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Conan (2007 video game)
Encyclopedia
Conan is a 2007
action-adventure
video game that puts players in control of the titular hero, Conan the Barbarian
, from Robert E. Howard
's fantasy literature. The game was published by THQ
for the Xbox 360
and PlayStation 3
game consoles. Its developer, Nihilistic Software
, was inspired by the God of War
and Ninja Gaiden video games to create an experience featuring gore and nudity.
In Conan, the hero is on a quest to recover his lost armor and defeat an evil wizard. Conan can fight with sword and shield, two-handed weapons, or a weapon in each hand. Starting with several basic attacks, the barbarian gains experience point
s by killing enemies. By exchanging these points for additional attacks, players improve the hero's fighting abilities. Magic powers
complement Conan's arsenal, including the abilities to turn enemies into stone and conjure firestorms. The game also features context-sensitive action sequences
in which players press a sequence of buttons displayed on the screen to complete actions such as killing powerful enemies and interacting with the environment.
Critics enjoyed Conans combat system and gory kills, but said that the game failed to match the experience offered in God of War. Reactions varied on the game's depiction of the Conan universe; several critics praised the emulation of Frank Frazetta
's famous artwork, but others found the game's graphics drab and of low resolution. Regarding the audio, Golden Globe-winning actor Ron Perlman
was both praised and criticized for his voice work as Conan. Composer Mike Reagan
received acclaim for the game's music and later gave live performances of the game's soundtrack at Video Games Live
shows. Despite the generally favorable reviews and commercial success of the Conan franchise, Conan sold poorly and was a financial loss for THQ.
from a third-person
perspective while attempting to advance through the series of level
s that subdivide the game. The gameplay is the same for each level: Conan moves from area to area, fighting groups of enemies until he reaches the end. At the end of certain levels, the barbarian has to fight a more powerful opponent called a boss. Defeating a boss involves a two-stage process: Conan has to inflict heavy damage on the creature and thus trigger an interactive button-pressing sequence
that players have to complete to kill the boss. Several cycles of this process are required to defeat most bosses. Besides combat, button-pressing sequences are also used to interact with the environment, such as knocking down obstacles to create passageways, or as parts of platforming sequences in which Conan climbs walls and jumps from ledge to ledge. Players can save their progress
by using special stones that are placed throughout the game.
Conan starts each level with his default one-handed sword, and can pick up shields and other weapons to switch between three styles of attack: fighting with a one-handed weapon, a two-handed weapon, or a weapon in each hand. Each style features several attacks with names like "Cimmerian Charge" and "Black River Rage". The barbarian can change or stop his attacks at any time, creating many options in combat. When Conan lands a sequence of successive hits on his enemies, he activates his Song of Death, which increases the damage of his attacks for a short time. For defense, Conan can roll under enemy attacks or block them. If the player presses the block button just when an enemy is about to hit the barbarian, an image of a controller button appears on the screen. Pressing the button shown will make Conan execute a gory counterattack, which instantly kills the enemy. Other methods to kill enemies include grabbing and throwing them against other objects, such as spikes and other enemies, or over cliffs.
In addition to physical assaults, Conan can use magic powers
to damage enemies. Gaining these powers in later stages of the game, the barbarian can turn opponents into stone, call down fire from the heavens, and summon flocks of ravens to do his bidding. These magical attacks can quickly end fights, but their use is limited by the number of magic point
s Conan has. When an enemy is killed, colored runes—each one conferring its own special advantage—are released and gathered by the barbarian. Red runes act as experience point
s, which are exchanged for advanced attacks. Green and blue runes restore Conan's health
and magic points, respectively. The barbarian can also obtain runes by breaking containers and freeing maidens from captivity.
, a creation of Robert E. Howard
for his stories about Conan the Barbarian. Conans developer, Nihilistic Software
, chose several Hyborian locations, such as Kush, Stygia, and the Barachan Isles, to establish a link to the literary world. Hyboria was designed to be a fantasy
version of Earth around 10,000 BC
, and its civilizations were based on those from the Stone to Iron Ages
. Nihilistic portrayed the plains of Kush, a fictional Africa
, as savanna
hs with villages of straw huts. Stygia was illustrated as a land filled with structures resembling Egyptian
tombs and the Barachan Isles as lushly jungled islands.
's paintings have further elevated the barbarian's profile in pop culture. Howard presented his barbarian hero as a strong, shrewd, barbaric, and ambitious man in a primitive world of magic. His stories are simple and portray Conan overcoming a series of obstacles to defeat the antagonists with his physical prowess. Nihilistic originally intended to stay faithful to the literature, but the writers strayed from the canon
by showing the barbarian as willing to use magic. The literary Conan abhors magic, but Nihilistic reasoned that, in order to restore his armor to its original non-magical state, he is willing to use the magic it has been cursed with.
The developers did, however, stay true to the physical depictions of the barbarian. Reflecting how fights are described in the stories, players can kill foes in the goriest manner—dismembering and disemboweling them. Nihilistic wanted to show that the brutal killings are considered natural by Conan and not executed out of a thirst for blood. The inspiration for Conan's moves came from several sources, but mostly from Frazetta's artwork. The animators took several of Conan's poses straight from the paintings and modeled his movements after those of the characters in the feature animation Tarzan
and the action films Troy
and Ong Bak. The names of several fighting techniques such as "Gwahlur's Leap", "Bel's Gambit", and "Camel Punch" were also based on names and events from the Conan stories and films. To garner extra publicity, the publisher THQ
hired Golden Globe-winning actor Ron Perlman
to provide the voice for Conan.
