Re: Conan Exiles Pc Review
Alesha Canant
I had been looking forward to playing Conan Exiles. My reviews of Conan the Barbarian & Conan the Destroyer made me interested in learning more about the Cimmerian hero. I've been reading some of Robert E. Howard's stories and even some of the comics (they're good). I was happy to see that there were a few Conan video games out there, and just my luck, Conan Exiles is now on Xbox Game Pass.
Since I have Game Pass on my new Xbox Series S, I knew I would be trying Conan Exiles out no matter what, so I went in blind. All I knew was that it is a survival game. I've messed around with a couple of survival games over the years; Don't Starve is the one I played the most, as the early days of the PS4 did not have many games to play.
Conan Exiles originally launched in 2018 on PC, PS4, and Xbox One, but it looks like an Xbox 360 game. Not a good start. After creating my character, I hit some of the buttons to figure out the controls, and what do you know? I leveled up a few times. Nice.
Your character starts with nothing but underwear, but very quickly you learn that about anything and everything you can see can be gathered for crafting: rocks, sticks, plant fiber, etc. Want to chop down some trees? Craft an axe first. Conan Exiles' early game loop is consists of: gathering, crafting, leveling up, keeping yourself healthy, and alive.
Roaming monsters and other survivors run towards you for attempted murder. You can choose to fight back or run away. Hopefully, you have good stamina control, because death and loss of your progress await if you don't. Death starts you over from the beginning of the game. Although, not as brutal as a game such as Returnal, as you keep your gained levels and recipes.
I played Conan Exiles for about 5 hours and then I uninstalled it. I gave it the old college try but sometimes you just know a game isn't for you. I'm generally a solo player and this just doesn't seem like a game I want to sink hours and hours into. Maybe the cooperative/multiplayer aspect of this game is a more rewarding experience, but it's just not my thing.
CE's roots as an MMO poison a lot of the experience, and with most of the stuff you can build locked behind DLC it is fundamentally compromised. The game feels dreary and sluggish and is constantly telling players "NO!", with only the most spartan interactions between the player and the world. Although it's not buggy at all, mechanically it feels like an alpha.
Meanwhile, Valheim delivers an immense world and actually blends its survival, RPG, and crafting elements together into a cohesive loop, all while feeling more polished and complete than Conan Exiles. Valheim a joy to play on its own merits and never feels compromised by being single- or multi-player.
I actually almost bought Conan Exiles, I'm glad I saw that it was coming to Game Pass. I just rewatched the Conan movies for the first time in years and started reading the original Howard stories along with some of the comics and have been enjoying it. It's a shame there isn't a good, modern Conan game.
bought it around when it came to ps4 and played it with my fiancee in our own save , it has that shitty teether mechanic alot of these games seem to have that made it not too fun. fast forward a month or so and we played it with some work buddies and that was admittedly alot more fun but playing on a server has its own issues like if you don't log in for a week al your shit gets wiped ( we moved) i haven't touched it since. it was pretty buggy at the time but not in a deal breaker sort of way but having seen/fought some of those bosses i can't imagine playing it solo. i'm glad you were able to give it a gamepass go tho , better than spending money on something you don't like n all
I can't really speak to the console versions of the game but I have sunk plenty hours in to it on PC.
Set up a dedicated server to play with friends and doing so gets rid of the annoying tethering system you guys are talking about. Looks a good bit better on PC most likely too.
But if you're only option is playing it on console then yeah probably a pass
@gla55jaw: yeah i get what you mean . i think the only other conan game i can think of that 'new' is that RTS game i think it was dan that did a quicklook of it a few years back. n thats definitely not the same as playing an action game.
Conan Exiles is surprisingly good. When we first learned about an open world survival game themed on the Conan universe, we were tempted to write it off as a cash grab. And that might have been the initial idea, but the result is not only a labour of love for the genre, but also the barbarian himself.
Picture the scene: you're a completely naked, ripped, and very well-endowed male or female tied to a cross in some desert, left to die for an unknown crime. That is, until our favourite misogynist Conan arrives to free you because he's actually a pretty decent guy. He then leaves you naked, alone, and scared in the desert to fend for yourself.
