The blood thirsty and self proclaimed ladies man, the legend, the barbarian makes his next-gen debut in THQ’s recently released action game, Conan. No, the game's character is not based on the likeness of that one (Arnold Schwarzenegger), instead it was decided that developers Nilhistic were to create their own rendition of the sword wielding barbarian. This story of Conan is told by a mysterious old woman throughout the game's intriguing cut-scenes, a look in the past as it were. While Conan may have released under the radar of many gamers, the game is actually surprisingly very enjoyable to play, and is certainly one worth checking out, especially if you like action games filled with gore, dozens of potential deadly combo attacks, and possibly the most satisfying counter system featured in any game… oh, and let’s not forget about those helpless, charmingly spoken and more importantly, topless ladies that may need rescuing by Conan too; yeah I thought that would got your attention.

Gameplay:

The basic premise of Conan is that it’s simply a glorified action game, resulting in killing anyone and anything that should decide to stand in your way; enemies can be disposed of in severely satisfying and gruesome manners. Some of the more noticeable and larger enemies that Conan will encounter from time to time include many large demonic beasts, such as ferocious gorillas, a zombified elephant, a massive sand dragon, and one big slimy snake, which are for the most part some of the bosses that Conan encounters on his journey. On a more smaller and average scale of enemy sizes, Conan has to deal with some pesky pirates, including the typical average sized sword wielding pirates and archers, which for the most satisfying part, the normal sized sword wielding pirates can be sliced and diced using the game's simple yet intuitive counter system. It’s simply a matter of Conan blocking at the moment that the enemy is about to make contact with his blade, and then pressing the randomly displayed face button to literally destroy your attacker in the most satisfying and gruesome of ways possible. There are a total of three different counter finishers dependent on whether Conan is carrying one short blade, dual wielding two short blades, or even wielding a very large weapon, which is extremely useful for the tougher adversaries. Let’s not forget those grapple attacks too, which when unlocked, allows Conan to launch an enemy into another foe or simply just deliver a pile-driver, and plant the pirates’ skulls into the floor, though maybe a square punch to the face and follow up with a deadly combo attack is preferred? Every time Conan kills an enemy you are awarded with some experience points, these can be spent during the game by jumping into the menu. Spending experience points enables you to unlock new and deadly combos for a variety of Conan’s weapon preferences, as mentioned above. There are a few puzzle moments here and there within the game, but these are few and far between and are fairly easy to solve but never the less they seem well paced, as they’re usually introduced just after or before a long drawn out battle with multiple enemies. For someone who allegedly despises wizards and their use of magic, Conan picks no bones later in the game when he regains some of his lost armor, which he finds to his surprise gives him some wizardry powers of his own.

Graphics:

Conan delivers, well almost, two of the more vital aspects of a game is its gameplay and visual flair, no doubt most gamers may look at Conan and decide to turn the other cheek as the visuals certainly do the game no favours. It simply looks like an upgraded port of a last generation game, in any event, the graphics are fair at best, the use of over the top blood and gore makes up for this, and perhaps those damsels in distress have a few more polygons gone into them too. There are a few noticeable graphical glitches in the in-game cut-scenes, and some areas popping in to view as you run closer, sadly this isn’t the main problem. Some of the levels featured within the game, are really dire and just appear bland for the most part.

Sound:

Aside from the actual gameplay, the game's audio is perhaps the more stronger and suited aspect in the Conan game. The voice acting is delivered flawlessly with an emphasis on charm, wit and down right cheek, the latter of which is on, at least Conan’s part. It has to be mentioned, but I can’t help but laugh every time Conan rescues one of the damsels in distress, it just has such comedic value as even though the ladies only have but a handful of lines between them, some of the stuff they come out with in their oh so girly and suggestive voices is just pure class. For example as Conan rescues each lady, they may shout out “My clothes, my clothes, where are my clothes!?” and perhaps the one that makes me laugh every time without fail is the patented “Crush me with your love!!”, just the way that line sounds as it is delivered is hysterical to me. Ok, let’s take a step back from the ladies for a moment. The game's soundtrack is suitable, no actually, it’s bang on the money as it suits the Conan persona and just the general tone and theme for the game very well, especially the music in the main menu, as it’s easy to just envision Conan slashing away at his foes with blades of steel and lobbing arms and heads off left right and center. Another thing worth noting though, is while the soundtrack suits the game, the audio is not eased in or out, it just seems to stop abruptly and leaves you with odd and peculiar moments of silence as you move ahead through an area.

Longevity:

Conan is a roller coaster ride of just pure blood and guts and is just a blast to play, there are some minor moments of confusion which may be present here and there though, in regard to some of the game's limited puzzles. The game is not particularly lengthy and seems to average in at what most games do these days, with about a 5-6 hour campaign, obviously this will likely increase with knocking the difficulty up to Hard or the more deadly King difficulty mode. Conan will easily make for an excellent rental or once you’ve ploughed through all the awesome games that have recently released and still on the horizon, then perhaps you may find Conan in a bargain bin in your local game store.

Overall:

Conan is an enjoyably brutal experience, the game's visuals however don’t do it any favours though. I personally am hoping for a sequel, and for the developers to correct their wrong doings and deliver an extensive bump in the visual flair. They should also give barbarians even more damsels to rescue, with more ludicrously funny lines to go along with it, and more importantly push forward further with the game's easy and intuitive combat system.