Something about maiming your opponent with a variety of different weapons which in themselves have a variety of different moves is pure instinctual fun. Odds are many have never seen the original Conan movie with Arnold Schwarzenegger in his early acting days. Have no fear though, Conan the game will walk you right through the adventures across the kingdoms of Hyboria.
The core of the game is pretty simple. Hack and slash your way through various levels and enemies and along the way face off against some pretty unique bosses. Conan doesn\'t need much in the way of weaponry at all. A simple sword or two for that matter and a shield are all that he needs. However, you\'re not stuck with your default weapons by any means. One thing you\'ll notice after killing the first character is that you can pick up and use most weapons dropped by your adversaries. Just to get it out of the way, the only weapon that I found I was not able to pick up was the bow & arrow. Picking up different weapons and figuring out whether you want to use two of the same or one and a shield is something that never grows dull.
A short time in to the first level and I came across this tall statue with two very long and dangerous swords that just happened to come to life and just happened to want to kill me. After figuring out his attack pattern, he was easily killed and dropped his weapons. Although I couldn\'t pick up both and wield them like he could, I still could pick up one and have a field day with it.
As if having a variety of weapons at your disposal isn\'t enough, as you progress through the game and earn experience, you can spend those experience points on learning new moves. Some of these moves are absolutely devastating to your opponents. As you earn more and more experience you can ‘learn\' bigger and better moves. Moves where you are able to turn yourself and swords in to a deadly windmill or one where you still your opponent\'s weapon and use it against them.
One of my favorites was the parry attacks. If you are able to parry just at the right time, a button will appear on screen for you to match and press. If you\'re not too involved in button mashing and hit the correct button, you\'ll unleash instant death upon your victim in oh so creative and gruesome ways. As I progressed through the game, I found the parry attack to be pretty useful against more difficult enemies. Especially those that carry those damned spiked shields.
At the start of the game you\'re given a pretty small energy bar. Pretty small in comparison to what you can earn throughout the game. The downside is it can be a pain in the ass to increase your health, and armor powers later. You\'re required to stick your sword in the ground on certain icons. A clock starts with an audible tick sound, no visible display, and you have to run and stick your sword again in the ground at two more locations before the time runs out. It\'s easily accomplished at first, but just as the rest of the game goes, it becomes increasingly difficult later.
Upon killing enemies you\'ll usually be rewarded with runes. There are three different types with each giving you something different. The green runes will refill your health, the red ones give you experience points and blue recharge your armor powers. The bigger the rune that appears, the more you will earn. You don\'t have to rely solely on runes though. Scattered throughout the game are jugs and chests and other objects which contain various runes themselves.
Conan is a pretty linear game. You shouldn\'t find yourself getting lost at all. There are very few times where you\'re able to deviate off the traveled path. Those times when you can, usually lead to you discovering hidden runes, or even hidden enemies. So be careful where you venture.
Conan isn\'t all glory though. There are downsides which I will mention. One huge one was there is absolutely no camera control. Most of the times it isn\'t an issue but there are times when the need to rotate the camera around to check your footing or change stance with an enemy sure would have been useful.
For the most part Conan does a good job with building your skills and experience up throughout the game so you are able to master increasingly difficult enemies and bosses. By the end of the first level you should have picked up that every enemy in this game has a certain attack pattern. The patterns are not difficult to figure out at all if you\'re patient. In fact, if you learn the attack patterns, you end up saving yourself a ton of health and even frustration. Even the bosses have pretty easy attack patterns to master, with exception of the last boss which by comparison is the most difficult and rightfully so.
Another issue I had with the game in later levels is the cheapness of some of the enemies\' attacks. They would be able to block most of my attacks and somehow be able to tell when I was about to use a heavy strike and just run me through. That isn\'t it though. Once an enemy strikes you, you\'re pretty much defenseless until they finish their onslaught. Now imagine you get three of the same dual wielding sword type enemies that almost seem like they have a well coordinated plan of attack. One starts to strike you and as he\'s finishing up his monster combo, the second starts in and then the third. By the time they\'re done, you\'re either dead or have very little health remaining. Now, this didn\'t happen too often in the game, but it was enough of annoyance for me to mention.
Although the graphics and audio aren\'t anything to write home about, they do fit the game well. While hacking your opponent\'s arms off, you\'re not really looking at scenery now are you?
Conan is rated ‘M\' for mature and with all the topless women with perfect bodies, their sexual innuendoes and moves such as ripping someone\'s heart out from their chest, it\'s no wonder why it does.
Conan is definitely a feel good, let me hack you to pieces, I rule all, type of game. The variety of weaponry and moves more than make up for the complete lack of camera control and sometimes a gang of enemies that corner you and turn you in to pieces.
Although I have completed the game, with cheats unlocked now, I have an urge to go forth and pillage and plunder once again!
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