Typical Conan stories by Howard featured leading females who were occasionally damsels in distress
. However, they were also strong and fearless women who would rescue the hero at crucial moments. Nihilistic cast the game's leading female character, A'kanna, in this mold; the warrior queen and Conan aid each other in several parts of the game. By contrast, there are topless, chained-up women scattered across the game's levels. However, these are only in the game because of the developer's belief that nudity was integral to a Conan story. Showing their breasts and acting in a burlesque
manner, these damsels-in-distress reward players with red runes when rescued.
", served as the inspiration for the game's plot. In the short story, Conan has a brief romance with Bêlit
, a pirate queen. Near the end of the story a demonic creature kills Bêlit and Conan seeks revenge. The creature, however, is stronger than Conan, overpowers him, and is about to kill him when Bêlit's spirit startles it and inspires Conan to kill the beast. The game's story follows a similar theme with A'kanna in the role of Bêlit. Told as a campfire story, cut scenes—in the form of static artwork or animation rendered
by the game engine—open and close each level with narratives from an elderly A'kanna.
The story starts at Parad Isle where Conan is raiding a tomb. Instead of finding treasure, he unknowingly frees Graven, a wizard who had been confined in a magical prison for his transgressions. Showing no gratitude, the wizard curses Conan's armor, scatters it across the world, and teleports the barbarian away. Vowing to retrieve his armor, Conan meets A'kanna while he is fighting through a pirate
base. Teaming up with the barbarian to find his armor, the warrior queen hopes to use its magic to end the curse—the Black Death—that is causing her people to kill each other. Their quest leads players through several locations and boss creatures such as dragon
s, undead
elephants, and kraken
s. Flashback
s are shown when retrieving a piece of armor after killing certain bosses; these back-stories
tell of Graven's imprisonment of the gods, his plan to sacrifice his daughter A'kanna, and his creation of the Black Death to transform the world to his liking.
In the last level, Conan has retrieved all of his armor and returns to Parad Isle to rescue A'kanna from her father. After a long boss fight and several button-pressing sequences, Conan slays the wizard at the bottom of the ocean. Graven's defeat frees the gods he had imprisoned, and they bring him back to life for eternal punishment. The story ends with the separation of the barbarian and the warrior queen. Conan goes on to fulfill his destiny to be a king as written in Howard's stories. A'kanna, however, grows old in a village, telling stories to children and never forgetting Conan.
In 2005, THQ acquired the rights to produce a series of video games featuring Conan the Barbarian and the world of Hyboria. This news came to the attention of Nihilistic Software who had just completed the action game Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects
. The video game developer
was looking to develop an action game similar to God of War
for its next project and saw the world of Conan as a good setting. The team quickly built a prototype to demonstrate its concept to THQ and received approval for the project. The video game publisher officially announced the game to the industry on February 26, 2007.
Nihilistic decided to use the features of other action games for Conan. While God of War was its inspiration for the camera system
, Ninja Gaiden was a great influence on the combat engine. The team wanted to emulate the complexity of Ninja Gaidens combat system, with many attacking options and an equal emphasis on being alert to the actions of enemies. Nihilistic also wanted the game to appeal to button mashing players as well as those who want to control their character with finesse. In addition, it designed the game to increase the frequency and difficulty of encounters as players advance through the levels.
Conan was developed to be released on the Xbox 360
and the PlayStation 3
. Although the architectures of the two consoles were very different, Nihilistic designed its product to perform equally on both of them, using force feedback and motion sensing
to enhance the playing experience. Conan was originally scheduled for an early 2008 release, but was brought forward to the second half of 2007 because of THQ's poor performance in that fiscal year. After the game was released in Europe, Nihilistic made demos
of the game available for downloading over Xbox Live
and PlayStation Network.
. Instead of making each computer representation as realistic as possible, they created models based mainly on their perception of each object's intrinsic nature. The artists used video graphics technology such as normal mapping
technique to emulate brush strokes on the models' textures
. These digital brush strokes were visible on the cliffs in the game. The character models were outlined with light colors instead of dark ones, creating the subtle blend of object and background found in oil paintings, and fog effects
allowed the team to recreate Frazetta's use of shadows in the middle area of the image. To complete the game's appearance, the artists used darker color palettes, motifs, and themes to present a more serious mood, in harmony with the gore and nudity in the game.
and God of War, was hired by THQ to write the music for Conan. To begin, he wanted to compose simple but powerful melodies, and looked to Basil Poledouris
's score for the 1982 film Conan the Barbarian for inspiration. As Reagan played development copies of the game, he was influenced by two other works: Igor Stravinsky
's barbaric and sensual ballet music The Rite of Spring
, and Bernard Hermann's score from the 1958 action film The 7th Voyage of Sinbad. Each week, Nihilistic and Reagan updated each other with copies of their work-in-progress, synchronizing their efforts. Reagan also studied with noted percussion artists Denny Seiwell
, Emil Richards
, and Michael Duffy to gain further insight on the use of drums to accompany the game's bloody and violent plot. After mastering
the soundtrack, he brought the music of Conan to an October 2007 Video Games Live
show, performing it live in Los Angeles
, United States
.
sites Metacritic
and Game Rankings
selected around 80 reviews and calculated average scores of 69 (out of 100) and 70% for the game, respectively. Most critics agreed that the game's best selling point was its variety in combat. They had a lot of fun with its easy-to-learn controls, skill customization, and most of all, the varied brutal depictions of Conan's kills. TeamXbox
said that the combat system "blossoms into a complex string of commands that will reward the user (with gore) for pressing the right buttons at the right time". The pounding, militaristic orchestra tunes accompanying the action further enhanced the critics' experience with the game.
