[Preview] Hunted: The Demon’s Forge™[PC-PS3-XBOX]

[Zeon®]

 

 

Hunted: The Demon’s Forge™

 

 

About the Game:

 

Powered by the Unreal 3 engine, Hunted: The Demon’s Forge™ is a fresh take on the classic fantasy game that delivers the intensity and action of a modern-day shooter. Taking control of either E’lara, a ranged weapon expert, or Caddoc, a master swordsman, you and your partner will descend into a dark and foreboding world for an unforgettable cooperative experience. As you travel deep within the world of Kala Moor, you will use a variety of deadly weapons, powerful spells, and cover tactics to face down wave after wave of vicious enemies. It will take the combined efforts of two great warriors to explore menacing dungeons, overgrown ruins, and downtrodden towns … and discover the secrets of the Demon’s Forge.

 

If you've been playing videogames for any significant amount of time, the chances are good that you've made your way through a few dungeon crawlers in your day. These are the fantasy games dominated by dark caves filled with skeletons, goblins, spiders and secret paths filled with loot. There was a time when this genre was all of the rage as Dungeons and Dragons heavily influenced most every game designer out there. Times have changed but this once ubiquitous genre has been pushed to the sidelines. But it has not been forgotten and now Bethesda and development studio inXile are giving it another spin, this time pulling in modern design standards.

 

 

 

 

Hunted is being designed from the ground up as a cooperative experience, with the two protagonists looking about as classically fantasy inspired as you can get. The petite, elvish girl is good with a bow and at her side is the hulking, sword and axe wielding brute. The two have teamed up in the initial stages of the game with the singular goal of scoring a few bucks as hired guns and that's where my demo of the game began. Something awful had befallen a town of muddy roads and thatched roofs. The mayor had sent out a cry for help, but upon arrival our heroes found only empty streets. Down into a dungeon they went in search of answers.

 

This is where I got my first look at how the combat in Hunted works. If it weren't for the fantasy setting, it wouldn't look or move that differently from your standard third-person action game or cover shooter. Elara, the headstrong female lead, can slide behind rock outcroppings to line up bolts from her bow. The thinking man's Conan sits at the front line, pummeling anything within reach and smashing shields to bits. Both have a set of complementary magic to use, which can do anything from temporarily levitate foes to freeze them in place.

 

 

 

 

The crux of the gameplay lies with what the developers are calling "co-op at a distance." The magic powers are designed to back up or temporarily empower the other partner, but nothing in the game forces you to stick to their hip. The dungeon areas I saw ranged in size from small crevasses to gigantic caverns, and the game will regularly roam outdoors into ancient ruins. That gives you ample space to approach the battle from multiple angles. If your ally happens to go down, you can revive them with a potion delivered via a throw that would make Peyton Manning jealous. There's ample reason to split up too -- the environment looks to be fairly interactive. At one point I watched as a massive column was pushed over to create a set of deadly dominoes. Another time I watched Alora fire a lit arrow into a barrel of gunpowder to set off an explosion.

 

Hunted can also be played as a solo game, in which case the artificial intelligence takes over control of your partner. You can swap control between the two characters at set intervals, a feature that also works while playing online with a friend (there is no split-screen option in Hunted). In this way, players are free to approach dungeons or boss fights as they please, getting up close and personal or firing off projectiles from the safety of cover. One of the cooler parts of the online co-op system is that if you join a friend's game, you'll keep all of the loot you find for your own character, and you're free to jump in and out of as many different games at any time, regardless of how far you are in your own adventure.

 

 

 

 

Of course, combat and co-op features aren't everything. Half of the equation of that makes up a dungeon crawl is the exploration and puzzle solving. Were you to simply rush through the game moving from one combat situation to the next, Bethesda claims the game will last about as long as your typical action romp. Search every nook and cranny and solve every little puzzle and you're looking at a substantially longer experience. The one puzzle I saw fell into the easy category (the developers promise some will be real head scratchers), involving a talking stone face built into a wall that had to have a lit arrow fired into one of its eyes before it would open. This led down a massive series of tunnels that eventually ended at a really impressive looking boss fight.

 

And there is loot to be found down these secret corridors. Nothing is randomized (the grounds are not covered in random loot after every battle) in Hunted, which means those who take the time to explore will find weapons above and beyond what is possible by simply sticking to the beaten path. Leveling, likewise, is structured in a way that doesn't encourage grinding. By finding special crystals and trading them in, players can unlock new skills and spells, or upgrade existing ones, in a branching skill tree. I got a brief look at this menu screen during the demo and it didn't look there were a ton of options, though it doe

 

The environments in Hunted look pretty sharp thanks to the Unreal Engine doing the heavy lifting, and it definitely feels like the kind of world that would be fun to explore. The animations at this point are fairly decent, but some of the sound felt very much like it was all placeholder. The music was generic and the sound effects didn't exactly make the combat a thrilling experience. Let's hope it's brought up to speed before the game releases. On the flip side, the battle chatter was pretty good. The pair seemed in constant communication during all of the down time between fights, which helped to keep things fresh in the quiet recesses of the caverns.

 

Hunted currently has an ambiguous "when it's done" release date attached to it, though from the overall polished look it appears on track to hit store shelves as soon as the end of 2010. We'll have more on this action game just as soon as Bethesda lets us.

 

 

 

 

Key Features:

 

-An Unreal Dark Fantasy: Powered by the Unreal 3 engine, the dark world of Hunted comes to life as a third-person fantasy game with the intensity and action of a modern-day shooter. Hunted boasts stunning visuals with breath-taking vistas and foreboding underground worlds.

-Co-op at a Distance: Combine E’lara’s ranged attacks with Caddoc’s melee expertise to pull off gruesome co-op kill moves, perform special attacks, and heal one another from anywhere on the battlefield. The characters’ differing combat expertise allows a player’s strategy to vary from one play through to the next.

-Descend into Dungeon Depths: Work with your co-op partner to discover hidden paths and solve the devious puzzles that block your way. Explore menacing dungeons, overgrown ruins, and terrorized towns to discover treasure and powerful upgrades.

-Two Ways to Fight: Wade into the thick of the fight using deadly melee skills, or tactically use cover to dispatch hordes of creatures with bows and spells. -Use powerful magic to boost your partner’s combat effectiveness and even the odds against increasingly formidable enemies.

-Forge Your Own Levels: Create and share your own challenging dungeon designs with The Crucible, a powerful in-game editor that provides endless opportunities for exploration and battles for you and your friends.

 

 

The Hunted: The Demon’s Forge™ Has Been Available At: 2011 http://store.steampowered.com/app/22450/

Available On Windows: Yes

Available On Mac OS :  No

Release Date: N/A

 

 

[Paul_Greatest]

This game from the kind of like DragonAge?

[Zeon®]

This game from the kind of like DragonAge?

 

Maybe

[PwNNNz0r.^]

seems kinda interesting.. i'd say exciting..

yeah not bad at all.. i'll hope i'll have the opportunity to try it

[GrisoM]

This game from the kind of like DragonAge?

 

it looks like a cheap copy of dao :/