Image credit: Games Farm/Grindstone
Conan: The Black Pyramid is an upcoming game from the teams at Games Farm and Grindstone, taking the iconic Conan franchise into a new era. It’s a dark roguelite that pays homage to classic ARPGs, and it’s set for release in 2027.
I got the chance to check out the game ahead of its announcement, courtesy of a hands-off preview from the game team, and as a roguelike geek, I was delighted with what I saw. The game looks vibrant yet mysterious, with a whole heaping of enemies to tangle with as you explore the titular pyramid.
Hack, slash, and ooze
Conan: The Black Pyramid is a dark roguelite that lets you play as Conan the Barbarian – or other legendary characters from the universe – as you explore a Lovecraftian pyramid that shifts and warps timelines.
Conan becomes his younger self as soon as he steps foot in the pyramid, and gets to explore a variety of different rooms and chambers, each taking place in a different spot in the Conan timeline. If you’re a fan of the wider Conan world, you should find plenty of lore snippets, recognizable characters, and iconic moments to get excited about.
In each run, you pilot a character like Conan and use a Veil; a type of build that changes how your character feels in battle. They vary in playstyle and strengths, with Matej Hudak, Head of Publishing at Grindstone, noting that, “Every veil has a different playstyle, a different set of the weapons.”
As you might imagine, progression in the pyramid unlocks new characters, items, and, most importantly, enemies. Fights get incrementally trickier, with new mechanics to be mindful of, and bosses to clear at certain key moments.
You’ll find Artifacts as you progress through the pyramid, which enhance your build and can theoretically win you a run. These items vary in their usage, with some focusing more on combat improvement and others heightening drop chances or item behaviour. To me, this indicates that runs will never get samey.
There are collectible dice, too, which can be used to re-roll your Artifact options as you progress, meaning you’re never forced into a build that you hate. As Hudak puts it, the dice help you “to shift the randomness to your liking.”
During the preview, I queried whether the team had a stat to hand about how long players could expect their first run to be, roughly. The game appears to be targeting snackable gameplay sessions, with an immersive but easy to enjoy style of play.
The team confirmed that runs depend on skill, meta progression, and builds, but that 20 minutes was a reasonable estimate for someone who’d played roguelikes beforehand. It’s not a bloated run time, but it’s not short, either. This lined up with the gameplay demo we got; the run went on for around 15 minutes, with the team showcasing the trickier rooms of the pyramid.
Hudak added that your Veil would also impact the run-time, as would the presence of another player. Conan: The Black Pyramid will have two-player co-op, for folks who’d rather brave the cosmic horrors with an ally. I’m especially keen to see what theorycrafting builds might look like with two players at the helm.
Roguelite replayability
Something that stood out to me with the Conan: The Black Pyramid preview is just how replayable the game looked. While I didn’t get the chance to play the game for myself, the hands-off gameplay demo showed just how fluid the core gameplay loop is.
The movement is exquisite; buttery smooth, with plenty of interesting visuals tied to your character’s style of play. You likely won’t get stuck in the same room for too long, unless you hit a wall with a boss fight, and there’s a consistent influx of items, upgrades, and new lore titbits to keep things consistently interesting.
The combat is what I’m most looking forward to, though. There’s a gnarly dismemberment system that scratched an itch in my brain as a Dead Space fan. When you strike enemies, their limbs can go careening off in all directions, and there seemed to be a real weight to combo attacks.
There appears to be a pleasant difficulty spike with the game, too. When asked about the difficulty levels in Conan: The Black Pyramid, the team noted that they wanted it to be accessible and easy at first, but provide challenge at the same time.
I wondered how the game might stack up to cult classics like Cult of the Lamb, and the game team described how they were designing the game with the community in mind, working alongside them to find the right level of difficulty, risk, and reward via playtests and plenty of feedback opportunities.
The voice acting also stood out to me during the preview. While I don’t have access to imagery of all the characters to showcase right now – I can confirm there are some absolute diamonds of characters, though – there were several stellar performances that left me very impressed while listening in.
Overall, Conan: The Black Pyramid looks like it’s going to be a vibrant and exciting experience for folks who love the Conan world, as well as my fellow roguelite and roguelike obsessives. The gameplay looks sharp, the world is well-designed, and there are some gorgeous visuals to look forward to.
Of course, this may not be a title for folks who tend to lean away from roguelikes and roguelites – though I would encourage people to be open-minded, as the ARPG aspects are very present along with the roguelite gameplay elements. If you typically dislike roguelites and combo-based combat, it won’t be the game for you.
Folks like myself who love bloody combat, short gameplay sessions, and lashings of lore will undoubtedly have a wonderful time with the title, though, based on what I saw in the preview. Conan: The Black Pyramid is slated for release in 2027, with more details on the way.
FAQs
Conan: The Black Pyramid was developed by Games Farm and published by Grindstone.
Conan: The Black Pyramid is a roguelite with ARPG elements.
Conan: The Black Pyramid is coming out in 2027. A full release date has not been confirmed yet.
No, Conan: The Black Pyramid is not a horror game. It has dark elements, but it’s not scary in the way that Alien: Isolation is.
The 2026 Golden Joystick Awards are being held on November 11, 2026, at the Troxy in London, UK.
