Conan Exiles Enhanced

Good base game, but can't recommend with predatory monetisation. £60 for the latest cosmetic building set is unacceptable. The DLC on this store are how it should be, nothing but greed now.

I’ve supported Funcom for years and anyone can check my post history to see I’m not one of these cry commando know-it-alls who argue all day on forums. I’m an older player with limited time and the UE5 update for Conan Exiles made it clear that Funcom doesn’t value that. Wiping class progression was the moment I realized how disconnected the decision makers are from the people who actually play this game. This wasn’t a creative choice or a design improvement. It was a bad call that should have been stopped long before release. Whatever advisor, algorithm, or “engagement study” told them this would be good for the game was wrong. Instead of listening to data models or know-it-all geek players who think they speak for everyone, Funcom should have consulted the veterans who stuck with them through every mess they’ve made over the years. Losing bases and gear is normal in survival games. Losing your entire character identity because someone thought it would help retention is not. And before the usual know-it-all crowd shows up with the same tired line about re-leveling being the most fun part, let’s be honest. Repeating the slowest and most repetitive part of the game is not fun. It’s not fresh. It’s not content. It’s busywork. Calling it anything else is just coping. Funcom has shown they’re willing to reset the one thing players can’t get back: their time. That’s why I’m not putting long-term trust into Dune Awakening either. If Conan’s progression can be wiped after years of updates, nothing stops the same thing from happening in Dune the moment a system overhaul is convenient. There is a simple fix that would repair a lot of the damage. Give veteran players a one-time max level character token. Not a rollback. Not a cheat. Just a way for older players with limited time to skip the slowest part of the game we’ve already done over and over. I liked Conan. I really did. But not enough to rebuild my entire character again. After this decision I can’t justify investing in any Funcom title that treats player time like it doesn’t matter. If this is the direction, I’m done.

Conan Exiles is like a toxic girlfriend. It abuses you, puts you down, and humiliates you in front of your friends, until you finally can't take it anymore and leave. You tell yourself that there are a million other games in the sea. Ones that will respect you and accept you for who you are, but you still can't stop thinking about it. Then one night while looking through your library you decide to log on, just to say hi and see how things are going, Next thing you know you are right back in that toxic relationship. And you couldn't be happier, until you aren't.

The price of the bazaar items is egregious. It also makes it difficult to get that older bazaar content that you may want and on top of that, it's only available when online - so you're basically just renting those items. Imagine spending $100 for something that you can't even use offline. It's insane.

This game is so chill, get a private dedicated server and play it with some friends. Trust me it will be good :)

Strongly don't recommend. Extreme predatory Microtransactions sold to the player as bite size little bundles that have a sale price draped over them still all adding up to $85 for what used to be all in one DLC packs for $10 funcom is conning its player base with fake for sale tags on their bazaar store front they are abusing aggressively and with fomo of missing out slapped ontop. be warned of this Dark predatory practice. their is no sale just a price increase of $75 for a DLC pack that should be $10. the Base game and the DLC is fine but not the bazaar in game store front is a merchant out to swindle you for a DLC pack worth $10 but selling it with a $75doller mark up with a for sale sticker slapped on it.

well i completed the main game now looks like it took me 90 hours which is insane but in enjoyed the way (mostly) im writing my review as a PVE player comparing this to other survival games a played (ARK, Subnautica, The Forest, Grounded and probably forgot more) This game is really good the combat although for today standard a bit outdated still better than some of other games with parry and dodge mechanics also have climbing mechanic which is nice alot of progression with multiple levels of gear and tool tiers honestly story i did not bother to listen because it was mostly through interacting wih a random tablet and listening which was boring multiple bosses and dungeons thrall mechanic when you need to enslave npc's to get better gear or faster crafting or just let them fight for you multiple progression branches (sourcery, smithing, religions and more) i mostly had fun exporing and defeating bosses and then unlocking new stuff to upgrade my gear also the crafting allthough really have alot of stuff not that demanding maybe except the endgame stuff performance wise the game run very stable allthough the enhanced is a bit demanding having RTX 3080 at 1440P with Max settings DLAA (present K) the FPS was around 70-50 sometimes drop at the more demanding area but mostly stable no major stutters except when loading new areas abit but i must get to the real problem i have with this game it feels like 80-90% complete the ending is a joke, some of the bosses are optional allthough feel like they need to be part of the goals you need to reach the ending most of the endgame stuff feel like they thought about it the last second like the best gear material can only be optained by just farming a specific boss or by doing very weird crafting after duing a ritual that summons a beast that you can ask to fetch you stuff (pretty boring ritual it just sounds cool) dont understand why when i finish the game my character needs to be removed i want somekind of a reward not a punishment maybe something like ARK ascension mostly i say that its not complete because some places look half baked like they started something noticed they ran out of time then just placed a band on it and called it a day, this mostly appear in endgame as i said also another major thing the game only holds your hand a bit at start, after that good luck finding what to do i read so many wiki pages for each little thing and then read reddit because sometimes the wiki did not explain really what to do the thing is there is somekind of guidance for how to reach the end and the boss but its implemented so bad that no one would find out by himself what to do also i must say something about the dlc/microtransactions: all of it are just cosmetics you dont have to buy it. only the isle of siptah is a new map with content the rest not really needed it. i get it that you need money to fund yourself but first finish your game properly but still this game is really cool the stuff you have to play are really fun and belive me if i did not have fun i wasnt playing for 90 hours i recommend this game but expect to be dissapionted in the end and get ready to open the wiki alot

