Hunted: The Demon's Forge

Yes, this game came out in 2011 but I personally love going back and playing older games because there are lots of hidden gems out there. This game definitely flew under the radar for most people because it wasn't a triple A title. The game also store some game play mechanics from Gears of War like the Roadie Run, the movement and cover mechanic.

Does that really matter? No, because the game is fun and isn't a Gears clone. To me, it's two types of games in one depending on which character you choose to play as. Hunted has two main characters to play as: Caddoc, who uses a sword and shield to hack and slash his way through the game, and E'lara, an elf who uses a bow and arrow to stay back and snipe enemies from a distance while Caddoc acts as the tank.

Which each character specializes in different weapons, they can still use the other weapon though not nearly as well. For example, Caddoc can switch to a crossbow if you want to take out enemies out of reach, or to shoot objects that will trigger the finding of a secret area. He cant however upgrade to better ranged weapons. E'lara can switch to a sword and shield when enemies get too close , but she isn't a heavy hitter so she needs to deal with an enemy fast then get back to a distance to start sniping again.

Both characters can also use magic. E'lara upgrade to use magical arrows. Some that freeze opponents and arrows that break enemy armour. Caddoc has magic that can do area effects to hurt enemies. They both also have spells like fireballs and electric bolts. If you hold down certain spells though, you will hit your ally with the magic and make them stronger for a short time.

There are lots of weapons for each character to upgrade to. Weapons get stronger stats and some even also have a magical damage boost that only lasts a certain amount of strikes. You can also pick up stronger more durable shields and even better pieces of armour.

The two characters have some pretty entertaining banter throughout the game. At one point I sprinted too long as Caddoc and he stopped and said "I need to rest for a minute" E'lara chimed in calling him old and telling him to keep moving, though I don't remember how she said it she made it pretty funny.

There are lots of secret areas and special weapons to find in the game if you do a bit of exploring and puzzle solving. Mostly though the levels are pretty linear.

Graphically the game looks good. Not great, but good. enemies come in a good variety and while you fight the same bosses over and over, they can be fun to take on. Gold in the game that you pick up only serve to unlock items in the Forge, where you can design your own stages.

This game was published by Bethesda but developed by InXile. The game had 4 different DLC packs and each one could only be obtained by buying the game from 4 different retailers. This is a terrible move that other games have done in the past. I recall that Gears of War 3 did the same thing. As for Hunted, the DLC was also tied to your save game and was activated by signing into your GameSpy account. The problem other than having to buy the game 4 times for all the DLC, is that if you lose your save game you also lose your DLC. And now that GameSpy is no more, you cant redeem the DLC anymore.

Luckily, people have put out save game files for everyone to download that have all the DLC. Good thing too other wise that DLC would be lost forever. For those who want to play the game with the DLC here is a link to the download.

http://www.mediafire.com/download/hv8npv9644h2ejc/Hunted+4+DLCs+save+%28v1.0%29..rar

If you want the DLC but want to start fresh make sure you select save slot 2 and start a new game.

The DLC is a couple new weapons, some new armour and two character skins to replace Caddoc and E'lara. The Seraphine skin is cool to use IMO because you get to be the mysterious character that is played by Xena herself Lucy Lawless.

There are 4 different endings for the game. Two for each character. The good ending and the bad ending. It is defintely worthwile to play through thei game multiple times. You get better and better gear going through the game again, and its fun to do one playthrough fully as each character even though you can switch between the two at certain spots throughout the game.

I would suggest playing this game as its really fun for a hack and slash/sniping game. I know it wont get a sequel but I would welcome one and buy it if they fixed issues like the tanklike controls, the few glitches that keep you from progressing and little graphical glitches here and there.

(Combat bloodies up the characters with enemy blood)

I never got to try this game in co op mode unfortunately but maybe ill try it with the new NVIDIA experience beta share feature. Anyway, as you can tell I really like this game and if your not a triple A game snob you might like this one as well.