Hunted - Review Roundup

aries100

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A few reviews fort his game has popped up. I'll quote from one of them and list the others. Overall the review scores are not that favorable, beginning with Metro 4/10
Nothing about Hunted is outright terrible but even its attempts at mediocrity fall short, with combat lacking any real feedback - such that it's often unclear whether you've even hit an enemy or not. Your own characters lack weight and there's a general lack of verisimilitude to all their actions. Not least because the game is filled with a lot of low level bugs and glitches, particularly in terms of the ally artificial intelligence.

And here's the rest:

NZGamers 6.5/10

Gamers Guide to Life 4/10

Ambersand Arcade No Score
More information.
 
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I played through most of this game, and think it's getting a bit of a raw deal with these reviews. It's overly long for the type of game it is, so dock 2 points there. The combat is fun, but repetitive, 1 more, and the script/plot is never what you're waiting for, another 2 points....

oh shit.

*cough*

7/10
 
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"overly long"

Thanks for the insight. I was thinking about picking this up some day, but if there's one thing I can't stand it's games that are too long for their own good.
 
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"overly long"

Thanks for the insight. I was thinking about picking this up some day, but if there's one thing I can't stand it's games that are too long for their own good.

It really is. I bought it and while it's a fun little dungeon crawler/shooter type game it just goes on and on and on for no real reason. I played about 9 hours of it and am only in chapter 3 of 6. That might sound good to some, but it's the same exact arrow shootin' the whole game with no real variance. Also in that entire 9 hours I fought 3 enemy types, 90% of them being the generic orc-like dudes.

It's fun, a shooter with bow and arrows is unique if you play it that way like I did. The underground areas are visually impressive while the outside areas look terrible. The story is mostly non-existent. Disc version just uses a disc check, which is nice.

Dark Messiah is the same type of game done about 10 times better.
 
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I just finished my first playthrough.

I enjoyed it but not '60 Euro enjoyed' it. For the half-price I got it at it was a fun 15-20 hours dungeon romp.

Influences of Gears of War are everywhere: from the color scheme, to world design, the design of the enemies, bossfights and banter between the two companions.

That same GoW influence makes it so that the story and world, like GoW, feel a bit soul-less to me. But that's a matter of taste.

The game did not crash once and I encountered no bugs. It feels polished (within the art direction they took).

One minor gripe/oddity is that their quicktime events feel a bit awkward as you first have to do the key combination and only when finished will the animation start. I'm used that in other games the animation does start, but there is a fail animation, here if you fail the qte the animation will simply not start.

The loot system is very simplistic but it fits with the game. The most damaging weapons are also the slowest (clubs), the medium damage weapons have average speed (axes), and the least damaging weapons are the fastest (swords). Ofcourse, there are swords that have more damage than an axe or club but that's only the case if you replaced your chapter 1 club with a chapter 3 sword. At any given time when loot drops it will drop with above stats in comparison to other drops. I played with Cadoc (the male character) so I haven't paid to much attention to the weapon choices for archery. At almost every bigger battle you'll be able to find better weapons than those you found at the previous battle.

The skill system, is by the end of the game a bit moot because by that time you will probably have unlocked 95-100% of the 6 main skills that are upgradable to 2 higher levels at certain chapters in the game. You can further modify 3 atributes of the skills so they give more damage or have more range. By the end you can purchase 54 upgrades per character. But at the end they are just stronger/augmented versions of the 6 base skills.

The story is sometimes told with FMV's of recorded in-engine footage that looks terrible because of bink compression. Especially at the beginnings of chapters. The overall story of the world, the lore, is told though 'collectibles' which are then represented by cartoon/slideshow you can watch in the 'Lore' menu. You collect them by talking to the dead (corpses or sceletons you find). I still haven't collected all of them, I must have missed some secret area. These collectibles ofcourse are there to tempt you to play it again so you have collected all. I must say I like this type of colectible alot more than for example collecting flags or feathers like in Assassin's Creed. This way atleast you get an immediate lore reward.