Many critics complained that Conan copied many ideas from God of War. Game Informer
referred to this imitation as "[Conan] groveling at Kratos'
feet, begging for gameplay wisdom". A few reviewers, however, found this forgivable and stated that the game was made to be fun without any higher ambitions. Conans camera system irritated several critics for failing to provide an adequate view of the situation at certain critical moments. Its puzzles were overly simple and lacked clear directions for proceeding to the next step. The artificial intelligence
for the adversaries in the game was found to be predictable and flawed
by a few critics. In addition, they found the final encounter with Graven to be overly long and frustrating. Calling the fight "as painful as a trip to the proctologist", IGN
and Game Informer judged it to be one of the worst boss fights in video game history.
The critics had mixed opinions about three prominent features of the game: voice acting, artwork, and faithfulness to Howard's writings. Perlman earned acclaim for his vocal performance and gravely voice that matched the game's dialogue, but he also received criticism for not sounding like a barbarian. A few applauded Nihilistic for capturing the oil painting feel of Frazetta's art, but several others said that the graphics consisted of drab-looking environments that were jagged-edged and pixelated
when zoomed in. Although the animations were rated to be smooth and vivid, the lack of variety among enemy character models was criticized. Several critics also praised Nihilistic for recreating the atmosphere of Howard's stories. The decision to have Conan use magic was, however, called a "blasphemy" by IGN. G4techTV Canada
disagreed and forgave the game on the grounds that it was mostly faithful to the books. Ray Huling of The Escapist
said that the game's developers misunderstood Conan's appeal to the masses. In the journalist's opinion, Howard's depiction of Conan's brutal physical nature called attention to the dull nature of their lives and offered them a temporary escape. Furthermore, Huling said that Nihilistic used the characteristics of Conan for superficial purposes, and that, in copying the mechanics of another game without any groundbreaking innovations of its own, Nihilistic missed the essence of Howard's stories and created a shell of what its game could have been.
Despite the generally favorable reviews and success of Howard's franchise,
Conan was not a commercial success. It sold poorly and failed to recoup THQ's investment. The publisher publicly announced that the game's poor sales contributed to their US$
20 million write-off
in fiscal year 2008. Although the game's violence was praised by the gaming industry, it was condemned by the National Institute on Media and the Family
, which placed Conan on a list of games that parents were urged to avoid buying for their children. Conans Mature rating from the Entertainment Software Rating Board
, largely due to its violent content, made the game a target for a law being pushed in California
, United States. Proposed in 2005, the law was intended to regulate sales of Mature-rated games. It was blocked by a legal challenge from the gaming industry in 2007, but California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger
, who played Conan in the 1982 film, appealed the judgment, seeking to ensure that Conan and other games with similar levels of violence would be sold only to those above the age of 17. On February 20, 2009, His appeal was rejected by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals
, who ruled that such a restriction violated the First Amendment to the United States Constitution
.
2007 in video gaming
-Events:*March 14: Microsoft announces Games for Windows - Live, a version of Xbox Live for the Windows platform. The service launched on May 8.*March 27: Microsoft announces the new "Xbox 360 Elite" stock-keeping unit . The revision comes with a bigger hard drive and the ability to output HDMI...
action-adventure
Action-adventure game
An action-adventure game is a video game that combines elements of the adventure game genre with various action game elements. It is perhaps the broadest and most diverse genre in gaming, and can include many games which might better be categorized under narrow genres...
video game that puts players in control of the titular hero, Conan the Barbarian
Conan the Barbarian
Conan the Barbarian is a fictional sword and sorcery hero that originated in pulp fiction magazines and has since been adapted to books, comics, several films , television programs, video games, roleplaying games and other media...
, from Robert E. Howard
Robert E. Howard
Robert Ervin Howard was an American author who wrote pulp fiction in a diverse range of genres. Best known for his character Conan the Barbarian, he is regarded as the father of the sword and sorcery subgenre....
's fantasy literature. The game was published by THQ
THQ
THQ Inc. is an American developer and publisher of video games. Founded in 1989 in the United States, the company develops products for video game consoles, handheld game systems, as well as for personal computers and wireless devices...
for the Xbox 360
Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 is the second video game console produced by Microsoft and the successor to the Xbox. The Xbox 360 competes with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
and PlayStation 3
PlayStation 3
The is the third home video game console produced by Sony Computer Entertainment and the successor to the PlayStation 2 as part of the PlayStation series. The PlayStation 3 competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
game consoles. Its developer, Nihilistic Software
Nihilistic Software
-History:Nihilistic was founded in March 1998 by Ray Gresko, Robert Huebner, and Steve Tietze. Gresko and Huebner had formerly worked at LucasArts, and Tietze had worked at Rogue Entertainment...
, was inspired by the God of War
God of War (video game)
God of War is an action adventure video game for the PlayStation 2 first released by Sony Computer Entertainment's Santa Monica division in March 2005...
and Ninja Gaiden video games to create an experience featuring gore and nudity.
In Conan, the hero is on a quest to recover his lost armor and defeat an evil wizard. Conan can fight with sword and shield, two-handed weapons, or a weapon in each hand. Starting with several basic attacks, the barbarian gains experience point
Experience point
An experience point is a unit of measurement used in many role-playing games and role-playing video games to quantify a player character's progression through the game...
s by killing enemies. By exchanging these points for additional attacks, players improve the hero's fighting abilities. Magic powers
Magic (gaming)
Some role-playing games or game systems can include a set of rules that are used to portray magic in the paranormal sense. These rules simulate the effects that magic would have within the game context, according to how the game designer intended the magic to be portrayed...
complement Conan's arsenal, including the abilities to turn enemies into stone and conjure firestorms. The game also features context-sensitive action sequences
Quick Time Event
In video games, a Quick Time Event is a method of context-sensitive gameplay in which the player performs actions on the control device shortly after the appearance of an on-screen prompt. It allows for limited control of the game character during cut scenes or cinematic sequences in the game...
in which players press a sequence of buttons displayed on the screen to complete actions such as killing powerful enemies and interacting with the environment.
