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27 of 28 found the following review helpful:
CONANNov 20, 2007
By ribcage CONAN is a pretty decent game. It's not perfect, but it is a lot of fun and that's what counts. The graphics are topnotch, so all the bare breasts and over the top violence comes out with wonderful visual flair. Pretty much all you will be doing in this game is smashing out at enemies and randomly rescuing half naked women until you get to a boss battle at which point you will be angry for about 30 minutes.
The last battle is one of the cheapest, most repitative boss battles I've ever played. It took me a good 45 minutes to finish and I can't remember the last time I was so angry. But other than that, the other boss battles aren't so outrageous, it's just a matter of taking a bit to figure out what exactly the game intends for you to do.
There are some pretty brutal combos, but unfortunately most of them only really work on weaker enemies. Later in the game, once you've unlocked all your moves and have gotten used to them, these weak enemies are nowhere to be seen. You can still get a handful of combos out, and if you manage to stun the enemy you can get the ones you get on weak enemies, but by the last couple of levels I was mostly using three or four combos that actually still worked. A lot of the time, though(and this was a problem with that final boss bottle), I'd just end up getting a ton of enemies pouncing on me interrupting every single combo so that all I could do was quick strike and dodge. However, even doing that I still managed to whip out some really vicious violence and dismemberments.
Speaking of dismemberments, there are wonderful achievements, such as getting 100 dismemberments, 100 enemies thrown to their death, 100 enemies killed by boulder throws, etc. It really works to keep your variety up more.
Despite the fact that alot of times I wasn't able to get the combo I wanted out and that the boss battles weren't really fun, I enjoyed the game as a whole a lot. It's pure streamlined carnal violence with barebreasts thrown in, obviously because what guy can resist extreme brutality with breasts on the side.
Probably not really worth the full new release price, but I don't mind that I bought it within the first few days of its release. The game is a bit short, but really, I think six hours was enough. The game didn't start to drag because of this, which I think may have been a problem if it had actually continued on a few more hours.
As for replay, I'm going to be going back on the different difficulties to try it out for the achievements and I'm going to shoot for all the different death achievements. If I didn't have the achievements, though, it would just be good for some random slashing whenever I was bored.
17 of 20 found the following review helpful:
For a Conan franchise....it's a start.Oct 25, 2007
By H. Crosland
"Dredded Panthyr"
ok...this will be brief...
This game is a lil' something to do between now and Assasin's Creed.
While it won't win awards as the greatest hack n slash adventure ever....still...it's Conan....this is almost what the Barabraian's portion of Golden Axe would have been.
It's a change of pace from all of the FPSs that have/are flooding the market right now
The good
- excellent graphics
- if you are into button mashing, this is right up your alley
- different fighting styles with upgrades possible thru the use of combos
- Yes....there are naked women, so this could be a con if you are a concerned parent.
The cons
- Combos can be broken and AI could have been better
- needed a better variety of weapons
- so far most of the enemies are the same.
- No multiplayer
Another gripe is that as visceral as this game is, the camera nevcer really gets up close as you dismember the enemy. There are heads flying arms cut off guts ripped out but sometimes you are sooo busy hacking away that you really don't get to enjoy it.
This game would have benefitted more from an interesting upgrade/ loot system or even a multiplayer system, heck it could have benefitted by ripping some pages from Diablo, but for now...it's enjoyable until far more interesting titles come along.
I give it a 3.5 out of 5 stars.
9 of 10 found the following review helpful:
Sloppy and BuggyMar 25, 2008
By A. Buffalo
"Olaf the Grey"
This was a much anticipated game. I would like to return it and get my money back at full value. The game begins well enough but as you work through it becomes so difficult as to be less than enjoyable. Now, do I expect the game to be a challenge? Of course, but when you are required to memorize a litany of moves that eclipse the arts of fencing, boxing and tae kwon do put together, defeating the bosses of each level becomes more than extremely challenging. Yet this is not my major gripe. There are holes in the geometry throughout the game, the Conan sprite will often get stuck in weird places which require a reload, sometimes requiring a complete rehash of quite a bit of tough baddies you have had a hard enough time killing already. This is even more annoying when fighting against level bosses because some of them can push you into these "holes" and carve you to bits while your sprite is stuck without the ability to move or counter the attacks. If you are thinking about buying this game forget it. However I would recommend renting it because in the areas where the game is working properly it is downright fun, which is why I give it more than one star. Dismembering your enemies and then being able to kick their lifeless bodies around is just plain cool.
