Conan

While on a quest for a treasure Conan unknowingly sets loose an evil that would go on to terrorize the land. The sorcerer by the name of Graven whom Conan releases unleashes a Black Plague on the populace. Conan sets off to kill the man and save the land. -summary

Conan is a video game I put off for a very long time. Normally games that are based on either comics, novels, or movies, are some of the worst titles you can come across. Developed by Nihilistic Software, published by THQ and released in 2007, Conan is among the better licensed games. While it can be fun running around killing waves of enemies. I just couldn't help notice that even for a next gen game on the PS3, there are PS2, X-Box, and even Gamecube titles out there that could visually blow this game away. That's pretty bad if you think about it. I would have been mad had I bought this on its original release date for the full price.

Game Play:

Conan attempts to use the God of War and Ninja Gaiden style of play as its foundation. It's a third person hack and slash adventure title, that follows Conan across Hyboria as he tackles plenty of pirates, warriors, giant apes, and other manner of beasts. The game is based on Robert E. Howard's Conan novels, and it's loosely based on Queen of the Black Coast. The game feels quite ambitious as Conan is capable of unlocking a plethora of very cool moves. The combat engine, as sluggish as it may be at times, is the game's strongest point and there are moments it can be real fun to play.

Through killing your enemies, Conan earns red rubies that helps him purchase new moves for each weapon style he can use. He can battle with a regular sword, equip either a shield, extra sword for double handed combat, or drop them all for a large broad sword; and there are moves to purchase for each of these styles. One of the coolest features here is just learning what Conan can do next. He can use the broad sword to cleave enemies into two pieces, use the shield to decapitate, or pull off a combo ending with a devastating suplex. He can even perform grabs such as pile-drivers and single knee back-breakers. Make no mistake, once you develop your moves list and master the very easy button prompts; Conan will be one serious badass. When the enemies attempt to gang up and overwhelm you, it's possible to go into a defensive strategy with blocking, and parry the enemies attacks into something vicious that results in a single blow kill, such as chopping enemies in half while they're airborne or tearing the guts out of their stomachs. Parrying is very important in this game, because here the enemies can become quite annoying as they block with shields that can sometimes injure you, or spam their own devastating combos. You can also toss boulders and crates in their direction for damage.

The game tries its best to just be something else. There's even a segment where you must protect your partner's ship from enemy ships, by using what appears to be a giant crossbow. You wind it up and unleash a projectile towards the enemy ship. The game features plenty of checkpoints too which can be a life saver. Only in the final stage do they seem to be placed in the weirdest of sections.

Conan is very linear yet it tries to be more by allowing you to search areas for additional rubies and even captive women for more rubies. It also attempts to enhance the experience with some very easy to solve puzzles and plat forming segments. While the latter can be a good change of pace, there are moments in the game it can be quite annoying, more on that later.

Now on to the mixed and even bad stuff which keeps Conan average at best. The boss battles are mixed themselves, yet they lean more towards being annoying and not fun. Many of them are difficult for the wrong reasons. They rely on hit and run tactics. This isn't exactly the problem, it's just that these fights are multi-level and your strategy really doesn't change. These fights are pretty much long for nothing. One fight besides the unbelievably annoying final battle, is one fight late in the game against a barbarian. He begins the battle with a sword, you must rely on a quick hit and run strategy. He loses the sword, health bar refills, and now he has a spiked ball and chain which requires the exact same strategy. What kind of fun is that? And there are several battles like these. However, some are cleverly done though, such as the fight with a rampaging dragon that finds you moving from point A to B for higher ground, and even a giant squid that attempts to sink your ship, plus infects your crew members turning them against you. I didn't completely dread the boss battles, but I wasn't glad to come across them either.

At times the plat forming can feel quite out of place, because Conan doesn't seem physically equipped for it. There are some jumps that appear easy to pull off, but I found myself dying during them, or falling to a lower level, thus repeating the same steps again. The weapons play a crucial role in developing the combat, however, they are quite under-developed themselves. They possess attributes unique to them like the double weapons being quicker and weaker, while larger ones being slower and more powerful; but there aren't any major differences between them. For example, a long spear uses the same combos and has the same function as the broad sword; and wielding two axes in each hand carries the same effect as two swords, or even if you mix them up with each other. There's no exploration or true variety with the weapons. You can grab whatever is there and run through the stages, and I'm sure most people are going to stick with a sword and shield for very easy parries.

