Hunting

There is no real jaw dropping plot or story in the game which draws more attention to the characters themselves and how they react with each other whether it is socially or through battle.  You both start off looking to get rich while the story evolves but once again, not into something that is all that breathtaking.  This a good moment to point out that the game is much more enjoyable while being played with a friend, whether it is couch co-op split screen or online with a friend.  You can really use many different strategies together to defeat opponents.  Playing with a friend gives you that communication and that “two heads are better than one” kind of co-op mentality while you battle.  If you are playing with the AI, you just don’t have that, but the AI is not all that horrible by any means.  Sure you will have those occasional glitches where the AI is just stuck on something but during actual battle they tend to hold their own and help you out if they can, at least on the normal difficulty setting.  I might also add right here that there are no difficulty based achievements or trophies which might change your usual route of gameplay.

There are two types of skills you can upgrade, which are weapon based magic or the more traditional spell magic.  The weapon based magic are more along the likes of different moves like a battle rush or melee move.  Just as many spells are available to purchase and upgrade but generally take longer to use during battle.  One spell for instance is a fireball while another is a whirlwind that lifts all nearby enemies and then drops them to the ground.  Each spell or weapon skill can be upgraded three times until you can purchase the next level of that spell with there being three levels each.  The same goes for the weapon based skills.  You have four slots, one for each direction on the D-pad and once set in the menu, then selected during gameplay, the left bumper with activate it.  Once you get the hang of the system it is pretty and easy while the controls are nearly the same as Gears of War with the A or X button being sprint and a very similar cover system that can mean the difference between life or death.

Magic Spell

You will come across shields, swords, bows and armor from dead enemies and weapon racks where you will have the opportunity to compare their stats with your own to see which is better.  In any case shields tend to wear down so it is a good idea to do a quick check around for better weaponry laying around.  Epic weapons are always glowing once found and when you pick one up you will notice it has a certain amount of charges that you can use simultaneously with your partner for a devastating attack.  Eventually the charges run out making the weapon much less epic than it was.  There are also many challenges in the game that will give valuable rewards, for example with most of them being ‘get X amount of kills’ or ‘get X amount of co-op kills’, can give you things like extra health, extra mana slots and even the ability to carry more than one weapon at a time which can of course be very beneficial.

Now with Hunted being strictly single player to 2 player co-op, developers inXile decided to put a pretty amazing feature in the game.  I am talking about the mode where you create you own levels.. that’s right you can actually create you own dungeons down to the specifics.  You can choose the route the player will take, how many dungeons the player will have to go through, how many enemies, what kind of enemies and even how many waves of enemies the player will encounter.  In my opinion this is a great addition to the game and is what may give it that replay value people look for.  Even with what I mentioned you can do in the level creator as you progress through the game or complete dungeons, you wind up unlocking new options to create you own level like harder enemies and bosses.  The developers have uploaded level sets that you can download and play but the best part is that you can upload your own dungeon for other people to play and have it rated, or you can simply create one to upload for just you and your buddy to play.  A real unique feature that definitely adds to the game.

E’lara and her bow skills

Everything isn’t all amazing when it comes to Hunted though, because the game itself is tediously long.  Now I know there a plenty of people out there that cannot get enough content so with it being so long, in that specific case, you are definitely getting your bang for your buck.  I can remember many hallways that seemed endless and just running long distances just to get somewhere, sometimes even getting lost.  Once you get to a battle it can be very fun even with an AI partner… as long as they are present, but it is just getting to that battle that can be boring.  Then of course you will know a secret is lurking around a hallway and go back and forth trying to figure it out before you either give up or look it up on the internet.

Overall Hunted: The Demon’s Forge is a good game, with the graphics being alright especially when you are done with a gruesome battle and you are covered in blood from head to toe.  Searching for Epic or rare weapons is always fun especially with a friend as when an epic set is found, it usually drops an epic item for each player.  The game is one of the longest games I have seen in a long time so you are going to have to dedicate yourself as it may become boring after a while.  I cannot stress enough though, that the game is based on the characters and it is ultimately most enjoyable while playing with a friend. The developers have done a great job of keeping the game same on both the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, with little to no differences. Pick the game up with a buddy and I guarantee you will enjoy yourself.

This game was reviewed on the PlayStation 3.

The latest trailer for Bethesda’s/inXile’s Hunted: The Demon’s Forge talks about the sound development and how important it is to the game.  Every different scenario can literally be defined by the sounds being heard as the developers talk about.  Plus get to see some new footage in the latest video for Hunted above.  Hunted: The Demon’s Forge will be out for the Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and PC on May 31, 2011 in the US while it hits shelves on June 3rd in the UK.

In the latest video for Hunted: The Demon’s Forge, you’ll get a sneak peak behind the scenes with Lucy Lawless explaining her role in the game and more. The developers inXile Entertainment explain the games storyline and its characters as well.  Published by Bethesda the game will be out for the Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and PC on May 31, 2011.  Watch the video above, this is one co-op game you don’t want to miss.

The Dungeon Creation Tool lets you create custom dungeons to play with friends in online co-op, split screen or by yourself. You can change nearly everything about the dungeon down to how big it is or the length of it, the difficulty, what enemies you encounter, and much more. This amazing tool has endless possibilities and is call ‘The Crucible’ mode.  You can then post it online for you and your friends or anyone else to play.  Check out the video below for more details.

