Hunted: The Demon's Forge Hands-On Impressions
By:
Jan Steinhauser
|
May 13, 2011, 6:22 pm

When you start your visit to the small town of Dyfed and witness a monster ripping out some poor chap’s heart, you know there’s something bad afoot. Even more so as soon as that thing--a Wargar--decides that it doesn’t like your face. Luckily you’re one of two battle hardened warriors able to break its bones with ease--a choice you make at the start, between the elfish Archer E’lara or the human swordsman Caddoc. You’re never alone though, since either the AI or a buddy picks up the slack and takes control of the other hero.


From this moment, you’ll hack and slay through the six chapters of Bethesda’s and inXile’s Hunted: The Demon’s Forge as I did at this year’s Role Play Convention.  While both characters basically play the same and can each use melee and ranged weapons as well as magic, the scarcely clad E’lara’s skills are more focused on her bow while Caddoc is the giant meat shield keeping her from damage. And if you feel like changing from sexy elf to muscular human or the other way around, you can switch between them at certain points in the game. This feature is only useful with an AI companion though, since you won’t take advantage of it all too often while playing cooperatively.

Hunted The Demons Forge Wargar Elara Caddoc Battle

During  close-combat, you have access to two different attacks and the ability to block incoming arrows and most enemy attacks. When fighting at range, you can use auto-aim and play Hunted like a cover-based third-person shooter crouching behind walls and aiming for the enemy’s weak spot. Besides that, you also have access to magic abilities. While battling through the story (which I didn’t learn much about due to extreme background noise) you can find a truck load of crystals that you then may give to the mysterious Seraphine to trade for new skills like E’lara’s incredibly useful freeze arrow. Both characters have a different set of skills and spells, with every one able to be  upgraded three times,  such as by improving mana costs, damage or range. After customizing and mastering your character for hours, I don’t see you switching to the other one all of the sudden. Especially since the game is quite challenging even on the easiest difficulty level and being able to put abilities to good use comes in somewhat handy.

While the main road of Hunted is quite straight forward with few possibilities to get lost, there are still a lot of hidden areas and secrets to be found, though it’ll require exploration, curiosity, and a keen eye. I had to light torches, push walls, find keys, and kill extra strong monsters to be rewarded with magic weapons and a bunch of crystals. Despite how easy some of those earlier puzzles are, they are a nice distraction from the sea of Wargar blood.

Hunted The Demons Forge Dragon Skeleton Elara Caddoc

Though Hunted is no Crysis, it’s still quite good looking.  The levels are designed with care and have a very engaging fantasy atmosphere to them. I loved how early in the game there is a seemingly endless flight of stairs you have to walk down to reach a treasure chamber. That’s how I imagine a dark and hidden chamber to be designed. Walking back up the stairs has a suitable heaviness to it, with Caddoc and E’lara slowing from exhaustion the higher they walk.  These are a great examples of the details I like about Hunted. Taking those benefits into account, small graphical glitches like a floating axe didn’t bother me at all.

I really like what I’ve seen of Hunted based on my few hours with it. It’s engaging, has character, and the fighting seems to never get old. In other RPGs, I take twice the time other people need for a play-through since I explore everything--so looking for hidden doorways in Hunted fulfills me with joy. And I’m curious how those tiny bits I learned about the story unfold over the course of the game and where those twists are that were promised by Brian Fargo, founder of inXile. I haven’t had the time yet to dissect it to the fullest, but so far I haven’t seen anything I didn’t like about the game. If you’re into challenging high fantasy dungeon crawlers, be sure to keep an eye on Hunted: The Demon’s Forge.
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