A review of Hunted: The Demon’s Forge
If you didn’t know much about Hunted: The Demon’s Forge and only made appearances, you’d probably think of it as an outdated RPG. But that misleading assumption is quickly replaced by the realization that this is a hack ‘n’ slash game, layered with adventure puzzles, third-person shooter mechanics, and just the slightest bit of RPG elements. It’s because of the complementary genre components that Hunted: The Demon’s Forge feels fresh and interesting. Unfortunately, he fails to connect on some very fundamental levels, which prevents him from being really cool.
Hunted: The Demon’s Forge is a third-person action game set in a dark fantasy world that follows two mercenaries, E’lara and Caddoc, as they reluctantly discover the secrets of Demon’s Forge. That is more or less the description that the game gives you in the manual, but it is not actually what appears on the screen. When you are introduced to Caddoc, a gruff-looking swordsman, and E’lara, a scantily clad marksman, they only give you the smallest details. By the time you’ve taken control, you’ll be running through a forest, with Caddoc lamenting his fear of spiders, but you have no idea where you’re going or what the relationship of these two is.
It is not until you are much later in the game that it is explained that these two are mercenaries with no interest in events, save for the hope of a little extra coin. Delayed information and reluctance to action are mishandled, take a while to get over, and some players won’t want to wait that long. Keeping you in the dark about events early on prevents you from investing in these characters and worrying about the story. It’s not until the third chapter, out of just six, that you finally learn where this journey is headed, and unsurprisingly, it all gets a lot more exciting. E’lara and Caddoc have a fun and natural friendship, it is actually very easy for them to like each other. It’s a shame that the developer, inXile Entertainment, takes too long to show the endearing and heroic side of our heroes.
The relationship part is important in a way much more important than mere history and characterization. Hunted: The Demon’s Forge is a cooperative game that excels when played as such, but only manages well if you’re alone. Playing once as Caddoc and once as E’lara, I found the two to be fun to play as characters, but lopsided as partners. Like E’lara, I never had to revive Caddoc or worry about enemies invading him. As a Caddoc, I had to protect and revive the AI much more, while certain battles became more difficult. One fight in particular requires Caddoc to use his brute force to take down some towers, but they would interrupt me every time I tried. For some reason, E’lara seems to have more trouble taking down enemies than Caddoc. Of course, it is a moot point if you play online with someone.
If you are a lone wolf, the game gives you the opportunity to change characters at certain points throughout the levels. It’s a less than ideal way to change. I would have preferred to be able to trade on the fly however I see fit, especially since you can’t tell if a melee or ranged character will be the best in the next few sections your first time in the game. Even if that wasn’t an option, having commands would have made things better and more enjoyable. Characters have some specific powers that are best implemented together, but with no way to tell the AI what to do, you are at their mercy.
What surprised me the most about Hunter: The Demon’s Forge was how much fun the game is. It doesn’t always look good, it’s not very deep, and the aforementioned AI issues hold it back a bit, but still, I loved cutting skeletons and removing monsters from all battlegrounds. I’m almost always a first melee player, but in this case I found myself wanting to use E’lara’s deadly archery skills. This, more than any other element in the game, makes a great comparison to the third-person shooter Gears of War. You can move across the battlefield with Roadie Running, take cover, and lean down to shoot enemies. While both characters can perform short-range and long-range attacks, each has its own strength. E’lara can hold two bows and a sword, while Caddoc can carry two melee weapons (sword, ax, and club) and a crossbow. His ranged attack isn’t much fun, so I stuck with sword and shield most of the time, using his fury attacks that are devastating to enemies. But nothing compares to E’lara and her ability to fire enemies quickly and efficiently. Do you remember the first time you saw Legolas in the first Lord of the Rings movie? That’s what it feels like to play E’lara.
But like I said, not everything is great. Each character has three weapon powers that are specific to each of them, while they both share the same three types of magic spells. Those spells are important as they act as powerful buffers for you and your partner that can help you take out hordes of enemies much faster than normal. The game splits up these powers as you go along and eventually you get to a point where you can link them together, making both characters incredibly strong for a short period of time. While AI is good at improving it regularly, it’s not always when you want or need it, which makes this feature more frustrating than it should be. Again, it’s another area where playing online with friends is a lot more fun.
