Conan Exiles takes place in the magical world of Conan the barbarian. The Norwegian game company Funcom made another game. Unlike Age of Conan, this is an open sandbox, with crafting, survival elements, and full frontal nudity. Both genders can choose to be completely naked within the game settings. The same options can be set by the server host as well.
I started my adventure on a sour note, being accused of crimes I never committed. Some quite unsavory people knocked me out cold and left me dry and hanging. I mean honestly, who the devil crucify someone alive in the middle of a god-forsaken wilderness? honorless dogs that is who. After a mighty struggle, I managed to pry myself off the cross and found a note next to me, along with water skin. Something I consider a quite fitting contribution to my glorious conquest of these savage lands. All around me is a barren wasteland of a desert, sparsely populated with black ruins and a cobblestone road to traverse. Further down the path I ran into a flying fiend of sorts, that snarled at me before it flew into the distance. Eventually, I found an oasis, with lush vegetation and a whole lot of water all over the place. As I was admiring the lovely scenery several vicious scaly beasts ganged up on me and I died brutally. Eventually, I re-spawned at the cross again. Death is apparently a slap on the wrist as long as I can reclaim my corpse and the loot I carry.
Long story short, Conan Exiles is an open sandbox survival game on Steam, that launched as an early access title. Which leaves room for a lot of patching. Despite some minor bugs and annoyances, the game is fairly addictive and a decent proof of concept. However, there are some very nasty bugs and horrible loading times around the time this article is being written. Make no mistake, Conan Exiles is fun, especially with friends and comes with both PVP and PVE modes where people can host their own servers and modify the game mechanics. Such as day and night cycles and the experience gained. It’s also totally possible to play it solo and access the admin panel, which can create any object of desire within the game. At one point I decided to summon an avatar of Yog. A 50-meter-tall tentacled monstrosity, with the ability to penetrate the earth. Unfortunately, it only lasts for a minute.
Crafting is fairly fast and straightforward. Gather the needed resource, go into the menu, and click on the desired recipe. Each level unlocks several new recipes. However, they are best to divide between several players to maximize the effectiveness. One should focus on building fancy things, while the other player should work on making weapons. Eventually, I learned how to make a lesser wheel of pain, rope, and a blackjack. Three lovely items that allow me to knock someone out, string them up and drag them back to base. Nothing is more satisfying than to employ several highly trained athletic slaves. Knocking someone unconscious can lead to some rather gruesome mutilations. The game is bloody, brutal, and uncompromising. Limbs will fly and blood will soak the sand. The sandbox of Conan Exiles is composed of 90% sand, which is quite an oxymoron indeed.
The wilderness is populated by various camps, vicious monsters, and swarms of hyenas and toxic spiders. I can’t count the number of times I ran out of stamina, got crippled, and was brutally murdered by fanged fiends. All in all a very fun, if a bit flawed game, which can only get better with time. Since long loading and optimization leave a lot to be desired if you want to check Conan Exiles out on steam!
Njål Sand is a Norwegian Cosplayer with opinions on video games, and a passionate for creating content on YouTube about living in Norway, and gaming!