E3 2010 Hands-On: Hunted: The Demon’s Forge

While at the Bethesda booth at this year’s E3, I spent some time playing the latest build of Hunted: The Demon’s Forge.  The game is a third-person dungeon-crawler inspired by the likes of Gauntlet: heavy on battle and loot-gathering, with some slight RPG elements.  The game is light on playable characters – only two — and those that are available are fairly stereotypical.   The male warrior Caddo specializes in close sword-based melee combat, and the female archer E’Lara specializes in ranged attacks and magic.  Both characters can use the same weapons and skillsets, but also have their own strengths and weaknesses balanced in.

Hunted focuses on co-op action with a heavy emphasis placed on the players interacting with each other in several ways to solve puzzles and defeat enemies.  This isn’t just about putting two players on the screen to get to the end of a level — the heart of Hunted is how the end goal is reached.  In order to defeat certain enemies, players must help charge each other’s weapons to add special debilitating effects.

In one section of the demo I tried, I needed to use a giant crossbow to knock down magic-spewing towers while my partner obliterated the undead warriors that attacked us.  The crossbow was operated by an enemy that could only be defeated once the archer’s arrows were charged by the warrior’s magic.

This seems like an interesting mechanic, but I wondered how the game would play with only an AI partner that didn’t know to charge weapons or take on specific tasks.  The developer on staff assured me that the AI partner would be intelligent enough to be helpful instead of hamper situations, and that it was easy to switch characters if needed at several locations throughout each level.

The game controls fine, especially with the archery weapons, but feels a little sluggish when using the heavy swords.  Perhaps it was the way that the buttons were mapped on the 360 controller, but I kept using the strongest attack instead of working with combos of smaller, more efficient moves.

The visuals are not especially memorable or unique, seeming repetitive at times, and the design reminds me of a Conan/Red Sonja crossover.  It’s not bad, just not original in aesthetic.  Though the game is set on a linear path, several optional side quests are built in to provide upwards of 20 hours of game play.  While I didn’t leave the demo feeling as though this was a blockbuster co-op game, it was probably because the developer was required to hold my hand along the way while explaining it.   With some more hands-on time with a friend, Hunted may very well turn out to be a great co-op fantasy experience.

Hunted: The Demon’s Forge is due later this Fall.

[Images courtesy Bethesda Softworks]