Crucible Mode

The Crucible is a simple and flexible level editor/map maker that lets you eke out some more value from the whole package. It’s pretty easy to use and the maps you can create add a lot of hack and slash value onto the whole thing, if you’re tired of the story or you just feel like setting up a brutal dungeon crawl, then this is the place to do it. The maps are created on a grid, the room exit can be changed direction wise and the arenas can be set up with various waves and spawns of monsters. You can decide what loot package is there for your heroes and just how hard the whole thing is going to be. It might not be as deep an editor for some folks, but it’s good enough to add replay value to Hunted. Maps can be shared with the community, played System Link or Split Screen.

Graphics

Ah...here’s where things fall down a bit. Hunted looks a tad dated, but graphics are not the be-all and end-all of a game. Fortunately the gameplay is still solid in Hunted and regardless of how jagged and in some cases old-school the game looks using the Unreal Engine...it is still pretty decent. Some of the areas are really well designed and they give the right atmosphere and theme to the various zones you’re in. There’s a pretty nice level of lighting and special effects in the game but you will find you’ve been spoilt by other releases in the past. The textures on the models seem somewhat low-res at times but they almost fit with the dark and gritty theme of Hunted so I think we can forgive them a little.

The frame rate holds steady even when lots of special effects are triggered and the screen is swarming with enemies.

Animations

The lip synching for some of the characters (not Caddoc or E’lara) doesn’t seem to be as good. Overall the rest of the animations, running, jumping, climbing and fighting are all decent enough with Caddoc’s combat moves differing from those of his partner E’lara. He’s big and heavy and she’s nimble with quick strikes and acrobatic dodges. Her executions are all based on the bow so involve long range Sam Raimi style camera-attached arrows to the target. It’s not the best animation we’ve seen, but it’s not the worst either.

Physics

The physics of the game ties into the combat system quite nicely, some objects can be shot so they explode and send bad guys flying. You can be knocked over by the bigger monsters and some cover can be destroyed by the very same. All in all, it works fairly well and delivers that extra kick in combat that comes from having good physics.

AI

Overall the AI is pretty good, there have been a few times where Caddoc has lost his way and remained stuck until we’ve transitioned to a new area. These have been few and far between though and frankly the only non-AI problem we encountered was when E’lara got stuck on scenery thanks to an ill-placed invisible boundary and couldn’t move. This forced us to reload a checkpoint. The enemy AI uses cover and moves around to provide a challenge in ranged combat as well as in hand to hand.

Sound

The atmospheric sound in Hunted is used really well, a lot of the environments have their own sound sets and you get a taste of various moods from that. There’s also a decent amount of visceral combat in the game so the sounds match the combat pretty well. It’s all clear and there were no sound errors that we discovered as we played through the various zones.