Watched some streams and I don't get it. I already played rust
It's more ARK than Rust. Rust uses Unity and ARK/Conan are modified versions of Unreal. Conan calls it Dreamworld but initially it was Unreal. Pretty sure it still has Unreal framework judging by how aspects of the world work.
Rust is super defined in graphics and shit right now but the focus is still surviving each other. Food/drink is more of an issue than in the past but it is super easy to find. Only wildlife exists and yes they still run through rocks.
ARK was more about surviving the world than the players. Sure players are a threat but the NPCs will eat you alive as will the conditions/weather.
A typical ARK world has 16,000 roughly NPC Dinos/creatures where a 4k Rust map has just over 300 chickens/bears/wolves/pigs/horses and deer.
Ark is manyfolds more complex than Rust. Rust is much higher quality graphics/sounds/reactionary.
Conan also uses the same feature/function and art style of ARK. It has a lots of npcs although not near as many variations of ARK. It does have some newer things but my quickly developing issue with Conan is outside the map which even that is possible, everything it has can be modded into ARK.
Given all that the genre is full of survival games already. 7d2d, hurtworld,rising world, fragmented, out of reach,savage lands, reign of kings and more, most of those which are development dead or stuck on life support Conan needed to be something different.
They have a long road ahead if they want it to be successful. I dread to think what Conan would have been other than dead if they had released it as initially planned 6 months ago. IMO it needed another 6 months as once it goes live to the people it takes longer to do things as your focus turns to bugs, issues and cheats.
I don't regret the purchase though. I've got about 10 hours in on it and I'll get 50 more and then more if they keep patching/fixing things. I've noticed 3 or 4 patches since last night's launch and that is a start.
If survival games/games listed above is not your thing, do not waste money on this. Go buy a 12 pc KFC bucket dinner instead, you'll be happier.
If you liked ARK/Rust but wanted something different in both and have a few friends, buy it, better yet get it on sale in a month or three.
1700 hours Rust most of that as a admin of 5 servers
950 hours Ark most of that also as admin.