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| Hunted: The Demon's Forge Review |
The dark ages have become corrupted. Heinous creatures have
emerged from underground. Townsfolk are disappearing. Upon the promise of their
fortune in gold, two mercenaries have taken on the daunting task of finding out
where the innocents have been taken and to stop the madness. Their journey will
take them on a dark and twisted path where they will encounter vicious
creatures, death and sacrifice. This path will lead them deep within the world
of Kala Moor...and to the secrets of The Demon's Forge.
Review
Hunted has been pushed as a co-op game first and
foremost, but it’s okay either way. I played about half of it with a buddy, and
while playing with friends always has the advantage of, you know, human
companionship, the AI isn’t impossible to play with. In fact, whereas neither
I, nor my friend, boosted each other initially, the computer I played with was
frequently powering me up during battles.
Probably the most
intriguing aspect of Hunted is the choice between characters.
It’s basically two different games. One is a cover-based shooter with ranged
weapons varying in strength and advantages. The other is a hack-and-slash
slaughterfest with no use for cover. Caddoc, the strong (obviously male)
character is a grizzled Vin Diesel clone with a mace for a brain and an
obligatory English accent. He exists basically as an aggro-whore, usually right
in the middle of the action smashing craniums and providing a distraction in
order for E’lara to line up a shot.
E’lara (complete
with unnecessary fantasy apostrophe) is an artist with a bow and much more fun
to play with. When hiding in cover, her accuracy increases and features a
snap-to auto aim that makes using a bow and arrow feel much smoother and more
natural. When running around, blind firing will generally shoot an auto-aimed
arrow at an enemy depending on if you’re facing them. Combined with a fast bow,
this adds an almost movie quality of a sexy elf launching countless arrows
without hesitation into the faces of various creatures. While this may make
using a bow sound easy, it isn’t. You are constantly being mobbed by hordes of
skeletons and unnamable creatures and finding time to shoot between dodging and
rolling is a challenge.
