The exiled lands are massive, made up of different environmental biomes that can be explored freely from the outset. From there, you’re free to wander off into the wild yonder. As an exile, you are trapped in a doomed and cursed land with nothing but the faint memory of being cut down from your crucifix by Conan, the giant hunk of man-meat himself. The game opens as you regain consciousness in the scorching desert, completely naked and vulnerable.
When you combine the steep learning curve of a deep but confusing crafting system with largely monotonous gameplay and a spectacularly awful UI, Conan Exiles feels like it does everything it can to push back on those curious enough to step into its admittedly intriguing but highly flawed world. It’s a big, open-world survival sim that sticks true to its initial hardcore vision to a fault. Howard’s Conan the Barbarian, Conan Exiles has remarkably little to do with any part of that universe. For a game that’s based on the world of Robert E.
