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Bethesda and inXile Entertainment's Hunted: The Demon's Forge aims to reintroduce the classic dungeon crawl...
Comparative videogame analogies are annoying and rarely helpful. If I were to say to you about a game, 'It's like Braid meets Uplink,' then you'd probably think I was one of those insufferably pretentious gamers who sticks his nose up at anything that's not 'indie' simply because it isn't made by a couple of guys working out of a storeroom cupboard and living off their mothers' leftover lasagne. Thankfully, Hunted: The Demon's Forge doesn't fall into this category. 'Gears of War meets fantasy RPG' certainly isn't insufferably pretentious, although it does form a blend so queasily laced with lowest-common-denominator marketing that we can hardly see the hardcore fans of either Gears of War or fantasy RPGs being particularly enamoured with the pitch. In fact, it almost alienates both from the outset, like telling Everton and Liverpool fans that there's a new team in town: Everpool.
Under the surface of this though, Hunted's motivations are actually a lot more admirable. Essentially the second full project out of Brian Fargo's inXile Entertainment studio (discounting the cancelled Hei$t), Hunted is attempting to resurrect the dungeon crawl RPG. Fargo, who founded the studio back in 2002, cut his teeth developing projects such as the original Bard's Tale in the 80s, Wasteland in 1988 (for which inXile now holds the IP), the Ultima series with Richard Garriott, as well as work on Baldur's Gate and the original Fallout series. Put another way, his CV reads like a who's who of old-school RPGs. It's no surprise, then, that inXile has grand ambitions to resurrect dungeon crawl gameplay; a style that's been vaguely enveloped by contemporary MMOs in the aftermath of its multi-user dungeon (MUDs) heyday.
Of course, the reality of demoing a game to a room full of journalists is that you've got to show them some action and gore; something for them to go and wax lyrical about in previews to capture the attentions of their readers. Understandably, hidden rooms that reward gamers' curiosity by concealing within them a wealth of new spells and other treasures wasn't exactly first on the agenda for our demo, so in a subsequent interview with inXile's President, Matt Findley, and Hunted's Game Director, Maxx Kaufman, we asked the duo about the features in Hunted that are going to actually make it the dungeon crawl homage that they are aiming for:
"We understand that the modern gamer needs a different experience than the classic dungeon crawls deliver, and I think that it's our goal to make those secrets things that are perhaps on the side of the path of the primary action path that's going down the middle," said Findley.
"You see an artefact very early on in the g
ame and this artefact is called the Death Stone," explained Kaufman. "It allows you to communicate with the spirits of the dead basically, and it's driven by what your quest is - that's the information you get from them. It's up to the player: they can go around the world and they can be listening to these all over and it explains a back-story of over 500 years for the world, or they don't have to."
"There are dozens of these opportunities to use the death stone," continued Findley. "It fills in a lot of the story gaps and you keep getting pieces of the story; pieces of information, and these sort of fill it in and lead you to discovering prisoners that you can free. They give you information and you can take these pieces of information to figure out that there's a trap door over there. If you chose to get all of this information and if you chose to act on it, then you can find these secret doors. Sometimes it's just an object, a weapon, or more crystals. Crystals are the driving force for the whole skill and spell system, so questing for them as you're on your main path only helps you."
inXile is aiming to make around 40% of these secrets very easy to find, so that players are encouraged to seek out the game's hidden depths. A further 40% are much harder to find, and then there's an impossibly difficult final 20%. In fairness, it might seem like a fairly standard way of serving up unlockables in a game, but these kinds of hidden gems are critical to what a dungeon crawl is, so it's good to see that inXile are paying a lot of attention to them. Judging from our demo, we'd hazard a guess that Bethesda and inXIle think it's the gore and action that'll make a game like Hunted sell (with the Death Stone being offered as a present to niche fans). On the contrary, we'd suggest that a game like Hunted is always going to be niche, so you're better off focussing on captivating super hardcore gamers from the outset.
Whatever the case, Hunted's combat could be broadly described as Gears-esque mostly because it's an over the shoulder third-person action game, it uses the Unreal Engine 3, and it has a cover system. In fact, it uses a destructible cover system, which are words that we don't often use to describe a fantasy RPG. Featuring two playable characters (a lady elf called E'lara and an uber masculine warrior called Caddoc) that are then utilised for online co-op play and local single-player (no local split-screen), Hunted blends together ranged and melee attacks punctuated by an array of different spells. inXIle also appears to be incorporating these different combat options 
with a specific focus on the co-op, positioning E'lara's strengths in ranged attacks and Caddoc's in melee combat.
Not only this, but the spells also reward intelligent co-op play. For example, one of E'lara's spells allows her to fire ice arrows that freeze enemies on impact, which Caddoc can then easily pick apart with his manly sword. And then there's the 'Battle Charge' system, which allows each character to throw spells at the other from long range to "buff" their skills during combat. One demo we saw had E'lara throwing a spell at Caddoc from a balcony, which sent him into a 'Hell-fire Rage', while the same system is then used for healing spells as well.
One big question mark over the game at this point is the AI though. It's not that we've seen anything wrong with it so far but, then again, there wasn't the opportunity to since the demo we saw had developers playing as each playable character. It'll certainly be a big challenge for inXile to craft the kind of buddy AI that can throw you health, tag-team your spell attacks, and 'Battle Charge' you at precisely the moment that you need it. If Hunted really does compare itself to Gears of War, then it's going to have to do a lot better than the 'Cole Train'.
There are elements of Hunted that we certainly find intriguing. Whether or not it can recreate that dungeon crawl fascination and adventure at having uncovered some obscure key in a darkened secret room somewhere is, in many ways, critical to its appeal. It's perhaps an irony that we don't find the combat and gore quite so engaging and these are the concepts that are being marketed and pushed about the game. Nonetheless, even the action isn't without its charms, so here's hoping that inXile can nail that co-op experience.
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Game Information
Available On:
PC, 360, PS3
| Release Date: | Players: |
|---|---|
| Out Now | 1-2 (Online) |
| Publisher: | Genre: |
| Bethesda Softworks | RPG |
| Developer: | PEGi Rating: |
| InXile |
Reviews & Ratings
15 Mar 2010
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Added:Mon 22nd Mar 2010 18:14, Post No: 5
Eh?!?!
Added:Mon 22nd Mar 2010 06:24, Post No: 4
please download this game
Added:Sat 20th Mar 2010 10:01, Post No: 3
Finally a western dark fantasy game with co op! Why hasn't this been done before???
Added:Fri 19th Mar 2010 12:08, Post No: 2
Weirdly, it actually seems to have more in common with a third-person shooter's cover system and melee/ranged combat than it does a hack 'n slash. The presentation is more towards that direction as well, even though there are no guns (only swords, arrows, and spells).
Added:Tue 16th Mar 2010 11:29, Post No: 1
Looks aces. I love a bit of hack-and-slash.