[PS360] Hunted: The Demon's Forge

[Gradthrawn]

I was initially quite excited about this title when I saw the first trailers. My first thought was, "this is what Dragon Age should have been". I didn't even realize it was already out until I decided to go hunting for an update and check for the current release date. Reviews so far have been "mixed", to put it mildly. I think I'll still grab it when it drops down to 20 - 30, but until then I was wondering if anyone here has it and would care to share their impressions of it?

 

[Sigfried1977]

I ordered this from Amazon.co.uk today. Too much of a gamble to pick it up for the full retail price I'd wager, but 20 pounds for a used copy sounded reasonable enough. It's probably gonna take a while to get here though. (Germany) There's a hot chick with bows and arrows in it, though. Can't be that bad.:smile:

 

[lilbroK]

You guys are about to be horribly disappointed. This is really shallow game..

 

[Sigfried1977]

Maybe. Maybe not. I'm kinda hoping for a guilty pleasure type of game. For example, I really like Wet and Splatterhouse, and when I try to look at them objectively, both games are very mediocre. Very similar to the Bloodrayne games on the last console generation actually, which I also enjoyed more than they had any rights to be enjoyed.

 

[lilbroK]

Maybe. Maybe not. I'm kinda hoping for a guilty pleasure type of game. For example, I really like Wet and Splatterhouse, and when I try to look at them objectively, both games are very mediocre. Very similar to the Bloodrayne games on the last console generation actually, which I also enjoyed more than they had any rights to be enjoyed.

Bloodrayne is good. This is not.

Well, you seemed determined so enjoy yourself. I sure didn't.

 

[Sigfried1977]

Bloodrayne certainly wasn't exactly good, at least not from an objective point of view. The first game was all about combat, and the combat was wonky at best. The second game added Prince of Persia-esque traversal mechanics, but it didn't pull them off anywhere near as well. The kill-puzzles pretty much got old after the first level too. Both games were kinda glitchy, dumb but strangely enjoyable splatter-fests (with some very impressive CGI)

As for Hunted: started playing it yesterday and it's actually rather enjoyable.(and mechanically it's certainly way more accomplished than Bloodrayne ever was) It's Gears of War with bows and arrows. What really surprised me were the rather elaborate optional puzzles. Did not expect these at all. Friendly A.I. is pretty decent too. It actually kills stuff.

 

[Gradthrawn]

Bloodrayne is good. This is not.

Well, you seemed determined so enjoy yourself. I sure didn't.

Bloodrayne certainly wasn't exactly good, at least not from an objective point of view. The first game was all about combat, and the combat was wonky at best. The second game added Prince of Persia-esque traversal mechanics, but it didn't pull them off anywhere near as well. The kill-puzzles pretty much got old after the first level too. Both games were kinda glitchy, dumb but strangely enjoyable splatter-fests (with some very impressive CGI)

As for Hunted: started playing it yesterday and it's actually rather enjoyable.(and mechanically it's certainly way more accomplished than Bloodrayne ever was) It's Gears of War with bows and arrows. What really surprised me were the rather elaborate optional puzzles. Did not expect these at all. Friendly A.I. is pretty decent too. It actually kills stuff.

Thanks for the impressions from both of you. At least now I have better idea as to what to expect.

Amazon has it on sale now for $40 (USD). Frankly, I'd rather buy Dungeon Siege 3 at this point, but it's not on sale yet. Speaking of DS3, why the hell isn't that available for download? I'm there, playing the demo, getting pretty into it, waiting for it to ask me to buy only to find out it's retail only! What the hell?! My own fault, of course, for not keeping up with the title, but I would have dropped $45 on it then and there had it been immediately available. And this is from someone who enjoys owning the physical game. But, anyway, I'm getting off topic.

 

[Sigfried1977]

40 bucks is definitely too much. I paid around 20€, and I think that was a decent price for what I got. Mechanically its a lot of fun, at least if you don't mind playing as a lady. There are also quite a lot optional puzzles and even some of the story beats were surprisingly cool.

What really holds the game back in my opinion is how rushed it feels. I thought the point of using existing engines was to get games up and running quicker while having more time to work on the actual game design part. Supposedly inExile spent almost 3 years on this game, and the result is glitchy, floaty, jerky, and often quite unsightly too, with color palettes shifting between dull and murky to sickeningly garish from one moment to the next. Just because you can use a million colors and obnoxious amounts of post filters all at once doesn't mean you should. Capter 3 in particular looks like someone vomited over my tv. (even more so when textures refuse to load in typical UE3 fashion)