Hunted: The Demon's Forge Previews
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WorthPlaying:
The characters really specialize in their special skills. Both characters have access to magical abilities, which they can use at any time. You choose your spell and activate it, spending some of your MP bar in the progress. You can blast lightning at your enemies to shock them to death, but the magic can also be used against a friendly. Doing so will give them a passive buff instead, although in Hunted's demo, it also nullified their ability to use magic until the buff wore off. Since both characters share the same set of spells, this means that both can serve to amplify the other. E'lara isn't the wimpy mage who serves to make Caddoc stronger but part of a full-fledged team. They can buff each other and work together, assuring that both can kill their fair share of enemies.
However, while the characters share the same magical abilities, they don't share the same special weapon abilities. E'lara has ranged special skills built around her bow. In the demo, we saw E'lara use an ice arrow to freeze an enemy solid. The frozen enemy took little damage but was vulnerable to being shattered, either by another arrow from E'lara or Caddoc's sword. Caddoc can levitate enemies into the air, and while this does almost no damage at all, it leaves foes vulnerable to E'lara's arrows. He also has a shield bash ability, which lets him charge into foes and smite them with his shield. The only downside here is that shields are breakable. You can grab new shields off a defeated foe, but you still have to be intelligent about how you use them. Both characters will have their own skill trees, which you can upgrade by finding crystals scattered around the game world. They share the same magic powers but are otherwise unique.
And Kombo:
I took control of Elara, the game's thong-wearing ranged attacker, while he played as Caddock, the beefy warrior. Hunted is all about co-op, and co-op "from a distance," at that. Health regeneration vials can be hurled across the battlefield at your partner, eliminating the need for players to remove themselves from cover in order to help a fallen comrade. Some puzzles will require Elara to reach a high ledge or sever a taut rope with her bow, while others will require Caddock to shove a heavy block or fend off waves of enemies in close-quarters combat.
The game plays very much like a fantasy take on Gears of War, making Hunted the latest in a surprisingly short list of games to riff on Gears's sprint-and-cover control system. Though it will feature light RPG elements, it will primarily be a story driven "action game," as stressed by InXile today.