5 of 5 found the following review helpful:
By Crom, a decent Conan game?Jan 27, 2009
By Brendan Foy
"Foy"
Savage, Raw, Sexual, Fun are all words you can use to describe Robert E. Howards Conan character. I am a big fan of Conan, be it his adventures as penned by Robert E. Howard, the gorgeous artistic depiction of him and his world by the gifted artist Frank Frazetta and the entertaining and competent Arnold Scharzenegger films. One area I had not yet seen Conan in was Video Games so I was immediately interested when I heard about this game. There have been Conan games before, such as the MMO Age of Conan on PC (but you don't play as Conan) as well as Conan: The Dark Axe on Xbox (only released in Europe unfortunately), but this would be my first Conan gaming experience. My reaction is mixed but in the end I have to say this is a pretty fun game and all Conan fans would do themselves a favor by picking it up for a mere [...]
I went into this game not really knowing what to expect. The reviews were mixed ranging from good to average to below average. I really didn't care what other people had to say, I just wanted a fun Conan adventure. The title screen was a good start where I was met with a pounding orchestral score which captures the essence of Conan perfectly. I was immediately pumped and ready to make enemies eat my steel. The artwork is not Frank Frazetta caliber but pleasing to the eyes nonetheless and seems to have a similar style to Frazetta, the greatest Fantasy artist to ever exist.
The gameplay itself got off to a fast and intense start as well. You will find yourself in a dungeon or temple of sorts hacking away at enemies and pulling off some rather impressive moves with ease. You can make use of three different weapon classes: Single weapon with or without a shield, Dual Weapons and Two-handed Weapons. There are swords, axes, scimitars, Sabers and other weapons all with various styles and forms you can use. Pretty much any weapon an enemy is carrying, you can use for yourself. In this beginning stage I was having a blast destroying everything in my path and paying very little attention to the tutorial which would pop up hints every now and then. I was experimenting with different button combinations and discovering my own combos, it was great. I was worried that a long list of combos would be intimidating and scare me off but the button combinations are surprisingly intuitive and easy to remember and pull off. A simple combo would be hitting X three times while the more complex ones would throw in a Y and then a B at the end or start off with four presses of the X button and then two of the Y button or consist of four presses of X and holding it down on the fourth press. The back button pulls up a list of all the combos and may intimidate you at first but you will get the hang of it and have a good time learning as you go. I was spinning Conan around dishing out damage to multple enemies at once, decapitating foes in a delightfully gruesome manner, hacking off limbs, body slamming and suplexing weaklings, heabutting, punching, elbow smashing, high kicking, shield bashing, cleaving bodies in half, removing heads with an upward thrust of my shield, charging, ripping out hearts and even stealing an enemy's weapon and beating him to death with it. I picked it all up very quickly and I don't play many hack and slash games these days. Conan himself has cat like reflexes, is easy to control and every bit the warrior you expect him to be. You will feel unstoppable.
At the end of this first stage, Conan is searching for riches and bashes open a statue or container (I forget exactly what it was) and accidentally releases a Dark Wizard who had been imprisoned. Good job Conan. This Wizard isn't all that thankful for his freedom though and casts some type of spell that sends Conan flying through the air where he ends up floating in the sea. This is where the story and real game begin. The Wizard stripped Conan of his armor and used the pieces to empower creatures of his creation. Conan must now track down the pieces of his armor, killing each creature and then put that pesky Wizard back where he belongs.
At the beginning of the next stage Conan is washed up on to shore after having been adrift for days, according to the narrator (he was apparently floating face down according to the cut scene, but we'll ignore how he managed to breathe that whole time). It is here on this beach where you start the real game and you will soon realize that you don't feel quite like the bad ass you were in the tutorial stage before you let the Wizard escape. All of the impressive and brutal moves and combos I had access to have now been locked and I must unlock them one by one by gaining experience points. The first stage was just a taste of things to come. Pretty cool to get that taste, but I felt a little frustrated losing certain moves in particular. According to the story, Conan was suffering a slight case of amnesia so he has to remember how to fight as he once did and what exactly happened in that temple. Whatever, it's not important, let's get to killing.
