Conan

It's clear that this game takes a leaf from Kratos' book, but it also brings something different to the table. Conan just seems more, well, barbaric than God of War, and this permeates through the entire experience. Combos are gorier and more over-the-top, the scale seems larger (Temple of Pandora? No thank you), and the character of Conan himself is larger than life. I'm a big fan of the combat system in general. Combos are well rounded and a snap to perform, puzzles take some thought, and the graphics are very impressive.

I'm also a big fan of the fact that Conan largely pits you against human foes. A game that touts brutal and violent action really should have you fight against foes that can be hurled, dismembered, and eviscerated. God of War's opponents are often to large and fantastical for the kind of brutality that can be unleashed upon Conan's pirates and soldiers.

A fairly short quest is this title's only hangup. Overall, a superb play package.

Everything you said were my exact opinions towards the game. First off the only difference to me was I played it on XBox 360 and the reason I bring this up because as you said the psx2 graphics were something lacking to say the least, I just want you to know it was no different on the 36O. Sure the environment was better looking than some games it cannot compete with Uncharted or Assassian's Creed the cut scenes were awful. The replay level to this game is very small due to the fact that this game gets repetitive and quick. As you stated combos become useless once a mob attacks you, and the lions are anything but annoying. The boss battles weren't overly hard but again as you said annoying at best, Graven (final boss) was the most difficult and that was due to the simple fact that you have too much going on to focus in on one thing. You have to dodge his tentacles all the while avoiding the hot tar and the tar people. I was screaming at my TV before long until I read that I was supposed to wait and let him draw his tentacles back in before cranking the lever and that made it a ton easier. Dare I say this is a cheap ripoff of God of War? Perhaps, they have some similarities but God of War takes the cake hands down. Matter of fact the reason I bought this game was to fulfill my impatience until GoW3 comes out on psx3 (which I have to buy also).