‘Conan Exiles’ Tackles Survival Genre With A Sacrificing Twist For PS4, Xbox One, And PC

The flood of open-world survival multiplayer titles continues with the announcement of Conan Exiles by Funcom on Thursday. Aside from having Conan: The Barbarian tied to the upcoming PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC game, it has the added hook of being able to sacrifice opposing players.

Conan Exiles will be released as a Steam Early Access title this summer for the PC. The full release to both consoles and the PC will happen once the game survives early access.

The description of Conan Exiles by Funcom includes all the trappings included in the plethora of survival titles currently in the market. Players will be able to gather resources to build tools, weapon, and bases in a large open-world based on the harsh land of Hyboria.

Players will have the option to join multiplayer games on both public and private servers or can do it alone in a single-player mode. It’s not been announced yet if there will be PVE servers, but there is a definite PVP focus with players able to sacrifice enemies to the gods for added power.

“You are an exile, one of thousands cast out to fend for themselves in a barbaric wasteland swept in sandstorms and besieged by enemies on every side. Grow crops or hunt animals for food. Harvest resources to build weapons and tools. Build a shelter to survive. Ride across a vast world and explore alone, or band together with other players to build entire settlements and fortified strongholds,” Funcom explained before getting into more brutal aspects of the game.

“Unleash your fury in savage, fast-paced combat and execute bloody and bone-crushing attacks that will see heads rolling and limbs flying. Fight other players to dominate the exiled lands, and even call upon the wrath of the heavens to aid you by sacrificing enemy players on the alters of the gods.”

Crush your enemies. See them driven before you. Hear the lamentations of their women, indeed.

Other possible features were mentioned in the description of the announcement trailer posted to YouTube. Sandstorms sweeping the Hyborian wasteland hint at some of the possible weather changes that will be in the game while the description also states all players start as an “exile” that is one of thousands.

Obviously, how this works will be further explained prior to the game’s Early Access release this summer. The survival game genre has become extremely crowded with games still in some phase of pre-release testing. DayZ popularized the trend and was followed by others including Rust, The Forest, H1Z1, Sheltered, Hurtworld, ARK: Survival Evolved, and countless more.

Zombies popularized the survival genre in the early-going, before developers began looking for other hooks to attract players. ARK went with a sci-fi twist with dinosaurs, others went with medieval looks. Conan Exiles is one of the first to have a licensed property attached to it, however.

“There is no better setting for an open-world survival game than the world of Conan,” said Joel Bylos, creative director at Funcom. “Hyboria is a harsh and unforgiving land where only the strongest can survive while the weak are swiftly cut down. Whether it is hunting animals for food, fighting monsters and other players, or building entire settlements, we want to make sure players feel like they are really fighting to survive and prosper in the most brutal fantasy world ever.”

Funcom has owned the license to make Conan games for several years and released the Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures in 2008. The MMORPG was re-released as a free-to-play title in 2013 with the new Age of Conan: Unchained name.