Critics enjoyed Conans combat system and gory kills, but said that the game failed to match the experience offered in God of War. Reactions varied on the game's depiction of the Conan universe; several critics praised the emulation of Frank Frazetta
Frank Frazetta
Frank Frazetta was an American fantasy and science fiction artist, noted for work in comic books, paperback book covers, paintings, posters, LP record album covers and other media...
's famous artwork, but others found the game's graphics drab and of low resolution. Regarding the audio, Golden Globe-winning actor Ron Perlman
Ron Perlman
Ronald N. "Ron" Perlman is an American television, film and voice over actor. He is known for having played Vincent in the TV series Beauty and the Beast , a Deathstroke figure known as Slade in the animated series Teen Titans, Clarence "Clay" Morrow in Sons of Anarchy, the comic book character...
was both praised and criticized for his voice work as Conan. Composer Mike Reagan
Mike Reagan
Mike Reagan is a composer, songwriter and music producer whose music has been featured in multiple videogames, TV commercials, and various film projects, including Any Given Sunday, and Elmo in Grouchland, which garnered a Grammy Award for Best Children’s Soundtrack.He is most recognized for his...
received acclaim for the game's music and later gave live performances of the game's soundtrack at Video Games Live
Video Games Live
Video Games Live is a concert series created and produced by industry veterans and video game composers Tommy Tallarico and Jack Wall. The concerts consist of segments of video game music performed by a live orchestra with video footage and synchronized lighting and effects, as well as several...
shows. Despite the generally favorable reviews and commercial success of the Conan franchise, Conan sold poorly and was a financial loss for THQ.
Gameplay
Players control Conan the BarbarianConan the Barbarian
Conan the Barbarian is a fictional sword and sorcery hero that originated in pulp fiction magazines and has since been adapted to books, comics, several films , television programs, video games, roleplaying games and other media...
from a third-person
Third-person shooter
Third-person shooter is a genre of 3D action games in which the player character is visible on-screen, and the gameplay consists primarily of shooting.-Definition:...
perspective while attempting to advance through the series of level
Level (computer and video games)
A level, map, area, or world in a video game is the total space available to the player during the course of completing a discrete objective...
s that subdivide the game. The gameplay is the same for each level: Conan moves from area to area, fighting groups of enemies until he reaches the end. At the end of certain levels, the barbarian has to fight a more powerful opponent called a boss. Defeating a boss involves a two-stage process: Conan has to inflict heavy damage on the creature and thus trigger an interactive button-pressing sequence
Quick Time Event
In video games, a Quick Time Event is a method of context-sensitive gameplay in which the player performs actions on the control device shortly after the appearance of an on-screen prompt. It allows for limited control of the game character during cut scenes or cinematic sequences in the game...
that players have to complete to kill the boss. Several cycles of this process are required to defeat most bosses. Besides combat, button-pressing sequences are also used to interact with the environment, such as knocking down obstacles to create passageways, or as parts of platforming sequences in which Conan climbs walls and jumps from ledge to ledge. Players can save their progress
Saved game
A saved game is a piece of digitally stored information about the progress of a player in a video game. This saved game can be reloaded later, so the player can continue where he or she had stopped...
by using special stones that are placed throughout the game.
In addition to physical assaults, Conan can use magic powers
Magic (gaming)
Some role-playing games or game systems can include a set of rules that are used to portray magic in the paranormal sense. These rules simulate the effects that magic would have within the game context, according to how the game designer intended the magic to be portrayed...
to damage enemies. Gaining these powers in later stages of the game, the barbarian can turn opponents into stone, call down fire from the heavens, and summon flocks of ravens to do his bidding. These magical attacks can quickly end fights, but their use is limited by the number of magic point
Magic point
Magic points are units of magical power that are used in many role-playing, computer role-playing and similar games as an expendable resource that is needed to pay for magic spells and other abilities, such as special attacks...
s Conan has. When an enemy is killed, colored runes—each one conferring its own special advantage—are released and gathered by the barbarian. Red runes act as experience point
Experience point
An experience point is a unit of measurement used in many role-playing games and role-playing video games to quantify a player character's progression through the game...
s, which are exchanged for advanced attacks. Green and blue runes restore Conan's health
Health (game mechanic)
Health is a game mechanic used in role-playing, computer and video games to give value to characters, enemies, NPCs, and related objects. This value can either be numerical, semi-numerical as in hit/health points, or arbitrary as in a life bar....
and magic points, respectively. The barbarian can also obtain runes by breaking containers and freeing maidens from captivity.
Plot and setting
The game takes place in the world of HyboriaHyborian Age
The Hyborian Age is a fictional period within the artificial mythology created by Robert E. Howard, in which the sword and sorcery tales of Conan the Barbarian are set....
, a creation of Robert E. Howard
Robert E. Howard
Robert Ervin Howard was an American author who wrote pulp fiction in a diverse range of genres. Best known for his character Conan the Barbarian, he is regarded as the father of the sword and sorcery subgenre....
for his stories about Conan the Barbarian. Conans developer, Nihilistic Software
Nihilistic Software
-History:Nihilistic was founded in March 1998 by Ray Gresko, Robert Huebner, and Steve Tietze. Gresko and Huebner had formerly worked at LucasArts, and Tietze had worked at Rogue Entertainment...
