Conan Exiles | Xbox Game Preview | Review

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The story of Conan Exiles is one of two halves. On launch day (for Xbox One), we tried to give it a go straight out the gate and found it to be an extremely lag-ridden, buggy mess. In multiplayer players would drop out as soon as others joined and in single player things weren’t much better, with the game allowing you about five minutes of play before the sheer weight of everything which had to be loaded in around you caused a few seconds of lag for every second of normal gameplay. In short, it wasn’t something we were feeling too confident about as far as first impressions go.

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 by James
 Michael
​ Parry

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@James_Parry

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Developer: Funcom
Publisher: Koch Media
Players: 1-40
Platforms: Xbox One, PS4, PC

To developer Funcom’s credit, the team jumped on the issues fairly quickly - and apparently had a launch day patch ready which ended up being held up at Microsoft’s end - so after a few days a revised build was available for players which addressed many of these stability issues. So, as things seemed to be looking up, we jumped in again with the task of building a house, which you can watch in our multiplayer gameplay video.

To go back to basics, Conan Exiles is a survival game in the ballpark of titles like Ark: Survival Evolved, Minecraft and even Portal Knights. As you start to explore you’ll discover flashback visions giving an idea of why humanity was exiled and the deeper meanings behind the world, but, at face value, it’s another game that starts by punching trees and doesn’t really tell you what to do.

In general, taking Ark as probably the closest comparison, Conan behaves somewhat straightforwardly. You have seven attributes to throw points into as you level up, to increase your strength, accuracy etc. and at the same time earn recipe points to be able to craft new items. The basics are available off the bat, like a pickaxe or hatchet, but for more substantial tools and weapons, you’ll need to invest some time taking on lower level enemies, or rushing human NPCs as a group, to gain experience.

Fortunately, just surviving is enough to let your XP slowly build, and if you mind your own business and don’t disturb the enemies (Liam…) they tend to keep to themselves. The day and night pass without you having to worry too much about overheating or freezing to death, and, in terms of survival, keeping some cooked food handy is a must but water is fairly plentiful around the game’s starting area.

One element which is yet to be explored in depth is the idea of religion, as you choose one of a handful of deities for your character to follow when creating them and each have their own altars with their own abilities. For example, if you character follows Yog, their shrine (the aforementioned fire pit) will let you cook human meat, which doesn’t spoil.

The combat is straightforward enough to be able to jump into easily, though the timing can be tricky as your character generally flinches when hit, and mashing attack at the wrong time can find you stuck in a loop of being pummelled to death. Fortunately your allies will generally (if they can be trusted) come to your aid, and the game is certainly enjoyed best as a co-op experience.

While everyone levels and learns recipes separately, crafting items for others isn’t an issue, meaning we were able to craft plenty of extra clothes and weapons in preparation for our game (before the team promptly threw themselves in a fire and wasted all that hard work...just watch the video).

As far as the endgame or wider story of the game goes, that remains to be seen. The in-game map feels quite vast and filled with different climates to explore once your party is ready to venture away from the comforts of home. Make sure you’re well prepared however, as hyenas and even dragons await you and will make short work of lone survivors.

Despite a shaky start, there’s a solid game to be enjoyed here - providing you’re happy to take the initiative and work a few things out for yourself. The soaring soundtrack feels like a cross between Jurassic Park and Mars from Holst’s The Planets Suite, adding to the sense of scale and grand adventure of proceedings. There’s still plenty of work to do before the full release in 2018, but in the meantime there’s no harm getting to grips with it, providing you think it’s worth £30, but all told it’s a yes from us.

Pros

• Easy to jump into
• Doesn’t overcomplicate core survival elements
• Hints of intrigue in the game to come

Cons

• Lack of decent tutorial other than stumbling onto things
• Still plenty of bugs to be squashed
• Price could be a bit steep for some

​Verdict