CONAN EXILES Review for Xbox One

Conan! What is best in life? Certainly, crushing your enemies for starters. A roof over your head is just as good in the unforgiving wastes laid out before you and far beyond the eye can see in this newest addition to the survival genre.

Welcome to yet another round of hardcore survival in an unforgiving world! We begin our adventure of Conan Exiles by developer Funcom crucified and stripped bare of everything. Our favorite barbarian hero casually comes along and frees us from our bondage, setting us loose upon terra incognita. He just as quickly leaves us behind, saying that we will meet again. As we progress through the tutorial, we are quick to learn that the game does not want hold your hand for any longer than necessary. We gather raw materials, such as stone, wood, and plant fiber in the hopes that we can actually survive the first night. By the beginning of Chapter 2, we’re ready to start building our first shelter.

The starting zone is a blistering desert with dunes, swallowing up entire ruins, winding rivers, and dusty plateaus. You can even find large carvings in the mountains, like the giant Sentinels. In case you are wondering if there are any NPC villages or cities – I have not found them, and I do not know if they exist. There was an NPC camping by the riverside who claimed they were in the north, so I set out to find them. Traversing the landscape and crossing into zones is not as hard as it sounds, but you will eventually pay the price for brazenly running around the map without a care in the world. I ran all the way into the jungles in the east, just barely surviving panther attacks, to find an ancient ruin of a city now occupied by gorillas… and they ripped me to pieces.

Luckily, I had crafted a bedroll, which allowed me to set a respawn point for my character. You are likely to find yourself in a precarious situation like me, especially in the first region with hyenas, crocodiles (or were they alligators), and dinosaur-looking monstrosities just wandering around and looking for their next meal. The crafting in this game is very easy to pick up, and learning new items comes fairly quickly. Just learning one thing can lead to many other inventions. You need to be wary, however, that all your tools, clothes, and weapons get worn as you use them. The worst is when you break your stone sword in the middle of combat.

As you level up, you acquire points that you invest to certain traits, like strength, endurance, agility, and resourcefulness. If you apply enough of them, then you can acquire perks. One survivalist perk is being able to eat raw meat without suffering a poisoning effect. Another allows you to gather more resources than you would normally. So, you can see how helpful these can be when you are just starting out.

Now, I’ve been playing offline for the most part, so I don’t have much to comment on the community, the servers, or general online interactions, but, after being set back many times due to the environment, I am more confident when I say this is definitely a game more so for a group of friends, who want to share in a cooperative experience. The trailers indicate that entire cities can be built, and after seeing the tools that one player can use, I believe it.

There are also some smaller things that I found pretty exciting. When you start off in the character creator, you get to choose your race, sex, hairstyle, and even how well-endowed you are. As you scroll through the races and religions, you can sort of introduce yourself to the lore of the world. I know absolutely nothing about the Conan universe, but I’m willing to give it a shot. One of the first friendly characters I met in my playthrough was a shaman cannibal. He was nice enough to teach me the ways of his religion, therefore, I could craft a shrine to his god. So, theoretically, you could roleplay as the world’s most persistent Jehovah witness and convert everyone you find – especially since it does feel like the end of the world too.

The only thing that has really frustrated me is how glitchy the game can be at times. There was a situation where I was locked in deadly combat with a crocodile, and, even though I stood right over it, my attacks failed to connect. This could be an example of my terrible swordsmanship, but I would chalk it up to glitchiness. There are other moments too, like when I was swimming and, before making it to the shore, my character sort of hovered there in thin air for a second or two. Sometimes I used the glitches to my advantage, like when a giant creature got stuck between two rocks – I murdered that thing with ease. I would argue that it’s something you can live with, but if you can’t stand occasional latency, or silly animation glitches, then maybe proceed cautiously – or turn down your settings.

I’m having a good time with Conan Exiles so far. I haven’t really focused on the building aspect of the game yet but exploring was equally as entertaining. I’m also excited for the main theme and various other bits of the soundtrack that bring the game to life. I think a fair rating for this title is an 8.5 out of 10. I hope you get the chance to check it out for yourselves!

Take a Look at the Conan Exiles Launch Trailer:

Conan Exiles is available for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and Windows PC.

John Pruitt

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I like to think of myself as the average Joe who grew up alongside video games. I have fun playing strategy games, RPGs, shooters, sandboxes, the whole shebang! Every game provides an experience whether it strikes you as profound, mundane, or someplace in between. I'd like to weigh in my two cents before you spend a single penny.

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