Hunted: The Demon's Forge

For games like Hunted: The Demon's Forge, it really makes me have to re-evaluate what it means to play a new game based on a popular older one. After all, when you have a game like this that essentially takes the combat system of Gears of War and gives it a fantasy genre flavor, how could it not at least be great? But the thing is, Hunted: The Demon's Forge is actually pretty mediocre; even if it did imitate from the best.

The problem wasn't necessarily that playing a Gears of War game with swords and bow-and-arrows was never meant to be; it's just that everything around that is just so...bland. The enemies are dumb as dirt, your AI partner in the single player mode is only useful for revivals (and even that can be a painful process), and the areas in which you fight are generally unappealing. Sadly the only thing that the fantasy setting does for the Gears of War kind of game is some good old fashioned loot finding for your weapons, and some decent pacing of the campaign.

The gameplay itself could be worthwhile enough if the multiplayer was alright, but Hunted just seemed to make a good bargain-bin purchase turn into a rental at best in this department. There's no question that this game is meant to be played with an actual human being at your side (or through online help), but the experience itself wasn't so great. Between the people I've played the game with, the game became incredibly frustrating the moment one of us was on the brink of death, and could only be brought back by a not-so-easy-to-find potion that the other person needed to have and be somewhat nearby.

Replay-wise, the game tried to incorporate something to come back to with a "map editor" to create your own levels to continually slash generic enemies with. Heck, the only currency in the game could only be used for additional stuff in this mode. But the actual process of creating such uninteresting user-generated content with convoluted menus was never worth just going back to the campaign.

Speaking of menus, the whole interface with the game feels incredibly dated (not to mention corny when you see the difficulty modes being names like "gamer" and "hardcore"). But it actually makes sense when the graphics of the game has the textures of an original Xbox game, and such bad little perks like having to choose to pick up gold instead of instantly obtain it or having to "unlock" co-op by playing the first level alone.

But at least the story itself was an interesting one. Not really plot-wise, as it was incredibly predictable. Rather, it was the two protagonists you play as who are a witty team of mercenaries that had a Cowboy Bebop kind of feel in their chemistry. It also had some good voicework including Lucy Lawless and anime-voice-actress-legend Laura Bailey.

I certainly admit to giving a rather negative two cents on this game, but when it comes to games you want to check out for a rental, there are definitely worse Gears of War clones to choose from than Hunted: The Demon's Forge. But at the same time, there is always the real Gears of War as well. It's something that the developer's of Hunted should have kept in mind before doing the unimpressive work here.