Recent reviews by The Riz

TL:DR - Game has aged like fine wine. Very much still worth playing.

- Try their FTP weekends for yourselves. Usually with each major patch or content release they do a FTP period.

Experience: I've played Conan Exiles since release and have, for the most part, maintained a presence on at least one public PVE-C or PVE server. One server since 2019 (i'm on my third rebuild). I own all of the DLCs and quite a few Bazaar items.

What keeps me playing?
-Variety.
-I like to build.
-I like to test and implement game content.
-New player and old player friendly.
-Easy to set and achieve goals.
-Always something to do.
-You can never have enough stuff until you do.
-I do not have to play every day to keep what i've gotten.
-PVE-C adds an extra bit of danger... it's my favorite mode. I can build AND PVP.
-I like the thrall and crafting system.
-They release mini content updates in the form of Bazaars. Yes, you do need to usually spend money, but since I like the game that doesn't bother me.

I would like to see some of the long time issues ironed out (but they're not too prevalent). I would love to see a graphics update. Mind you the graphics are good but made to run on video cards from nearly a decade ago (I gather). I would like to see ultra rare thralls implemented that can craft unique or very rare items.

I do not see myself not playing let alone uninstalling Conan Exiles any time soon.

Very entertaining for the price. Well worth the cost. Lots of potential combinations of skills, powers and equipment to vary the play dynamics. The end bosses can be a bit more challenging but that really is to be expected... it is an end boss.

Planet Crafter... 7.5 out of 10 for me.

I don't like comparing games to other games - it's similar to a few games mentioned in other reviews but just bits and pieces. Sure, some similarities to Subnautica, but I feel like there's similarities to Satisfactory and Osiris: New Dawn as well. Regardless, this game, in early access, stands on its own.

I am goal oriented. I like a game where I start with nothing then have to build to "something". I like that there are linear goals. The goals progress and the work you need to do progresses WITH the goal. With proper planning and an understanding of what resources are needed you can stave off issues with potential shortages or what items to put down. Even if you f' up royally in your resource planning the devs hand you a lifeline by occasionally making it rain various resources down on you (I am looking at you pulsar quartz).

The terraforming goal is the game obviously... it's a wildly simple goal... plus you have to survive (although in relaxing mode it is less of an issue) and you get to explore. Exploring to me made the game far more interesting. It could seem rather bland if you do not explore every nook and cranny.

Getting to the next tech advancement or stage can be time consuming at times as you hit a plateau of sorts just before your next technology jump. However, just like in Satisfactory sometimes it's good to just let the game run and go AFK for a few hours or better yet overnight. Wake up and you find you've advanced a bit more and saved yourself a bit of the grind. Just strip off all your gear and die over and over again while the time passes...

The drone supply and demand system, autocrafters plus the teleporters made the current end game resource crunch easier and better. It, to me, is a unique way to sort and manage resources. I've not seen this exact system elsewhere. It's simple to employ and can be time consuming to setup meaningfully but once you do it pays off.

I mauled it over a week with some stretches of just being AFK and got to the current "end".

I really enjoyed my first scenario in the game and look forward to more. I'd say 7 or 8 out of 10.

Some of the play mechanics reminded me of RimWorld and to a smaller degree SIMs but that's about it. The game stands on its own. However, my thousands of hours in RimWorld certainly helped me enjoy my first scenario more.

PROS
1 - The play system is simple. I did NOT have to use the internet to look anything up. Nothing frustrated me and there wasn't anything I couldn't figure out. All I did was the tutorials and used a little imagination and basic logic.
2 - Variety in construction - If you don't have much of one basic resource you can craft structures from another.
3 - Responsive Feedback - I submitted a bug report (from in game!) about not being able to climb carbon nanotube defense towers and I swear the next day the game patched and voila! I am climbing the damn towers!
4 - The bug report system is genius. Line up the issue on your screen (so it is visible), hit the bug report, it pauses your game, you can draw on the screenshot, make comments, submit and continue with your game.
5 - You can get let your latent OCD run wild in base construction, colony management, or just simple storage organization.
6 - I was entertained and drawn in to the steady and rewarding progression. I had trouble stepping away from my computer. I just wanted to do one more thing...
7 - The tech tree seems simple enough and it made sense.

