Hunted: The Demon's Forge Review

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When I started playing Hunted: The Demon's Forge, I was surprised at how much fun I was having. At first glance the dated visuals, awkward animations and cumbersome menus make Hunted look like bargain bin fodder, but there are some fantastic ideas here. It combines the melee action of a hack 'n' slash with the intensity and skill of a cover-based shooter, supported by role-playing game (RPG) elements. I encountered some serious annoyances here or there, but for the most part I was smiling along the way. Until my partner wasted 20 minutes of my life, that is.

Hunted: The Demon's Forge is a co-op game at heart. It's meant to be played with a friend, and it's at its best when you do so. But playing by yourself is a drag. As my character lay dying , clawing at the ground for a revitalizing potion, my AI partner stood next to me (ample potions at his hip), happily shooting his crossbow. I guess the sight of a beautiful Elven huntress dying at his feet wasn't enough to stir his compassionate side. Eventually I died and was forced to restart from my last checkpoint.

This is just one of the many examples of how Hunted stumbles when it could have leapt forward with seemingly simple fixes. It's not a bad game, but one that confronted me time and time again with frustration. In Hunted: The Demon's Forge, you play as Caddoc or E'lara. These mercenaries are an amusing pair, with Caddoc providing most of the melee power and E'lara supporting her companion with a bow. A simple job for our unlikely heroes sends them on a quest that was generations in the making, and that's where you come in. Did you really think you wouldn't be saving the world?

One of the best things about Hunted is the relationship between Caddoc and E'lara. Appearances can be deceiving, because big, bad Caddoc is the coolheaded member of the team, while the lovely E'lara is brash and hasty. Their banter is enjoyable, albeit silly, and comes to life with some solid voice acting.

As I usually gravitate towards agile, long-range characters or support-class heroes, I played E'lara for most of the ride. This meant quite a bit of shooting, which I enjoyed. It's uncommon to see cover-based shooters rock the fantasy setting, so I was having way too much fun scoring headshots with my bow and arrow.

When playing with a friend, coordinating your attacks is rewarding, especially when using special abilities. Caddoc and E'lara share a set of three spells, but each hero also has a unique set of three weapon-based abilities that play off the other character. Caddoc, for example, can lift enemies up in the air with a mini-tempest for E'lara to finish off. Alternatively, E'lara can freeze a bad guy which Caddoc can smash to bits. It's a shame that this cooperative dynamic breaks down when you're paired up with the computer, though I will admit that cyber-Caddoc did save my bacon on a number of occasions (including a near death during the final boss). But for those of you rocking out with this adventure solo, you're missing out on a lot of what makes Hunted fun. The A.I. partner just isn't good enough to make a suitable replacement for another player. You might be stuck with it, too, because the current online communities seem limited. I was able to find random partners on the PS3 and 360 versions, but nothing on the PC.

For a game built around cooperative play, Hunted lacks a number of features I would have thought obvious. There's no drop-in, drop-out options, which means every multiplayer session has to be intentional and a friend can't join in mid-quest. Also odd are the character-changing obelisks that must be used if you want to switch your hero during a session. These are set throughout each chapter in the campaign. As a mostly solo player, I would have loved to hop back and forth between the characters to set up better combo attacks.

There are other things too, like the lack of a map and a poor inventory system, but they're not as critical to the experience. All you need to know is that for every time Hunted does something right, chances are something goes wrong elsewhere. Poor AI, environmental glitches, and a host of other nasty business interfere with an otherwise enjoyable quest.