(Posted By: Ryan Clark)
Hunted: The Demon’s Forge. Hrm. Don’t know what to truly say about this game, as I oscillate between thinking it’s a ton of fun, and wanting to drop kick Bethesda into a goddamn wood chipper. A forewarning, I will drop minor spoilers. It can’t be helped. That being said, let’s begin.
A preface for those who haven’t heard of the game before, you play as either Caddoc or E’lara, a human and elf team that are mercenaries. You get contracted by a spirit to search out and rescue her physical body. In addition, you get something called the Deathstone. It lets you talk to dead things. And that’s really about it. You travel across many, to be frank, linear maps, killing and looting along the way. The story is contrived, but the characters are fun, and despite my best efforts, had me enjoying their banter along the way. There is a small flavor of irony as the characters you play bitch about various game mechanics that you will wonder about yourself. However, both characters are well fleshed out, each with amusing quirks that make playing the game enjoyable. There are various items you can acquire by being adventurous and straying from the beaten path.
First and foremost, don’t play this game alone. Even if you have to get online to play with someone else, it’s definitely worth it. While the solo game isn’t terrible, the true feel for the game can’t be felt until you’re working with another person to defeat every enemy, and working on the puzzles. Of which there are two interesting varieties. You can light things on fire as E’lara, or you can push heavy objects as Caddoc. That’s really all the puzzles the game can throw at you. Some of them take more time than others, but the complexity is never so much that two individuals can’t figure it out. There is online functionality for map creation and such, but I have yet to access it so there is little I can say about it.
There is one thing that can be said in detraction of the game’s enjoyment, and that is anti-climatic boss fights, or the absence of them altogether. The game has an annoying habit of presenting epic monsters or opponents, then either not letting you fight them at all, or when you do engage said enemy it isn’t a confrontation worthy of the hype that was put into the fight.
SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!!
The first boss fight you encounter is against a massive spider that has been seen lurking around the cave system you’ve been fighting through. Yet when it comes to fight this behemoth of destruction, you run from it for a bit, then kill it with 2 shots from a ballista. And that’s it. There’s no ten minute fight against impossible odds, a brutal engagement that leaves you drained but exhilarated for overcoming such a monstrosity, or even a sense of accomplishment. Two ballista shots and the fucker’s dead. What should’ve been a satisfying and strenuous exercise in team work was instead a hollow victory, leaving you uncomfortable with yourself for not having done more.
There is another boss fight in the game that is the boss that never was. As you enter a city that is aflame from attacks by dragons, (another foe you never face) you see, lumbering across the horizon of smoulering buildings and flame an ogre. This is not the ogre of usual fantasy fare, but a hulking monstrosity 50 feet tall and capable of oblieterating entire buildings with a swing of its gargantuan hand. You see him again after you enter another cave system in search of the madman who is responsible for everything you have faced until this point. But you never face it. You see it multiple times, fear attacking it, and for nothing. However, I may have been discourteous to the game. You do face the dragons, but instead of waging war against so formidable an opponent, you instead use a little magic stone (the Deathstone from the beginning of the game) to make them retreat.
All in all, this is a game you shouldn’t think too much about. You’ll enjoy it while you play it, but after that do something that won’t let you ponder all the awesome things that could’ve been from what should’ve been a great game. Instead, due to these unfortunate issues, it is only a good game, entertaining, but with no real lasting appeal.
First and foremost, don’t play this game alone. Even if you have to get online to play with someone else, it’s definitely worth it. While the solo game isn’t terrible, the true feel for the game can’t be felt until you’re working with another person to defeat every enemy, and working on the puzzles. Of which there are two interesting varieties. You can light things on fire as E’lara, or you can push heavy objects as Caddoc. That’s really all the puzzles the game can throw at you. Some of them take more time than others, but the complexity is never so much that two individuals can’t figure it out. There is online functionality for map creation and such, but I have yet to access it so there is little I can say about it.
There is one thing that can be said in detraction of the game’s enjoyment, and that is anti-climatic boss fights, or the absence of them altogether. The game has an annoying habit of presenting epic monsters or opponents, then either not letting you fight them at all, or when you do engage said enemy it isn’t a confrontation worthy of the hype that was put into the fight.
SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!!
The first boss fight you encounter is against a massive spider that has been seen lurking around the cave system you’ve been fighting through. Yet when it comes to fight this behemoth of destruction, you run from it for a bit, then kill it with 2 shots from a ballista. And that’s it. There’s no ten minute fight against impossible odds, a brutal engagement that leaves you drained but exhilarated for overcoming such a monstrosity, or even a sense of accomplishment. Two ballista shots and the fucker’s dead. What should’ve been a satisfying and strenuous exercise in team work was instead a hollow victory, leaving you uncomfortable with yourself for not having done more.
There is another boss fight in the game that is the boss that never was. As you enter a city that is aflame from attacks by dragons, (another foe you never face) you see, lumbering across the horizon of smoulering buildings and flame an ogre. This is not the ogre of usual fantasy fare, but a hulking monstrosity 50 feet tall and capable of oblieterating entire buildings with a swing of its gargantuan hand. You see him again after you enter another cave system in search of the madman who is responsible for everything you have faced until this point. But you never face it. You see it multiple times, fear attacking it, and for nothing. However, I may have been discourteous to the game. You do face the dragons, but instead of waging war against so formidable an opponent, you instead use a little magic stone (the Deathstone from the beginning of the game) to make them retreat.
All in all, this is a game you shouldn’t think too much about. You’ll enjoy it while you play it, but after that do something that won’t let you ponder all the awesome things that could’ve been from what should’ve been a great game. Instead, due to these unfortunate issues, it is only a good game, entertaining, but with no real lasting appeal.
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