There should be a "Conan the Barbarian" game inspired by the Witcher 3

[someguy1231]

I just finished The Witcher 3, and I haven't enjoyed an RPG so much in years. Excellent main story, immersive setting, deep characters, sidequests with an actual story to them rather than "fetch me x y", I barely have any complaints.

Recently, I realized that The Witcher 3 is pretty much the closest any game has come to feeling like a true "Conan the Barbarian" game, even more so than actual Conan games. The one from 2007 was a God of War clone that was mediocre at best, and the "Age of Conan" MMO was ok the first few hours but quickly got boring after the starting area.

I've been a big Conan fan for years, and I'd like to see him get the game he deserves. "The Witcher 3" provides the perfect blueprint on how to make such a game. Aside from changing the setting and characters to match the Conan mythos, pretty much all you'd need to change in terms of gameplay is removing the use of signs (since Conan hates magic) and making combat/skills more melee-focused.

Who would be best suited to make such a game? Obviously I'm entering wishful thinking territory here, but I'd prefer Obsidian, mostly due to their work on Fallout: New Vegas and South Park: The Stick of Truth. Bethesda would be a close second.

I'd love to hear people's opinions on this. Did you ever get a "Conan" vibe when playing The Witcher 3? Is there some other game that would be better inspiration for a good Conan game?

 

[FalloutJack]

I disagree. I think there should be a Conan The Barbarian game inspired by Conan The Barbarian. Let one be one and the other be the other, otherwise it's nothing but a copyclone game, and we don't want that.

 

[Albino Boo]

There is a Conan game. http://www.ageofconan.com/ I played when it came out 5 or 6 years ago. Its ok but nothing special, but if you're into Conan then its the game for you.

 

[The Madman]

I would love for a proper Conan game, but unfortunately it's probably not going to happen. Age of Conan got some of it right but also then messed it up with MMO style mechanics and leveling.

Conan needs to be heroic but also incredibly creepy, which is something everyone keeps messing up about his character since they instead choose to focus on the Arnold movies rather than the source material. Part of what makes Robert E. Howards books so intriguing is that as friends with H.P.Lovecraft a lot of his work has that same sort of unsettling vibe to it, just told from the perspective of a low-fantasy setting. Weirdly dark and distorted, with hushed whispers of horrific monsters that even Conan couldn't hope to overcome lurking just on the edges of your vision. Of twisted warlocks making demonic pacts with unknowable dark deities, and of the horrors conjured to serve them.

Witcher 3 is actually kinda similar in that vein, only told through a Slavic Folklore lens in a more high-fantasy setting. Gameplay-wise I wouldn't mind at all if someone tried making a Conan game in a similar style as it would work pretty well.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

So OP, let me get this straight, you liked Witcher 3 because by your description it had good writing and good combat and it reminded you of Conan, but if you had to choose a developer to do a Conan game you would choose Bethesda, who are notorious for their bad writing and bad combat. This makes sense in your mind how exactly?

Yeah, yeah, I know, I'm being a shit. The jump in logic is so startling though that I really want to understand the reasoning behind it.

 

[someguy1231]

So OP, let me get this straight, you liked Witcher 3 because by your description it had good writing and good combat and it reminded you of Conan, but if you had to choose a developer to do a Conan game you would choose Bethesda, who are notorious for their bad writing and bad combat. This makes sense in your mind how exactly?

Yeah, yeah, I know, I'm being a shit. The jump in logic is so startling though that I really want to understand the reasoning behind it.

When I referred to Bethesda, I was mainly referring to their talent for world-building, not writing or combat. I'd prefer Obsidian for those.

 

[Glongpre]

I feel like I should point out the obvious, and say CD Project Red would be a good choice to make the game.

 

[JustAnotherAardvark]

Yeah, yeah, I know, I'm being a shit.

Why you dirty hi ... oh, right, carry on then.

There is a Conan game. http://www.ageofconan.com/ I played when it came out 5 or 6 years ago. Its ok but nothing special, but if you're into Conan then its the game for you.

I found AoC combat mechanics to be kinda immersion breaking and clunky, but W3's to be fairly intuitive and smooth.
The former has (had? haven't logged in in years) that whole 'left-left-up-down-right' sequence crap; felt very clunky and counter intuitive, at least to me.

The later feels a lot smoother.

I can see wanting the mechanics in another mythos.

I feel like I should point out the obvious, and say CD Project Red would be a good choice to make the game.

I'd buy it without thinking.
I'd rather see their Cyberpunk game come out first, though.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

Shadow of Mordor reminded me of Conan a lot. The atmosphere more than anything, I think.

 

[Aiddon_v1legacy]

I would like to see a single-player Conan RPG, but I definitely wouldn't want it to be like the Witcher in terms of gameplay style. The difficulty would also be finding a way to really make the game diverse since Conan hates magic.

As for setting and story, such as the old-timey prejudices that Howard was prone to (though at the very least he was far fairer to women than most writers at the time), as well as all the sex (that Howard oddly enough HATED having to put into his stories). Another is that Conan is a very pulpy world and that's surprisingly hard to emulate. It's not LOTR or The Elder Scrolls which are traditional high fantasy due to Conan being a barbarian hero that spends a lot of time as a mercenary, a thief, a pirate, etc which are pretty shady occupations. It's not a dark fantasy like Dark Souls or Berserk due to Conan's optimistic nature of seeing the world as a source of adventure and intrigue despite its dangers. It's not even what I like to call "political fantasy" like Game of Thrones as Conan doesn't deal with politics 90% of the time (until he becomes king of course). Conan is Conan, and that's why it'd be tricky to do. No fantasy game has really been of the same feel as Conan

 

[Rebel_Raven]

I'd not mind a good Conan game. Could we get it with character select, though? I mean I remember the movies fondly, and while Conan was the star, I wouldn't mind being Akiro, or Zula, or Valeria, or Subotai.

...
... ...

What? At least I'm not asking to play as Needle, here. <.<

Spoiler: though the rest of the cast might be amusing, I dunno

<youtube=6SsHfWBLVr0>

 

[Danbo Jambo]

I'd love to see it, done by CD Projekt Red of course.

There's enough variance from TW3 to make it different and fresh, yet enough similar key elements so that they can already build on TW3's foundation.

 

[Maximum Bert]

Would love to see a decent Conan game been a fan ever since reading the stories by Robert E Howard but nothing has ever done them justice imo either in films or games.

I would not mind CD project Red have a go at the license but they would have to improve the combat the Witcher 3 was not great in that area serviceable certainly but it was a weak point.

 

[w00tage]

Would love to see a decent Conan game been a fan ever since reading the stories by Robert E Howard but nothing has ever done them justice imo either in films or games.

I would not mind CD project Red have a go at the license but they would have to improve the combat the Witcher 3 was not great in that area serviceable certainly but it was a weak point.

Yeah same here. I think the movies may have ruined the chance to see the "real" Conan. I mean, after seeing that kind of portrayal, who would believe that he could be such a GOOD guy? He literally would rather die (or more to the point, fight you to the death) than betray a friend (Queen of the Black Coast). And I might add, he was a chatterbox on occasion. Guy wouldn't shut up in Beyond the Black River lol (which was a great look at Conan in his early twenties).

So yeah, we'll never see the idealized survivor Conan was written to be, nor explore his intended use as a mirror for the societies he passed through (which represented the corrupt civilization the author grew up in). Instead we'll always get the tortured brooding engine of destruction Hollywood thinks will impress the stoopid peoples. Yawn.