The new developer diary discusses more of Conan Exiles and the game’s upcoming Early Access run. They talk about how the weapons are designed to give gamers different types of weapons to maim, kill, and decapitate your foes, as well as cover more of the game’s different NPC races, forced servitude and the skill system.

The violence in the game looks solid. It’s not quite cinematic as Funcom’s Conan: The Hyborian Adventures, which utilized a card system that had battles playing out in dynamic fashion. Stringing together combos, counters, defensive moves and killing blows was actually pretty fun in that game. The combat in Conan Exiles is a lot more crude and rudimentary but it could be serviceable if it offers solid animations and satisfying results.

We see how sword and board combos can be used to thwart attacks, as well as dual wielding weapons akimbo, including throwing weapons in the off-hand either to slow down fleeing enemies or deal damage before getting in close.

You can check out the near four minute video below.

Much like the MMO New Dawn, you can enslave those you capture by forcing them onto the Wheel of Pain so they become willing servants.

The base building is nice and all but can we talk about those Cthulhu-style monsters for a bit?

Good goodness.

That’s the sort of thing that nightmares and Michael Jackson’s Jesus juice are made of.

If that thing is actually a scary, roving, devastating beast that goes around smashing things and eating people, then Funcom will have a real gem on their hands with Conan Exiles. In the video above they depicted the avatar gods as truly terrifying monstrosities — and it’s cool to see giants treated with that kind of fearsome aura in an MMO.

The only way to kill the avatars is to kill the summoners who are somewhere visible on the map. Summoners are player characters who call the avatars in as a siege weapon of sorts to attack and destroy player settlements. Finding and killing the summoner will vanquish the avatar.

Looks like Conan Exiles is shaping up to be pretty cool. Combat is going to be a huge deciding factor for gamers like myself who want something both functional and stylishly entertaining. We’ll see what the Early Access product looks like when the game heads into Early Access on PC starting January 31st and on the Xbox Game Preview program later in the year starting in spring.