Thank you Funcom for sending us a review code for this game!

Early Access, survival, open world: these are scary warning flags for PC gamers these days. Games like Rust, DayZ, and Ark: Survival Evolved will be under extreme scrutiny the day the Early Access tag goes away. I can't blame the developers of these games. Ambitious games will take a long time to complete by even the most skilled game developers. Yet when a game is released it should be judged no matter how brutally. So let's look at brutal barbarism with Conan Exiles.

Conan Exiles takes place in the Conan The Barbarian universe. You are sentenced to exile for a randomly generated set of crimes. Mine were debauchery, cheating at dice and breaking the fourth wall. You can choose gender and physical features you want to your hearts content. You also choose a religion to start with. Once you do, you're untied from your prison and you're tasked with surviving. You have no help, no friends, and everyone, creatures and fellow exiles, will try to kill you.

The gameplay is the most important part of any survival game. The combat and movement feels right for a game where you play as a barbarian yet right now it's very basic. You swing whatever is in your hand with the left or right mouse buttons. Mouse movement controls the camera and WASD controls movement. While it is challenging, pushing yourself for survival is a strong part of Conan. It was quite satisfying when I finally had a base built. 

Every survival game has its unique features. In Conan you can enslave NPCs called thralls to serve you. By torturing them on a wheel of pain, they will benefit you in various ways from blacksmithing to combat. By sacrificing enemies to a god, you can unlock special recipes from that faction. You'll eventually be able to summon avatars, destructive creatures of your chosen religion. They will unleash destruction against enemies in their way. 

With these types of games you'll want to keep certain things in mind. Conan Exiles is not a game you can pick up and play for a few hours. Consider these games a more intense Minecraft. If it's not other players, Early Access server wipes will eventually wipe out your hoards of treasures. Despite the thrall or avatar mechanics, Conan doesn't have a lot of that early game "wow" that other survival games have. The main appeal here will be the Conan world. Fans will more than likely pick up this game compared to non fans. That isn't a problem though; if the devs can keep a confident community going then they should have a quality survival gem on their hands. The mod support the devs give also adds a lot of variation to your experiences. 

The soundtrack to the game doesn't add much yet. The game music has intense drumbeats during battle, yet I found I would rather listen to my own music than the game's. 

With any Early Access titles expect a lot of bugs. One bug I was able to recreate is seeing menu selection highlights burned into the screen when the menu is completely off of my screen. I also experience random frame drops. Remember, with Early Access games you can be in for the long haul.

Multiplayer will be more of the same with the added bonus of players acting as either friend or foe. You might find populated servers with hundreds of grand structures. You might find a few people hiding in the trees. Yet they will either help you, or rob you for your meat and items. The AI is competent enough for a great challenge. So consider starting your journey in a single player server first.

Sacrifices to idols, bloody murder, and genital customization are in this game. The characters can appear nude, yet there is a option to shut it off. With any game where survival is a focus, the world will force you to do what you must to survive. You can even eat and cook human flesh. This game is designed to appeal to the most brutal of tastes. You can turn the nudity off completely or partially if you so choose. The violence comes from the gory effects alone, the combat isn't the most detailed. The genital or chest expansion seem to be just aesthethic and it wont effect the game world in any way. Its the world and context that adds to the brutality. With everyone fighting first and asking questions never, you get the feeling of that brutality. Also remember you can build a torture wheel to torture npcs to fight along side you. 

The world can appear cruel, yet with a barbaric determination you can survive in Conan Exiles.