CONS
1 - The time management system is... uh... unusable. I tried to manage schedules well and tried differing strategies. It just never worked better than just setting the schedule to "do whatever the hell you want, I don't care".
2 - The people are REAL dainty fragile snowflakes. Their happiness gets trashed like a porta-potty at music festival. One day they're up, the next day they're down. Then if they stay down for an honestly short period of time they just lose it. They might hide in a corner, sit there and cry, break stuff, or wander around all sad... it's like you have a colony of untreated manic-depressives. So make damn sure you have some real awesome stuff for them to do or good luck... and again do NOT manage their time. They'll tell you to pack sand and go cry in the corner otherwise.
3 - The Exploration System is linear and kind of boring. Exploration is an essential and completely necessary part of the game BUT... "yawn"... boring. I REAAALLY would like to have exploration as kind of a mini-mission, with it's own mini map and interfacing rather than making choices and essentially playing 1985's smash video game hit "The Oregon Trail".
4 - There's no overall map that I was aware of. It needs a standard top down map and the ability to set markers down. Make it a research item or whatever, just give me a damn map please.

Another thought... not really a PRO or CON - I might also be looking at this game from the wrong perspective too. I was intending on staying as long as I could (like I do in RimWorld) then realized that might not be a great option. I believe the game intends me to actually leave... as in "there are bugs and angry cows attacking you ALL THE TIME why don't you just leave?!?"

So go play the game. I liked it and I honestly believe it's just going to get better.

Wow... what a great game. I really don't even think of it as a game really. More like a logistics management simulator.

UPDATE: 1.0 is out and they've brought it all together. GO PLAY!

So what is this logistics management simulator about?

- There's a big map.
- You need to explore it (well, you should).
- There's some unfriendly fauna and foliage.
- You can occasionally die due to stupidity, carelessness, foolhardiness and/or just excessive radioactivity.
- The map you explore has numerous resource nodes. Each node has unlimited resources but a fixed maximum output.
- Unfriendly fauna guard the resources (you only have to kill them once - they do not respawn).
- Resources are used to make basic materials.
- Basic materials are used to make basic items.
- Basic items are used to build complex items.
- Complex items are used to build really complex items.
- You'll need to manage all of these using a LOT of conveyor belts and other modes of transports (trains, trucks, drones, etc.).
- You're building all of this to send stuff off world on the space elevator.
- The space elevator is very hungry.
- Ample space (horizontal and/or vertical) is your friend (and a cruel mistress at the same time).
- Proper planning and execution are VERY important.
- You have gravity but your buildings do not (/Raises a Spock eyebrow)

I really enjoy this logistics management simulator a lot and unless you run a series of conveyor belted sweatshops for a living you may just like it yourself.

There are a few games that are fixtures on my PC and get reinstalled every time I get a new one. RimWorld is one of them.

RimWorld the basic game has a lot to it. With the multi-verse of Mods it gets crazy. For those who like to micromanage, build, experiment, enjoy data overload/metrics, enjoy steady progress, challenges to that progression, and general "WTF just happened?!?" moments... well, that basically describes RimWorld game play.

You basically start with one or more people w/ limited resources, build a settlement entirely from the ground up, completely sustain that settlement (food, power, etc. using finite resources), fend off attackers (insects, mechanoids, people), build relationships (or not) with other factions, interact with wildlife or be eaten/trampled/mauled/gored by them.

I do not play the base game any more. I have a set of mods I use that have been fixtures over the years. I am thankful for the modding community who have maintained some of them over five game versions and four years.

I also do not do the endgame scenarios either. For some reason I want to rid the world of ALL -100 settlements and see what happens. I still working on that.. I'll get there one day. Just give me another 2000 hours...

ODD GAME, ODDLY ENJOYABLE...

At this point I am finished with the game. Now I am just killing time and seeing what else I can do. There may be spoilers in this review but I highly doubt it.

Normally I would do like a PROS / CONS but meh... I'm just going to point out things I find interesting, odd, or messed up.

