Announced all the way back in 2019, Conan Chop Chop is an unusually lighthearted take on Conan the Barbarian’s brutal universe that sits at the crossroads between rogue-lite and party game.
Its cartoonish stick figure characters head into battle accompanied by cute chickens or mostly friendly pigs, while its colorful world remains approachable even when its doing its best to murder you.
During a recent hands-off press event, developer Mighty Kingdom walked us through a chunk of gameplay from its upcoming title, which has finally locked down its release date to early March.
You can choose to play Conan Chop Chop alone – which turns the game into a more “serious rogue-lite experience” – or in a party of up to four players – via both couch and online co-op.
The latter option somewhat reduces overall difficulty and lets you focus on the general chaos and mayhem that inevitably goes down when spinning swords, bombs, and an angry barbarian with a big axe all come down crashing upon unfortunate NPCs.
An isometric hack and slash game at its core, Conan Chop Chop is all about cutting, smashing, and poking holes through opponents that always outnumber you.
Your goal is to defeat four bosses waiting deep inside dungeons filled with traps and foes. Doing so opens the door that leads to the game’s mysterious big bad.
You can pick between four different characters that start off playing somewhat similarly but branch out into different archetypes as you unlock skills.
Conan is your more traditional warrior, his ultimate giving him a boost to his movement and attack speed. Belit is your go-to archer, Pallantides specializes in tanking damage, while Valeria is a “nimble finesse fighter.”
Battles take place in arenas of different sizes and tend to be quite chaotic. You have access to different weapon types, including bows, shields, spears, swords, and hammers, all playing into different build styles and having different damage and attack speed values.
You might swing a hammer less often than you would a spear, but its strikes deal more damage. The sword then provides a more balanced option, and you can also equip shields and bows.
In single-player, death translates to a wipe, making the game more aligned with a traditional rogue-lite experience.
In multiplayer, dead party members are automatically revived if one manages to clear the arena, making for a more forgiving experience, yet not one you’ll necessarily breeze through.
The developer noted that, aside from random map generation, the plethora of items you can unlock makes for a lot of potential variety in terms of how you build your characters.
You can play one run with a build based on perfect parries, then switch to a build revolving around turning your arrows into bombs.
The items you can equip play a fairly big role in this, granding you extra armor, the chance to double your size and damage upon critically hitting enemies, getting a spectral spear that perpetually rotates around your character while damaging opponents, and more.
Charms let you use powerful modifiers that accommodate both a min-maxing mentality and a more relaxed approach. You can try to squeeze as much damage as possible out of your build, or bring an armored pig along simply because it looks cool.
All this ties into the metagame which revolves around a central hub town. It’s here where you can shop for items, upgrade your character’s skills or improve buildings in between runs.
Conan Chop Chop might not reinvent the rogue-lite wheel, but its hack and slash battles look quite fun from afar.
Its cutesy art style may not be up everyone’s alley, but it does set it apart from other games that feature the bloodthirsty barbarian.
If it manages to deliver on its promise of build and equipment variety while ensuring that its difficulty keeps things fun and challenging both in single-player and multiplayer, Mighty Kingdom’s upcoming game could carve a cozy spot for itself next to other popular rogue-lites.
Conan Chop Chop has locked down its release date to March 1, 2022, when it arrives on PC, Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo switch. A demo will also be available on PC during Steam Next Fest, which takes place between February 21 and February 28, and Nintendo Switch.
