"Knock, Knock. Who's there? Another average co-op fantasy game."
As I mentioned before when your playing this game you have to option to play as one of two characters. Depending on whom you play certain details about the characters backstory are reveled to you. Being a fan of the ranged classes I couldn't help but want to stick almost exclusively to the Ranger character.
Graphically speaking the dark and dramatic tones are quite pleasant and help make up for the occasional blockyness of various game features. The visual queue's of this game were rather impressive, able to trigger what needed to be conveyed when it was appropriate. My one complaint however would be that this game was at times too dark, and while they have the option to raise the gamma in an attempt to lighten things up all it does is wash out the game in exchange for a measly amount of light. However, playing as the ranged class I found that if I strutted around with what seemed to be an ever burning arrow the game suddenly becomes a slightly less dark and scary place to be.
The soundtrack to this game was very enjoyable. The music was composed by Kevin Riepl who also had a hand in Gears of War.
The music was subtle though was pronounced enough that it never lost purpose and effect like I've seen happen in many other games. If I had one complaint about the audio of this game it would stem from the fact that from time to time you will encounter these hysterical and often crazed villagers which do nothing but ramble on and on and on. Now, I'm not a "good" character by any means and from time to time I will admit the thought to sink an arrow into the never ending babbling baphoon that is the people of this fair land had crossed my mind more than once. However this is never an option. Much to my shagrin.
The game play was not bad, but it was not great. Often due to the lighting of the game I found myself being peppered by foes that were extremely far from a logical rage. The auto aim feature was useful for this but then my experience. Even if personally I feel that auto aim dulls ones skills. Another quirk that I could never quite understand was the unusually large affinity for ballista's. Okay I get it siege weapons are pretty awesome but I couldn't help but feel these things were a bit over used. There are plenty of other large awkward means of fire power to explore and I wish they would have considered them a bit more. And the last point that I will make is from time to time things become so muddled that while jamming the B button with all your might to get off that finesse maneuver you might trigger something that you did not wish to (for example drinking Slig).
Puzzles, okay there really weren't too many of these that I can honestly recall as being "puzzling" there were a few maze type scenarios as well as "find this to get that" type events but nothing overly complex. One puzzle that I can remember being particularly frustrating was one where you needed one of the characters to stand on X while you stood on Y. Due to the AI's lacking of I you may very well spend several minutes just trying to pull this task off….
The Story, which is by FAR the most important part of any game, was fantastic. As a D&D player and a story teller I was constantly interested in the main story line as well as the side story that was going on with E'lara. Without giving too much away you and your companion set off for the standard promises of glory and riches, when you are eventually met by the woman of Caddoc's dreams (literally) a feisty little leather clad vixen by the name of Seraphim, who sets you on the path to your greatness by asking you to retrieve the death stone. Without going into too much detail you later discover that there are these creatures addicted to this strange liquid. Evil forces are being summoned and while this isn't exactly what you signed up for you take up your sword and arrow for the greater good.
The banter between the two characters is nothing short of amazing, whity and cleaver. At no point did I ever think to myself "who says that… really…" and as cliché as it sounds there were even times where they would say exactly what I was thinking. For example there are these rather large and frustrating doors that often block your path that require both of the characters to lift up (Think Dragon Age 8 people) E'lara at one point declares with snarky vigor that "If I ever find the person who made these doors I'm going to punch them in the throat." I couldn't help but find this horribly amusing since I too was growing weary of these doors. And so it was refreshing to hear a pair of characters who I could feel a bit of a connection with on some strange level.
The final thing that I will mention will be the multi player…. Words cannot express how starved I am for a truly epic multiplayer fantasy game. And perhaps my high hopes were what disappointed me, but as a whole I was not a huge fan. I own a rather large TV so one would think that the split screen for the multi player would not bother me… but it did. I often felt cramped as though my character were being shoved into some walk in closet and forced to fight her way out. I can only hope that the multi player when performed with two boxes is better but honestly I was unable to test this theory.
All in all Hunted Forge of Demon Souls is a good game, a hard working game, and often entertaining game. Game of the Year? Maybe not exactly, but I'm proud to have it on display in my game library and I don't look back on my purchase with shagrin or thoughts of "why didn't I by X instead", I would recommend at least checking it out.