Conan Preview

E for All 2007 Preview

Genji, Heavenly Sword, Dynasty Warriors. These three of many hack-n-slash games trying to make it big in a post-arcade world. Some have been promising, but few have managed to capture the essence of the true arcade experience.

Conan will no doubt be compared to Heavenly Sword, God of War, numerous others, but the game is trying to avoid the genre’s common flaws by expanding on its world size and design.

Two things come to mind when you first see Conan: this game is attractive and it is huge. Not necessarily huge in length, but the level size is massive. Throughout your journey of slashing enemies and splattering blood, you’ll spend a lot of time walking across large, open areas, hop across enormous pillars, and fight through some of the most beautiful places.

Conan’s combat is like a single-player fighting game. Tap the buttons on the Xbox 360 controller to ignite a string of painful sword swipes. The resulting blows are as gory as Mortal Kombat.

Ironically, the Conan kiosks weren’t too far from DeBlob.

“Mommy, why is red fluid squirting from that man’s body?”

“Uhh, that’s red paint dear! Look over there, let’s go play DeBlob!”

“Wow Mommy, more red paint!”

Combos felt good, performed well, and the game maintained its fast gameplay throughout each area. During the intro portion of the game, ghosts (or are those souls?) are squeezed out of enemies as they’re defeated. It’s a somewhat creepy and fairly unique effect. The engine – which is likely complete considering the game’s imminent release – isn’t as stunning as Heavenly Sword. But if it can introduce interesting villains and effects in every stage, the game won’t have trouble holding our attention.

Fans of the genre will be in slasher Heaven. The Conan kiosks didn’t have long lines but were constantly being occupied by gamers craving that button-mashing, enemy-thrashing experience.