Hunted: The Demon's Forge Hands-On

This "cover-based dungeon crawler" was playable at Gamescom 2010, so we headed behind closed doors to go check it out.

Hunted: The Demon's Forge has progressed well following this year's E3 in Los Angeles, where a co-op section of gameplay was on show at the Bethesda booth. Today, just over two months later, the game is now entering its internal beta phase and is starting to come together, content-wise. To celebrate, developer InXile brought a level to Gamescom and allowed us to play it firsthand.

The level in question takes place halfway through the game, as we took control of the warrior Caddoc while the AI took care of the elf archer E'lara. Running straight into combat, we found our weapons would quickly degrade, with impacts on the standard sword and shield meaning we had to replace our sidearms quickly. We also used Caddoc's magic to suspend enemies in midair while E'lara fired arrows at them.

Caddoc and E'lara are both played by what sound like British thespian actors, and the delivery is often quite tongue in cheek. E'lara, who herself is dressed in a ridiculously skimpy outfit, comments on one of her enemies' "sluttiness." InXile's Maxx Kaufman was on hand to explain how the developer is keen to turn the relationship between the two characters on its head, with E'lara keen to run headlong into combat while the more traditional warrior character Caddoc is much more cautious.

The other part of our short demo concerned the new side quests, which are completely optional but will allow you to explore the backstory of the game and improve your characters. You'll be able to find death stones scattered around the world, and when you find them, you can press a button to reach into the spirit world. In the one we saw, a ghost told us to collect the remnants of its bones, which had been scattered in the surrounding area. In this instance, we found them relatively quickly, but Kaufman told us it will be much trickier in the finished game, so you'll have to work to level up your characters.

Hunted: The Demon's Forge is being released on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC in spring 2011. For more on the game, be sure to check out GameSpot's existing coverage, including a preview from the recent QuakeCon event in the US.

20 Comments

  • DeathNaBarrel

    Posted Jan 7, 2011 12:06 pm GMT

    @unbentononslaught

    It would seem so.

    "Kaufman told us it will be much trickier in the finished game, so you'll have to work to level up your characters."

  • Mister-Mike

    Posted Dec 23, 2010 4:05 am GMT

    @GabrielOnuris

    I like ur play on words- LMAO!!

  • Spyder_V

    Posted Dec 20, 2010 9:59 am GMT

    From the looks of it it's like Uncharted or Gears of War (can't tell which yet) in a fantasy setting.

    So I don't know how much of an RPG this will really be.

  • TheTenth10

    Posted Dec 17, 2010 12:28 am GMT

    I'm not much into Bethesda's action-RPG games flagged as "RPG" but really just hack and slash with a limited RPG element, this game got from unknown to might be somewhat interesting

  • unbentonslaught

    Posted Dec 4, 2010 3:14 pm GMT

    is this even an RPG? Cuz if you're running around in a fantasy environment beating up skeletons, it feels a little pointless when you're not levelling up.

  • j1965

    Posted Nov 11, 2010 3:47 pm GMT

    one more rpg for 2011!

  • mwmars

    Posted Aug 31, 2010 3:15 pm GMT

    @Winchester01 I believe I saw gamestop listing it for February 1st (2011, of course)

  • Winchester01

    Posted Aug 26, 2010 9:43 am GMT

    we want release date!

  • tiredantman2009 posted Aug 25, 2010 2:07 pm GMT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    tiredantman2009

    Posted Aug 25, 2010 2:07 pm GMT (hide)

    this game owned by 2 worlds 2

  • furryfrump

    Posted Aug 23, 2010 1:35 am GMT

    This could be good, but at the moment looks like nothing special

  • Rasputin2011

    Posted Aug 21, 2010 6:33 am GMT

    I see great potential in this one... I am hoping it turns out to be a great co-op game

  • GabrielOnuris

    Posted Aug 20, 2010 6:46 am GMT

    @diggerup
    So open up your eyes and go watch some more videos, take a look at more sites, read some more texts and "dig up" more information about the game, as I did before I could make my opinion.

  • cynicalundead

    Posted Aug 19, 2010 11:49 pm GMT

    I am going to get this and pretend it is Elder Scrolls V.

  • RetroCity

    Posted Aug 19, 2010 9:45 pm GMT

    :\ So and so...

  • diggerup

    Posted Aug 19, 2010 6:49 pm GMT

    @GabrielOnuris

    Damn, you can tell all of that just from the gameplay trailer? I just see a game that has predefined characters that you can choose among, and play cooperatively with friends.

  • Aravos

    Posted Aug 19, 2010 2:18 pm GMT

    Got my interest!

  • SuperMegaMaster

    Posted Aug 19, 2010 11:45 am GMT

    Looks cool!

  • GabrielOnuris

    Posted Aug 19, 2010 6:41 am GMT

    I'm really anxious to see what this game is intended to be. I usualy completely ignore co-op games, I have only given a chance to Left 4 Dead until now, but this game is really teasing me. It seems to really combine the skills of the characters with harmony, instead of simply break the hell loose and mix a lot of players "killing" themselves in a weak story game, messing with the gameplay and, consequently, with the fun.

  • lightwarrior179

    Posted Aug 19, 2010 2:26 am GMT

    Seems like a twist to the dungeon crawler genre. Let's see how it eventually turns out..