Hunted: The Demon Forge

[Havok83]

Today Bethesda has announced they are publishing a brand new RPG for the PC, PS3, and Xbox 360 called Hunted: The Demon’s Forge. VGChartz had the privilege of sitting down with the developers for an extensive first look at the game at GDC last week. Read below for a first look at this interesting new cooperative based RPG.

Co-op gameplay is quickly gaining momentum in the industry, as it seems to be almost a requirement for every shooter these days, but is often little more than a tacked-on afterthought rather than a conscious design decision. Bethesda’s new RPG, Hunted: The Demon’s Forge, is looking to change that, with a game built from the ground up to be a true co-op dungeon crawler.

Hunted is a dark fantasy RPG following two mercenaries, Caddoc and E’lara, as they hunt the world for valuable crystals battling evil and uncovering a dark plot. If this sounds pretty conventional, that’s because it’s meant to be. The game is intended to be an update to the classic dungeon crawler. Caddoc and E’lara seem to be good characters, but early dialog between them has some super-cheesy lines. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as they are actually pretty entertaining, but it does detract a bit from the very serious and dark environments and enemies.

In combat you will pick one of the two characters to control. Caddoc and E’lara both have ranged, magic, and melee attacks, but each character has a specialty. The two characters have equal, but unique, abilities in magic, and each has magic spells capable of buffing the other. At any checkpoint you can switch which character you’re playing, as well as learn new abilities and upgrade your current abilities by turning in crystals. Your version of Caddoc and E’lara are unique to your account, and whatever gear/abilities you have will be equipped when you play online. This goes both ways; when someone else is playing online with you, their version of whatever character they are playing will be present.

Caddoc is a burly brawler and melee fighter. He’s the tank, and can take plenty of damage as well as dish it out at close range. His ranged crossbow is fairly weak, and offers minimal ranged support at best. Caddoc’s gameplay will be familiar to action gamers. E’lara is a powerful archer, and can shred enemies extremely effectively from a distance. She has very weak armor, and if melee enemies start wailing on her, she’ll need Caddoc’s help quickly to get them off. She also will struggle to damage enemies with thick armor unless Caddoc has already smashed it up. She utilizes third person shooter gameplay and must make effective use of the cover system.

To say this is a co-op game would be an understatement. It’s more that the game is completely designed around co-op. Every room in the dungeon we saw in the demo was built to encourage cooperation and support. The rooms were large, allowing players to separate while E’lara sought high ground to shoot from and Caddoc took the brunt of the enemy’s force. If a party member falls, they can be revived with a potion from anywhere in the dungeon as long as you have line of sight, allowing players to battle at great distance from each other while still able to support. Support spells can be cast from large distances as well. Matchmaking online is based on player ability as well as a number of parameters you can set, such as what characters your partner plays. Unfortunately local split-screen is not supported.

The combat was brutal and fluid, as Caddoc slashed through enemies and E’lara went for headshots and kinks in the armor of her foes. When there’s just a single enemy left in a room Caddoc and E’lara both are given the option to finish it off with a stylistic brutal kill, which is entertaining. The environment is often useful in combat as well. At one point Caddoc pushed down a large, ancient pillar, crushing many enemies. The game offers visual cues to let you know when things like this are possible.

Of course combat isn’t everything. Exploration and hidden secrets are a big part of the game. Secret paths and rooms will lead you to new plot information, captured civilians who need to be rescued (and may hold some useful information for you), alternate paths, and of course new awesome gear. The developers said the secrets you’ll discover are about 40% easy to solve, 40% hard, and 20% super -difficult. Other RPG conventions like towns are present as well. The developers said they have three primary environments in the game; towns, dungeons, and outdoor exploration environments.

The music of the game is a sort of dark/gothic rock, and very appropriate for the settings. Graphics are very pleasant, but not ground-breaking. The dungeon and ruined town we saw had some great environmental detail and variety. Voice acting was not very good, but the developers clarified that it was purely placeholder at the moment. Enemies are detailed as well, and lose armor and show damage as they take it.

The developers finished the demo with a massive demonic boss, who spawned armies of minions and was resistant to almost all of Caddoc’s and E’lara’s attacks. The demon was only felled when the correct combination of magic buffs and attacks were used, and died in a gory God of War – style finisher as his head was ripped off by Caddoc.

