Conan Unconquered

What it is

Conan Unconquered sends players into the savage world of Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian to build and defend a stronghold against increasingly large waves of hostile creatures and armies, solo or in co-op with a friend. Developed by Petroglyph — the studio founded by Command & Conquer veterans — and published by Funcom, it structures its resource-gathering and base-building around a fixed, escalating wave schedule rather than an open-ended real-time strategy sandbox. It released on 29 May 2019 at NZD 30.49.

Its review corpus, 670 in English, sits at a genuinely divided Mixed 69.7% (467 to 203), and reading through it in depth reveals a game whose closest genre comparison — They Are Billions — dominates the conversation almost completely, with reviewers split on whether Conan Unconquered improves on that formula or merely imitates it less successfully.

A fair, well-liked alternative to They Are Billions' permadeath structure

A real, detailed contingent of this corpus prefers Conan Unconquered specifically because of how it handles failure compared to its closest genre relative. "I actually liked the game better than the one it's mechanics are inspired by: 'They Are Billions.' Mostly because having one unit get through your defenses doesn't cause an inevitable game over," writes one reviewer, "also if you fail a campaign mission you just re-try it, it doesn't put a permanent demerit on your score." A separate reviewer frames the broader appeal in genre terms, praising it as "a mix of Majesty's survival and kingdom building" with structure reminiscent of Command & Conquer 3 and resource variety similar to Rise of Nations — a favorable, specific set of comparisons rather than a dismissive "clone" framing.

A large, direct case that it's a lesser clone

Set directly against that praise, an equally substantial thread argues Conan Unconquered doesn't measure up to its inspiration. "I was filled with disappointment when I understood that this game was a very close clone to They Are Billions. Instead of managing workers, you had it dumbed down with no workers at all," writes one detailed, highly-upvoted reviewer. A separate reviewer states the comparison even more bluntly: "it is 'we got They Are Billions at home' situation... this is not [Command & Conquer or Age of Empires] at all." That's a specific, structural critique about depth and mechanical complexity relative to the genre benchmark, distinct from complaints about difficulty or bugs.

A punishing difficulty curve, even on easy

One of the most upvoted reviews in the entire corpus raises a specific accessibility concern about the game's difficulty settings. "Why is 'easy', actually not easy at all? When I want to relax and enjoy a game in easy mode, it feels bad to get worn out at the easiest level," writes a 52-year-old reviewer who describes living with chronic fatigue syndrome, specifically requesting a genuinely accessible difficulty option. That's a concrete, sympathetic account worth taking seriously — a difficulty setting labeled "easy" that a real share of the playerbase still finds exhausting represents a mislabeling problem distinct from ordinary "this game is hard" complaints. A separate reviewer corroborates the broader pattern: "there is a difference between being challenging and outright annoying... fire burns everything... and the AI is pretty lacklustre at responding, so it becomes a micromanagement nightmare."

Serious, repeated stability problems

Beyond difficulty, this corpus documents a genuine, specific technical failure pattern. "This is a fun game but wow it is very unstable. I have had multiple corrupt saves. If you leave the game paused for too long your save corrupts. It also crashes regularly," writes one reviewer, identifying a specific reproducible trigger. A separate reviewer independently corroborates ongoing crashes without identifying the exact cause: "it crashes worse than a Stygian boat in the waters of the far north," while a third states plainly "no support, dead game, and constant crashes." That's a specific, repeated technical complaint distinct from difficulty or design disagreements — real save-corruption risk is a serious concern for a game built around lengthy survival sessions.

A thin hero roster with a paywalled third option

A separate, specific and widely-shared complaint concerns content scope at launch. "You only get 2 heroes which is lame. And you get a 3rd hero if you buy the DLC but I don't think 1 hero is worth that price," writes one reviewer, "very greedy the dev's are, shame on them... this game should have 5-6 heroes." That's a concrete, checkable content complaint — a survival RTS built around hero-driven strategy shipping with only two heroes, and gating a third behind a separate purchase, is a specific value criticism distinct from broader "this game needs more content" griping.

What the achievement data confirms

Conan Unconquered's achievement curve shows an unusually steep decline even by this lane's standards: the most-earned achievement sits at 70.3%, dropping to the 20-30% range for mid-tier building and combat milestones, and collapsing to under 1% for nearly all elite-tier content and hero-specific achievements. That's consistent with both the difficulty complaints and the apparent post-launch content stagnation documented above — a small, dedicated core continues engaging deeply while the broader playerbase appears to have moved on relatively early.

Verdict

Conan Unconquered offers a genuinely fair, well-considered alternative to They Are Billions' punishing permadeath structure, and reviewers who prefer retry-friendly survival RTS design have real reasons to prefer it. But a substantial, detailed share of its own corpus documents a difficulty curve that mislabels its easiest setting, serious and repeated save-corruption bugs, and a sparse hero roster gated behind paid DLC — real, checkable problems that go beyond ordinary genre-comparison griping. Worth a discount purchase for genre fans, with tempered expectations for stability and content depth.