Originally created by Robert E. Howard, it appears Conan was a means by which the author could externalize his desires to escape his nerdy body and the restrictions that society placed upon it. And with the stereotypical audience for videogames doesn’t that sound like the perfect premise game?! This interactive adaptation sticks to the original short stories and the Dark Horse and Marvel comics of the late 20th century, rather than the barbarian's celluloid adaptations.
Conan’s tale follows him as he awakens on a beach, suffering short term amnesia, after battling a decidedly villainous sorcerer named Graven. As he attempts to piece together the events that led him to be bobbing about in the ocean’s brine he begins a quest that parallels this same internal sojourn, attempting to obtain some segments of magical armour that were previously his own. Although initially promising, the game’s story becomes a little lacklustre as the game progresses. The scenarios of the different chapters sometimes seem appear out of nowhere, as if a few pages of the screenplay were torn out between the two sections.
Without a doubt, Conan draws immediate comparisons to God of War, mimicking much of the game's overtly brutal and sexualized content. Its hack and slash gameplay, macho posing, and fixed camera conjure up definite memories of the title that is one of the defining contemporary action games. And in many aspects it comes close to delivering gameplay analogous with that available in the series, along with the enjoyment, and is definitely one of the better games in that style available today.
For some reason Conan always had trouble making new friends.
Controls consist of the fairly standard heavy and light attacks, along with grappling and jumping. To flesh out these basic attacking skills a series of combination moves have been implemented, and the list of these is extensive to say the least. Earning experience throughout levels by downing certain enemies, rescuing helpless females, and searching out chests scattered throughout levels, new skills can be obtained, usually centering on combos. Quick attacks can also be enacted when an enemy’s strike is blocked at the last minute, resulting in a quick, and generally gory, death to the receiver of your blade’s edge.
Different weapon choices also go a great way in varying the ways in which you can slice and dice your enemies. Essentially providing you with a selection of fighting stances, weapons can be picked up along the way. These vary little throughout, but with the amount of brutality that can be enacted with each there’s little to worry about. Dual wielding, double handed, sword and shield and single sword are all options when it comes to arming yourself. The unlockable combos fall into these four categories too, meaning that there’s a list of dozens of moves to clear your way of foes.
As you regain pieces of Conan's magical armour special magical attacks are unlocked. Things such as unleashing a flock of devilish birds or a fiery rain on your opponents add yet another mode of dispatching them.
With all the finesse of a teenager’s first forays into the world of love, Conan has some incredibly embarrassing and awkward moments. Rescuing the ‘bonus’ women, chained up for some unknown reason throughout the levels is one of the most fantastically pubescent aspects of the game. Their topless figures, barely clothed lower bodies, and idiotic speeches of appreciation, such as, ‘crush me with your love’, made us remember what it was like to be 13 again. However our fears of being walked in on centred on how these scenes may have degraded our constant cries that videogames are slowly growing up, rather than the embarrassment of being sprung exercising our teenage sexual curiosity.
As daft as rescuing scantily clad females and consistently slicing foolish enemies in two is, Conan’s gameplay is, almost embarrassingly, fun. The brevity in variation of gameplay does hold back the enjoyment offered up by the game a little, but eviscerating swathes of attackers, however macabre the concept is, allows for some fantastically satisfying guilty pleasures.
Competing in the human clean and jerk.
Outside of combat, spatial puzzles, such as knocking down obstructions with ballista bolts and cutting chains to access new areas, rarely provide any great cerebral strain. These usually scream out their solutions with sparkling interactive points and are usually mere roadblocks, but they do allow the game to mix up some of the action and to vary the pacing of the levels a little. Not all aspects of navigating your environment are enjoyable however.
Leaping through sections can be a little problematic and at times when launching from ledge to ledge. We had the experience of plummeting back down to the bottom of these platforming hells several times mainly due to average camera placement and slightly non responsive jumping controls.
There’s a great deal of inspiration drawn from the comics when it comes to Conan’s visual stylings. Its art direction is generally brilliant. The environments and all that is contained within them are typically lush and well fleshed out. Most things look simply stunning when quickly glanced at (especially the various ways in which you can dissect your enemies and the mess this leaves behind). However when looked at more closely some of the game’s textures are a little unpolished. Some come across as being a little unfinished, especially things such as flowing water which occasionally looks a little like pixelated ash as it pours out of carefully placed pipes. The game still manages to hold up extremely well when compared to other titles out there though.
Feeling a little less polished than the games of the God of War series, the Barbarian’s first outing on this current generation of consoles does a great job of providing some great hack and slash gameplay. Conan may have moments of awkwardness and be slightly derivative, just like our teenage years, but just as with this period of our lives, when compared to the fun that is available within, these shortcomings pale in comparison.
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