Conan can gain experience points to unlock moves by killing enemies and finding treasure chests. He can also increase his health bar by activating runes as well as a "song of death" berzerker like ability and his magic bar (yes I said magic, more on this later). Fighting consists of combos, rolling to dodge attacks, blocking by holding down the Left Trigger and parrying where you hit the Left Trigger at just the right time as an enemy strikes and deflect his blade leaving him open for an instant kill execution style. These instant kills are fun but deflecting attacks can be pretty tough as the enemies get tougher later in the game so enjoy them while you can. As mentioned before, Conan can use different fighting classes: single wield, dual wield, two handed wield. Each one has its own combos that must be learned. After unlocking a certain attack you can then "master" that attack by using it succcesfully a specific number of times to achieve a bonus at the end. These bonuses consist of extra life power ups, experience points or magic power ups. The combat system is pretty deep, flexible and fun to use. Not every combo or weapon class will work against every enemy as effectively so you may find yourself experimenting which helps break up the monotony often found in a hack and slash. Thankfully, Conan is not slow, he is surprisingly quick with his rolls, his jumps and when single wielding and double wielding. There is a delay and lagging effect when he wields a two handed sword though and it can get frustrating. Otherwise he has cat like reflexes.
The camera in Conan is fixed at all times. This can be both a good and bad thing. In general the camera does its job well but there are times when you will be screaming for at least a zoom button so you can see where that off screen enemy is without having to approach him or get a better view of a platform jump you will have to make. Not being able to move the camera can feel restrictive but it also adds an old school type of feel to the gameplay. Like a 3D Golden Axe where you progress through a linear stage and kill enemies and open treasure chests for goodies. Speaking of goodies, there are also bare chested maidens you can rescue on your way. I don't see much nudity in games and don't really care one way or the other but it certainly fits in Conans world. If this sort of thing offends you, I suggest you play a Harry Potter game or read a Politically Correct Anne McCaffrey novel which will come across as less degrading to women because they rule the world and talk to animals. Conan lives in a savage and unforgiving world full of all forms of oppression, misogyny being one form. Slavery being another, Conan himself was once a slave and forced into hard labor. The gratuitous violence and nudity fit in well with the Dark Fantasy world Robert E. Howard gave to us.
What does not fit in well with the Conan world is Conan using magic. Conan hates magic and seeing him using it is like watching Superman play catch with a ball of Kryptonite - it makes NO SENSE. Hopefully if there is another Conan game the developers will respect the lore a little bit more. Having said that, the magic proves useful when needed. A Conan game can be excellent without magic being needed, but we are forced to use it here and might as well. You can temporarily turn enemies into stone, which works great on tougher enemies. You can cast a plague of Ravens to attack enemies surrounding you (I only used this a couple of tmes, sometimes it worked, other times it didn't). You can cast a meteor shower which kills anything in your immediate area and you can cast a void spell which sucks in all enemies around you (I actually never used this one, I tried to limit my magic use). Magic does not effect bosses though. You'll have to rely on your reflexes and steel for them.
Bosses are pretty impressive in this game. They are large multi-part bosses which have specific patterns you need to look out for. My favorite was a very long battle with a very large Dragon early on in the game. It felt like something out of a Zelda game and was quite intense. Some boss battles are more frustrating than entertaining but all of them have some real thought put into them. To kill a boss you need to look out for Quick Time Events (QTE's) which are flash prompts on the screen telling to press or tap a certain button at a certain time. I hated when these were used in Prince of Persia but in Conan they are much easier to use and more rewarding as a result. It is fun to watch Conan perform an elaborate execution on a boss when performing following the QTE's.
The graphics in this game are a mixed bag. ost of what you see looks rushed and rough around the edges but there is also plenty in the game which looks pretty good. conan is not a bad looking game at all, it actually looks pretty good but there are constant graphical glitches and too many ugly moments which can be distracting. The cut scenes are the worst offenders here where the 3D models lack detail and are incredibly stiff in the way they move. Conan could have been a great looking game if more time and money was spent on it. Nihilistic is a more than capable develoepr to do this. My guess is THQ, not the richest of Publishers, limited their resources which is unfortunate. Prince of Persia has a gorgeous art style which mixes in cel shading with traditional 3D graphics. If Conan had used a similar system but with more of a Frazetta influence, it would easily have been the best looking game on the Xbox 360 console. What we have here in Conan are mediocre graphics with some nice effects and pretty good art. All of the bosses look great though and the combat looks good too.
