New Conan the Barbarian Game is an Open-World Survival Game

[Lizzy Finnegan]

New Conan the Barbarian Game is an Open-World Survival Game

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"There is no better setting for an open-world survival game than the world of Conan."

Funcom has announced Conan Exiles, a new, upcoming open-world survival game where players will have to hunt, grow crops, build a shelter, and gather resources for making weapons and tools. Once strong enough, players can enter into battles against their enemies, with Funcom promising "savage, fast-paced combat" and "bloody and bone-crushing attacks that will see heads rolling and limbs flying." There's also some talk of sacrificing enemies on the altars of the gods.

While Conan Exiles is "first and foremost a multiplayer game that can be enjoyed on both private and public servers," there will also be a solo mode.

"There is no better setting for an open-world survival game than the world of Conan," said Joel Bylos, creative director at Funcom, in a press release. "Hyboria is a harsh and unforgiving land where only the strongest can survive while the weak are swiftly cut down. Whether it is hunting animals for food, fighting monsters and other players, or building entire settlements, we want to make sure players feel like they are really fighting to survive and prosper in the most brutal fantasy world ever."

"What Funcom is doing with 'Conan Exiles' is capturing the essence of Conan and his world," said Fredrik Malmberg, CEO of Conan Properties, in a press release. "The fight for survival in Conan's savage world has been chronicled in comics, movies, and novels, and now you too will get to experience the same struggle to achieve domination over the exiled lands."


Conan Exiles is expected to enter PC early access this summer, with a full PC and console launch to follow. You can keep up to date on information on the game's official website, here [http://www.conanexiles.com/].

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[Zhukov]

I realize Conan is an old IP that predates every game ever made, but what they describes sounds like, well... every game ever made.

I mean, "a harsh and unforgiving land where only the strongest can survive while the weak are swiftly cut down."

Because that sounds so unlike every other multiplayer game I've ever played, right?

 

[the December King]

Sure, why not? I would enjoy battling the Picts at the borderlands, or plying Stygian waters, or walking the fine streets of Aquilonia... sounds like fun.

 

[ron1n]

If they somehow did pull off some kind of a Rust/H1Z1 Hyborian Age game with an emphasis on melee combat...it could potentially be awesome. I'm still amazed that none of the major triple A devs have had a genuine crack at the survival genre yet. It has so much more potential than the janky early-access stuff that is currently on offer.

Not sure how well Funcom can pull this off as their history is mostly rooted in MMO combat which is dull as anything but here's hoping.

First gameplay trailer will pretty much make or break this for me honestly.

 

[Silverbane7]

i want to know more about the 'public and private servers'

given they also say you can play a single player version, i wonder if the servers are the kind where you boot up the game and set it to multiplayer, or are the servers they are talking about the kind where you rent space?

though the best (at least, for me and those like me) would be a free server that you get say, 1-4 players can use, and bigger servers cost to rent/use.
and maybe some groups can then hire huge ones.... tho co-op on your mates machine would probably be what we would get.

i remember the combat in conan online (for the brief time i had it working lol) was not too bad actualy. the tell system took a little getting used to, but once you got that learned, it was not too hard to be whacking the everloving mess out of things...course i was a half-naked girl, whacking drunken pirate and maurauders in the head with a wooden stick at the time...but it was still kinda satisfying XD

 

[Stupidity]

It definitely has potential.
I just hope it uses the Conan world to its full potential, no endless bland desert or completely lifeless world. The Conan stories usually took place on the border between civilization and savagery. He would join pirate crews, slaughter tribes of Picts, work as a mercenary or raid Stygian temples but he would do so to get paid. There would need to be at least the fringes of civilization so you could sell loot and feel like your in Hyboria.

Conan was at least one of the first pauper to king stories as well. Hopefully you can aim higher than richest starving cannibal in the desert.

 

[JonB]

Oddly, this feels like the best idea there has been for a Conan game in a long time. You and your barbarian friends trying to survive, then getting attacked by raiders from more civilized or better organized lands trying to take your land/plunder your stuff.

 

[JCAll]

This sounds like one of those games where the whole budget was spent on the license, with nothing left for the actual game, so they just stuck it on whatever.

