Savage Sword Play

For the past week I have been trying the new Conan game for XBox 360. Pretty sweet, a perfect rental pretty much. Not too hard to be able to be beaten quickly, but not so easy to get repetitive or dull. It's a straight forward hack'n slash, but it keeps it pretty simple. The combo attacks are easy to pull off, as are the numerous special attacks. Very similar to most fighting games, but on the level of say Tekken, more then something current. A typical, and oft used, combo favorite of mine is simply X, X, Y, Y. They don't get a lot more complicated then that. But I don't want to kid you, this is a button mashing festival of death. Enemies can be decapitated, cut in half (lengthwise in some cases), or have one or more limb taken off at a time.

As a matter of fact, there are so many dismemberments and the like I started to think Paul Verhoeven might be involved in some way. But all of this does actually take a back seat to the look and feel of the game. The art style of the game is obviously based on the new Conan books that Dark Horse is putting out, particularly Cary Nord's work. The writing also feels straight out of the newer Conan works. It's got a good bawdy, black sense of humor. Right at the start of the game, Conan is asked if he would serve a woman, his reply? "Service her? Aye, and gladly!" But this is also not the only thing that helps to earn Conan the M rating it so richly deserves. One of the games objectives is to free all the slave girls you can. Of course all the slave girls are chained up to various rocks, walls, etc., what ever a half-naked slave could be chained to. And when I say half-naked, I should say about 95% naked, as the only they wear are loincloths, and they are not shy about it at all.

The game happens almost exclusively in Stygia, so if you were hoping to see some of the more exotic locales of the Hyborrean Age, I must say you will be disappointed. But the level design is still solid, I never felt like I was just replaying something from an earlier level. So, for those of you who enjoy a good hack'n slash brawler, or if you're just a die hard Conan fan, this game is worth a rental, no question. But if you just want to have a little barbarian fun, you could try some of the new Conan graphic novels. The original Dark Horse series is the best, but many of the mini-series they've been putting out are quite good as well. I would recommend in particular either Conan and the Jewels of Gwahlur, or the brand new Conan and the Midnight God.

-Dan