Conan Chop Chop Is Game Of The Year 2022 For Me So Far :)

Hi Everyone

So I'm starting to think I need to ban myself from checking the New and Noteworthy section of Steam for a while....

These last few weeks have been ridiculous, so many new and noteworthy games that I'm starting to feel a bit overwhelmed.

Yesterday I picked up this title which has immediately jumped to my number 1 must play spot...

Conan Chop Chop is an action rpg with simple cartoony stick man graphics set in the world of Conan The Barbarian.

In the video above we check out the tutorial and take a shot at the games first stage ,Darkwood.

Controls are fairly straight forward,Im using a PS4 control pad.With this layout the left stick moves the character , we can attack with the square button or the right stick.

Gif by me :)

Holding the L2 button and attacking lets us use a bow attack...

The yellow gauge under the character is our ranged meter. We don't need to buy or collect arrows we just need to wait for the gauge to recharge to keep using ranged attacks

Gif by me - Splatting these slimes is pretty satisfying...

We can place bombs like Conan the Bomberman by pressing R2...

Bombs use the same recharge gauge as arrows...

Gif by me - Bombs can be used to blow up destructible parts of the environment

Health is represented by the hearts under our character icon. This kind of makes me think of the Zelda games, in fact a lot about this game reminds me of old skool Zelda games which is definitely not a bad thing.

Eating meet will recover our health.

Gif by me

We block by pressing L1, this is a pretty crucial feature so learning to mix up blocks and attacks early on is key to success...

Gif by me - Its a neat feature that we can move while blocking ,its pretty essential ,as you will see when we get to Darkwood.

Blocking an attack at the right time will parry it and deal damage to the enemy.

Gif by me

Gif by me- Parrying ranged attacks is a good way to deal with these wasp enemies

Pressing R1 activates a special dash attack. There are 4 characters to choose from each has there own dash attack. Conan's is a sort of area of effect power slam...

We have a rage meter that fills up as we attack and take damage...

Once its full we can release an ultimate attack by pressing triangle...

Gif by me - Conan's Ultimate attack is a berserker rage which increase's his attack speed and melee damage

We can find treasure chests throughout the game, gold chest require a key to unlock. Chest's can can contain different charms which give weapon upgrades.

Gif by me - With the Boomerang Hilt charm Conan feels like Kratos...

The Spectral Sword orbits around Conan.

Gif by me

So that's pretty much it for the basics and the tutorial. We have learned the combat system which is fairly simple but deep enough to be satisfying.

While reviewing my footage and making these gifs I noticed how good the sound effects are here. We cant tell from the gif images but each slash of the blade, each splattered ooze ,each exploding bomb all have very sharp and satisfying sounds that accompany them.

The tutorial ends with a mini boss fight where we put to use everything we have learned so far. When the boss dies we are rewarded another heart for our life bar, again I am reminded of old skool Zelda games.

As we progress through the game we acquire a resource called Steelfire, this is used to craft weapons and armour at a Blacksmith.

When we die in this game we start right back at the start of our current level. It doesn't appear there is a way to save progress but I guess completing certain stages gives us milestone saves or something.

What is really interesting is that we keep the gold and steelfire we acquired so we can be stronger for the next attempt at clearing a level. A very neat feature indeed.

If you die 10 times on stage 1 your going to have enough steelfire and gold to buy things to make the stage increasingly easier.

I dont belive I have seen this in any game before and it is pretty cool.

The number you see under each weapon is how much Steelfire it takes to craft.

The game can be played with up to 4 players which kind of of makes me think of the game Gauntlet. Old Skool Zelda meets Gauntlet with Conan characters in a cartoon world...very cool!

Each successful stage cleared earns exp and skill points used to unlock new abilities.

As the game begins our heros are drinking in a tavern..

The evil wizard Wrath-A-Mon appears and tells of a combat test he has conjured up...

If our hero's can defeat the 4 guardians they will be rewarded beyond their imagination.

Defeating each guardian will break a seal to Wrath- A-Mon's fortress..

Defeat the guardian's break the seals...get uber loot...awesome!

Darkwood is the first of 4 stages...

Around the town we can visit various vendors to stock up on items before we head of on our adventure, buying meat to restore health is a good idea. Health ups are rare on the first level.

Like I mentioned before everytime we die we end up back here but we keep our gold and steelfire so we can buy new items to try the stage agian.

Another cool feature is that the stage is different every time , I guess its randomly generated so every attempt has a different layout, enemies' and chests.

Stage 1 is pretty damn difficult. Im going to need quite a bit of practice to beat it. The gameplay is very much a pick up and play type of game with addictive and satisfying combat.Each try got me a little further into the stage in the video above.

Overall I am loving this game , like I mentioned before there are obvious similaiites to the old Zelda games and the mulitplayer aspect of it reminds of Gauntlet.

The graphics are simple but they work, they combat system is pretty cool with enough variation to not get to repeative and the stages are genuinly challenging.

It has that just one more go feel to it, I only stopped the video above as it was getting close to the 1 hour mark and I wanted to write up this post today.

I will be diving back into it tonight to try and clear the Darkwood stage. If I succeed I will make a second post.

I would say this is a great one to play with friends on multiplayer but I am committed to beating it solo first.

Conan Chop Chop gets 2 big thumbs up from me , if it seems like your kinda thing check it out!