That's where the game starts, and it's incredibly compelling stuff. Your first priority will be on clothing yourself (after spending a lot of time speechless at the remarkably accurate genital physics), finding something to use as a weapon, and quenching your thirst and hunger.
And before you know it, eight hours have passed and you've built a lovely house, crafted a sword, and started working on your first leather armour set. You might even have a proper bed, basic furniture, and a fence around your property to protect it.
And that sense of reward doesn't let up anytime soon. There's always a goal to work towards in Conan Exiles, and not knowing how to even go about achieving it makes it even more compelling. You'll hit a dead enemy with a pickaxe and get hides, then you'll venture a little too far out of your comfort zone and stumble across an iron ore deposit. The rewards are constant, and each time you return to your crude base you'll do so with a wealth of fresh knowledge about the world, as well as a ton of plans on how to conquer it.
That you can do all of that with a friend or group in multiplayer is the cream on top, though. You can even choose a server with or without player killing depending on your preference. The servers are all dedicated too, and run the game super smoothly from our experience so far. You can save your progress and return at any point as well, and going inside your house keeps you safe from the dangers of the outside world.
The only real thing letting Conan Exiles down is its general jankiness. It freezes at random (often inopportune) moments, has a less than stable frame rate even on a PS4 Pro, and some of the animations are, frankly, just a little bit rubbish.
We also can't decide whether it's good looking or not. It varies wildly from environment to environment, with some reminiscent of the PS3 days while others are Monster Hunter World levels of gorgeous. The character models are terrific (maybe a bit too much so in some areas) while the hair is jarringly unrealistic.
If you love open world survival games, you'll overlook that, though, because it's just so damn fun. That probably says more about the genre than Conan Exiles, however, because it doesn't do anything particularly different. In fact, unless you really like the aesthetics you probably won't stick around for very long if you're invested in the likes of Minecraft or Ark: Survival Evolved.
But we still commend Conan Exiles for being more than the sum of its parts, and blending excellent survival mechanics with the harsh world of Conan. If you're a fan of either, this is well worth a shot.
Conan Exiles is a surprisingly good open world survival game that does a good job of blending genre mechanics with the harsh world of Conan the Barbarian. It's seriously addictive stuff despite general jankiness and a strange obsession with nudity, but the multiplayer is the real highlight. If you're looking for something new to play with your friends for a bit, look no further.
Glen joined Nintendo Life in 2018 as Guides Editor, assembling walkthroughs, tips, and tricks for some of Switch's biggest games. He went on to work as Editor for Pocket Tactics and Senior SEO Strategist for Metro.
For some reason I got it (not my kind of game) and I really enjoy it. It has it flaws, but it is also fun! My only problem is that I have my main character at a server that gets full too often, so sometimes I can't log for hours.
Plays very well, some bugs can ruin the experience, but overall this can only improve. Can see the engine needs a little more optimisation but the draw distance helps to immerse you. Building and crafting is some of the best i've seen, even if it can be overwhelming at the beginning.
I'm really enjoying it myself, and I'm usually not someone who enjoys survival games. Generally, if a game has survival aspects I'll tend to steer clear, but this has really captured my attention. I've spent so much time just building a house and trying to get set up before I go exploring and grabbing myself some thralls.
This was not on my radar at all! And i use to love conan comix. Really glad i read this review (which i was close to just skipping) i loooove open world. I love conan. Im pretty keen on survival as long as it isnt too cruel. Like a constant horrible click ticking down making you COMPLETELY UNABLE to just enjoy the game.
"The only real thing letting Conan Exiles down is its general jankiness. It freezes at random (often inopportune) moments, has a less than stable frame rate even on a PS4 Pro, and some of the animations are, frankly, just a little bit rubbish."
Maybe an eight once these things get fixed. To be honest, I'm enjoying watching people play this on YouTube. I don't have enough time to invest unfortunately. Even taken to turning on Ni No Kuni 2 and switching off the tele just to get more cash in from my kingdom whilst I mow the grass etc...
What is best in life? Crush the enemy. See them driven before you. And hear the lamentation of the women...but first, ten hours of wayward wandering, goods gathering, hovel habitation, and fence forging.
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