You can always press on and follow the obvious path, but that way you will miss the bits of lore or some of the enchanted loot.

The coin that can be looted is not used for buying in-game items, because there are no merchants but can be used outside of the game to create levels, the total amount of coin you collect unlocks certain items or enemies for use in the level creator. I have not tried my hand at this because I'm not the most creative, but how hard can it be? This is another incentive to play again and again to get more coin to unlock more building materials.

I have not played co-op but the game is certainly designed in that way so I think it would have been fun. Sadly, no split-screen option so I can't have a guest play the game with me without us both having copies.

I'm not a great fan of giving scores but for what it is it is a decent to good game.

It's NOT an RPG but having played the Dungeon Siege III demo I'm wondering what IS an RPG.

If it is considered an RPG it just shows what a range the genre has in comparison to the FPS genre.

I hope that for inXile next game they are more ambitious.
 
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I should have know better to purchase this game. I couldn't even turn the graphic options to high without getting weird textures. The developer mentioned its a bug and play on medium setting instead.

Alas it isn't a rpg its a co-op action game. A big difference. Seriously dont buy it thinking its a rpg.

Its a longer game than most but gets repetitive fast. Bottom line its is a 5/6 type of game. For once I can agree with reviewers.
 
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@JuliusMagnus- Thanks for the review. I think I'll pass on this and instead just replay Dark Messiah if I get the itch for this type of game.
 
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It is quite fun if you play it w a buddy but mainly a very console based experience. Fargo thinks you can't make an actually RPG anymore.
 
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Dark Messiah is the same type of game done about 10 times better.

Ah, nice to see Dark Messiah getting a bit of credit. I really wish that Arkane Studios could have made a sequel to DM (or even better, Arx Fatalis with some of the combat ideas from DM), because I found it to be an enjoyable game that just needed to be fleshed out more.
 
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Really enjoyed Arks, And Messiah , but this . I just dont know how thhey can label this an RPG ? It feels like an XBOX game and quickly uninstalled it . Not for me, and yes lots of really bad games have been released makes me think that War In The North and Dues Ex set fot Augest are gonna be more let downs. Way to much hype .
 
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Really enjoyed Arks, And Messiah , but this . I just dont know how thhey can label this an RPG ? It feels like an XBOX game and quickly uninstalled it . Not for me, and yes lots of really bad games have been released makes me think that War In The North and Dues Ex set fot Augest are gonna be more let downs. Way to much hype .

They didn't label it as an RPG.

"Fantasy action game … classic dungeon crawl … modern day shooter" is how they describe it.
(Co-op) Action hack-n-slash game with Gears of War influences is how I experienced it.

And I don't think Hunted was hyped very much. I think it is quite like how it was advertised. It was always the 'weakest link' in Bethesda's 2010-2011 line-up (the other games being Fallout: NV and Brink).

Reading Bethesda and inXile on the box might lead people to think it is an RPG but that would be a mistake on the part of the buyer or reviewer.
 
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Well "Dungeon Crawl" is almost exclusively used to indicate a sub-genre of RPG.

My point still is that if a consumer buys this game and is expecting the next Elder Scrolls, Dragon Age or Mass Effect has only themselves to blame (or the reviewers that made them believe it was), because nowhere does the marketing side 'hype' it as the next big RPG.

We can label alot of games as RPG these days. But personally, if the dev or marketing side don't label it as such it is a bit harsh to bash it for not being RPG. You can bash it for not being a good dungeon crawl. But I don't think it did so bad as a dungeon crawl but I already talk about that before.

One can still not like the game. But when terms like hype get used in the discussion it seems like it was a misrepresentation by the dev or publisher.

Which it was not, because from the first gameplay footage released, and through all the Dev interviews I was never under the impression this was gonna be a triple-A RPG game.
 
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My point is the calling anything a "dungeon crawl" is also calling it an RPG. But we know how idiots today luv to redefine the meaning the words to suit their purposes...
 
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