 

[ChaplainOrion]

This looks pretty sweet actually, I imagine we might have a wide range of things to do, since these aren't barbarians in a desert, but exiles from different places, so maybe a choice between a barbarian, or soldier, to a thief or wizard. Though I would bet this is probably Stygia, so hopefully there will be some dastardly sorcerers to thwart and tombs to plunder.

 

[klaynexas3]

Eh. While it has potential, it feels like every other survival game out there. It has the potential to be this intense, thrilling experience. But often it's just tedious bullshit. Call me pessimistic if you want, I just don't have high expectations for it. I have high hopes, just not high expectations. Also, could we have a few settlements that are already established that aren't just raiders or generic NPCs with the only purpose of giving you resources and quests to go kill raiders? *looks angrily at Fallout 4*

Seriously, give me more settlements that have interesting characters, quest lines, and social whatever that I could still also be capable of setting up trade routes with, and I might be interested. Otherwise, I might as well just go play Minecraft some more if I want to do this again. And I'm kind of done with Minecraft.

 

[flying_whimsy]

I hate to say it (I like funcom), but isn't this like a day late and a dollar short?

That said, having a more developed context for all of the rabbit killing and resource gathering could be just what this genre of game really needs.

Well, that and a sense that there's a dynamic, living world that you're a part of.

 

[Shamanic Rhythm]

I was actually just thinking the other day that the Conan mythos could really suit a good modern open world RPG with more emphasis on survival than levelling, so yay for being on the right wavelength.

However, I have very little faith in Funcom after the dog's breakfast that was Age of Conan. And even the word 'survival game' conjures dread in me because I just picture it being like the myriad of survival clones in Early Access on Steam, where the world is about a mile wide and an inch deep and you spend most of your time avoiding being PK'd. This will need something more than just the Conan branding to succeed.

 

[Remus]

Funcom....they make beautiful trailers but their games are always about a couple years behind techwise. Lower graphics, fetch quests, but top notch voiceacting and the NPCs have actual personality. The Secret World was fun but the skills started to blur together at higher levels. Killer concept behind the game though, which held my interest months after release. If this game is any fun at all and of even a little better quality than their prior standouts, I'd be willing to give it a go. Middling quality is alright because they still manage to do a couple things better than the heavier dev houses.

 

[camazotz]

In one sense I'm intrigued, but another part of me is amused that Conan as an IP is being tied to this kind of game. Oh yes....I really loved that one story Howard wrote about how Conan crafted the hell out of the landscape and started a farm so he could resource manage enough to slay his enemies. Gaaaaah.

I'll still check it out, but agree Funcom's record here is spotty.

 

[Baresark]

Honestly, I love the world of Conan. But they really really need to make sure the game stands out and is not just about Conan, it's not the first Conan game, there were Conan games that predate the Age of Conan games as well. But they didn't stand out, which is their big issue. There was one (on the 360 I think) that was essentially a God of War clone. I liked it, but it didn't stand out.

There record is spotty to me, but I still go and play the Secret World. I love that game.

 

[Karadalis]

Another dime a dozen survival game.

You start with nothing, bash some rocks together, punch some trees, slowly build up something resembling a settlement... and then some asshole that you cannot defeat because hes higher level / has endgame equipment trolls you and burns down your entire base and loots all your stuff... because aparantly THATS the spirit of multyplayer survival games.

Ill stick to ARK: Survival evolved... atleast that has dinosaurs and dragons and giant spiders... and you can tame most of them.

So preay tell.. is the conan license the only thing that will set this survival game apart from the 789 other survival games OF WICH NOT A SINGLE ONE IS OUT OF BETA that sprung up the last two or so years? Hell even DAY Z the grandpa of them all hasnt even been finished yet for crying out loud!

The market for these games is so oversaturated with copy clones of each other i heard they are going to fight the seperatists!

 

[Kahani]

This sounds like one of those games where the whole budget was spent on the license, with nothing left for the actual game, so they just stuck it on whatever.

Funcom made (and still run) the MMO Age of Conan, so they probably didn't need to worry much about the license.

Another dime a dozen survival game.
...
The market for these games is so oversaturated with copy clones of each other i heard they are going to fight the seperatists!

That was kind of my first thought, but as things stand the market is mostly saturated with unreleased indie survival games, many of which have been in early access for years now. If a decent size developer manages to actually release a finished game, they could stand to do fairly well.