Between the time when the oceans drank Atlantis and the rise of the Sons of Aryas, there was an age undreamed of. And unto this Conan, destined to wear the jeweled crown of Aquilonia upon a troubled brow, wandered into the Exiled Lands, where he… mostly drank booze in a strip club and complained about sorcerers. Let me tell you of someone else’s completely different adventure!
Conan Exiles is a multiplayer-focused survival-crafting RPG with a particular bend toward roleplay flavor. After a customary tour of duty in early access, the game was released to a surprisingly eager audience. So eager, in fact, that it was almost impossible to find any space on the game’s official servers the two weeks following the full release.
Created by Funcom, known best for its various MMORPGs, such as Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures and The Secret World, the company has managed to infiltrate one of the most saturated modern genres with quite a surprising gem. While its last Conan-themed game was a desperate final take on classic MMORPG gameplay — whose only real crimes were a buggy launch and not being World of Warcraft — Conan Exiles manages to capture the spirit of the early MMO in both gameplay and flavor.
Sadly, Funcom’s trend of releasing games with some pretty glaring technical problems might end up holding the game back like many of its other titles. As an early access title, I was hoping they would have worked out Exiles’ kinks before launch. The game is remarkably better than when it first debuted in early access, but in the end it still feels like an unfinished, proof of concept, early access game.
That said, it’s in a better state than most early access survival-crafting games and I’ve got to give it kudos for actually releasing, rather than spending the majority of its lifespan in development. The game is both playable and enjoyable in its current state and hopefully its successful launch will carry it through many more iterations.
The game’s combat mechanics are fun and interesting when they work, but rubberbanding and poor hitboxes make it a mostly frustrating effort. There’s a heavy focus on melee, with the few ranged options the game has seeing more utility as an aggro pulling tool instead of competitive weapons.
Customization is slider based and the game has a togglable full nudity option for those so inclined — there’s even a slider to decide how well endowed your character is. If you like building, there’s a ton of furniture to make some pretty detailed homes. If you fancy yourself a fashionista, most armors and clothes in the game can be dyed.
The game has a religion system you can either set at character creation or discover from NPCs in the world. You can even worship the best god in the Conan universe, Crom, who is basically the option for those who don’t want to participate in the religion system at all. Leveling up a religion gives special item recipes and allows players to summon colossal avatars to obliterate enemy bases.
There’s a sort of taming system in the game where players can capture and “thrall” enemy NPCs. This allows you to assign them to a workstation for special recipes and faster crafting speeds, and there are even thralls who are suited for combat. It’s a neat system, but poor pathing and AI make the NPCs rather inept for anything other than guard duty.
Aside from fending off the occasional wandering creature, you’ll need to defend your base from The Purge. Depending on how active you are, your Purge meter will fill up as you play. When it gets to a certain point, an army will advance from the edge of the map to your base and lay siege, if they ever make it. Like the thralls, monster pathing is broken most of the time, leading your would-be siegers to stand in place forever or struggle to walk up a ledge.
The world of the Exiled Lands is immersive and vast, with many things to explore and discover. If you’re a fan of the Conan universe, it makes for a good romp with plenty of opportunities for role play. There are boss versions of most monsters and a few dungeons with some pretty challenging fights as well.
The different server types give a few options for how to play, with PVP servers for an all-out free-for-all, PVE servers for no player fighting and the PVE-Conflict servers — a hybrid that allows PVP at certain hours, though no base destruction.
Conan Exiles manages to stand out from the rest of the genre because of its theme and a commitment to role play flavor. If you can overlook the game’s glaring technical issues or just enjoy the Conan universe, you’re likely to enjoy your trek through the Exiled Lands, whether you piece together the way to escape, or like me, build an inn in the woods and start selling mead.
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