Conan Hands-On

At E3, TDK is showing off a build of its forthcoming Xbox action game Conan. It's a third-person hack-and-slash action game that uses a fixed, roving camera system reminiscent of games like Devil May Cry. As Conan, you'll primarily use your bastard sword to cut down the numerous foes who stand in your way. That's what we did, anyway.

Conan looks like it's at a pretty early stage in its development. Some of the hacking animations look pretty good, and at times the action looks reminiscent of the Schwarzenneger films. However, the controls are pretty rough, especially when the camera changes angles, which happens often. While we'd like nothing more than to really dig into a Conan game, crushing our enemies and seeing them driven before us, the E3 build of Conan left something to be desired. Besides, all we did was get to cut down a bunch of savage Neanderthals, who spawned into the dungeonlike demo level as if by magic.

Conan is being developed by Cauldron, and it clearly needs some more work before it's ready for prime time. We'll remain hopeful for the game, since there lately haven't been nearly enough medieval hacking and slashing games for our tastes.