Hunted: The Demon’s Forge is a co-op intense game, that getting to preview, not only was I impressed but aware of the fact that this game is about two and not one.  Preferably played with a friend, either way you will need each other to survive, because in this world… You are either the Hunter or the Hunted.  Check out our hands on preview of the game right here.

We recently got a chance to preview and play Hunted: The Demon’s Forge in NYC, my favorite place I might add for a Bethesda event.  The event is where we also got a chance to play as well as preview and interview with the development team for Brink.  We were super impressed with Hunted: The Demo’s Forge though and its co-op intense gameplay.  The game is a dark fantasy, action RPG that uses the Unreal engine to make this a graphically pleasant third-person game.  Playing as either E’lara, a ranged weapon expert, or Caddoc, a master swordsman, you must journey on a dark path to learn why innocent villagers have been disappearing in a world where the dark ages have brought evil creatures from the underground.

Starting off, we entered the tutorial part of the game where we learned the basics of the game.  There is a guidance system to keep you on track similar to the one in the Fable sequels, as with the click of the joystick shot out a gold trail through the air showing the way to next destination or current mission objective.  You can switch between ranged and melee weaponry with the touch of a button.  There is also a simple two button combo system making the gameplay mechanics very easy and user friendly even when it involves magic or spells which both characters can do.  The movement and cover system was very reminiscent of Gears of War in the best way possible.

Jumping out of the tutorial and into our first mission, was what put me and my partner together that I played with.  The nice thing about this 2 player co-op is that you don’t always have to play as a certain character, as the developers have creatively made obelisks every so often where you can switch to the other character as will your partner do to, if you both choose to.  I thought that aspect alone was a unique feature that really made the game more interesting especially since each character has their own separate abilities they must use for the game to progress.  However that is far from the peek of the innovation we saw in the game when it comes to the co-op aspect.  First of all, Hunted: The Demon’s Forge is heavily based on the co-op and what I mean by that is, you are not simply playing the game along side each other, but you actually need each other most of the time in the game, whether it is to heal your partner or have them use a unique attribute to progress in the game.  The developers, inXile, though were keen enough to make it so that you don’t have to be standing right beside your partner to play the game, although it doesn’t hurt.  You can heal your downed partner from nearly across the map by hurling a magical ball of energy, reviving them.  Many puzzles as well as collecting things can be long distance oriented really adding an edge to the co-op that I have never seen before.

Items are based on your stats, so for example I can do more damage with a certain sword than lets the other character dependent on my stats.  The magic is split into two types, casting and spells while Caddoc can use more general magic, E’lara on the other hand tends to have more arrow based magic capabilities even though both characters carry bow’s.  E’lara has the classic bow while Caddoc uses a crossbow and both ranged weapons require ammo/arrows.  With weapon based magic there is also a battle charge where your magic goes to your partner.

There is a looting system and gold is the general currency in the game.  You can replay cut-scenes to explain a mission again to you.  The enemies range in different types, like heavy, weak or fast while enemies spawn depending on how long you are in an area.  Enemies can either use magic or weaponry against you while there is a class of sub-bosses as well as a fully fledged boss.  Traps can be set on the ground and going back to specific abilities, E’lara can set her arrows on fire with different color flames that are needed to progress in the game or even finding secrets.  There are also challenges in the game that are unlocked by doing things like reviving your partner a number of times.  Unfortunately, in RPG tradition your health does not regenerate and requires health potions you must consume.  The can be drastic environment changes as well as parts of the environment being interactive.

The general graphics during gameplay are very impressive as well as the character detail between their tattoos and clothing.  The armor you wear changes as you progress through different levels.  The lighting effects were well done and the CGI rendered cut-scenes were stunning in addition to them not looking so different from the actual gameplay.  Another cool aspect was that I noticed after being covered in blood from battle, I still wore the blood of my enemies during the following cut-scene.  By far though the co-op intense aspects noted are what I feel will make this game amazing in addition to the 5.1 surround sound optimization and the stunning graphics.  Hunted: The Demon’s Forge is looking good and might just be the co-op game that defines them all.  The game will be out on May 10th, 2011 for the Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and PC.

Bethesda has dated all of their major releases for 2011 just now.

Brink, the much anticipated FPS being developed by Splash Damage will be releasing in NA on May 17th and in UK on May 20th.

Hunted, a fantasy action-game will be hitting retail stores on June 1st across NA and June 3rd on EU.

Rage, ID’s much anticipated shooter will be releasing on Sep 13 in NA and September 16 in Europe.

As we all know already, The Elder’s Scroll: Skyrim will be releasing on Nov 11, 2011.

Bethesda has the following to say:

“We are thrilled to offer our fans such a strong roster of games,” said Vlatko Andonov, president of Bethesda Softworks. “We are excited to present such a diverse line-up of high quality titles.  2011 will be a great year for gamers.”

Brink will be releasing for PS and Xbox 360 and Rage and Skyrim for PC, PS3 and Xbox 360.

The games are: Brink, Fallout: New Vegas, Rage and Hunted. While Brink, Fallout: New Vegas and Hunted will be available for Hands-on time, Rage will be getting only a presentation.

GaminigBolt will be reporting to you from E3 in two weeks.