Conan Exiles was a game I reviewed on PC back when it first launched in Early Access. It had a lot of potential but was fairly bare bones then, but now has left Early Access and is available on PS4 and Xbox One fully as well. But how does the game feel now that its finished?
One of my complaints had been that the visuals were lacking life and felt bland, and there were numerous glitches just picking out a character and control problems as well. Thankfully, most of these have been iron out and the game now looks amazing, plays much better and the glitches , while not gone complete, are heavily reduced. Combat has been widely expanded on since Early Access and is actually a lot more fun now. It isn’t perfect still, and can take a while to get used to. For some reason, attacks don’t always register right, but I must say that it is a lot easier to do on a controller.
Given the way the interface works in the PC version, I had my doubts that the game would play well on console. However, I am glad to say that the game plays remarkably well on a controller in spite of how I thought it would. In addition to combat, the crafting methods, are well handled and I didn’t need long to familiarize myself with everything. The game does a very good job and explains things to you well and without getting in the way at all, which helps you get right into the game.
Exploring the new environments and seeing all that was added has been amazing. The developers really did take to heart the complaints players had with the Early Access version and even seem to have borrowed some ideas from other popular games released in the last couple of years. This is not a bad thing since it shows that the developers wanted this game to be the very best that it could be. The multiplayer components did have a few issues though, since the game didn’t handle bases perfectly. I didn’t have this issue always, but it is present from time to time. This does feel like a more refined version of Age of Conan, and one that is taking advantage of the full mythos as developed by Robert E. Howard and later writers The dungeons could use a little work to feel more exciting, but otherwise are well designed. I am honestly amazed at how well this game has handled the Conan lore and universe. Be aware before you play, that this is not a game like Skyrim. It is far more survival oriented ,and you will need to craft and scavenge to endure.
I am very eager to see what is done next for the game by the developers, as this is truly an amazing experience thus far. I fully recommend trying this one out. If you are a fan of Conan or survival games, you will not be disappointed with what is here.
Disclaimer: A review code was provided for this review.