Conan Chop Chop is a straightforward roguelite. While it may be shallow in some regards on the equipment and the worldbuilding front, the ability to play with friends can make this roguelite a worthwhile experience for those who want to introduce their friends to the genre. Yes, Conan is on the easier end of most roguelites, but this comes at the cost of a less-than-compelling single player experience. If you're looking for a roguelite to ease you into the unforgiving nature of the roguelite gameplay loop of dying over and over again, then Conan Chop Chop won't leave you frustrated.
Not enough roguelites are co-op friendly, although they should be. While some of you armchair gameplay developers may argue that this is by design for the genre, there are two examples that do co-op well and are recent releases: Returnal and Conan Chop Chop. The difference between these two games is that Returnal is locked to the PS5 and has a ridiculously steep difficulty curve. Conan Chop Chop, on the other hand, is available on multiple platforms and is much more forgiving for newer players. Yes, you heard right: Conan Chop Chop (Conan) is a 2D roguelite that supports up to four players.
In Conan, the nefarious wizard Thoth-Amon fails to revive Xaltotun and needs additional power to bring Xaltotun to full strength. Thus, Thoth-Amon holds a competition of strength and power among the champions of Hyboria to see who is the strongest in the land!
Roguelite games utilize varying degrees of variance to ensure that players’ individual experiences are unique and unpredictable. Conan‘s variance exists in several fashions, the first of which being your character’s equipment. Starting a new run of Conan places you in the heart of your village with some gold to spend on randomly generated equipment. You only get to purchase one of each at first, but as you play and unlock additional weapons, other merchant slots will open to allow you some leeway on what you start with when you begin. Equipment is also acquired as you clear rooms and open chests with keys and/or defeat bosses, so you’re not married to a specific build decision you make at the start of the run. At first glance, the weapons seem varied and have clear upsides and downsides, but you will quickly attach yourself to specific weapons and equipment that fit a specific playstyle. For me, it was equipment that increased my ammunition, replenished ammunition when an explosion occurred, and bows that occasionally fired bombs instead of arrows. Because of this, it’s quite easy to look past newer (and possibly stronger) weapons as you play, especially since there really aren’t that many variations of equipment builds in Conan Chop Chop. So if you’re patient, you’ll find a stronger variant of your weapons and equipment While I appreciate how weapons and equipment are able to be acquired throughout a run, sometimes the easiest decision is to simply sit on your underpowered weapons/equipment until you come across a stronger weapon that fits your preferred build.
Having additional variance in weapons and equipment has drawbacks, of course. Consider Hades, with over 10 classes of boon upgrades and thousands (maybe more, I’m not a mathematician) of ways to build Zagreus depending on who you come across. I will admit that the large number of boon upgrades in Hades makes Conan‘s equipment variance seem simpler and easier to stomach, and this would definitely be true for newer players to the roguelite genre. If you’re wanting a roguelite to get your feet wet with upgrade variance, then Conan is a great game to start. But, if you’re familiar with games of this genre, the equipment variance is just not enough to keep you from feeling bored after a few hours.
Charms are the second form of variance in Conan. Admittedly, they’re one of my favorite parts of the gameplay that should make most roguelite veterans pleased. At the start, your character has one charm slot available, and additional slots can become permanently unlocked as you level your character up. Charms serve multiple purposes and add a refreshing amount of variance. Some change how you deal damage, such as adding elements to your arrows, others give you an adorable little buddy (like a chicken wearing a hat!) that will fight enemies alongside you and respawn if they end up perishing, while others change your typical attack sequences, like modifying your melee attack to become a boomerang.
Again, I love charms, and they do add positive variance to Conan where the equipment may feel stale after a while. If you play co-op, some charms may appear that can benefit your entire team, so it’s nice to see this gameplay elements balanced around multiplayer. But, when you first start playing Conan, you’ll have only one charm slot unlocked on your four characters, so choosing between two charms could have a lasting impact on how your run may turn out. Should you choose to prioritize upgrading your characters’ charm slots over everything else, your runs may become easier as you can hold up to four(!!) slots.
Finally, the rooms add a small level of variance to each run of Conan. While your pathway is moderately predetermined in that you will always start in the forest biome, the composition of each biome changes things up to ensure that each run will have splashes of uniqueness. Each biome has a small number of optional side rooms that take you off the beaten path, but you’ll quickly find that these side rooms are shallow and offer very little other than one unmarked side quest and opportunities to open more chests (if they happen to spawn in these rooms). Sometimes, a biome will have a miniboss for you to fight before you enter a temple to slay the big boss; others are a simple pathway to the temple with naught more than small enemies to fight. Enemies, too, become predictable, despite the small changes you may see between biomes.
Admittedly, I would have liked additional variance and reasons to explore these rooms and fight unique enemies. I appreciate how you can return to rooms you have just explored to open chests and purchase equipment (should you find a traveling merchant in a biome), but the room layout quickly becomes stale and predictable the more you play. Having more side quests could have been an easy fix, but maybe adding more to do may push newcomers away.
Conan excels in how player-friendly it is, and the permanent upgrade system is proof of that notion. In other roguelites, permanent progression often manifests in an upgrade system that persists throughout multiple runs. In Hades, the mirror in Zagreus’ room acted as a way to add strength and utility to his journey. In Returnal, your equipment and weapon perks acted as means to skip portions of biomes to minimize the pain from each time Selene perished to Atropian enemies. In Conan, you can permanently upgrade your characters after each run, but you upgrade your characters individually. You obtain upgrade points when you level up in the post-game screen, but upgrades cost an increasing number of upgrade points.
When you first start playing Conan, you have a limited number of points to spend, and you have many options before you. Each character’s special ability costs one point to unlock, but other upgrades can cost 2, 3, or even 5 points, and those become available after you unlock more perks, such as additional charm slots, health, stamina, and movement speed. My biggest complaint about the upgrade system is that you have to grind to get access to Conan, Pallantides, Valeria, and Belit’s unique abilities (of which they each have three, all costing 5 points each). This gives players less of an incentive to upgrade each character incrementally and more of a need to invest most of their time playing as one character. Despite how the upgrades make the game easier, I cannot find myself wanting to invest more time to fully upgrade my other characters. Throughout the review period, I’ve been pleased with how Mighty Kingdom has consistently modified the “EXP earnt” formula to be more player friendly, but the grind is still there and does not feel worth my time. This is not to say that your character choices don’t matter. They could matter. Conan, Pallantides, Valeria, and Belit all have some strengths and weaknesses that are tied into their abilities, but the characters themselves won’t feel truly unique until you fully unlock their kits after grinding away.
Conan Chop Chop is a straightforward roguelite. While it may be shallow in some regards on the equipment and the worldbuilding front, the ability to play with friends can make this roguelite a worthwhile experience for those who want to introduce their friends to the genre. Yes, Conan is on the easier end of most roguelites, but this comes at the cost of a less-than-compelling single player experience. If you’re looking for a roguelite to ease you into the unforgiving nature of the roguelite gameplay loop of dying over and over again, then Conan Chop Chop won’t leave you frustrated.
