Conan Game Review
Conan the Barbarian is a hero straight out of the movies, video games and comic books of the last four decades, so it’s no surprise that he was chosen as the theme of one of NetEnt’s biggest budget slot offerings. Bringing to life the excitement, magic and wonder of the character’s adventures was the mission here, and NetEnt have fulfilled that in spades, but is there a hoard of treasure at the end of the road for you here? Let’s take a look in our Conan review.
Background
We weren’t joking when we said this game looks the part, and you could be forgiven for thinking this was the latest AAA video game or blockbuster movie. The graphics are top notch and the action is constant, with flaming symbols smashing down into the reels with booming sound effects, electrical charges zapping around and even the occasional sword fight breaking out across the screen. The background is designed with this series’ classic central European dark ages theme front and centre, with a snowy wooden village glowing out of the darkness. A frieze of warriors in combat sits directly behind the reels, which are bordered by an ornate carved frame. Everything in this game screams blockbuster, and the delivery of the action is almost cinematic. The symbols match up too, and they’re all original, with the lowest icons being silver and gold coins sporting animal heads, the medium value symbols comprising a helmet and grappling hook, while Conan and his friends and enemies are the highest value.
The mechanics of this game also hold some interest, with an unusual six reel, four row layout utilized on top of a ‘pays both ways’ mechanism that adds up to 24 paylines. There’s also a pretty generous betting limit in place, ranging from ₹14 to ₹14756, which is useful because the symbols are less generous: The highest value combo, Conan himself, grants just 6x your stake for 5 in a row. Luckily there are two types of bonus feature in this game to help pick up your prize money a bit, which explains why the RTP is still a pretty decent 96.28%. The six reels are divided into pairs, with each pair having a chance of landing specific random symbols on them. Tower wilds on reels one and two can expand to take over the whole reels. Mystery symbols on reels two and four can appear stacked, taking over the reels again and activating a battle animation between Conan and a giant snake that grants a random multiplier up to 7x. Red wilds appearing on reels five and six can expand up to three times into the reels next door, creating even more wins.
Bonuses
That sounds like a pretty decent set of bonuses on their own, right? But there’s more! Landing between three and six scatters can gain you up to 50 free spins, and you get a choice of three modes to play in: City of Thieves grants a special wild that can take over whole reels, the Temple of the Serpent feature activates the serpent fight again for a multiplier up to 7x, while the Walls of Tarantia feature grants even more sideways expanding red wilds. You can also activate the Thoth Amon feature if you land enough of each of these three types of symbol, which fills the reels with even more mystery symbols that transform into high value pairs. Phew! That’s a lot of bonuses!
Verdict
The Conan slot game definitely looks and feels like a blockbuster game, and you’ll love the amazing graphics and sound design that make it feel epic to play. However, you can’t help but feel disappointed by the stingy payouts in the base game. The confusing bonuses make up for this somewhat, but you can easily walk away with a pretty sad payout, which can leave a bitter taste.
