For an entire generation the films are all they’ll ever have known of the strapping barbarian warlord but the character actually existed in the form of Robert E. Howard’s stories for around 50 years before the Austrian beefcake stepped in to the role. Because of its rich and lengthy literary background, Conan the Cimmerian and the land of Hyboria have provided a steady supply of material for games designers in the same way that ancient Greek mythology has provided content for games, most recent with God of War. Actually right now would be appropriate to unashamedly admit that isn’t the last time there’ll be mention of Sony’s hack and slash series during the course of this review. That’s because, whichever way you slice it, Conan draws a lot of influence from the aforementioned series in the way it approaches things.

At the beginning of the game, Conan, in the middle of some routine mindless tomb-pillaging, unwittingly unleashes an ancient evil and for his troubles is stripped of his beloved armour and short-term memory, before being dumped in the ocean. The game follows what is essentially the quest for him to regain his cherished adornments and while it’s hardly award-winning fantasy, it’s certainly a good-enough premise for the dismemberment and disembowelling that follows. And it follows a lot.

Conan carries an 18 rating and it rapidly becomes apparent why. Limbs, heads and gallons of blood fly in all directions and after particularly lengthy battles the floor can be awash with blood. Skulls are split, intestines pulled out and people cleaved straight through their waists. Or separated right down the middle from their head to their groin. As if the mature content wasn’t enough with swords going in and coming out and more evisceration than a turkey farm during a bird flu cull, there’s also the abundant use of naked ladies' chests to titillate and excite the thirteen-year-olds. Rescuing these chained-up naked women is actually worth it purely because of the comedy moments that ensue. It’s impossible not to guffaw as they tease Conan with cheese-laden innuendos and ask him to “crush them” with his “love” before doing little more than standing there and half-heartedly waggling their modestly proportioned baps back and forth in a display as erotic as wrinkly Keith Richards performing on stage in the nude. It leads to some brilliant but wholly unintentional comedy moments where awkward silence ensures from Conan and his new friend just standing there... until the player gets enough of an eyeful and wanders off.

The bulk of the game is taken up with combat and it’s thankful that Conan does a decent job of getting it right. Alongside his sword, parrying with the left trigger, evading with the right stick and being able to pick up items and enemies to launch them into spikes and off ledges, Conan is able to use shields, dual-wield weapons and even use heavier two-handed items. Each of these have the typical plus and minus points, for example shields allow greater defensive ability, dual-wielding allows quicker but less powerful attacks and two-handed items are stronger but attacking with them is much slower. Each weapon type has a unique set of moves so players are able to mix things up depending on what weapons are to hand and how they want to play. Parrying at the right moment allows the player to counter attack, usually involving a particularly nasty finishing move with a shower of red and limbs.

As with God of War players can stand there and mindlessly mash away with the same attack over and over, but anyone playing the game properly will obviously want to mix things up. To get the most challenge out of the game it is certainly necessary to play it on the harder difficulty settings where enemies actively take offensive and defensive positions, requiring the player to work out the best method and weapons combination in order to connect any hits. On these settings some enemies are particularly unforgiving of any attempts to blunder in and mash away, draining your energy bar in a matter of seconds. This also extends to the boss fights which will frustrate those who are unable to take the time to learn the attack patterns and just want to steam in with the slice and dice.

Just like God of War, killing enemies, finding chests, breaking scenery, quaffing pots of booze large enough to paralyse a professional darts player and rescuing maidens award the player with coloured orbs. Here the unashamed Kratos-aping continues in fine fettle with red orbs allowing the player to purchase more attacks, green orbs replenishing health and blue orbs recovering magic abilities. Despite Conan traditionally having a hatred of all things magical, for the purposes of the game the strapping killing machine seems to forgo all his wizardry prejudices. Magic attacks are obtained by recovering pieces of his armour which have become infused with magic in their time away from his possession. Although they feel slightly superfluous at times, these attacks actually come in handy in later levels when swamped with enemies and needing some breathing space.

Puzzles are also present but typically involve real-time interactive moments to push over pillars or just placing blocks on pedestals and so there is nothing worthy of challenging even the most limited of barbarian intellects. Though in fairness they are only intended as a short break in the action. Naturally these button-pressing sequences are also implemented in a similar way to God of ... well you get the idea by now.

Despite the repeated reference made to Sony’s game, Conan actually copies these ideas in a very solid and capable manner and incorporates some pretty cool moments of destruction and savagery. Where things start to chafe like a sweaty barbarian's boot is in the game’s apparent lack of self-belief. The levels in the game seem to get shorter as you progress giving the feeling that the developers felt that the whole thing was going on too long and given the source material it’s disappointing that the vast majority of enemies in the game are variations on the same human soldiers. There are a few fantastical enemies included but they can be few and far between with the most impressive ones being reserved for the boss fights.

There are lots of little niggles and although some of them are not uncommon they could have easily been remedied. The lack of camera control works fine for evading enemies and being able to stay in the thick of the action but it makes other tasks like finding maidens or chests (or even maidens' chests) more awkward. The graphics are suitably put-together but for some reason all the models seem to have a radioactive haze around them and the self-shadowing of characters and environments tends to be slightly flickery. There are also clipping issues and for some reason Conan is unable to jump over parts of the scenery like piles of rubble which are only a foot high. The audio cues are also overused with enemies appearing to continually confuse Conan with a Welshman and shouting “Dai!” and you’ll hear the annoying roaring snort of one particular boss character so many times that it’ll be echoing through your head long after the system’s been turned off. Even Ron Perlman, who voices Conan, sounds bored in his delivery to the point where his voice doesn’t really suit the character. Where the audio does excel is the music which features a rousing, fist-pounding, chest-puffing soundtrack befitting a Cimmerian war machine. Some of the strings, drumming and chanting will remind you of God of War, but that’s because it’s composed by the same person.

Obvious flaws and blatant plagiarism aside Conan isn’t a bad game by any stretch, offering a lot of throwaway entertainment and a real challenge on anything above the normal difficulty setting. While it won’t win any awards there’s no question that fans of Conan, fans of gore, anyone looking for a God of War clone for this generation's systems or even just pre-pubescent children who’ve pestered their parents until they caved in and bought it for them, will find it entertaining.