First of all, love Conan theme here and the world looks absolutely stunning, never mentioning it is huge! Sadly that is where the good things end. The world is quite empty, save critters that want to bite you. Way too many of the creatures have two modes hostile and passive, nothing in between like "warning" you not to approach. Mountain goats are notoriously pack predators and crocodiles are know to sprint after prey across the savannah, namely you. Building system looks cool, but is made with so great lack of intution its absolutely horrible. If you place the starting block wrong of building your base, you aint fixing it midway, for example getting a stairway to fir between levels that are not EXCATLY lined up. There is fixed order to place things you need to learn... from somewhere, in what order the things need to be lined up to actually line up at all. Building in this game feels a cup of tar. Weapons are cool, but where is my shield and spear? Don't you start with javelin ♥♥♥♥, I mean a real bloody spear and a shield! Weapons range from decent to horrific in their swing patterns, forcing you to basicly center around those that are not absolute crap, mainly fast hitting debuff or dot stacking one's. Blocking with a shield has no feel, when the shield is up, when its not you get staggered to hell either way! And there we get to the wonder that is actual combat! Some weapons like 2h sword swings lock you into animations that last for way too long and you cannot interrupt in anyway, extending your chin all the way to the oponents weapon to pummel you down. Armour means little, there is no poise or stagger resists from having heavy armour. Hammer hit to the jaw and gentle tab to the rear in a tavern will both leave sprawling on the floor ready to eat another one! This means fighting more than one opponent will leave you stunlocked, backed to a wall an killed within seconds. You cant block with weapons, only with a shield leaving dodging only option... sadly the dodge takes third of your stamina so dont expect to do it too many times to avoid that stunlock flurry coming at your way! In a game where fighting is one of the base pillars, it feels like drinking second helping of bloody tar, that has sprinkle of crocodile ♥♥♥♥ mixed in it! Armours are neat, sadly most of the better looking one's are locked in DLC's. DCL's are not badly priced though... if the game was better in mechanics to begin with. Thrall system in this game is great... in its idea. Except they seemingly have stripped it out piece by piece! Now you just hunt specific level 4 thralls that are generally named ones and they have minor effects on crafting speed, medium effect on crafting weapons and armour, and absolutely horrible when your suppose to gather em to protect your base. Leveling of the said thralls, or followers takes whole heap of time... and they are absolutely random with what stats they start with, random chances of improving said stats added to random perks tey get now and then... that can be what ever the ♥♥♥♥, spoiling the whole follower when the agility follower suddenly decides to get minuses on agility and minor buff on strenght making it useless... go find another and hope for better RNG! Another cup with ♥♥♥♥♥ liced tar, thank you very much! Also considering the combat is so poor, you NEED to rely on a companion or companions with you, but they cant use healing items or potions that you provide them... without telling them to use them. Hence they are made to have gazillion points of HP so they can sit there and face tank... or drop like sack of manure, depending on the sittuation. Pets! Mounts! What fun... except this system too sem to have stripped down. Pets are crap says the meta... and seemingly you cant tame most of the excotic demonic ones anyway because... ♥♥♥♥ you thats why! Why would you want to ride a monstorous lizard thing that looks little like a rhino! Why would you like to have sand devils in you keep!? Take this bunny or wold or something... I want to like this game it looks sooooo ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ cool! But its so ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ crap in all aspects... yeh you can fix somethings with mods, but that aint a answer! The product is bad! The lost potential is hell of alot worse! But hey at least you can enable full nudity, and set the size of your dong or tits... let them jiggle around in a sandstorm or something! Wow wee! What crap...

