This game is ironically called Damnation. Ironic I say? Yes, that is correct. Why? Because I kinda got the feeling I was "damned" as soon as the game began. I was kinda following this game straight from the off, mainly because of the concept.You play as a so-called freedom fighter named Hamilton Rourke who, with a few other freedom fighters, are trying to prevent a rich industrialist from destroying the Union and Confederate armies with his own type of futuristic robot army. Yes, this is set in an alternative world where Steampunk is the main culture.
For people who are not familiar with the term Steampunk should google it as it is, personally, intriguing. The bases is where everything runs off steam instead of electricity. Sounds interesting? To me it did.
So as the release date came nearer I felt excited. Sure, there are many other games that most people are more interested in buying but now and again there are a few titles that are overlooked and I felt this may be one. So when I got a hold of this title, opened the casing up eagily and popped it into my 360.
The main menu is a pretty bog standard menu. Nothing special at all. Has a bit of a Gears of War vibe to it I would say. Have various background images flickering and flashing. You have the choice of starting a new game in solo or co-op mode and a versus mode. I noticed an option to enter a code or some sort. Maybe this is a cheating way to unlock items that you would normally unlock as you progress through the game? or maybe this is for other items. Personally I don't know so I cant really comment on that right now. Now we have the menu covered it's onto the game itself.
As people may or may not know this game started out as a mod for Unreal Tournament 2004. So as you can guess it uses the Unreal Engine. Alot, and I mean ALOT, of games use this engine as it's a pretty solid engine...... when it's used correctly. Damnation does not use it correctly.
One thing I noticed as the game began the graphics are pretty bad. Jaggies and low res textures are the first things I spotted..... but the list goes on. Sure, you can see pretty far into the distance but that doesnt mean much when all the action happens right in front of your face. The buildings are extremely boring to look at and the grass... oh the grass... looks like bit of cardboard just sticking out of the lifeless floor. Pretty much all of the buildings are made of wood so to be honest theres nothing more I can say about them, it's wood. Wood is wood. The colour pallette of the game is dull. People say Gears of War has a lack of colours and Damnation falls right into the same category. Everything is pretty much grey. You get the odd browns here and there but its all very dull indeed. The framerate is ok, just ok. You get the odd stutter here and there but for what its trying to display it really shouldnt have any problem at all!
Onto the animations, one word comes to mind. Crap. Seriously. The guy moves like he dropped a load in his pants. Maybe its the excitment of ......... actually there isnt any excitement. The developers have been going on and on about how this game is gonna revolutionize platform gaming. From what I can see it's basically platforming that Tomb Raider has been doing for numerous years. You can shimmy up poles, climb and hang on ledges and jump through windows. Thats about it. I also like the way Hamilton defies gravity when you have your back to a ledge and you want to jump up to one above you. He does a sort of back flip up the wall to the ledge above. Come on! Its silly to watch him do this. Made me chuckle everytime he did it.
The controls are as standard as they come. The LS moves Hamilton around, RS controls the, very lazy, camera. LT readies the selected weapon and RT fires. Clicking the RS adds a zoom so you can get a better shot on the seriously retarded enemies while clicking the LS reloads. The D-pad (minus Up) is basically your inventory. Hamilton can carry 3 weapons. Close range, long range and a pistol. Press the corresponding button to equip that weapon. A is jump and dive when sprinting. Sprinting is done by holding RB btw. X performs a really weak melee attack while B is your typical crouch button. Y is for either throwing or planting an explosive. LB is to use a feature they call "Spirit Vision". You gain this ability after the first level. It basically shows you where your enemies and partners are in the world even if there are walls etc blocking your view. Pretty useless ability if you ask me. Few levels in and I totally forgot about it.
The weapons, oh the weapons. We have come to use the term "weapon" as something you could possibly kill someone or something with. Yes, thats what they also do in Damnation but from how they appear and sound gives the impression that by using these "weapons" the enemies must be made from sponge. They sound like peashooters. Remember in school, when you used to take a pen apart so you just have the tube and spit out bits of rolled up paper through it? Thats what the guns sound like pretty much. Ive had farts that sound more like a shotgun than the feeble sound Damnation offers you. I only came across 3/4 different weapons while playing through. So to say theres a mixed bag is an understatment. You got rifles, shotguns and pistols. One pistol alternative is some sort of spike firing mini-crossbow. It's a 1 hit kill but takes a few seconds for the steam to power it and fire. What? You want explosives? Not here your not. They suck. I think I used 1 in the whole game. Pointless.
The level design is pretty good. You can tell they obviously had the vertical idea in there heads when creating them. Everything goes about a million miles into the sky. There are multiple ways to move about the level but whatever way you choose to go you always end up at the same point. Its the tried and tested formula. Start here, shoot everything you see on your way to here. There are a few odd sections where you can drive a steam powered motorbike which basically looks like a rocket with 2 wheels. The AI or "Real" friend can stand on the back shooting while you drive through. Only problem with this is that the bike moves so fast any enemies you encounter on the way dont even need to be killed, you can just drive right by and leave them choking on your fumes..... or steam I should say.
The enemies are just a bunch of mismatches robots. Some look like the Tinman from The Wizard of Oz on crack, some just look like they came straight out of The Terminator. Only a couple variations but all boils down to the basics. There are a few human NPC's along the way but I wont go into that much as it may spoil the story.
I have yet to test the multiplayer but from what Ive heard that is also pretty basic. Got the Deathmatch and TDM's etc etc but after playing the single player campaign I wouldnt wanna play it with friends.
So all in all Damnation may be worth a weekend rental but I wouldnt advise parting with £40 for it.
4/10
Excellent review. And all so terribly true.
ReplyDeletecheers.