Hands On: Hunted: The Demon's Forge

Hunted: The Demon's Forge is an action title played from a third person perspective that relies heavily on cooperative play and is set in a fantasy world. Development duties are handled by inXile Entertainment while publishing is done through Bethesda.

When news first broke about Hunted: The Demon's Forge a lot of commentators talked about how the developers were trying to create a mix between Gears of War and a traditional fantasy world like that of World of Warcraft.

A hands on with the game is enough to show that the people at inXile Entertainment have higher ambitions than that.

The game is set to be launched in the first quarter of 2011 and the playable demo shown here at Gamescom was not too long but it was enough to show some intriguing possibilities.

Caddoc is a big, bulky warrior, a bit smaller than Marcus Fenix but still imposing, and that show in his play style, built around bashes, strong strikes and the ability to take quite a bit of punishment.

E'lara is able to attack from a distance but can also hold her own with melee attacks for a while. Both the characters have some pretty potent magic and they can boost each others abilities.

The big set piece of the demo involves taking out a tougher than usual skeleton and then working together to use a balista like weapon to take down two pillars that acted like spawn points for a host of undead.

It's straight forward enough but still frantic and engaging, especially when the cooperation between the players works, with E'lara protecting the flanks and occasionally throwing in a bit of magic while Caddoc keeps everybody occupied at the front.

Of course, a big part of the success of the game will depend on how the Artificial Intelligence of the non player character is implemented, for those situations when a gamer cannot find someone to play with and prefers to tackle the experience alone.

Unfortunately, Bethesda did not allow me to take any screenshots of the action, but here is one of the many friendly faces you'll meet during the course of the game.