Funcom is a developer and publisher of games known primarily from the production of the Conan the Barbarian universe. Conan Unconquered is their latest work, which is a representative of the little-explored survival RTS genre.
Where are those RTSs?
Unfortunately, the time of great strategy games ended a long time ago. Apart from a few exceptions (with Relic Entertainment at the fore), creators decide to do this type of productions less and less. That is why every new game of this genre is very happy, even if it is not a classic approach (which I personally regret). So what is Conan Unconquered ? Well, this is quite a fresh idea for strategy games, which is in a way a mix of tower defense and the classic “build and fight” approach to RTS. Another representative of this genre is They Are Billions , to which (unfortunately) I will be referring a lot in this review.
If you haven’t had any contact with this type of game before, the game always revolves around the same rules – you start the game with a building, the loss of which means a loss. From time to time, stronger and stronger waves of enemies come and need to be pushed back. This can be done by recruiting your units and placing Fortifications. On top of that, there’s economy, exploration, and research. The rules aren’t complicated, but the gameplay is extremely engaging and addictive, so if you’re at least a bit intrigued at this stage, you’ll probably have a great time.
It is solid
In the context of the gameplay itself, it is difficult for me to attach anything to it. Everything comes out (only or until) correctly. The graphics may not be at the highest level and you could say that this game could have been released years ago, but in the RTS genre it is not particularly important. However, transparency is important, and Conan Unconquered has no problems with it. The music lacks a bit of variety, the more that the gameplay becomes repetitive quite quickly (this is not a disadvantage, but a feature of the genre, as in rougelike, for example), but what the creators offer us is at a high level. So you can say that everything is in its place, and the game is worth recommending, but the glitches appear when we look at the competitive production, They Are Billionswhich premiered long before Funcom’s game.
Already seen?
From the very beginning, while playing Conan Unconquerd , I had the impression that I had seen it all somewhere. I knew before that the concept was the same, but I didn’t expect almost all systems to work the same way (economy and raw materials, first of all). The main difference is the speed of the game – in Conan the waves come much more often, which gives us less time to prepare, but in return everything feels more “intimate”. By this I mean that we are struggling with dozens of opponents with a few (a dozen) units and a few fortifications, not thousands of hordes. The map also feels a lot more empty – we will encounter a few reward camps and individual marauders, not an ocean of zombies that need to be gradually disposed of, as is the case inThey Are Billions . I don’t think one approach is worse than the other, I leave it to individual judgment. In addition, there are heroes and bosses that give powerful rewards, which we won’t see in the competitive game by Numantian Games.
My biggest problem with Conan Unconquered is the little variation. We have a small number of units to choose from and, even worse, even less freedom to choose our playstyle – the beginning of each approach is played in the same way. Only research allows us to choose a path of development, but even then these are not great differences. Fortunately, the gameplay is very much about planning, doing expansion, dealing with current problems, which requires full commitment, and as I said before, you just don’t let go even though we’ve already done it once.
And it could have been a hit …
Funcom made a game that in many ways seems to be a clone of another production and if they changed this and that so that the teacher did not realize it, it is a pity that they did not decide to make slightly bolder decisions. This genre is so unexplored that the creators had a lot of space to do something great with it, if only to put more heart into it, which, unfortunately, was probably a bit lacking in this case. It is still a game worth recommending because it gives a lot of fun, but I definitely think that the creators missed the opportunity and skimmed on innovation. I have to give a safe grade for a safe game.
We would like to thank Funcom for making a copy of the game (PC) available for review.
