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Hunted The Demon’s Forge Review: It’s Gears of Oblivion
Hunted wasn’t really on my radar until I realized that it was taking a fairly ambitious step for fantasy RPG games: it was attempting to take the action heavy co-op and cover system from Gears of War and implementing those features into a fantasy universe, filled with witches, demons and other geeky stuff. I enjoy fantasy RPG games, anyone who knows me is familiar with my incurable addictions to Diablo and Demon’s Souls, and I also thoroughly enjoy the Gears of War games, depute my inability to be anything other than awful at its multiplayer.
That’s the gist of it, and if the game had succeeded in seamlessly sewing the two genres into a cohesive, and preferably fun experience, we could’ve had another great game to make the summer drought less dull. Unfortunately, while trying to blend these things together, something bad happened. Something really, really bad. Find out what after the jump. The Baby Factor: If Gears of War and a random fantasy RPG (let’s say Oblivion, though it really doesn’t matter) got together for a night of kinky activities, the “I’ll be your knight in shining armor, you be my grateful princess” kind of kinky, Hunted: The Demon’s Forge would be their unwanted crackbaby.
I say unwanted because this is a really flawed game. It’s a game with some great, even ambitious ideas, but it’s also one that’s chock full of poorly implemented ones. After grinding through the game’s single-player my main issue is all of those features that most fantasy RPG’s get right, you know, the ones we take for granted (things like a fucking inventory) have either been removed or irreparably harmed.
Arguably the game’s selling point is that it lets you and a friend battle hordes of undead, spiders and massive beasts together. Why? Because everything is more fun with a friend, and that rule applies to practically every facet of life, including eating, gaming, and of course, bitter masturbation. For a game that’s been built from the ground up to cater such a feature, the end result is surprisingly void of features many would expect from a cooperative game.
The first of these is the inability to share items, because why in the world would you want to do that? Of course, this is mostly fueled by the lack of an inventory, more on that later, which removes you of your ability to pick up loot. Now, the game still has loot, but what I found while on my adventure I really couldn’t be excited to own because A.) special items break down really fucking quick, as does everything else, and B.) you can only carry one thing at a time, because for some reason your secondary weapon can’t be replaced.
Why, I ask? Who thought this was a good idea? Who took one of the most fundamental elements of the fantasy RPG genre, the loot, and decided they should remove it of all its allure? Because I know it’ll last me all of five minutes I just don’t care when I find something cool. Who came up with this? I really want to know so I can stare awkwardly into their eyes, piercing their soul with my gaze and removing them of their courage to make another shit idea without consulting someone with a little more common sense.
But you know what? That’s not even the worse thing. You remember that thing I hinted at a few times, the lack of an inventory? Yeah, that’s worse. I suppose the two ideas go hand in hand: crap loot and no inventory, so at least I’m not even the least bit tempted to want to keep an item I might want to use or trade later, oh wait I forgot, no trading items!
The Demon Forge is also plagued by that brown and grey palette that Gears of War has also struggled with. It’s just not interesting to look at. I mean, sure, there are a few decent looking areas with a little flora strewn about, but for the most part it’s just a desaturated mess to look at.
So you’re probably waiting for me to say something positive, and I’m happy to be able to do so. The combat, also a very important feature, is pretty solid. Switching between your close-quarters and ranged weapons is a breeze and firing/attacking with them feels satisfying. The cover system is also surprisingly well implemented. Vaulting over waist high obstacles and hiding behind walls and pillars is intuitive and I rarely came across any problems when doing so.
Using spells is also easy and the arsenal of abilities you’ll acquire work great toward the cooperative nature of the game. You can lift an enemy from afar so your friend can strike them while they’re hanging helplessly in the air, or you can freeze a foe so your ally can shatter them to pieces with a killing blow. Sadly, you’ll have a paltry selection of enemies to use these skills on, but they’re fun nonetheless.
One of the game’s more interesting features is its level creator, dubbed The Crucible. In it you can create a series of arenas that are filled with enemies to dispel before you can proceed to the next area. You can’t create missions or throw in a story, but this definitely adds a good amount of replayability to the game. You also unlock new enemies and environments using the gold you collected during the campaign, but many of the better unlockables require you to play a lot of Hunted before you can get them. What could’ve been a great addition is limited by your inability to share your level with other players or find one another created without joining it randomly.
In the end, Hunted: The Demon’s Forge is the type of game that sounds great on paper, but has failed so terribly in the full realization of its ambitious ideas. It’s an interesting title with some great features, but it’s just such a frustrating experience watching it fail in areas that so many games before it have succeeded.
