Review for Conan Exiles. Game for PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, the video game was released on 08/05/2018
After a long period of Early Access, now common practice for many titles, Conan Exiles is finally out in his definitive version, with all the improvements and news that the developers have added in the various months, also the result of feedback coming directly from the players. In addition to the exit from the Early Access of the PC and Xbox One versions, there is also the debut of the PlayStation 4 version, thanks to which the title of Funcom could take flight in terms of sales, given the installed base of Sony.
Surviving is your only goal
The incipit of Conan Exiles is raw, brutal and lacking in hope for our protagonist. Inspiration taken from the world of Robert Ervin Howard it can be found in the general style, which, although different, is very reminiscent of the universe of Conan the Barbarian. When the game starts, we will be given the opportunity to create our virtual avatar, with the possibility of choosing gender, race, religion, features and physical appearance, all with the possibility of leaving the character completely naked, a feature not shared by Microsoft who has made a free DLC available separately to unlock full nudity.
Once our avatar has been created, the first cut scene will begin, thanks to which we will notice with (dis) pleasure our brutal destiny, that is, having to remain in exile crucified until death. However, it is precisely to come to our rescue Conan the Barbarian, who with his mighty ax frees us and leaves us to our fate, hoping to meet again elsewhere. So we find ourselves naked, without food or water, in a desert full of monsters: what could go wrong? Well, nothing: thanks to the tools provided by Funcom we will be able to get everything we need and at the same time to build our personal fortress.
Create, kill and destroy
The first thing we will be advised to do is the collection of primary resources such as rock, wood, water and food, thanks to which we will be able to provide for the first days, also building a first shelter to protect ourselves during the night hours. As the days go by it will be our task to gather as many resources as possible for the construction of tools, weapons and structures such as furnace and workbench, essential to continue our adventure.
Conan Exiles, like most survival titles, uses a level-based progression system, each of which will provide us with both skill points for our character and skill points aimed at unlocking new buildings. The crafting system, as you can easily imagine, is a fundamental component for our survival: the creation of powerful armor and weapons is the basis of our adventure, which will always test our survival and combat skills.
As soon as we have learned the basic mechanics, we will be able to push ourselves to new places, providing ourselves in advance with equipment, weapons and food. The Conan Exiles map has been greatly expanded since version 1.0, with the introduction of new biomes: in addition to the desert, we will have the opportunity to explore snow-covered areas, mountains and plains, thanks to which we will obtain precious resources and new precious materials. A big problem that we encountered during our test, however, lies in theabsence of small tutorials for the use of some objects or for the performance of certain actions: it will happen more than once not to understand the functioning of a system or an item, so the player will have to proceed by trial and error.
Combat system too woody
One of the many important aspects in a survival video game is certainly the combat system, which if well implemented can radically change the gameplay. In Conan Exiles in the first few minutes you can see a well-made bare hand combat system, thanks to the possibility of unleashing heads, hooks and uppercuts, creating sometimes satisfying combos. The real problem, on consoles, is noticed as soon as the sword and shield are held, in fact most of the time it is not possible to send the hits, or because of some woody animations you often risk being hit.
The problem of hits that are not landed it can be seen, for example, even during rock farming sessions: it will very often happen that you attack with the pickaxe without success and therefore have to move in search of a favorable position for collecting the necessary materials. The problem is partially solved using the first-person view, but for those who love third-person survival it will be a problem to get used to the system of aiming and signing the shots, which requires particular precision and timing, making everything sometimes too mechanical and woody.
Leaving aside these defects, we feel quite satisfied with the work done by Funcom on the rest of the gameplay. The tools at our disposal are many and we are given the opportunity to explore every corner of the map in complete freedom, thanks to the introduction of climbing and scuba diving. Even the enemies are well characterized and do not make any clash trivial, forcing us to study particular strategies before a clash, and in case of poor equipment sometimes to avoid it completely.
Average technical side
From a technical point of view, Conan Exiles it is not surprising but at the same time it does not disappoint: despite some flaws, Funcom's survival offers wonderful views. The environmental textures and polygonal elements present in the world are certainly well done and overall they are pleasant. The vegetation and the interaction of environmental elements with our collection tools are also excellent: every time we hit a rock we will notice pieces coming off, or in case we want to cut down a tree to collect wood, we will notice the shrub falling to the ground quite realistically.
If the graphic sector of Conan Exiles has left us something positive, we cannot say the same about the optimization of resources on PlayStation 4 Pro: playing with version 1.06 we have often noticed severe freezes and frame drops, which most of the time did not occur in stressful situations but during simple walks. We haven't had a chance to try the PC or Xbox One version to see if the problem is solely with the Sony console, but we are sure that regardless of this the developers will work to fix it.
Another drawback of Funcom's production is the audio sector, which does not sin so much from the point of view of quality, but for some glitches and bugs that have left us more than one perplexity. We happened to attack an opponent, hit a rock or walk, and notice sometimes the absence of audio feedback, who often arrived late, while at times he was completely absent. There are also accompanying these audio glitches major generalized bugs, which fortunately do not spoil the gaming experience, but which jump to the eye and will make the most precise ones turn up their noses.
Conan Exiles is definitely a title that must be taken as a reference for fans of the genre, putting together known mechanics and new and well-studied elements. For newbies, however, it can be frustrating and obscure at times, given the absence in some situations of a tutorial or a minimum explanation. We also found some problems in the combat system which, although fun and well studied, is poorly implemented and not very optimized for use in third person on consoles. Excellent graphics sector that offers very appreciable glimpses, at the expense of a sometimes unstable frame rate and some audio bugs that often undermine the experience. In conclusion, Conan Exiles is recommended to all lovers of the survival genre who are not afraid to face some small technical problem, which hopefully will be solved over time by the developers.
► Conan Exiles is an Adventure-Survival game developed and published by Funcom for PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, the video game was released on 08/05/2018
