What game best recreates the feel of Conan the Barbarian?

[TripJack]

Has such a thing ever been successfully accomplished? I don't care if it uses the actual conan name or conan setting or not

paging expert ERYFKRAD

 

[NecroLord]

I don't know for sure.
A Robert E Howard game would be "problematic" in this day and age consisting of easily offended bitches. Conan is way too manly and GigaChad-like.
Anyway, I made a Barbarian in Toee that was patterned after Conan, except with blond hair and Chaotic Good in alignment (Conan is more neutral, but actually pretty honorable, morality is way different in the Hyborian Age).
Greatsword + Rage + Power Attack = Dead Bugbears, Orcs, Goblins, whatever else stands in the way of the Barbarian.

 

[procrastinator]

Severance: Blade of Darkness comes to mind.

 

[Lady Error]

Dark Sun?

 

[NecroLord]

Dark Sun?

Fuck, how could I forget about the masterpiece called Dark Sun: Shattered Lands?

 

[Chuck Norris]

Conan: The Dark Axe is pretty cool. It has RPG elements too. (You can unlock combos by collecting XP).

I played it from start to finish mostly because the setting and the levels appealed to me.

 

[spectre]

There are many aspects to Conan as a character, so depends what are you looking to emulate.
For the fighting parts, obviously a decent action game could work (not sure which, I liked Rune, but that's just a random namedrop).
For his strategy and leadership, a sandbox strategy. For thievery and a knack of languages, I'm not sure.

Something like Kenshi could work, but it takes a bit until your character reaches conan levels,
the game lets you push through harsh desert environments and break out of slavery if you want to recreate the opening story of Conan.

Personally, I'd go with mount and blade and roll a highly skilled fighter, possibly have a good look into the mods to get the aesthetics and features you want.
Then go all: vanquish your enemies and see them driven before you.

 

[Abu Antar]

Conan Chop Chop!!!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_games_based_on_Conan_the_Barbarian
Conan Exiles was okay, but it was quite some time ago since I played it.

 

[Shuruga]

Conan Exiles is one obvious answer; Conan is in the game and you can make your character similar if you like. But it is also a very grindy base building game without much by way of an active story (though the theme/mood is appropriate), and the default game settings seem to be balanced around playing on a server with multiple people.

I'm not much into base building games but I played to the end because the combat is solid. I dodged around the grind by changing settings to reduce the pain of building up bases (The beginning part where you're scraping to get anything going is fine on default, I think, but once I had a foothold and realized the depth of "gather 100 X to make Y, gather 100 Y to make Z, gather 100 Z to make..." I noped out of the defaults). Having a camp with a wheel of pain and captives working under your eye is pretty fun.

 

[Erebus]

To recreate the feel of the Conan stories, I think one of the main requirements would be to have a setting in which magic is rare, mostly used by bad guys and not available to PCs. At most, a PC could once in a while use a magical item because the plot requires it and then only for a specific purpose (like the magic dagger in The devil in iron).

If throwing fireballs, turning invisible and instantly healing severe wounds ends up being a normal part of an adventurer's life, nearly as simple and banal as shooting an arrow or parrying an attack with a shield, then the adventure is obviously never going to feel like a Conan story.

 

[Nikanuur]

Conan Exiles is one obvious answer; Conan is in the game and you can make your character similar if you like. But it is also a very grindy base building game without much by way of an active story (though the theme/mood is appropriate), and the default game settings seem to be balanced around playing on a server with multiple people.

I'm not much into base building games but I played to the end because the combat is solid. I dodged around the grind by changing settings to reduce the pain of building up bases (The beginning part where you're scraping to get anything going is fine on default, I think, but once I had a foothold and realized the depth of "gather 100 X to make Y, gather 100 Y to make Z, gather 100 Z to make..." I noped out of the defaults). Having a camp with a wheel of pain and captives working under your eye is pretty fun.

What an insult, Crom strike you! MMO is the least satisfying genre of all when adventure comes in mind, and Conan's stories are all about adventure in the first place.

 

[AndyS]

There is no game that 100 percent nails it all the way down the line. Lots of games have barbarian heroes but they usually compromise somehow, like throwing tons of magic and monsters all over the place or forcing you to follow some Bioware-ish story that doesn't allow for Conan's particular perspective. Most of the officially licensed Conan games have something stupid and anti-Conan in them, like they're just slapping the trademark on the game without much regard to what's been made.

Age of Barbarian at least has fun with the classic sword-and-sorcery image and tropes, although it's pretty buggy in parts.

 

[Kev Inkline]

 

[Shuruga]

What an insult, Crom strike you! MMO is the least satisfying genre of all when adventure comes in mind, and Conan's stories are all about adventure in the first place.

Hah, fair. The ambiance is there in Exiles but you're definitely right that there isn't a narrative. For what it is worth, I'm a story kind of guy and only picked up Exiles on a deep discount!

 

[luj1]

What game best recreates the feel of Conan the Barbarian?​

Rune

/thread

 

[udm]

The Mount & Blade series are great for simulating the mass battles from stories like Hour of the Dragon and Scarlet Citadel. In fact, I've always felt that a good Conan game can be done with the Warband (or even Bannerlord) engine in the hands of a skilled programmer and designer. Use a combination of text-based adventures and third-person exploration for dungeon delving, and the rest of it for duelling/mass battles. That's all a Conan game needs.

 

[Grunker]

I just played Conan Exiles, and while I imagine it’s not great if you don’t play it with at least a couple of friendos, and the game is definitely not for everyone, the Conan vibe/atmosphere is downright great. They really brought out the feel of the novels and the world, to the point where I’m now mad they haven’t made a single player RPG.

Otherwise, I’d say Dark Sun: Shattered Lands.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

What game best recreates the feel of Conan the Barbarian?​

Rune

/thread

Yes, going into dark tunnels hunting goblins and fighting undead forces of Hel is exactly what Conan is about.
Go back to buttfucking Telvanni towers dude.

 

[Eirinjas]

Warcraft 1 & 2.

Especially with that bangin OST:

 

[.Pixote.]

What game best recreates the feel of Conan the Barbarian?​

Kenshi.

 

[fabrulana]

As a Conan fan, I don't know of any nice single player games for Conan. Anyone still play Age of Conan MMO, was always kind of hoping that would be good or at least ok.
Haven't heard from it in a while, but I see the website is still active.

 

[Great Deceiver]

 

[Nikanuur]

What an insult, Crom strike you! MMO is the least satisfying genre of all when adventure comes in mind, and Conan's stories are all about adventure in the first place.

Hah, fair. The ambiance is there in Exiles but you're definitely right that there isn't a narrative. For what it is worth, I'm a story kind of guy and only picked up Exiles on a deep discount!

To be honest as well: I've nothing against Exiles. Not my cup of tea, but I believe it's a pretty good game in its own genre.

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

 

[Nikanuur]

I just played Conan Exiles, and while I imagine it’s not great if you don’t play it with at least a couple of friendos, and the game is definitely not for everyone, the Conan vibe/atmosphere is downright great. They really brought out the feel of the novels and the world, to the point where I’m now mad they haven’t made a single player RPG.

Otherwise, I’d say Dark Sun: Shattered Lands.

Good point! Albeit largely different in the style department the game is set in an unforgiving, brutal world where morals boil down to eat or be eaten more often than not. As they do in Conan's world.