Special thanks to Armando Rodriguez for the following review:

The Barbarian makes his PS3 debut and leaves a sea of blood in his wake!

Conan is one of the iconic characters in the sword and sorcery genre. Over the years, Conan has appeared in several novels, movies and television series. Now he makes his first appearance for the Playstation 3 in the self-titled Conan, a button-mashing, blood spilling gore-fest!


Gameplay:

In his quest for treasure and glory, Conan accidentally sets free a demonic sorcerer named Graven. Graven takes away Conan’s magic armor and sends the barbarian to the other side of the world. Of course, Conan is none too happy about this and after meeting a female warrior named Ar’Kanna, he embarks on a quest to stop Graven and recover his armor.

That’s the premise of the entire game. You go from place to place, killing everything that moves, rescuing topless maidens and recovering pieces of your armor. Every magic armor piece was conveniently turned into some form of demonic creature that you need to slay in order to recover said piece.

The controls are rather simple: Jump with the X Button, Quick Attacks are mapped to the square button, Power attacks are mapped to the triangle button and grabs are mapped to the circle button. You block with L1, pick-up weapons and objects with R1, Throw weapons with R2, change armor powers with the D-Pad and activate whatever armor power you selected with the L2 button. Parries are executed by timing your block with your enemies attack. A successful parry slows down the game and opens up a new button press that leads to an instant kill. This instant kills are incredibly gory and satisfying to use and range from decapitating the enemy to ripping out his guts with Conan’s bare hands. Of course, multiple combinations of the square, triangle and circle buttons lead to devastating combos and the farther you go in the game, the more combos and moves you will unlock. You can also use the right stick to dodge attacks, which is one of the more useful techniques later on in the game. Defeated enemies leave colored runes behind: Green runes recover your health, blue runes recover your armor powers and red runes serve as “experience points”, a form of currency you trade in for new moves and combos. Each weapon-style has a different set of moves attached to them.

There are three weapon styles. One-handed, Two-handed and Dual Wield. One-handed is Conan’s basic weapon style and it’s a happy medium between the attack speed and the attack damage. While one-handed you can also carry shields and later on in the game you can acquire combos that require the use of the shield. One of these combos uses the shield to uppercut the enemy into the air; the other uses it to chop your opponent’s head off during a spin. Two-handed is the most powerful attack form, but also the slowest. It is reserved for weapons like the spear, trident and massive swords. Dual Wield is reserved for smaller blades like the scimitar and it is the fastest attack mode in the game, but also the one that deals the least damage. All three weapon styles have different combos, parries and finishers.

Conan also has several different throws at his disposal. The typical body slam has Conan grabbing the enemy by the legs and slamming him hard to the ground. He also has a throw that looks like a tombstone piledriver and another throw that is a massive backbreaker. Several combos also end on throws, including one that ends on an exaggerated suplex and one in which Conan grabs his enemy by both feet and starts swinging him around, knocking down whoever is close by. Other combos work as stun attacks that open up throws and other combos. As you can see, the combat system is very complex and varied and the fun of the game is discovering new and entertaining ways to dispose of your enemies.

For most of the game you will be fighting human enemies. They have similar weapons and shields to the ones Conan can use. Later on in the game, human enemies get more complex, using things like spiked shields, being immune to throws or certain attacks unless they are stunned and coming in on higher numbers. It is not uncommon to be fighting in melee with six or seven enemies at one time, all the while three or four archers are located on a high place shooting arrows at you. Arrows cannot be blocked unless you have a shield and if they hit you they deal damage over time, unless you press the R1 button to yank them away. You will also battle lions, armored ghosts, some sort of giant ape, winged lizards, giant statues and tar zombies. These enemies all have their own unique attacks and Conan has certain counters that work only against them, but they are generally less fun to battle against since most of your finishing moves and parries don’t work against them.

The bosses are very unique and entertaining to fight for the most part and range from a giant Komodo dragon, an elephant demon, a serpent witch and a giant octopus. Like in most games in the genre, it’s all a matter of memorizing their attack patterns and finding a way to lower their health. Once the health is low, you will enter some sort of interactive cut scene in which you need to press a specific sequence of buttons shown on-screen to deliver the final blows.

The game also throws at you some jumping and platform leaping sequences. Usually they require you to jump from ledge to ledge like in Prince of Persia, or navigate a bridge as it falls apart. They are not too hard to perform and are a nice diversion from the combat. The only other mechanic you should be aware off are the armor powers. Each piece of armor you recover has a magic spell attached to it, such as a rain of fire or turning enemies to stone. These powers are useful in a pinch, but their execution leaves a lot to be desired and they just don’t feel natural in this style of game.

I found only two problems with the gameplay. The first is that the game gets very repetitive over long stretches of time, so it is not the type of game you want to sit down and play for hours at a time. It is a problem that plagues all games in this genre. My second problem is the final level. Without going into spoilers, there are basically no human enemies in the entire level, which limits the attacks you can use and takes away the parries and the throws, which are some of the best things the game has going for it. Also the final boss is incredibly cheap and frustrating, even at the default difficulty setting.

Graphics:

The graphics are pretty good, but nothing spectacular. Models for the important characters like Conan and Ar’Kanna are very well done and the bosses look spectacular as well. However, the common enemies all look the same and are very generic. Also in some of the cut-scenes, Conan seems to have a weird shine about him that makes him look more like an action figure and less like a human being. The game has a ton of cool animations, not only for the attacks, but also for things like Conan kicking doors open, lifting heavy boulders or smashing a jar right after drinking from it. Yet, it is common to suffer some slowdown when there are many enemies in the screen at once. The level designs are also very generic and suffer from repetitive textures, especially in the in-door environments. The game as a whole looks and moves alright, but when you take a close inspection at the individual aspects, it leaves a lot to be desired.

Sound:

The music is fine and fits the game well. The grunts and cries of enemies are also well done, but they tend to get repetitive. Some of the enemies will also talk as you fight, but it gets boring when you hear “He is just one man!” for the 1000th time. The voice acting seems forced in must of the cut-scenes. You can actually tell they are reading from a script and you rarely feel any emotion coming from it at all.

Lasting Appeal:

Conan is a short game. My official game time in the default difficulty was around 7 hours and that was with multiple retries in some sections. The game has a list of achievements to accomplish, but most of them can be done in the first play through. The only incentive to play it again is to master all your combos, which is impossible to do the first time around, and get whatever achievement you fail to accomplish before. Yet, the game is very fun in short bursts and the combat system is good enough to warrant a second go around.

Fun Factor:

Conan proves that there is still room in gaming for mindless violence. The combat system is deep and satisfying and the game is just plain fun. Outside of a frustrating last level, I found myself completely immersed in the emotion of seeing one man dismember an entire army in no time.

Overall 7.0 [ Good ]