the capital city of Kordava or the subterranean temple of a forgotten god, you can't explore much.

Graphically, combat animations and wall textures are the high points. Actually the high point would be the skeletons manacled to the walls who scream at Conan. There are a few cinematics using the game's engine and nice Indiana Jones-style map overlays. Most levels look good—the jungles of Darfar seem lush and Cimmeria seems foreboding. Voice acting is decent. Music is great and is cued in to the action.

The Bad
If you are a Conan fan, then I have no trouble recommending this game. However, I wouldn't recommend this game to a non fan and I have to warn fans that Conan has major problems.

After a really long, wordy prologue you see Conan and he doesn't look so good. Luckily you mostly see him from behind, cause he ain't got much of a face and whatever they were trying for in the chest region just didn't come off.

He doesn't control so well either. Blame mushy controls or a wonky camera, but he doesn't move accurately which makes the few jumping puzzles nightmarish. This really rankles, since Conan is always described as having catlike dexterity. You'll hate opponents who use ranged weapons on Conan, since Conan struggles to evade their attacks. Usually, you have to take the punishment as you slog your way up to them.

Combat works well, but I can't recommend the keyboard/mouse setup if you want to execute all the combos. Also, you'll get pretty tired of fighting skeletons, especially the ones that just need to hold their sword near Conan.

Conan's story is good, but you have to scoff at the designers' assertion that it is an independent adventure. The music is mostly borrowed from Basil Poledouris's movie score and substitute the Snake Cult for the Vulture Cult and you have Conan the Barbarian's plot. Actually I was amazed at how often the game consciously references the movie. It felt like the designers had a general lack of confidence in gamers accepting new material.

Finally, I hate save systems that punish players. I wish I could spend all day gaming, but I'm an adult with responsibilities. Let me save when I need to, where I need to, or autosave at the end of each level so I don't have a lot to replay.

The Bottom Line
Conan shows a lot of promise for what could be a new gaming franchise, but I can't recommend this game—even patched. Combat works well, but I'd like to see more interactivity, more explorable areas, and a better character model. Better yet, go back to the books for the next one.