- It is a VERY Japanese game. For anime and Japanese video game otakus you'll totally see what i'm talking about.
- You will shower a lot. Like ALOT. Well, unless you don't mind looking grimy.
- There's a lot of tar. Seriously. It's like the La Brea tar pits had a baby with the peat fields of Scotland...
- America after the voidouts* looks surprisingly like Iceland, is only a few hundred KMs from coast to coast (if that) and has something like less than 200K people in it.
* (Voidout - when a person is killed by a BT an explosion occurs.. something, something, antimatter, something)
- Eventually you can wear so much gold colored items that even "Goldmember" would be jealous.
- Sam REALLY dislikes physical contact and intimacy, he literally has aphenphosmphobia. Say that 5 times fast...
- You will see a lot of crying. Not that you'll cry, but that EVERY character with a cut scene WILL eventually cry.
- There are a LOT of cut scenes. If you skip them you will miss the story Hideo Kojima wove together and the story IS the game. Walking around and delivering cargo is just what Sam does. The story explains why he does it, it explains the world and why it is in this current state. There's a lot of dry theoretical suppositions posed by characters in the cut scenes. YAWN!
- The story told by the cut scenes are really long and painful in some instances! Everyone should just be given a digital novel when they purchase the game so that they can make the cut scenes like 85% shorter. Seriously.
- Single player game but you can interact with other players structures, signs and vehicles. Kojima calls it "strands" I believe.
- I don't really understand the "likes" system. Likes are a kind of social media currency that allows you to get better gear with the NPCs and allow you to level up in general. You can give other players likes. For example I can spam maybe 600 likes for another player's structure at a time if I button mash the 5 key well. I totally do not understand how the automatic likes are awarded though.
- Player built structures can be placed well or they can make you scratch your head. When combined with the likes they receive I am then left baffled. I OFTEN see "land" bridges that serve literally no purpose have 300K likes while a well placed zipline can have 0 likes.
- Every player built structure chews up "chiral bandwidth". This limits the amount of structures that can be placed on a map. If dimwits build a crap structure then too bad. You can delete the eyesore for your instance, but only yours and it has no positive impact on chiral bandwidth. It exists until it doesn't (deleted by the builder or decays).
- Fortunately and unfortunately structures eventually decay. Fortunate because the dimwits who placed a bazillion postboxes everywhere that usually serve no purpose will eventually disappear. Unfortunate because you may be the only one repairing the structures you built. I have repaired the structures of other players that serve me well.
- You can prolong the life of your structures by upgrading them with materials.
- You can get materials by raiding mule (NPC thieves basically) and terrorist camps. Each camp has a specific type of material they hoard. Each area of the map also randomly spawns containers of material. You can cash out materials at each settlement. Recycling found gear also helps.
- Decaying is caused by "timefall" rains. Wildly enough timefall ages everything it touches. The heavier the rain the faster stuff ages. Everything decays and becomes decrepit. Vehicles, containers, and gear just rust.
- Even though a container can rust away the contents will still be good. So don't fret if you look like you are carrying a junkyard on your back...
- Beached Things (BTs) - basically the souls of people trapped between the world of the living and the dead help spawn these timefall rains. The timefall is heaviest around BTs.
- In a BT area if you get detected and you don't "kill" a BT in time you'll see splashes of tar come after you. Best bet is to go back the way you came otherwise you will get caught by a tarry modern art sculpture and have to spam the "V" key while you slowly walk out of their radius... if not you get dragged a hundred meters away or so and have to fight something big or again, try to run away from it. BTs cannot completely kill you (neither can humans), you just go to a kind of purgatory, swim to your body and respawn covered in tar, blood and your gear scattered to the four winds.
- You detect BTs using your BB or "Bridge Baby". Basically an infant that is strapped to your abdomen. A BB is a baby who exists in the physical realm but whose spirit is on the other side (IIRC). They basically stay a baby forever and are treated like a tool vice a baby. Without a BB you cannot see BTs until they you are upon them and you have to do a quick fight or flight scenario. You can hear BTs somewhat, so that helps. BB's get worn out from detecting BTs so they need rest from time to time.
- You cannot truly be killed because you are a "repatriate", someone who has been to the other side and was brought back. Death at the hands of others basically has no meaning. Sam is just a bit different than others though as you'll find out.
- There are a few boss BT fights. They are not too bad once you get the hang of it. Other players who you've made connections with will appear as white figures in the tar, they'll call out to you and throw you gear that you can fight/heal with. It always helps to carry plenty of hematic grenades and blood bags.
- You want likes and help yourself/others? Build roads. They only exist in the central map but are REALLY helpful in spots. I have either solo built or heavily contributed to 31 road sections. I have gotten thousands of solid automatic likes from players and NPCs (I surmise) for the roads. If you want to move around fast but never get kudos for your efforts? Build a zipline network. I built 2 networks totaling 59 zipline stations with a total of 144 likes. Meh... at least I can cruise around the map crazy fast. Sometimes I wonder if people even know how to properly use the ziplines...
- Neat thing about the roads. They float with rubbery tar-like stalactites on the bottom - amazing.