The narrative isn't too bland, as it follows Conan gathering the pieces for his armor plus there is a back story and an attempt towards character development. Conan is a womanizer in the books, and although he doesn't lay every chick here, he gets a couple in bed. Now one thing that I did no notice is that Conan has access to magic attacks, when in the original source material he hates magic. So I find it a little unbelievable that he would use it here, and since the magic attacks do not effect bosses. I see even little purpose in having it in the game. I would have preferred a rage meter you can access at will, instead of the power boost you gain only after stringing together a certain amount of attacks.

Conan really does try to ape off God of War and Ninja Gaiden; it feels dated when compared to both of them though, visually and game play wise. It lacks the depth in its setting and enemies when compared to the former, and it completely lacks the flash and depth in weaponry in the latter. It's not exactly a watered down hack and slash game, but it feels many years too late. It could have been a classic adding more of a foundation for these type of games had it ran on the PS2 during the system's very early days.

Controls:

The best thing going on for this game here is in the button prompts. It's true the game can function as a button masher, however you'll be robbing yourself of some really cool moves that are so easy to do. The level of strictness when pressing the same button for additional functions is quite forgiving. I never saw myself pulling off a move I didn't want to do. There's a feeling of lag in some of the moves; I think it just has everything to do with Conan's sluggish movements being an over-sized brute. Now the part of the controls I can't stand plays into my issues with the platforming I mentioned earlier. It seems as if Conan can be way too sensitive at the wrong times, and it makes traversing across narrow pathways, which quite frankly aren't that narrow to begin with feel like hell crossing. This may have something to do with another element I'll address later. In any case, I don't feel his movements at all and this part assisted me in some easy deaths. Accessing magic attacks are very easy since they can be chosen with the directional pad, and every other button does something from blocking to picking items up.

Graphics/Sound/Music:

It's crazy that for a next gen game Conan could have ran smoothly on the PS2 visually, and it still would have been lacking a little. The character designs are lacking plenty of detail which is real noticeable during the cut scenes. They can be very bland with a low amount of polygons, textures, and their movements feel robotic. The game looks ugly in several areas with the backgrounds being the only good thing. Despite the bland and gloom feel of the setting, the mythological atmosphere is intact. It does feel like a fantasy world so it earns points for this. The ruins, very dark caves, and pirate ships fits perfectly in the world of Conan.

The gore can look cool on some occasions, with enemies being sliced in half right down the middle standing out the most. The animation has its moments as well, since you can see each of the movements during combos. You see that quick headbutt from Conan, and then the quick follow up with the shield to the throat. Now my major problem here which also plays into my controls complaint is the lack of control concerning the camera. The camera is fixed, and sometimes the positioning of it makes judging distance and position very difficult. There's one part late in the game, where you move down a circular path on a collapsing plat form, and there were times I slipped right off, and it was clearly because of the controls sensitivity and ill placement of the camera. It's not impossible to get through but I found myself concentrating more than what I should have. I definitely would have preferred being able to position the camera right behind the character.

The sound effects are best through the voice overs making everyone easy to hear and understand. The narrative during the cut scenes is clear and understandable mainly due to the medium pace it's delivered. I never felt lost in what was going on story wise. The soundtrack if anything, blends well with the style of the game, and adds the intimidation factor to the boss bottles; other than that nothing stood out to me.

Final Thoughts:

Conan does not have an online multiplayer feature, and there really isn't much here to pull one back. The game is between 6-8 hours and you will be able to unlock nearly all of the moves in your first play through. This is not a game anyone needs to play, or should pay more than ten bucks for. There are plenty of better games of this type to choose from.

Rating: 5/10

Pros:Action and combat system are easy to get into

Cons:Visually ugly and just not much else to it