Like many of my generation, my first exposure to Conan was through the 1982 "Conan the Barbarian" movie. I was eight at the time, but the almost seamless interweaving of storytelling, violence, and especially the music were definitely not lost on me.
Unlike the movies, the game is a lot more true to the books, incorporating many of the plots found in the short stories and the pastiches; most prominent amongst these would be a quest modeled on "The Thing in the Crypt," which is played out almost exactly as the story is written.
Like many of my generation, my first exposure to Conan was through the 1982 "Conan the Barbarian" movie. I was eight at the time, but the almost seamless interweaving of storytelling, violence, and especially the music were definitely not lost on me.
Unlike the movies, the game is a lot more true to the books, incorporating many of the plots found in the short stories and the pastiches; most prominent amongst these would be a quest modeled on "The Thing in the Crypt," which is played out almost exactly as the story is written. The back-story strays from REH's timeline, though, in that it combines it a little with the movie: Conan is the son of a blacksmith and became one himself, he made for himself a crude sword, and was
unable to fight when his village was slaughtered by Thoth-Amon's minions.
This storyline completely ignores events in the canonical timeline, such as Conan's participation in the sack of Venarum, his imprisonment by the Hyperboreans, and occasional references to Conan's return visits to his family in Cimmeria. But at the same time, this novel backstory also gives the game its reason for being, as the player must successfully guide Conan through about six quests, gaining in ability and making allies while pursuing the ultimate goal: revenge.
Though dated today, the graphics are quite good by early 1990's standards, while the game maps are typically very large and detailed. This is perhaps the games greatest strength, as the gameplay, unfortunately, is a straight shot downhill.
The storyline is far too linear, although that was status quo for adventure games of that period, and the controls are severely limited. Fighting is restricted to "chop/swing/thrust" movements with a sword, and the combat screens are slow and feel a little bit awkward. What's worse is that you're always being chased by something, so random encounters will interrupt the flow of the game fairly often, and they never have any treasure.
Once you get used to the game's controls and how to handle the combats, the game progresses rather nicely. Acquiring gold can be a little tricky, as you need lots of it to pay the fighting-master to improve your combat skills, but the main quests are fairly straightforward, as are a number of side-quests that will help you get the treasure (and hence the gold) that you need in order to advance. All in all, the game isn't all that difficult, and on my first time playing it, I finished it within the space of a weekend, without using a walkthrough.
In the last analysis, it was a fun game, and it seems to have been made with the true Conan fan in mind. Granted, it doesn't have a very high replayability value, but I would recommend this game to anyone who wants to have a little Conan on their computer, is interested in the history of computer games related to the Conan franchise, or is just bored and looking to pass a few hours' time.
