Conan Exiles Reviews
This hardcore survival sim is too dense for its own good.
Conan Exiles is one of the most disappointing games I have played this generation. I have not experienced another game on PlayStation 4 as broken as Exiles. It is hard to believe that a game could be released for purchase in such bad condition. In another genre, the bugs in Exiles might be fun or amusing. In a survival game, they are crippling. Gamers deserve, and should demand, better.
There is a little potential buried underneath the rubble that is Conan Exiles. The world, though sparse and slightly ugly does fit the license. The PvP is suitably unforgiving, the challenge of surviving the world brings out the worst in people and the best in the game.
Conan Exiles seems to always be flirting with a good idea, before dropping that and doubling down on being terrible. There is a lot of promise when the game starts out, and between the intense mood and solid survival mechanics, it seems like there might actually be a good time in store. However, in the sixty or seventy hours that follow, disappointment slowly builds until the whole adventure ends with a pitiful thud. The combat is dreadfully boring, and there are so many bad ideas that work against its core survival mechanic that it is a wonder the game stays interesting as long as it does. Destined to be exiled to the bargain bin, Conan Exiles is worth little more than a passing glance, and only for the hardcore survival genre enthusiasts.
Maybe check back in a few months...
Conan Exiles is still a very rough survival game after launch. It has a lot of issues and should be better. It is thematically tied to Conan but Conan really isn’t a part of this game. Buyer Beware.
With Conan Exiles, you're either in or you're out. There's a hardcore fanbase out there that loves this game, but there's an exceptionally high learning and enjoyment curve that will keep more casual players from getting invested enough to explore its deepest content or even wade around much in the shallow end. On a quality level, the game simply doesn't feel like it made it out of early access even though this is the full release. Add that the game is hardly optimized for controller and living room TV play, and this is a title that is hard to recommend outright. That said, for fans of survival games, there's a very intriguing game layered underneath walls, road bumps, and cliffs that need to be scaled to get there. And it's easy to lose hours of time simply figuring out how to build a house, or, you know, put on pants, but a lot of that can be chalked up to poor and barbaric design.
Conan Exiles excels in its sense of place, and has an absorbing and complex crafting system that will keep you coming back, but there is no escaping that it is a deeply flawed game that still feels a little unfinished.
In this particular version of the Conan the barbarian, the world was too dull and unpolished to lure me in. The crafting system – while confusing – is unquestionably deep, which enabled me to build some cool things in an environment that offered no true variety or immersion.
Conan Exiles could have been so good, so rich, but instead it turned out to be an awkward and often poor experience just on the gameplay mechanics alone. Add in the poor framerate on consoles and you will likely do as I did and turn the game off for a spell, hoping against hope that further console optimization without any additional loss in graphical fidelity happens (hint, it likely will not happen). Even the animations do not know where to stand in the quality and functionality of Conan Exiles, as many are plastic or wooden looking while others are smooth as a buttered baby's backside. Hell, even the environments are confused … Water? It is stunning but grass and shrub textures? Purely out of the mid-2000's. Once Conan Exiles is able to take itself seriously it may actually turn out to be a decent game, but by then it may be too late.
Conan Exiles is plump with content, combining a sprawling continent with enough progression mechanics to provide endless engagement. However, the game does not feel deserving of its namesake. Between bland combat and an uninspired world, Funcom's Hyboria bears little resemblance to Robert E. Howard's glorious battles and fantastic locales, even failing to live up to its digital forebears. That crafting and community building saves the title from the bin of also-rans similarly seems like a betrayal of the tenets of those time-worn tales. Pedantic literary enthusiasts aside, players will find much to keep them engaged in Conan Exiles, particularly as the developers continue to work on the title in the coming months, ironing out the shortcomings evident in this initial release.
Hardcore fans of the survival genre may find it really fun to try and build a small empire in the exiled lands of the Conan universe but newcomers may find that it is uneven and janky.
If you are not prepared to put the hours in, this is a title that is better left alone.
When things click, Conan Exiles is a unique and moreish survival-RPG that does scratch a primal itch. Unfortunately, it's also sadly mired by a multitude of bugs, framerate stutters, audio dropouts and some head-scratchingly confusing menu systems.
These positives tend to be forgotten though, and can be completely eclipsed by the game's main pitfalls. The frame rate is unacceptable at times, which then affects the already subpar combat. These issues, combined with the numerous crashes, took me out of the experience more than a few times. Sadly, these negatives are nigh impossible to overlook.
Conan Exiles is a surprisingly good open world survival game that does a good job of blending genre mechanics with the harsh world of Conan the Barbarian. It's seriously addictive stuff despite general jankiness and a strange obsession with nudity, but the multiplayer is the real highlight. If you're looking for something new to play with your friends for a bit, look no further.
As you play more of Conan Exiles and access higher tier items, it becomes more and more clear that there was serious potential here. The survival aspects of the game are fun, provided survival is your thing, and it brings some new ideas and features to the table. The thrall system in particular is interesting, but ultimately fails in its execution. Considering its price, I can't help but feel the package and its quality is a little lacking.
Half-broken and needlessly obscure, but if you have the patience this challenging survival game can be extremely satisfying – and it'll be even better when it's finished.
All of the technical issues and lack of polish take a fun experience that could have been a great game and really cause it to be a mediocre game overall.
Funcom has delivered an above-average open world survival game that lives up to the mythos created by Robert E Howard. It fits in perfectly with the rest of the lore. However, while it is a fun game, it lacks a lot of polish, but if you can look beyond the flawed exterior, Conan Exiles will deliver hours of enjoyment.