, chose several Hyborian locations, such as Kush, Stygia, and the Barachan Isles, to establish a link to the literary world. Hyboria was designed to be a fantasy
Fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...
version of Earth around 10,000 BC
10th millennium BC
The 10th millennium BC marks the beginning of the Mesolithic and Epipaleolithic period, which is the first part of the Holocene epoch. Agriculture, based on the cultivation of primitive forms of millet and rice, occurred in Southwest Asia...
, and its civilizations were based on those from the Stone to Iron Ages
Three-age system
The three-age system in archaeology and physical anthropology is the periodization of human prehistory into three consecutive time periods, named for their respective tool-making technologies:* The Stone Age* The Bronze Age* The Iron Age-Origin:...
. Nihilistic portrayed the plains of Kush, a fictional Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
, as savanna
Savanna
A savanna, or savannah, is a grassland ecosystem characterized by the trees being sufficiently small or widely spaced so that the canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to reach the ground to support an unbroken herbaceous layer consisting primarily of C4 grasses.Some...
hs with villages of straw huts. Stygia was illustrated as a land filled with structures resembling Egyptian
Ancient Egypt
Ancient Egypt was an ancient civilization of Northeastern Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. Egyptian civilization coalesced around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh...
tombs and the Barachan Isles as lushly jungled islands.
Characters
Conan is the protagonist in many of Howard's stories: a franchise has been built around the character, and Frank FrazettaFrank Frazetta
Frank Frazetta was an American fantasy and science fiction artist, noted for work in comic books, paperback book covers, paintings, posters, LP record album covers and other media...
's paintings have further elevated the barbarian's profile in pop culture. Howard presented his barbarian hero as a strong, shrewd, barbaric, and ambitious man in a primitive world of magic. His stories are simple and portray Conan overcoming a series of obstacles to defeat the antagonists with his physical prowess. Nihilistic originally intended to stay faithful to the literature, but the writers strayed from the canon
Canon (fiction)
In the context of a work of fiction, the term canon denotes the material accepted as "official" in a fictional universe's fan base. It is often contrasted with, or used as the basis for, works of fan fiction, which are not considered canonical...
by showing the barbarian as willing to use magic. The literary Conan abhors magic, but Nihilistic reasoned that, in order to restore his armor to its original non-magical state, he is willing to use the magic it has been cursed with.
The developers did, however, stay true to the physical depictions of the barbarian. Reflecting how fights are described in the stories, players can kill foes in the goriest manner—dismembering and disemboweling them. Nihilistic wanted to show that the brutal killings are considered natural by Conan and not executed out of a thirst for blood. The inspiration for Conan's moves came from several sources, but mostly from Frazetta's artwork. The animators took several of Conan's poses straight from the paintings and modeled his movements after those of the characters in the feature animation Tarzan
Tarzan (1999 film)
Tarzan is a 1999 American animated feature film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures on June 18, 1999...
and the action films Troy
Troy (film)
Troy is a 2004 epic war film written by David Benioff and directed by Wolfgang Petersen based on the events of the Trojan War. Its cast includes Brad Pitt as Achilles, Eric Bana as Hector.It was nominated for the Academy Award for Costume Design.-Plot:...
and Ong Bak. The names of several fighting techniques such as "Gwahlur's Leap", "Bel's Gambit", and "Camel Punch" were also based on names and events from the Conan stories and films. To garner extra publicity, the publisher THQ
THQ
THQ Inc. is an American developer and publisher of video games. Founded in 1989 in the United States, the company develops products for video game consoles, handheld game systems, as well as for personal computers and wireless devices...
hired Golden Globe-winning actor Ron Perlman
Ron Perlman
Ronald N. "Ron" Perlman is an American television, film and voice over actor. He is known for having played Vincent in the TV series Beauty and the Beast , a Deathstroke figure known as Slade in the animated series Teen Titans, Clarence "Clay" Morrow in Sons of Anarchy, the comic book character...
to provide the voice for Conan.
Typical Conan stories by Howard featured leading females who were occasionally damsels in distress
Damsel in distress
The subject of the damsel in distress, or persecuted maiden, is a classic theme in world literature, art, and film. She is usually a beautiful young woman placed in a dire predicament by a villain or monster and who requires a hero to achieve her rescue. She has become a stock character of fiction,...
. However, they were also strong and fearless women who would rescue the hero at crucial moments. Nihilistic cast the game's leading female character, A'kanna, in this mold; the warrior queen and Conan aid each other in several parts of the game. By contrast, there are topless, chained-up women scattered across the game's levels. However, these are only in the game because of the developer's belief that nudity was integral to a Conan story. Showing their breasts and acting in a burlesque
Burlesque
Burlesque is a literary, dramatic or musical work intended to cause laughter by caricaturing the manner or spirit of serious works, or by ludicrous treatment of their subjects...
manner, these damsels-in-distress reward players with red runes when rescued.
Story
Howard's short story, "Queen of the Black CoastQueen of the Black Coast
"Queen of the Black Coast" is one of the original short stories about Conan the Cimmerian, written by American author Robert E. Howard and first published in Weird Tales magazine circa May 1934...
", served as the inspiration for the game's plot. In the short story, Conan has a brief romance with Bêlit
Bêlit (Robert E. Howard)
In the fictional universe of Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian, Bêlit is a pirate queen who has a romantic relationship with Conan. She is Conan's first serious lover. She appears in Howard's Conan novelette "Queen of the Black Coast", first published in Weird Tales 23 5...
