‘Hack n' Slash' has always been a genre dear to my heart. Considering the majority of games I have played in the past relate to killing, shooting and/or destroying things, Conan is a refreshing change of pace. It's great to get away from shooting at things all the time and to finally swap out my ‘BR' or chainsaw for a sword, shield and copious amounts of blood and body parts flying everywhere.

Conan isn't beautiful to look at although the graphics aren't bad. They actually look very ‘gritty' in texture and the loading screens look like rough images taken directly from one of the Conan comics. When you play a game like Conan though, there are only two objectives; kill everything and gain power. That's about the gist of it. There's nothing fancy about the way it plays or looks. But that isn't a bad thing and in fact, that's what makes this game so much fun to play.

There is a story behind Conan but you're not really going to worry too much about that. Conan is not really an RPG although there are some subtle ‘RPG-like' attributes to the game. Conan is no God of War but shares similarities in the sense that it's really all about ‘slicing and dicing' your way through your foes and increasing your power so you can take on more and more powerful mini-bosses and of course, main bosses.

The controls to slash, punch, jump and block could have been a little more user friendly. In some aspects they were kind of clunky. Having to block a lot makes the game pace slower (even though blocking in this game is an absolute necessity) and when your block's are broken, you can find yourself dying pretty easily if you've got the difficulty level high enough (I was playing it on ‘Hard' which is pretty challenging). There are also four difficulty levels to choose from but choose wisely otherwise you could find yourself frustrated with the game early on.

You can gain points by killing and progressing through each area. When you gain points you can up skill and buy different defensive and offensive techniques. This part of the game is cool because you can then turn Conan into the god-like hero we all know and love. Bottom line is Conan is great if you want some challenging ‘hack n' slash' fun but avoid it if you're looking for something like God of War to fill your lonely Xbox nights.