Xbox 360 PS3

Hunted: The Demon's Forge

PuzzleRole-playing (RPG)Hack and slash/Beat 'em upAdventure

Time to beat: about 16 hours

Overview

Hunted: The Demon's Forge is a 2011 action-adventure game set in a dark fantasy world. It was developed by inXile Entertainment and published by Bethesda Softworks for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Microsoft Windows.

The game features co-operative multiplayer with online, splitscreen, and LAN options. E'lara is able to use a bow and small weapons, while Caddoc wields larger melee weapons, as well as a crossbow. Players have the option to explore some larger optional areas; however, the gameplay is mostly linear with many points of no return. Players are able to use spells and special attacks to help in combat, which can be upgraded. The gameplay, especially the archery combat, has been compared to the gunplay of Gears of War, with Eurogamer calling the game a "third-person looter".

Two mercenaries in battle, female elf E'lara and male human Caddoc, go searching for a mysterious artifact about which Caddoc had a vision, but events grow out of hand and the companions become wrapped up in a chain of events involving demons, the orc-like Wargar, and a sorceress named Seraphine.

Hunted: The Demon's Forge shares a similar title and fantasy setting with Brian Fargo's first widely distributed game, his self-published 1981 graphical text adventure The Demon's Forge.

Hunted: The Demon's Forge received "mixed" reviews on all platforms as reported by video game review aggregator Metacritic. In Japan, where the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions were ported for release on August 25, 2011, Famitsu gave both console versions each a score of two sevens, one eight, and one seven for a total of 29 out of 40.