Hunted looks to be a great addition to the RPG genre and a strong new co-op experience for those looking to expand into something more complex than run-and-gun shooters. It’s nice to see some completely original experiences still being created in a genre with such a rich and lengthy history. It's unfortunate that there is no local multiplayer, but maybe they'll reconsider adding it later. No release date has been given yet, but we hope the wait won’t be too long.

http://news.vgchartz.com/news.php?id=7434&mp=1

[Soapy]

...

Originally Posted by Pandamar141

A fantasy action co-op game sounds like it would be pretty fun. Using Gears of War's cover system seems pretty strange, though. Especially considering only one of the two characters has a ranged attack.

[uchiha_itachi]

Looks interesting...is there a gametrailer video showing this?

[ProjectPat2280]

The screens look neat.

[Wolvieboy17]

No Split Screen Co-Op.... Boo-uuuuurns, Boo-uuuuurns!

What a bloody oversight... As far as Co-Op is concerned, who would honestly prefer team work with a stranger across the world over a friend or partner in the same room? Thats a deal breaker for me.

[Soapy]

It's not an oversight, split screen is kind of a niche feature.

[Wolvieboy17]

How is split screen niche for Co-op? It's been around long before online, and i'd be pretty confident in saying that I think more gamers have actual, real friends than play online. Even the hardcore gamers who play COD and stuff online would still play games with friends. To have a game that is SOLELY designed around the idea of CO-OP and not give you the option to play with someone in the same room is definitely an oversight.

Also, you can't call something niche when its the standard for the majority of co-op focused games.

[Soapy]

I don't know anyone who plays split screen. My friends and I all play online.

Plus, if being in the same room is so important, what's stopping you from making a LAN with you and your friend's 360s?

[Wolvieboy17]

Ummm, because thats a freaking unnecessary hastle? My friends that live near me don't have 360's or want to have to lug one over just for a system link? Only 1 TV? Because we shouldn't have to?!?

Seriously, if you honestly never play video games with more than one person OFFLINE you're in the minority. It might be a 'niche' concept to you, but then clearly so is face to face human interaction

[Havok83]

Originally Posted by Pandamar141

I don't know anyone who plays split screen. My friends and I all play online.

lol...thats bc its generally not available anymore

Originally Posted by Wolvieboy17

Also, you can't call something niche when its the standard for the majority of co-op focused games.

It was the standard. With this generation, its become less implemented. Its not a Bethesda issue. Across the board, its more rare these days

[Soapy]

Which is because of technical limititations. When you're playing split screen, the game is having to be rendered two times or four times or whatever the case may be. Which can create some serious framerate and stability issues.

[Wolvieboy17]

lol...thats bc its generally not available anymore

Again, not true... Most of the games that have come out in the last few years that have been built around co-op have had split screen. Gears of War 1 and 2, Halo 3, Army of Two (1 + 2) Kane and Lynch (1 and soon to be 2) Resident Evil 5, not to mention the countless titles like racing games or sport games with split screens... and thats not even counting the games with offline co-op on one screen, like the MUA games, or Fable 3....

To be honest, for this game, which has been declared to be ENTIRELY built around a 'gears of war' style co-op gameplay, NOT having offline co-op is indeed, an oversight.

[TheCorpulent1]

The screens do actually look quite good. I might be interested in this game a bit after all...

[Colossal Spoons]

I prefer split screen co-op to online, color me the minority? lol

[TheCorpulent1]

You march to the beat of your own drum. Your own terrible, dissonant drum.

[Colossal Spoons]

I got friends!

[Wolvieboy17]

Having friends is so niche.

[Wolvieboy17]

VICTORY FOR THE PEOPLE WITH FRIENDS!

THEY'VE ADDED SPLIT SCREEN CO-OP!!!

http://www.co-optimus.com/preview/69...p-preview.html

[Wolvieboy17]

VICTORY FOR THE PEOPLE WITH FRIENDS!

THEY'VE ADDED SPLIT SCREEN CO-OP!!!

http://www.co-optimus.com/preview/69...p-preview.html

[Wolvieboy17]

Sooooooo.... .I take it this game sucks.... since apparently it's already out and there are no reviews anywhere and nobody seems to have played it. What's going on?