Conan Exiles Review Summary

Stunning visuals and engaging combat earn praise, but severe lag, desync, bugs, and frequent crashes undermine an otherwise well-received experience.

Highly Positive Overall Reception: Reviewers overwhelmingly describe the game as fantastic, beautiful, and a masterpiece. It is considered one of the best games ever made and is fun both solo and with friends.

Stunning Visuals and Graphics: The graphics are consistently praised as amazing, beautiful, and second to none. The enhanced update further elevates the game's aesthetics to impressive levels.

Engaging Combat System: Combat is described as fun, intuitive, and rewarding, with a good pace that avoids frustration. Some note it is simple but holds up well for both PvE and PvP.

Excellent Base Building: The base building system is praised as excellent, solid, and satisfying, often cited as among the best in the genre. It allows for creative and expansive construction.

Vast and Diverse World: The game world is huge, varied, and beautifully designed, with distinct biomes like deserts, swamps, and frozen mountains. Exploration feels rewarding and full of discovery.

Severe server lag and desync: Official and online servers suffer from severe lag and desync, especially with more than 10 players, causing freezes, teleporting, and making the game unplayable. Joining is often blocked when player count exceeds 10 out of 40.

Numerous bugs and glitches: The game is plagued by numerous bugs and inconsistencies, ranging from minor annoyances to game-breaking issues. Many aspects are janky and dated.

Frequent server crashes: Servers crash repeatedly for days in a row, causing major disruption. Crashes are a persistent problem alongside other server issues.

Long-standing unfixed bugs: Bugs from years ago, some present for almost a decade, remain unfixed. Recurring bugs continue to affect gameplay without resolution.

Developer incompetence and neglect: Funcom is criticized for incompetent updates that introduce bugs, reset player progress, and fail to address widespread server-side problems. The game has not been properly maintained.

Open world survival crafting: Players describe the game as an open-world survival crafting sandbox with exploration, building, and progression. It combines survival mechanics with deep crafting and base construction.

Single-player offline mode: Many reviewers highlight that the game offers a single-player offline mode, allowing solo play without requiring an internet connection. This provides flexibility for players who prefer to avoid multiplayer.

Multiplayer with friends: Players can enjoy the game with friends through co-op multiplayer, either online or via private servers. The game supports both solo and group play.

PvP and PvE modes: The game includes both PvP and PvE modes, with options for player versus player combat and player versus environment. Some reviewers note they exclusively play PvE.

Dungeons and exploration: The game features immersive dungeons with unique designs, puzzles, and bosses. Exploration is rewarded with hidden story locations and cooperative dungeon crawls.

Severe official server latency: Players experience heavy lag and high ping on official servers even with wired fiber connections. Ping frequently spikes from 60 to over 300, sometimes reaching 9999, making online play unplayable.

Server performance degrades with players: Servers become laggy and unplayable once more than 10 players join, with severe performance drops at 20-25 players. This affects both official and dedicated servers.

Consistent lag and instability: Server lag is a persistent issue, occurring constantly and causing unstable gameplay. Players report rubberbanding, teleportation, and frequent disconnections due to server performance.

Connection failures and ping kicks: Players cannot connect to servers, often stuck at 99% loading or returning to main menu. High ping also prevents joining and causes disconnections during play.

Frequent game crashes: The game crashes repeatedly on launch, on official servers, and when interacting with thralls. These crashes occur for days and disrupt gameplay.

Strong survival genre recommendation: Many reviewers recommend the game specifically to fans of survival, crafting, and building games. The consensus is that survival enthusiasts will find it worth trying or even a must-play.

Not recommended by some: A notable portion of negative reviews explicitly do not recommend the game. Complaints include lack of honesty in recommending it and overall disappointment.

Worth buying on sale: Numerous reviewers suggest purchasing the game primarily during a discount. They consider the price justified when on sale, but many are hesitant at full price.

Conan fans will enjoy: Reviewers highlight that appreciation for the Conan universe significantly boosts enjoyment. Fans of Conan and survival crafting consider it one of the best options available.

Worth the time and purchase: Many reviewers affirm the game is worth the time and money, especially when on sale. They encourage giving it a chance and not being disappointed.

Community fair range: $10.00 - $25.00.

Game completion: 175.0h.

Story completion: 75.0h.

Session length: 2.0h.

Conan Exiles is often rough at the start, with complex systems, grinding, and multiplayer/co-op problems. It tends to click once players learn the survival/crafting loops or play co-op with friends, when building and progression become rewarding.