, a pirate queen. Near the end of the story a demonic creature kills Bêlit and Conan seeks revenge. The creature, however, is stronger than Conan, overpowers him, and is about to kill him when Bêlit's spirit startles it and inspires Conan to kill the beast. The game's story follows a similar theme with A'kanna in the role of Bêlit. Told as a campfire story, cut scenes—in the form of static artwork or animation rendered
Rendering (computer graphics)
Rendering is the process of generating an image from a model , by means of computer programs. A scene file contains objects in a strictly defined language or data structure; it would contain geometry, viewpoint, texture, lighting, and shading information as a description of the virtual scene...
by the game engine—open and close each level with narratives from an elderly A'kanna.
The story starts at Parad Isle where Conan is raiding a tomb. Instead of finding treasure, he unknowingly frees Graven, a wizard who had been confined in a magical prison for his transgressions. Showing no gratitude, the wizard curses Conan's armor, scatters it across the world, and teleports the barbarian away. Vowing to retrieve his armor, Conan meets A'kanna while he is fighting through a pirate
Piracy
Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence at sea. The term can include acts committed on land, in the air, or in other major bodies of water or on a shore. It does not normally include crimes committed against persons traveling on the same vessel as the perpetrator...
base. Teaming up with the barbarian to find his armor, the warrior queen hopes to use its magic to end the curse—the Black Death—that is causing her people to kill each other. Their quest leads players through several locations and boss creatures such as dragon
Dragon
A dragon is a legendary creature, typically with serpentine or reptilian traits, that feature in the myths of many cultures. There are two distinct cultural traditions of dragons: the European dragon, derived from European folk traditions and ultimately related to Greek and Middle Eastern...
s, undead
Undead
Undead is a collective name for fictional, mythological, or legendary beings that are deceased and yet behave as if alive. Undead may be incorporeal, such as ghosts, or corporeal, such as vampires and zombies...
elephants, and kraken
Kraken
Kraken are legendary sea monsters of giant proportions said to have dwelt off the coasts of Norway and Iceland.In modern German, Krake means octopus but can also refer to the legendary Kraken...
s. Flashback
Flashback (narrative)
Flashback is an interjected scene that takes the narrative back in time from the current point the story has reached. Flashbacks are often used to recount events that happened before the story’s primary sequence of events or to fill in crucial backstory...
s are shown when retrieving a piece of armor after killing certain bosses; these back-stories
Back-story
A back-story, background story, or backstory is the literary device of a narrative chronologically earlier than, and related to, a narrative of primary interest. Generally, it is the history of characters or other elements that underlie the situation existing at the main narrative's start...
tell of Graven's imprisonment of the gods, his plan to sacrifice his daughter A'kanna, and his creation of the Black Death to transform the world to his liking.
In the last level, Conan has retrieved all of his armor and returns to Parad Isle to rescue A'kanna from her father. After a long boss fight and several button-pressing sequences, Conan slays the wizard at the bottom of the ocean. Graven's defeat frees the gods he had imprisoned, and they bring him back to life for eternal punishment. The story ends with the separation of the barbarian and the warrior queen. Conan goes on to fulfill his destiny to be a king as written in Howard's stories. A'kanna, however, grows old in a village, telling stories to children and never forgetting Conan.
Development
Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects
Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects is a fighting game for the PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube, DS, and PSP, which ties into the "Marvel Nemesis" comic book series.-Gameplay:...
. The video game developer
Video game developer
A video game developer is a software developer that creates video games. A developer may specialize in a certain video game console, such as Nintendo's Wii, Microsoft's Xbox 360, Sony's PlayStation 3, or may develop for a variety of systems, including personal computers.Most developers also...
was looking to develop an action game similar to God of War
God of War (video game)
God of War is an action adventure video game for the PlayStation 2 first released by Sony Computer Entertainment's Santa Monica division in March 2005...
for its next project and saw the world of Conan as a good setting. The team quickly built a prototype to demonstrate its concept to THQ and received approval for the project. The video game publisher officially announced the game to the industry on February 26, 2007.
Nihilistic decided to use the features of other action games for Conan. While God of War was its inspiration for the camera system
Virtual camera system
A virtual camera system aims at controlling a camera or a set of cameras to display a view of a 3D virtual world. Camera systems are used in videogames where their purpose is to show the action at the best possible angle; more generally, they are used in 3D virtual worlds when a third person view...
, Ninja Gaiden was a great influence on the combat engine. The team wanted to emulate the complexity of Ninja Gaidens combat system, with many attacking options and an equal emphasis on being alert to the actions of enemies. Nihilistic also wanted the game to appeal to button mashing players as well as those who want to control their character with finesse. In addition, it designed the game to increase the frequency and difficulty of encounters as players advance through the levels.
Conan was developed to be released on the Xbox 360
Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 is the second video game console produced by Microsoft and the successor to the Xbox. The Xbox 360 competes with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
and the PlayStation 3
PlayStation 3
The is the third home video game console produced by Sony Computer Entertainment and the successor to the PlayStation 2 as part of the PlayStation series. The PlayStation 3 competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
. Although the architectures of the two consoles were very different, Nihilistic designed its product to perform equally on both of them, using force feedback and motion sensing
Motion detection
Motion detection is a process of confirming a change in position of an object relative to its surroundings or the change in the surroundings relative to an object. This detection can be achieved by both mechanical and electronic methods...
to enhance the playing experience. Conan was originally scheduled for an early 2008 release, but was brought forward to the second half of 2007 because of THQ's poor performance in that fiscal year. After the game was released in Europe, Nihilistic made demos
Game demo
A game demo is a freely distributed demonstration or preview of an upcoming or recently released video game. Demos are typically released by the game's publisher to help consumers get a feel of the game before deciding whether to buy the full version....
of the game available for downloading over Xbox Live
Xbox Live
Xbox Live is an online multiplayer gaming and digital media delivery service created and operated by Microsoft Corporation. It is currently the only online gaming service on consoles that charges users a fee to play multiplayer gaming. It was first made available to the Xbox system in 2002...
and PlayStation Network.