Overall it is not a bad game. I put my money's worth into it. I enjoy my time in it.

I have put a bit of time into this game. I bought it a year AFTER release. I enjoy the game. This game must have changed a great deal since release because it's actually pretty good. There's content if you want that. Survival/Permadeath is quite a challenge if you want that. You have to be a bit of a planer and keep yourself organized if you want to make production/building smooth and not feel too grindy. The base building is enjoyable to an extent. It's not over the top but it's good. I am figuring new stuff out every time I play. There's enough intuitiveness built into the game that I have yet to use a forum or wiki to look something up. At this point I recommend the game.

EDIT 2020

I really like the depth of the changes. I believe the game has evolved more into a more interesting and enjoyable game to play over it's span, despite a rocky start. I would like to have more lighting options and buildable items for bases.

If you like to micromanage the hell out of something then this is the best damned game for you. You have to balance and fine tune your incoming resources with the needs of an ever expanding colony.

PXQ Games has really put a lot of effort into crafting a niche game for those of us who like to test our managerial and planning abilities.

You WILL NOT be handed an easy time. This game is not meant to be EASY. If you don't build smart, plan or manage well, you will pay for it. especially on the harder settings. If you can't figure something out. You're playing it wrong. Ask me. I'll help you. I fully recommend this game. I also made a couple guides for it.

1st Point - I hate that Valve has a thumbs up and down review system. That's just lame. I would give this game a 5 of 10.

2nd Point - There are things that make this game great and things that don't.

- PROS -

The first thing that makes this game great is the modding community - there are some ingenious and passionate modders that come up with some great stuff. THANK YOU MODDING COMUNITY. Without you I would have given up on this game 1400 hrs ago.

Second thing is the ability to have your own private servers and to be able to change game.ini settings without too much effort. I haven't played on an official server for ages. For various reasons listed below.

Third thing is the depth of content and variety of niche play styles. You like to build, it's there. You like to kill stuff, it's there. You like to explore, it's there. You like to tame and collect all sorts of creatures, that's there too... heck, you may just want to cut down trees and break rocks all day or farm a garden and make soup... whatever. It's there.

- CONS -

First are the official servers. Just avoid them. Go find a quiet private server and learn the game, then branch out from there. You work WAY TOO HARD for WAY TOO LITTLE REWARD on the official servers. Yeah... get a decent Rex it's like L60 or whatever. You spent hours taming it and them somebody on a L12 bird picks your butt up off of it. Dumps you and flys back to kite and kill your hard earned tame in a matter of SECONDS. Or... you spend countless hours gathering materials to build a semingly strong defensible base only to have it all wiped out in a matter of minutes. It's a matter of time and effort to achieve a goal vice less time and effort to destroy someone else's achievements. On a private server you can "balance" that out to some extent, plus you can, as the server admin, just ban people that cause trouble. Or hell, put a password on the server and just let you, your friends and others you respect play.

Second is that a few BASIC BASIC BASIC game mechanics are broken as balls. The head of a dino or it's tail or legs or an item... like a refrigerator, should not protrude through a wall or ceiling or floor or whatever. Things shouldn't just fall through the earth either. These are BASIC things that make the game in a sense... lame. Players who like the game mercifully play around this but, c'mon two years in and they STILL haven't fixed this?!? STILL?!? They are releasing content left and right, having events all the time but still haven't addressed toxic coding and physics issues. FIX THE DAMN GAME. We don't need a prehistoric goat or another flightless bird or cave slug or whatever. We have plenty already. FIX IT.

I say, if they balance the official servers and fix the basic flaws I have pointed out then I would most certainly promote the game positively.