Friction: Early complexity and restrictive server rules; Raw first hours and weak onboarding; Resource grinding and slow crafting pace; Multiplayer lag, cheaters, and unstable servers; Co-op tethering and forced proximity; Bugs, crashes, and optimization problems.

Unlock drivers: Learning the core survival and crafting mechanics; Playing co-op with friends; Deep base building and empire customization; Rewarding progression and thrall recruitment; Mods and server settings; Server modifiers to tailor difficulty and drops.

PvE Architect / Builder: Plays on PvE or private servers, often solo or co-op, with mods or boosted rates to focus on construction and exploration. Motivation: Creative expression through large-scale base building and a peaceful survival sandbox. Stance: buy.

PvP Clan Raider / Conqueror: Organizes with clans on PvP or private servers, prepares gear and consumables, defends bases, and sieges enemy structures. Motivation: Competitive dominance, clan warfare, raiding, and high-stakes player conflict. Stance: sale.

Private Server / Modded Community Player: Seeks private or unofficial servers with mods and RP rules; plays solo or co-op and avoids official-server limitations. Motivation: A customized, social sandbox with mods, roleplay, and community-run worlds. Stance: buy.

Across the six largest hardware cohorts, client-side performance varies sharply by VRAM and RAM tier, but server lag, high ping, crashes, and UE5-related stuttering recur across many Windows configurations. Higher-VRAM systems generally report better client FPS, while lower-VRAM and midrange systems show more mixed optimization results.

Windows 8-11GB VRAM: mixed. Reports range from stable 1440p and 4K performance with DLSS or Frame Gen to stutters on medium settings, frequent crashes, and severe server lag.

Windows 12-15GB VRAM / 16-31GB RAM: negative. This cohort is dominated by reports of unplayable official-server lag, rubberbanding, disconnects, and repeated crashes after the UE5 update.

Windows <8GB VRAM / 16-31GB RAM: mixed. Some low-VRAM users report smooth performance on low settings, but many cite severe UE5 performance regressions, unplayable lag, and server issues.

Steam Deck: Audit of Steam Deck and Linux feedback shows a mix of playable reports and serious technical blockers. Users often need Proton Experimental or Proton tricks, encounter an external launcher and kernel-level anti-cheat, face frequent crashes and launch failures, and report performance regressions, input delay, and battery drain on Steam Deck. Positive reports exist with tuning, but the dominant friction is high due to anti-cheat, launcher, and stability issues.

Linux and Proton: Linux/Proton support for Conan Exiles is mixed and workaround-heavy. Some users report that the game runs on Linux, including with Proton Experimental or distro tweaks, and a few say it did not break on Linux. However, multiple explicit Linux reports describe launch failures or inability to play, citing Vulkan shader issues, NVIDIA/Fedora problems, and BattlEye friction. Steam Deck users also say Proton tricks are currently needed. Overall, the game is playable for some Linux users after configuration, but launch reliability and compatibility remain clearly rough.

Monetization: The game employs an aggressive monetization model centered around a premium currency (Crom Coins), a rotating in-game shop (Black Lotus Bazaar), and a battle pass, with heavily overpriced cosmetic items and FOMO tactics. While the monetization remains largely cosmetic and not pay-to-win, many essential building pieces are locked behind paywalls, and players widely criticize the shift from traditional DLC to this system as a cash grab.

External guides: The reviews show a strong external-data dependency centered on crafting recipes, bench information, materials, and inventory knowledge, with players repeatedly keeping wikis open to manage crafting systems. There is also substantial guidance, quest, and mechanics dependency, plus some technical bug complaints. Under the strict priority rubric, the explicit crafting and recipe evidence triggers Tier 2 'The Hoarder'. No explicit farming, drop-rate, or loot-table dependency was found to trigger Tier 1.

UE5 engine migration: The game was upgraded from Unreal Engine 4 to Unreal Engine 5, with a major visual overhaul. This migration was delivered via a free Enhanced Update.

Abundant DLC offerings: The game has numerous DLC packs, including both paid expansions and cosmetic items. Most DLC is optional and not required to enjoy the game.

Cosmetic-focused monetization: The in-game cash shop, Bazaar, and battle pass primarily offer cosmetic items and decorations. Microtransactions use the premium currency Crom Coins.

Robust mod support: The game supports mods, with a large variety of high-quality mods available, including modder-made expansions. The modding community is active and provides massive new content.

Long-standing live service: The game has been on the market for nearly a decade and operates as a live service title. Despite its age, it has received significant updates like the UE5 upgrade.