Conan Exiles coming to early access

It’s no secret that early access is flooded survival games, many of which rarely make it to launch. This has left many gamers, especially fans of the genre, with an unyielding skepticism. This is definitely a healthy attitude to have especially with the volume of early access titles that hit steam on a regular basis; however the latest title to hit Steam’s EA page is worth taking a look at. That game is Conan Exiles from Funcom. Sound familiar? That’s because this isn’t some obscure indie studio, Funcom has worked on a number of games one of the most notable being the last game entry in the Conan franchise Age of Conan.

Now you may be thinking “so what?” but if there is one thing that I can say with absolute certainty is that Funcom whether you love or hate them is known for going out on a limb and trying new things. Conan exiles is no exception, while built on the framework established by previous entries in the genre Conan Exiles has a plethora of new features to stand out from the crowd. The developers at Funcom have separated the core features of the game into three words:

Survive. Build. Dominate.

Survive

This is the defining feature of the genre and any game without some aspect of survival simply isn’t a survival game. Conan Exiles has all of the standard features you would come to expect like thirst, hunger, stamina etc. Where the game deviates from the formula is what you are surviving from, along with surviving other players you have to survive the savage and sometimes supernatural creatures of the Conan universe some requiring special weapons like silver to kill or lairs to explore. Another new feature is the inclusion of NPC out posts and settlements most of which, if not all, are hostile. These NPC’s can be captured and turned into thralls but more on that later.

Build

Building in Conan Exiles borrows heavily from its most successful predecessors, primarily Ark: Survival Evolved. Collecting, scavenging and building are almost exactly alike with some key changes. First is recipes, when you learn recipes you do so by spending points when you level up just like in ark. Conan exiles however mixes things up by allowing you to learn related recipes in “packs” so you don’t have to unlock recipes one at a time, for example a building pack may include various parts like wall, foundation and a door recipe. All very interesting but the changes don’t stop there as Funcom has added shapes not commonly seen in these games, like pieces that allow you to make cylindrical shapes for buildings allowing for greater variety. However one of the most exciting changes to the building formula is the ability to now build along and up cliff faces! You add the fact that their team took the time to add fun decorative and role play items like war horns and tapestries and Conan Exiles is likely to have the best crafting/building system to date.

Dominate

Dominate is what adds the strongest flavor to what otherwise would be just another drop in early access bucket. Conan Exiles is utterly drenched in atmosphere, lore and the brutal Conan aesthetic. The game design amplifies the lore and feel of setting, for example you can fight the aforementioned NPC’s and capture them to turn into thralls by breaking them on a device called the wheel of pain. Once yours they will defend you and allow you to craft items you couldn’t before among other things. You can also find and enthrall heroic thralls. Also if you so choose you and your fellow exiles can worship a god from the lore, worshiping the gods in their own way and in return reaping benefits. The pinnacle of these benefits being the ability to summon an avatar, the might of your god given physical form. All of these mechanics represent Dominate, adding spice to arguably the most fun part of survival games which is murdering other players and destroying all they hold dear.

Conan Exiles is out on January 31st on Steam early access for $30 and $60 for the Barbarian edition which comes with a ton of extras.

If you're now as hyped as I am for this game then you are in luck. I took the liberty of creating a playlist with trailers I hand selected below!