Conan Exiles stands out as an online multiplayer survival game infused with action and adventure, drawing from the brutal world of Conan the Barbarian. Available on PS5, it drops players into a harsh open-world sandbox where survival hinges on resource management, crafting, and combat against both the environment and other players. With recent enhancements bringing sharper visuals and smoother performance, the game invites you to forge your path from a lowly exile to a dominant force, complete with sorcery and siege warfare.
Gameplay
In Conan Exiles, the core loop revolves around survival in a savage landscape. You must manage hunger, thirst, and temperature by hunting animals, cooking food, and building campfires or shelters to combat extreme weather like freezing nights or scorching heat. Exploration plays a key role, as you venture into dungeons filled with loot and dangers, where corruption from dark sorcery can alter your character.
Building mechanics allow for extensive creativity. Gather resources such as wood, stone, and metal to craft tools, weapons, and structures. The system supports constructing everything from simple huts to sprawling cities, complete with traps, elevators, and defensive walls. Combat is action-oriented and combo-based, requiring timing for dodges, blocks, and strikes with weapons like swords, axes, bows, and daggers.
Sorcery adds a layer of risk and power. By corrupting your body through sacrifices and rituals, you gain abilities to summon demons, undead thralls, or even call down lightning. This mechanic ties into character progression, evolving from a basic survivor to a powerful barbarian or sorcerer, with perks unlocked by giving up life force.
Game Modes
Conan Exiles offers flexibility in how you experience its world. Single-player mode lets you tackle the challenges alone, building and surviving without interference from others.
Co-op mode supports playing with friends in a shared world, collaborating on builds and quests while facing the environment together.
Persistent online multiplayer brings the full scope of interaction, where you join servers to compete or ally with strangers. Here, domination comes through siege wars, raiding enemy bases, and claiming territory in the Exiled Lands.
Key Mechanics and Features
Beyond basics, the game includes thrall recruitment, where you capture and enlist NPCs to guard bases or assist in crafting. Siege weapons and explosives enable large-scale battles, breaking down fortifications.
The open world spans diverse biomes, from deserts and swamps to snowy mountains, encouraging climbing and free exploration. Combat against monsters and players demands mastery of the system's depth, blending brute force with strategic elements.
Updates and Current State
Conan Exiles receives updates through an Ages system, each introducing themed content with free gameplay improvements and optional Battle Passes for cosmetics. The latest, Conan Exiles Enhanced, arrived as a free upgrade, shifting to Unreal Engine 5 for better graphics, reduced file sizes, and full support on devices like Steam Deck.
This update refines visuals across character creation, terrain, armor, and buildings, making the game feel refreshed while maintaining its core systems.
Is It Worth Playing?
If you enjoy deep survival mechanics mixed with building and PvP combat in a lore-rich setting, Conan Exiles delivers a compelling experience. The recent Enhanced update has revitalized its look and performance, addressing long-standing issues and drawing in both new and returning players.
Player reception highlights its sense of wonder in exploration and the satisfaction of progression, though it can feel slow-paced for those seeking quick action. With ongoing support through Ages and a Metacritic score reflecting appreciation for its depth, it suits fans of persistent worlds who invest time in crafting and conquest. For PS5 owners looking for a multiplayer survival title with sorcery twists, it remains a solid choice in its current form.
