Conan Chop Chop is a multiplayer roguelite game that can be played both offline and online. This dungeon crawler challenge of endurance will keep you on your toes as you try to take down enemies in random generated maps, collect loot and make your way to the Wrath-Athon!
When you start up the game you’ll be greeted with a story sequence of Thoth-amon trying to summon Xaltotun and failing. In order to collect the perfect vessel, he devises a plan to trick some heroes into coming his way. A contest of strength will surely lure them in!
The project started out as an April Fool’s joke, so the juxtaposition of cute stick figure cartoons with the Conan the Barbarian franchise, stays true to the quirkiness of the original idea. The bold cartoon art is crisp, and you can clearly see where enemies and their attacks are, which is vital to your survival. I personally love this whimsical fresh take on a series that is more known for a grittier style in other media such as comics, games, and movies.
There are 4 characters to choose from: Conan, Valeria, Belit, and Pallantides. Each have the standard set of move sets plus their own special abilities. You can jump straight into a game or take yourself through the tutorial to learn the ropes. I found the tutorial very helpful for understanding the mechanics of the different weapons and abilities, as I was able to practice without too much consequence.
While death is permanent in this style of RPG, you will retain the experience you’ve earned. I’ve been spoiled by games that allow me to endlessly heal through my mistakes and with Conan Chop Chop I’ve had to learn to be more patient in finding the right time to attack enemies. As I learn each enemy’s attack patterns, it’s making each run that little bit easier to progress, giving you a satisfying sense of accomplishment.
While you will start from the same town each time, the weapons and armour available to purchase are at random. You don’t start with a lot of money, so making a choice between buying a healing item or equipment can be tough.
Your experience will carry over to whatever character you choose, so you can try them all out and see what suits you. Upon death, any weapons, armour, or other items will be lost. But there are some permanent upgrades you can purchase, such as extra hit points which are character specific. I found that armour or pets that did additional DPS for me, were especially helpful in single player mode when you don’t have other players to help you out.
It’s fun to try and beat your last score of survival time and number of monsters killed. At first, I found advancing past the first few rooms quite difficult and frustrating. But as I found specific items for my play style, it got a little easier. Hard games like this have become popular of late and they are aimed at players that have a lot of patience and time to hone their skills. Single players can feel a bit more tedious when the game is not heavy on story like other RPGs, so there’s definitely more fun to be had playing this game with friends.
If you like side scrolling “beat ‘em ups” such as Castle Crashers, Streets of Rage, etc. but are looking for something with a higher difficulty and some RPG upgrade elements, then you will have a great time with Conan Chop Chop.
Conan Chop Chop is available now on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.
This game was played on PC for the purpose of this review.