Character specific weapon abilities can be a lot of fun too. They allow you to do things like freeze enemies, break shields, or lift everyone in a surrounding area and slam them to the ground. All powers can be upgraded by collecting crystals throughout the game, but because you can only equip four abilities at a time, you only need to choose which four and upgrade only those. You end up without having to make any kind of choice about powers, so any RPG element that ever existed is essentially muted. There’s also no inventory system, so if you’re hoping to hunt down loot, don’t bother. You’ll find regular and temporary epic weapons along the way, and equip them as you go. The system works, but only on a basic level.
Hunted: The Demon’s Forge finds itself in a strange no-man’s-land of visual execution. You see a lot on the screen and go through a beautiful fantasy world full of imagination, but much of the texturing and animation work is quite uneven. During the action, the characters look good, but a small hiccup causes them to jump a frame. In the scenes, however, E’lara and Caddoc don’t look good at all. Awkward animations and poor lip syncing are hard to ignore. Although the attraction is primarily part of the genre, all of the female characters are highly sexualized and dressed in bondage clothing, undermining their strong-headed and humorous nature. The environments are not always pleasant, although you cross enough variety to make up for it. It seems like every time Hunted goes inside, everything turns a predictable shade of brown or gray. When left out, things look good, but this game is a step behind in the graphics department in almost every way.
It’s a shame because E’lara is a strong character and provides the intense macho stubbornness you’d normally expect from a big, muscular man. But it’s Caddoc who gets the brunt of the comedic jabs, and he does it in a sporty way. Although some repetitive dialogue will irritate your nerves, they both express themselves well. A lot of the smaller characters you come across are pretty convincingly done, they just don’t have much of a place since you’re not sure what’s going on up to a third in the game. The in-game scoring is disappointing as it doesn’t add to the intense nature of the fights nor does it tie into any common themes.
When you’re done with all six chapters of the games, there’s still a way to get a good action fix. The Crucible is a map editor that allows players to create maps with up to 25 rooms. As you create the rooms, you can dictate a multitude of options, from enemy types to items around the map and even the amount of damage dealt or health regeneration rates. What you have at your disposal to put on the maps is dictated by the money you have earned throughout the game. The campaign will only provide you around 20% of the items and you cannot choose what to unlock with the money, inXile has classified it for you. It would have been really cool if they allowed you to buy what you wanted as you progressed, or allowed you to earn money faster. I found it easier to get cash in The Crucible than in the campaign. It’s still a cheat – the strongest enemies give you the most cash, but you need cash to unlock the strongest enemies. A couple of tweaks to this mode would be really cool; I would also suggest that the mod community can find something really great for the PC version of the game.
Hunter: The Demon’s Forge gets lost in what could have been some monumental boss battles or action pieces. It ends with a fun but simple ending. Throughout the game, you keep seeing a massive Ogre (literally as tall as a city) and swarms of Dragons, but these events don’t emerge much beyond an observational dialogue. And that’s a perfect rundown of all that is right and all that is wrong with Hunted: The Dragon’s Forge – There are amazing ideas everywhere and there is a lot to get excited about in the game, but it falls short and fails to achieve its potential.
At first it is difficult to love this game. It hides details from you for too long, suffers from some cosmetic issues, and the player experience is more limiting than necessary. But as you dig deeper, you begin to realize that the action holds up surprisingly well, the characters are endearing and fun, and that the journey that the two of you are on is worth the journey, and it’s fair. It’s a long fantasy action game that does third-person shooter better than many of the third-person shooter games, but early pacing issues and a lack of depth moderate some of the fun. Hunted: The Demon’s Forge is a wonderful game bogged down by too many average gaming tendencies. It’s worth a look, but it’s important to know that much of what appears to be on the surface is Hunted – the worst aspect of the Demon Forge.
Final score: 75%