The Final Word: An admirable, but failed first attempt; there’s some fun to be had but to get your money’s worth over the long haul I recommend you equip a +5 Stamina helmet to help you endure this game.
This review is based on a retail copy of the PS3 version of Hunted: The Demon’s Forge, which was provided by the publisher.
Have a question? Feel free to ever-so-gently toss Adam an email, or follow him on Twitter and Bloody Disgusting.
We are now one full month into Spring 2024, which kicked off on Tuesday, March 19 and comes to an end with the start of Summer on Thursday, June 20. This year’s summer movie season has a whole bunch of exciting horror highlights, including A Quiet Place: Day One, MaXXXine, and Alien: Romulus, but let’s hold that particular thought until June rolls around.
We’re here today to talk about Spring 2024 and the many horrors we still have left before the weather gets warmer and we find ourselves in the heat of one hell of a spooky summer.
Here are 12 horror movies you don’t want to miss in Spring 2024!
STING – April 12
Two words: SPIDER HORROR. Writer/Director Kiah Roache-Turner (Wyrmwood) hopes to induce eight-legged terror with his brand new horror movie Sting, only in theaters April 12.
Of particular note, Sting features practical spider effects from 5-time Academy Award Winner Weta Workshop, with the spider in this one inspired by H.R. Giger’s Xenomorph!
In Sting, “One cold, stormy night in New York City, a mysterious object falls from the sky and smashes through the window of a rundown apartment building. It is an egg, and from this egg emerges a strange little spider. The creature is discovered by Charlotte, a rebellious 12-year-old girl obsessed with comic books. Keeping it as a secret pet, she names it Sting.
“But as Charlotte’s fascination with Sting increases, so does its size. Growing at a monstrous rate, Sting’s appetite for blood becomes insatiable.”
BLACKOUT – APRIL 12
Indie darling Larry Fessenden is back with new horror movie Blackout this Spring, Fessenden’s third movie – following Habit and Depraved – to put his own spin on classic monsters.
While Habit was centered on vampires and Depraved was a fresh take on Frankenstein’s Monster, Larry Fessenden’s Blackout is the filmmaker’s contribution to werewolf cinema.
The film follows Charley, an artist whose drinking binges blur with his sneaking suspicion that he might be a werewolf. He distances himself from those he loves and sinks deeper into solitude, his flashes of memory of his nighttime grisly acts manifested through his artwork.
ARCADIAN – APRIL 12
If Nicolas Cage is covered in blood, you better believe we’re going to be watching. Cage gets his own A Quiet Place with Arcadian, a new creature feature coming to theaters April 12.
In Arcadian, which also comes to Shudder later this year, “After a catastrophic event depopulates the world, a father (Nicolas Cage) and his two sons must survive their dystopian environment while being threatened by mysterious creatures that emerge at night.”
Jaeden Martell (IT 2017) also stars in the post apocalyptic monster movie.
ABIGAIL – APRIL 19
If you’re bummed about Melissa Barrera being fired from the Scream franchise, you’ll definitely want to get out to your local theater this month to support Abigail, the new VAMPIRE BALLERINA horror movie from Scream and Scream VI directors Radio Silence.
Barrera stars alongside fellow horror favorite Kathryn Newton (Freaky) in Abigail, which is actually the latest horror movie in Universal’s relaunched Universal Monsters Universe.
In the film, “After a group of would-be criminals kidnap the 12-year-old ballerina daughter of a powerful underworld figure, all they have to do to collect a $50 million ransom is watch the girl overnight. In an isolated mansion, the captors start to dwindle, one by one, and they discover, to their mounting horror, that they’re locked inside with no normal little girl.”
LATE NIGHT WITH THE DEVIL – APRIL 19
One of the most talked about horror movies of Spring 2024 has been the Halloween 1977-set Late Night With the Devil, which has been playing in theaters since its premiere on March 22.
Late Night with the Devil will begin streaming at home on April 19, 2024, less than one month after arriving in theaters. Shudder will be the exclusive streaming home of the movie.
David Dastmalchian (Dune, The Suicide Squad) stars as the host of a late-night talk show that descends into a nightmare in Late Night with the Devil, set on Halloween 1977.
In the found footage-style film that captures a period aesthetic, “A live television broadcast in 1977 goes horribly wrong, unleashing evil into the nation’s living rooms.”
INFESTED – APRIL 26
Spring 2024 is all about SPIDERS – sorry, arachnophobes! – with the previously mentioned Sting being followed by the French creature feature Infested (Vermines) later this month.
What’s particularly exciting about Infested is that its director, Sébastien Vaniček, has been hired to direct the next installment in the Evil Dead film franchise, so this will be our first taste of what Vaniček is capable of within the genre. And the buzz for this one is strong.
