New Conan Preview Laments No (Wo)Man
By Steve on Wednesday, October 17th, 2007 at 4:05 AM PST In Game Companies, Game Consoles, Microsoft, Sony, THQ
Gametrailers have put up a preview of the upcoming Conan game from THQ (mind the age gate). Forget the MMO of the same IP, this is a hack n’ slash button mashing console game done in the spirit of God of War.
The 4 minute video shows gameplay from Conan’s 3rd person view as well as in-game rendered cut scenes offering a familiar voice actress (sorry, no Arnie vocals for Conan, folks). From the video, we observe that Conan can collect and use various types of weapons, even upgrading each with magical or stat boosting properties. When Conan gets his berserker going, pirates and heathens alike are beheaded, dismembered, disemboweled, and strewn about in a bloody spectacle. Ahh yes, the violence! After a hard days work at the office, Conan can either drink himself into a drunken stupor or “warm himself by the fires” of the naked women of Hyboria. After all, how can the beautiful ladies of Hyboria resist Krom’s most favored barbarian? Nothing from Robert E. Howard’s vision is compromised with THQ’s adult-targeted Conan game.
The question I have is: Why does Conan care about some fancy schmancy “magical” armor. Conan is a Barbarian. He requires neither armor nor magic. Leave that stuff to the pathetic weaklings not worthy to lick Conan’s boot. All Conan needs in life is his sword and the favor of Krom. Even without those, Conan can beat most mortals to a bloody pulp with his bare fists.
The video game title, otherwise simply known as Conan, is being developed by Nihilistic Software – a name certainly worthy of a Conan game developer. Conan will available at your local retailers beginning October 23rd for the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 game platforms. A demo can be currently downloaded via Xbox Live.
Yes, I would gladly suffer/service the woman known as Claudia Black. Yummy.
Looks like a fun God Of War like game.
I totally agree – all the magic usage by Conan (armor or not) should have been left out of the game. True to Robert E. Howard’s character, Conan abhors anything magical (whether by choice or fear). I kept hearing the developers say that this game was going to be true to Howard’s vision…but as soon as I heard Conan would be utilizing magical armor/spells I wondered how accurate this game would actually be. At least there is gore and nudity – 2 of the main staples of Howard’s work. On the plus side, the art direction looks great – with a style closely mirroring Frazetta’s Conan paintings and Cary Nord’s comic style. It’s also nice to see Conan as a “slimmer” muscular barbarian rather that the 250lb. super hulk that many portray him to be. Irregardless of the pros and cons of this game as a Howard and Conan fan for many years I will definitely be buying it.
As much as I love Conan, I have a hard time getting excited about this game. Looks far too run-of-the-mill for me.