They Are Barbarillions: peek at Conan Unconquered
What is best in life?
What is best in life? If you answered "To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentations of their women," mate, calm down. No, what's best in life isn't invading, conquering, or pillaging, it's having a nice little sit-down without anyone tromping all over your lawn. That's the calmer pace of life Conan the Sedentarian seeks in Conan Unconquered, the upcoming survival RTS from Petroglyph. Publishers Funcom blasted the first in-game peek today and yup, it does look a fair bit like They Are Billions, only it's barbarian hordes and novelty oversized wildlife banging on our walls.
Like They Are Billions--a comparison Funcom themselves draw--Conan Unconquered isn't about conquering ground but holding it, building walls and armies and traps and barracks and temples and workshops and such to strengthen your position and hold out against waves of enemies. So sure, you will sometimes need to creep out and grab resources from beyond your walls, but that's not much more violent than fighting through the hordes at B&Q on a Bank Holiday weekend. God knows I wish I, like Conan, could call upon a big bronze boy to kick through the crowds.
That does look way less intense than They Are Billions, of course, which can have thousands of zombies pounding on your walls at once. But hey, it's good to see more of this potential subgenre explored. They Are Billions was a good'un when we last had a good look at its early access state a year ago.
Conan Unconquered is due to launch later this year, some time from April to June. For now, its Steam page is already up.
Petroglyph are the mob formed by former Westwood Studios folks, who've since made real-time strategy games including Star Wars: Empire At War and Grey Goo. Funcom are still working on multiplayer survival sandbox Conan Exiles as well as a mysterious Conan singleplayer game coming, not to mention several Dune games.
Given that Funcom have Petroglyph playing with the Conan license they hold, I wouldn't be too surprised if Petroglyph revisited their early Westwood days with another Dune RTS. That's wild speculation from me, mind.