In his review out of Fantastic Fest last year, for starters, Bloody Disgusting’s own critic Trace Thurman raved that Infested is “one of the best spider attack movies in years.”
In the upcoming horror film, “Fascinated by exotic animals, Kaleb finds a venomous spider in a shop and brings it back to his apartment. It only takes a moment for the spider to escape and reproduce, turning the whole building into a dreadful web trap.”
HUMANE – APRIL 26
The daughter of horror master David Cronenberg, Caitlin Cronenberg is making her own mark in the genre filmmaking space with IFC Films’ Humane, coming to theaters this month.
The film is described as “a dystopian satire taking place over a single day, months after a global ecological collapse has forced world leaders to reduce the earth’s population.”
The wild premise? 20% of the world’s population must VOLUNTEER TO DIE!
“In a wealthy enclave, a recently retired newsman has invited his grown children to dinner to announce his intentions to enlist in the nation’s new euthanasia program. But when the father’s plan goes horribly awry, tensions flare and chaos erupts among his children.”
I SAW THE TV GLOW – MAY 3
Fresh off the haunting and singularly creepy indie We’re All Going to the World’s Fair, Jane Schoenbrun is back with A24‘s I Saw the TV Glow, releasing only in theaters this May.
Meagan Navarro wrote in her Sundance review for BD, “I Saw the TV Glow offers a layered and authentic portrait of identity, wrapped in ’90s nostalgia and surreal imagery that embeds itself deep into your psyche.” Meagan continues, “Schoenbrun delivers a singular vision of arthouse horror that entrances for its fevered dream style and insanely cool imagery.”
In A24’s latest, “Owen is just trying to make it through life in the suburbs when his classmate introduces him to a mysterious TV show — a vision of a supernatural world beneath their own. In the pale glow of the television, Owen’s view of reality begins to crack.”
TAROT – MAY 3
Originally titled Horrorscope, a much better title if you’re asking me, Screen Gems returns to the big screen with studio horror movie Tarot this Spring, a Tarot-card themed spookshow.
When a group of friends recklessly violates the sacred rule of Tarot readings – never use someone else’s deck – they unknowingly unleash an unspeakable evil trapped within the cursed cards in the upcoming Screen Gems horror movie Tarot. One by one, they come face to face with fate and end up in a race against death to escape the future foretold in their readings.
The hook for this one? Artist Trevor Henderson designed the film’s eight monsters!
THE STRANGERS: CHAPTER 1 – MAY 17
Bryan Bertino’s 2008 home invasion classic The Strangers spawns a brand new reboot trilogy this year, with first film The Strangers: Chapter 1 kicking things off in theaters on May 17.
The Strangers: Chapter 2 is expected to follow in Fall 2024.
Madelaine Petsch is the lead of the new reboot trilogy, playing a character who drives cross-country with her longtime boyfriend to begin a new life in the Pacific Northwest.
When their car breaks down in Venus, Oregon, they’re forced to spend the night in a secluded Airbnb, where they are terrorized from dusk till dawn by three masked strangers.
IN A VIOLENT NATURE – MAY 31
Slasher fans who have been hungry for a new Friday the 13th movie won’t want to miss In a Violent Nature, which plays out like a Friday movie… entirely from Jason’s perspective!
IFC Films will release In a Violent Nature exclusively in theaters on May 31.
In the film, “When a locket is removed from a collapsed fire tower in the woods that entombs the rotting corpse of Johnny, a vengeful spirit spurred on by a horrific 60-year old crime, his body is resurrected and becomes hellbent on retrieving it. The undead golem hones in on the group of vacationing teens responsible for the theft and proceeds to methodically slaughter them one by one in his mission to get it back – along with anyone in his way.”
Meagan Navarro wrote in her Sundance review for Bloody Disgusting, “In a Violent Nature may offer slasher thrills and a delightfully gory rampage across the wilderness, but the approach captures the carnage through ambient realism. It results in a fascinating arthouse horror experiment that plays more like a minimalist slice-of-life feature with a grim twist.”
THE WATCHERS – JUNE 14
M. Night Shyamalan returns with the new thriller Trap this coming August, but the road to that film’s release will be paved by the feature debut of his daughter, Ishana Night Shyamalan.
Ishana Night directed The Watchers, in theaters from WB/New Line on June 14.
The film follows Mina, a 28-year-old artist, who gets stranded in an expansive, untouched forest in western Ireland. When Mina finds shelter, she unknowingly becomes trapped alongside three strangers who are watched and stalked by mysterious creatures each night.
Which Spring 2024 horror movies are YOU most looking forward to?
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