The sound in the game is pretty darn good. The sound effects are visceral and a delight, the music is done by the same guy who did the music for God of War and is of a high quality which rivals the awesome soundtrack of the movies and the voice acting is competent. Ron Perlman (Hellboy, Sons of Anarchy) voices Conan and does a decent job. Perlman is a great actor and his voice fits Conan perfectly, at least compared to Arnold. The problem with the voice acting is it sounds like they were just reading from a script, got paid, and left. But it is not terrible and it's not like you'll be paying much attention to the rather lame story anyway.
I don't even remember enough about the story to talk about it here. basically, you accidentallty free a Dark Wizard who steals your armor and uses it to create creatures to wreak havoc on the world. Early int he game you run into a female adventurer (not topless, and perfectly self sufficient) who helps you on your journey (she doesn't want the world to end either you know). As you gather pieces of your armor, you gain a new spell. Conan does not like magic but he figures he has to use the magic now in his armor so he can battle the Wizard he set free. He doesn't like using magic it but he got himself into this mess and now must get himself out (a sorry explanation for his use of magic). The story is lame. One could only hope a future Conan game actually follows one of the actual Conan stories written by R.E.H. himself.
So the game itself is good hack and slash fun. The story is garbage, but the ending is pretty cool. The graphics look like they could have been special if more time was put in but instead we get a mixed bag of rough and glitchy visuals with some eye candy. The enemy A.I. tends to glitch now and then as well but the boss battles are definitely impressive and it's nice to see large multi-part bosses back in games these days.
It's a decent game well worth the [...] you can get it for these days. Nihilistic is a talented developer and Conan is an awesome license. THQ should have put more money and time into this project because they could have had something special here. It reminds me of another Hack and Slash I played on Xbox a couple years ago, Gladiator: Sword of Vengeance. Gladiator was actually a better game in terms of graphics and combat mechanics but it was too short (Gladiator took me 6 hours on hard, Conan took me almost 11) and the bosses were nowhere near as impressive as those found in Conan. God of War is an obvious influence on Conan but that is a highly polished and heavily budgeted game (If only Conan got that treatment).
My letter grade for Conan would be a C+
8 of 10 found the following review helpful:
Rent but do not buyDec 28, 2007
By W3ap0n-X Lucky for me I had a free rental credit at my local video place when I went to try this game.
I'm all for button mashers. Not a darn thing wrong with them. Sure, there's naked prisoner chicks that offer to "repay" you. Conan gets it on with the hot Amazonian-esque protagonist. Lop people's arms and heads off, grab them and slam then on the ground or into a pike barrier or off a cliff, go into a Cimmerian bezerker frenzy...
Then completely screw it all up. Annoying jump angles and camera views, little scrawny guys with shields spiking the mighty Conan and botching his sword-wielding mojo, boss battles that some idiot employee that has probably never played a video game in his life said, "Hey...this is a button-masher! Oh Noes!!!!111!1one! Let us put in a challenge...I know, we'll make it so that you have to press a certain button when we tell you to!"
What the frick is that!? Do NOT interrupt the monotony of my button-mashing, naked chick rescuing, head-severing melee frenzy! I want to grab little wimpy guys and slam them against the ground until I see brains...I do NOT want to watch Conan fall off scaffolding over and over and over and over just because nobody bothered to play that part of the game and realize, "hey...this actually sucks."
Forget God of War. God of War's specific button presses were integrated to a point that you felt you actually achieved something. It happened often enough that you were ready for it but not so often that you wanted to go 80's metal with your controller.
Conan lets you get relaxed and start to enjoy the mindless slaughter and then BOMBARDS you with that crap. The final boss battle? I have never NEVER returned a video game early...until I rented this one. It's a trend that I'm starting to notice with newer video games, unfortunately. You still have a gem every once in awhile but it seems that, more and more, companies are relying on the system WAY too much. Here's an idea, video game worker people, forget about the system and make a GOOD GAME. I don't care that the flowers are pretty if they smell like raw sewage.
Thomas Kinkaid could paint a little perfect pile of dog poo surrounded by cottage-ey snow covered perfection with a little poem running down the side of it written by John Ashbery explaining how that in another reality the poo is our childhood imagination and then have a little digital box on the side of the picture that plays the voice of James Earl Jones reading the poem and in the end it would still be just a pile of crap.
In the end...that's really what this game is. A pile of dog poo. You may get to walk through a pretty yard and play with a few decent toys, but it's not worth the cost of admission and the nasty smell that will follow you around for awhile. Not to mention what it will do to your carpet when it's stuck down in the treads of your shoe.
based on 47 reviews
( 47 customer reviews )