Visual style
The appearance of Howard's Conan and Hyboria in the popular imagination owes much to Frazetta's distinctive oil paintings. While Nihilistic's writers tried to tell a story in Howard's style, its artists attempted to emulate Frazetta's style on the electronic display screenDisplay device
A display device is an output device for presentation of information in visual or tactile form...
. Instead of making each computer representation as realistic as possible, they created models based mainly on their perception of each object's intrinsic nature. The artists used video graphics technology such as normal mapping
Normal mapping
In 3D computer graphics, normal mapping, or "Dot3 bump mapping", is a technique used for faking the lighting of bumps and dents. It is used to add details without using more polygons. A common use of this technique is to greatly enhance the appearance and details of a low polygon model by...
technique to emulate brush strokes on the models' textures
Texture mapping
Texture mapping is a method for adding detail, surface texture , or color to a computer-generated graphic or 3D model. Its application to 3D graphics was pioneered by Dr Edwin Catmull in his Ph.D. thesis of 1974.-Texture mapping:...
. These digital brush strokes were visible on the cliffs in the game. The character models were outlined with light colors instead of dark ones, creating the subtle blend of object and background found in oil paintings, and fog effects
Distance fog
Distance fog is a technique used in 3D computer graphics to enhance the perception of distance by simulating fog.Because many of the shapes in graphical environments are relatively simple, and complex shadows are difficult to render, many graphics engines employ a "fog" gradient so objects further...
allowed the team to recreate Frazetta's use of shadows in the middle area of the image. To complete the game's appearance, the artists used darker color palettes, motifs, and themes to present a more serious mood, in harmony with the gore and nudity in the game.
Music
Mike Reagan, a music composer noted for his work in video games such as DarkwatchDarkwatch
Darkwatch: Curse of the West is a 2005 Weird West first-person shooter video game for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox. It was developed by High Moon Studios and published by Capcom in the United States and by Ubisoft in the European Union and Australia.The game mixes western, horror and steampunk genres...
and God of War, was hired by THQ to write the music for Conan. To begin, he wanted to compose simple but powerful melodies, and looked to Basil Poledouris
Basil Poledouris
Vassilis Konstantinos "Basil" Poledouris was a Greek-American music composer who concentrated on the scores for films and television shows...
's score for the 1982 film Conan the Barbarian for inspiration. As Reagan played development copies of the game, he was influenced by two other works: Igor Stravinsky
Igor Stravinsky
Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ; 6 April 1971) was a Russian, later naturalized French, and then naturalized American composer, pianist, and conductor....
's barbaric and sensual ballet music The Rite of Spring
The Rite of Spring
The Rite of Spring, original French title Le sacre du printemps , is a ballet with music by Igor Stravinsky; choreography by Vaslav Nijinsky; and concept, set design and costumes by Nicholas Roerich...
, and Bernard Hermann's score from the 1958 action film The 7th Voyage of Sinbad. Each week, Nihilistic and Reagan updated each other with copies of their work-in-progress, synchronizing their efforts. Reagan also studied with noted percussion artists Denny Seiwell
Wings (band)
Wings were a British-American rock group formed in 1971 by Paul McCartney, Denny Laine and Linda McCartney that remained active until 1981....
, Emil Richards
Emil Richards
Emil Richards, born Emilio Joseph Radocchia on September 2, 1932 in Hartford, Connecticut, is a percussionist who plays a variety of different percussion instruments.-Biography:...
, and Michael Duffy to gain further insight on the use of drums to accompany the game's bloody and violent plot. After mastering
Master recording
A multitrack recording master tape, disk or computer files on which productions are developed for later mixing, is known as the multi-track master, while the tape, disk or computer files holding a mix is called a mixed master.It is standard practice to make a copy of a master recording, known as...
the soundtrack, he brought the music of Conan to an October 2007 Video Games Live
Video Games Live
Video Games Live is a concert series created and produced by industry veterans and video game composers Tommy Tallarico and Jack Wall. The concerts consist of segments of video game music performed by a live orchestra with video footage and synchronized lighting and effects, as well as several...
show, performing it live in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
Reception
Conan received fair-to-good ratings from critics. , review aggregatorReview aggregator
A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services . This system stores the reviews and then uses them for purposes such as: creating a website for users to view the reviews, selling information to third parties about consumer tendencies and creating databases for...
sites Metacritic
Metacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
and Game Rankings
Game Rankings
GameRankings is a website that collects review scores from both offline and online sources to give an average rating. It indexes over 315,000 articles relating to more than 14,500 games.GameRankings is owned by CBS Interactive...
selected around 80 reviews and calculated average scores of 69 (out of 100) and 70% for the game, respectively. Most critics agreed that the game's best selling point was its variety in combat. They had a lot of fun with its easy-to-learn controls, skill customization, and most of all, the varied brutal depictions of Conan's kills. TeamXbox
TeamXbox
TeamXbox is a gaming media web site dedicated to Microsoft's Xbox and Xbox 360 platforms. While the majority of content is Xbox and Xbox 360 related, the site occasionally covers general technology and other video game news....
said that the combat system "blossoms into a complex string of commands that will reward the user (with gore) for pressing the right buttons at the right time". The pounding, militaristic orchestra tunes accompanying the action further enhanced the critics' experience with the game.