I'll get this out of the way before I even start: I'm reviewing Conan Exiles as a PvE player, comparing it mainly to other survival games I've played such as ARK, Rust, Subnautica, The Forest, and Grounded. I also want to separate the game itself from the direction Funcom has taken with its monetization. My recommendation is based on the quality of the game, not on the company's business practices. Don't get me wrong—I think Funcom's monetization has become one of the worst aspects of Conan Exiles. The Bazaar is heavily overpriced, the old Battle Pass was a terrible addition, and with almost every major update they somehow manage to break large community mods like Age of Calamitous. At this point it almost feels like modders have to rebuild their work after every update. I strongly dislike that direction. That said, the game underneath all of that is still excellent. Maybe I'm a bit too forgiving when it comes to Conan. I started playing it during the COVID lockdowns and quickly became attached to it. Even after all these years and all of Funcom's questionable decisions, I still think the core game is one of the best survival experiences available. Compared to games like ARK or Rust, Conan Exiles has one of the clearest and most satisfying progression systems in the genre. You're almost always working toward the next tool tier, armor set, dungeon, or crafting station, and it never feels confusing. Resource gathering is balanced well enough that progression doesn't become an endless grind—even on official server rates. The revamped attribute system was a great improvement and makes character builds feel much more meaningful than they used to. Combat is a little dated by today's standards, but it's still enjoyable. Dodging, blocking, climbing, and stamina management make encounters far more engaging than simple hack-and-slash combat. It's not perfect, but I'd still rank it above several other survival games. The Thrall system remains one of the most unique mechanics in the genre. Capturing NPCs to become craftsmen, guards, or combat companions gives progression another layer that few survival games can match. There are plenty of progression paths besides simply upgrading your weapons. Sorcery, religions, crafting specializations, dungeons, legendary gear, and world bosses all give you long-term goals throughout the game. Exploration is probably my favorite part. The Exiled Lands are full of hidden caves, ruins, dungeons, bosses, and environmental storytelling. The desert regions feel especially polished, while the jungle and snowy north are slightly less detailed, but the overall world design is fantastic. The building system is another highlight. Unlike many survival games that heavily restrict where or how you build, Conan gives you enormous freedom. Even after finishing the main progression, it's fun to jump into creative mode and build castles, cities, or entire settlements just because you can. The story itself is... okay. Most of it is delivered through lore tablets, ghosts, journals, and NPC dialogue. I personally didn't pay much attention to it because I found the delivery somewhat dry, but compared to most survival games, Conan actually has a decent amount of lore if you're interested in discovering it. The crafting system contains a huge number of recipes without becoming overwhelming. Only the very late game starts asking for large amounts of resources. Thanks to the Enhanced Edition, the game also looks surprisingly modern. The updated visuals, lighting, and environmental improvements have helped it age much better than many survival games from the same era. Of course, the game isn't perfect. There are still bugs, occasional performance issues, and some frustrating AI behavior. While optimization is much better than it used to be, major updates sometimes introduce new problems. Multiplayer can also suffer from desync issues depending on the server, and Funcom's update philosophy often prioritizes monetization over fixing long-standing community concerns. Still, when I compare Conan Exiles to other games in the genre, I keep coming back to it. Very few survival games combine exploration, progression, base building, dungeon crawling, world bosses, and RPG mechanics this well. My first complete playthrough took about 150 hours, and I enjoyed almost all of it. As a purely single-player experience, replayability isn't infinite, but it's absolutely the kind of game you can revisit a year later and happily sink another 70–100 hours into. Despite Funcom's increasingly disappointing monetization, I still believe Conan Exiles has one of the strongest foundations of any survival game I've played. In terms of progression, exploration, building, and overall PvE gameplay, it remains among the best in the genre. If you enjoy survival games, it's absolutely worth buying—especially when it's on sale, which happens several times a year.

I cannot recommend Conan Exiles Enhanced because Funcom chose not to honor purchases made through the Microsoft Store version. I already own the game, roughly $150 worth of DLC, and hundreds of dollars in Bazaar content. To play the Enhanced version on Steam, I would have to buy the game again and lose access to nearly everything I already paid for unless I repurchased it. Calling this a “free upgrade” is misleading when a portion of the PC player base is effectively being asked to start over and rebuy years of content because Funcom did not provide account linking, entitlement transfer, or even a one-time migration option. A free Steam key for existing Microsoft Store owners, cross-store DLC recognition, or a one-time Bazaar transfer would have been reasonable. Instead, loyal customers are being punished for purchasing the game on the wrong PC storefront. I am walking away from Conan Exiles, and I will not purchase another Funcom product. I do not trust the company to respect my purchases.