Pleasantly surprised

User Rating: 7 | Hunted: The Demon's Forge PC

As I was scrolling Gamespot forum I saw someone asking for the name of this game. It was the first time I have ever heard of it so I gave it a try. I saw GS review was 5/10 so I thought it wouldn't be good or interesting but at the end I was wrong.

The game is set in third person (ala Mass Effect style) and follows the story of two characters named Cadocc and his female elven partner named E'lara. You can play coop in the campaign with a friend (there is even a split screen option), or if you go solo you can choose who to play as via the "shrines" on every checkpoint where you could switch to the other character if you want. You can use sword and shield, bow or magic. As you progress through the game you will find crystals which you will trade to gain new abilities. Also explore as much as you can because there are many hidden areas which will reward you for finding them and completing their puzzles (which are interesting but not overly difficult). The game can be pretty hard and you can replenish your health and mana via potions which drop from enemy fighters or stashed in urns. The game saves your progress at the checkpoints so be careful and have this in mind. Also if you leave an area you can't revisit it so explore it carefully.

For the bad parts; at times the game feels like it is stalling, there are constantly enemies comming for you and by the end of the game you are pretty powerful and can one shot an enemy thus I can even say that [at the final level] the game becomes a little dull. There aren't many varieties of enemies (90% are Wargar-corrupted humans like hurlocks from Dragon Age, Minotaurs are 5%, skeletons and spiders for the other 5%, few demons, few assassins and one dragon as mini bosses). The boss battles are disappointing (there aren't many of them btw), the final boss is very easy to kill. It is a real shame that there weren't armor upgrades or any varieties of it, there is only one armor for your right hand, and there isn't an inventory system. There are tones of glitches but personally I didn't experience any bugs, errors nor crashes.

For the good parts; the characters grow on you and become somewhat interesting, the game can be pretty hard at times which I like, the story is interesting although predictable, the zones are nothing short of amazing and capture your imagination completely, the fighting system is good and works well, don't forget to check every weapon you find on the field because many better weapons can be found totally random, the side quests are cool and some of them are long chains and spawn across chapters (the game is divided in 6 chapters), exploration is rewarded, the checkpoint system is fine-not overly forgiving but neither punishing, the mini bosses fights are interesting and satisfying. Also, there are different endings depending of whether you ***** *** **** ** *** xD

Overall, I like Hunted: TDF, it can be frustrating at some times and a bit shortcoming but the combat is great and the zones are one of the best zones I have ever visited in any game. If you are in (like me) for the fun of it then this game will surprise you in a positive way.