Many critics complained that Conan copied many ideas from God of War. Game Informer
Game Informer
Game Informer is an American-based monthly magazine featuring articles, news, strategy, and reviews of popular video games and associated consoles. It was formed in August 1991, when FuncoLand started publishing a six-page magazine, free in all its retail locations...
referred to this imitation as "[Conan] groveling at Kratos'
Kratos (God of War)
Kratos is a video game character from Sony Computer Entertainment'sGod of War series, which is loosely based on Greek mythology. Kratos first appeared in the highly successful video game God of War , which led to the development of five additional games featuring the character as the protagonist...
feet, begging for gameplay wisdom". A few reviewers, however, found this forgivable and stated that the game was made to be fun without any higher ambitions. Conans camera system irritated several critics for failing to provide an adequate view of the situation at certain critical moments. Its puzzles were overly simple and lacked clear directions for proceeding to the next step. The artificial intelligence
Game artificial intelligence
Game artificial intelligence refers to techniques used in computer and video games to produce the illusion of intelligence in the behavior of non-player characters . The techniques used typically draw upon existing methods from the field of artificial intelligence...
for the adversaries in the game was found to be predictable and flawed
Software bug
A software bug is the common term used to describe an error, flaw, mistake, failure, or fault in a computer program or system that produces an incorrect or unexpected result, or causes it to behave in unintended ways. Most bugs arise from mistakes and errors made by people in either a program's...
by a few critics. In addition, they found the final encounter with Graven to be overly long and frustrating. Calling the fight "as painful as a trip to the proctologist", IGN
IGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
and Game Informer judged it to be one of the worst boss fights in video game history.
The critics had mixed opinions about three prominent features of the game: voice acting, artwork, and faithfulness to Howard's writings. Perlman earned acclaim for his vocal performance and gravely voice that matched the game's dialogue, but he also received criticism for not sounding like a barbarian. A few applauded Nihilistic for capturing the oil painting feel of Frazetta's art, but several others said that the graphics consisted of drab-looking environments that were jagged-edged and pixelated
Pixelation
In computer graphics, pixelation is an effect caused by displaying a bitmap or a section of a bitmap at such a large size that individual pixels, small single-colored square display elements that comprise the bitmap, are visible to the eye...
when zoomed in. Although the animations were rated to be smooth and vivid, the lack of variety among enemy character models was criticized. Several critics also praised Nihilistic for recreating the atmosphere of Howard's stories. The decision to have Conan use magic was, however, called a "blasphemy" by IGN. G4techTV Canada
G4techTV Canada
G4 Canada is a Canadian English language Category A specialty channel owned by Rogers Media. The name is licensed from NBCUniversal, who formerly owned a stake in the channel...
disagreed and forgave the game on the grounds that it was mostly faithful to the books. Ray Huling of The Escapist
The Escapist (magazine)
The Escapist is an online magazine covering video games, gamers, the gaming industry, and gaming culture. Published by the Themis Group, it was edited by Julianne Greer up to June 30, 2009, then by Russ Pitts through September 2011, and is currently edited by Steve Butts. The Escapist was first...
said that the game's developers misunderstood Conan's appeal to the masses. In the journalist's opinion, Howard's depiction of Conan's brutal physical nature called attention to the dull nature of their lives and offered them a temporary escape. Furthermore, Huling said that Nihilistic used the characteristics of Conan for superficial purposes, and that, in copying the mechanics of another game without any groundbreaking innovations of its own, Nihilistic missed the essence of Howard's stories and created a shell of what its game could have been.
Despite the generally favorable reviews and success of Howard's franchise,
Conan was not a commercial success. It sold poorly and failed to recoup THQ's investment. The publisher publicly announced that the game's poor sales contributed to their US$
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
20 million write-off
Write-off
The term write-off describes a reduction in recognized value. In accounting terminology, it refers to recognition of the reduced or zero value of an asset. In income tax statements, it refers to a reduction of taxable income as recognition of certain expenses required to produce the income...
in fiscal year 2008. Although the game's violence was praised by the gaming industry, it was condemned by the National Institute on Media and the Family
National Institute on Media and the Family
The National Institute on Media and the Family , founded by psychologist Dr. David Walsh in 1996 and closed in 2009 was a non-profit organization based in Minneapolis, MN. It was a nonsectarian advocacy group which sought to monitor mass media for content that it deemed is harmful to children and...
, which placed Conan on a list of games that parents were urged to avoid buying for their children. Conans Mature rating from the Entertainment Software Rating Board
Entertainment Software Rating Board
The Entertainment Software Rating Board is a self-regulatory organization that assigns age and content ratings, enforces industry-adopted advertising guidelines, and ensures responsible online privacy principles for computer and video games as well as entertainment software in Canada, Mexico and...
, largely due to its violent content, made the game a target for a law being pushed in California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, United States. Proposed in 2005, the law was intended to regulate sales of Mature-rated games. It was blocked by a legal challenge from the gaming industry in 2007, but California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger
Arnold Schwarzenegger
Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger is an Austrian-American former professional bodybuilder, actor, businessman, investor, and politician. Schwarzenegger served as the 38th Governor of California from 2003 until 2011....
, who played Conan in the 1982 film, appealed the judgment, seeking to ensure that Conan and other games with similar levels of violence would be sold only to those above the age of 17. On February 20, 2009, His appeal was rejected by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals
United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit is a U.S. federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the district courts in the following districts:* District of Alaska* District of Arizona...
, who ruled that such a restriction violated the First Amendment to the United States Constitution
First Amendment to the United States Constitution
The First Amendment to the United States Constitution is part of the Bill of Rights. The amendment prohibits the making of any law respecting an establishment of religion, impeding the free exercise of religion, abridging the freedom of speech, infringing on the freedom of the press, interfering...
.