14 DAY TRIAL // Hunted: The Demon's Forge is a third person action game from the development studio inXile, the first since they canceled the Hei$t project, and from publisher Bethesda, build around the idea of cooperative play between two pretty different characters.
The two are big guy warrior Caddoc, ready to slice his way forward with sword and shield, and Elara, an elf that focuses on her bow skills, although they can easily switch between the two approaches.
There's also a bit of magic thrown in to create a combat system that is easy to grasp initially and has all the elements to develop as the game goes forward and keep the battles exciting.
Early on the enemies, on the Normal or Gamer difficulty, seem more like speed bumps that real threats, with Caddoc especially effective at going through skeletons and Wargens as if they were made of cardboard.
After about two hours of play I died for the first time, as Elara, mainly because I failed to keep cover and tried to shoot my way through a number of enemies while also exploring a location but I managed to get back into the fight because my larger partner used a potion to revive me.
It's nice to see that the character that is controlled by the Artificial Intelligence can hold his own and the presence of another (hard to find) friend is not required to play and enjoy the game.
The story of Hunted: The Demon's Forge is not too interesting so far but the two characters shared some interesting banter while slaying monsters and as long as the combat remains satisfying and engaging my only hope for the narrative is that it does not get in the way.
The graphics, on my newly upgraded gaming rig, are also pretty solid so far, even though the Unreal Engine 3 is starting to show its age and the game is too much brown and gray to make a very interesting fantasy setting.
Here's a look at Hunted: The Demon's Forge in action: