Hunted: The Demon’s Forge

I’m still playing this game for a total time of 23 hours and counting.

Hello again. Today’s review covers Hunted: the Demon’s Forge for the Xbox360. I saw this game in the summer time all by its lonesome self on the used rack at GameStop. I was just browsing at the time and made a mental note to eventually buy this game. The back cover had described it as a “Dungeon crawler for the Gears age.” I assumed this meant a similar cover-based game (much like the Gears of War franchise) only with swords and magic rather than guns and grenades. I was right and the half-year long wait I had was totally worth it.

So I finally made the decision to buy this when GameStop had their popular “buy 2 get 1” sale on used games a couple of weeks ago. I have also just recently been engaged to my girlfriend, Liz. I figured since I spent all that dinero on a ring, I’d treat myself to some much deserved gamage (game+damage= gamage, lit. to damage the time space continuum with one’s awesomeness in gaming…more on the time space continuum later). Once I rounded up my newly acquired stack of almost-forgotten games, I headed home and popped Hunted in.

You play the game as Caddoc, a balding, almost middle-aged man with face tattoos that would put Mike Tyson to shame, and E’lara, the sexy elven archer whose stance against wearing pants adds some nice visual stimuli for male players of all ages. The two are mercenaries, and the game begins with them trying to figure out how to pay for their next meal. Caddoc acts as the tank and can dish out some major damage without hiding for cover. E’lara, on the other hand, is a distance fighter and depends on her bow for major damage. The player is allowed to change characters upon finding large purple crystals which are scattered throughout the games many check-points.

I suggest playing through the game at least once with each hero since playing with E’lara made Hunted seem as if it were two games in one. Playing with Caddoc was extremely satisfying because of his strength—any non-boss enemies were easily smashable. However, playing as the elf is a little more slow-paced and tactical. Her accuracy gets better while hiding for cover and an auto-aim feature makes shooting just as smooth as one of the Gear’s machine guns. The duo can also learn new spells and skills by collecting and spending crystal shards (cough cough cliché cough). These crystals can be found by defeating enemies and through random exploration. The game itself is pretty linear and not much exploration is needed to uncover the games many secrets.

While wandering around in search of treasure, the group comes across a door that Caddoc saw in one of his dreams. They decide to follow this lead and soon find themselves caught up in a plot that leaves them as the only “heroes” left to save countless people taken hostage by the Wargar, an orc-like race addicted to Sleg (a silver liquid that increases your strength and speed tenfold). Despite the heroes’ protests, they are promised riches if they can bring the people back. What follows is the one of the most colorful (literally) and coolest action game I’ve played in a while.

The game offers more gameplay after you complete the main story. Players can create their own Crucible maps and customize aspects such as scenery, weapon & item layouts, and enemy types. I honestly didn’t think I would play this game any more than the single-player campaign. Once I finished though, I found myself wanting to play more. Creating your own maps can get really addictive after a while. I found it hard to put the controller down.

It may sound stupid, but despite Hunted’s smooth and fluid combat and its re-playability, my favorite part of the game was the colors and lighting effects. I’ve tried to think exactly how to describe them, but you’ll just have to see for yourself. To say that the dungeons were dark and the outsides were beautifully lit is an understatement—I’ll just say that I haven’t seen such an awesome display of colors (in a non-cell-shaded game) in a game since Final Fantasy X. Pick this one up (it’s real cheap now) if you’re an RPG fan or a Gears of War fan. Either way, I guarantee you’ll be impressed by this game.