Dungeon Siege III Review

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What is it about shiny new loot that makes action role-playing games so enthralling? There's something perpetually rewarding about seeing a heroic warrior graduate from lowly rags and a rusty sword to gleaming gold armor and a katana so sharp you can lop a cyclops' head with it in a single swipe. Dungeon Siege III has that same hook, so if opening treasure chests and breaking open urns is your addiction, this straightforward RPG will fuel it. Whether or not the game fulfills your other RPG needs is another matter. Dungeon Siege III marks a departure from the series in a number of ways. Most obviously, this is the first time a Dungeon Siege game has appeared on consoles (discounting 2006's PSP spin-off), and developer Obsidian Entertainment has done a fine job of making the series feel at home on its new platforms. The controls and interface make it easy to hack away at armored soldiers and pilfer stuff from their corpses, and the seamless world keeps you focused on the game--not on loading screens. Yet Dungeon Siege III does little that countless RPGs--including recent downloadable ones that last just as long but cost a fraction of the price--haven't done before.

Under the moonlight, you see a sight that almost stops your heart.
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Previous Dungeon Siege games didn't spend much time trying to weave an intricate story. Dungeon Siege III bucks tradition in this regard. You spend a good amount of time conversing with other characters, learning about primary villain Jeyne Kassynder and the kingdom's festering political conflicts. The plot is simple enough: you must defeat this wayward woman and restore power to the legion. Where Dungeon Siege III tries to excel is in the element of choice. As is the fashion in modern RPGs, your choices in dialogue trees can steer certain elements of the story, including the fates of primary and secondary characters alike. At predetermined intervals, and at the conclusion, the game wraps up the results in Fallout-esque summaries accompanied by attractive, sepia-and-gold-toned still images. These chronicles are recounted with great gravitas by a throaty narrator, as if this were a tale for the ages to be passed down from one generation to the next.

If only the tale were worth such solemnity. You play as one of four different characters, each of which has a different relationship to the Legion and different ties to Ehb's past. Dialogue and other story elements differ based on these elements as well as on your dialogue choices, and it's easy to appreciate how the story machine flips all the right switches as you move along. But mechanical intricacies don't necessarily make for an engaging story. Dungeon Siege III doesn't have enough character to give these decisions weight. You spend a lot of time hearing about Jeyne Kassynder's thirst for vengeance, but rarely witnessing it. There is a lot of familial reminiscing, but you aren't given any emotional hook to draw you in--no flashback scene, no signature music, no moment of quiet repose. Had Dungeon Siege III spent more time developing its forgettable cast of characters, these branching story paths may have succeeded. But while Dungeon Siege II stretched beyond 40 hours--more than enough time to weave an involving yarn--you could easily wrap this adventure up in a dozen hours or so.

Just try to escape my purple vortex of doom, you sneaky soldiers!
If you're a Dungeon Siege fan, you probably wouldn't come to this sequel for involved storytelling anyway. In fact, you might be surprised by just how hard the game tries to frame all your button-mashing with meaningful choices. Rather, you probably came for the action and the loot, and on this basic level, Dungeon Siege III succeeds. If you prefer getting up close and personal, Lucas' swords allow you to wade right in. If you like keeping your distance, go with Katarina and her high-powered rifle. Among the four available characters, you'll probably find one to your liking, though series fans might miss the creative freedom of choosing and naming a character as they see fit. And then you crawl through crypts and scour forests, destroying skeletons and spiders and all the beasts you expect to find in fantasy games of this sort. The action culminates in a number of boss fights against teleporting mages, warmongering warlocks, and tentacled terrors. These are entertaining battles--tough enough to require some adept use of your powers, but rarely difficult enough to frustrate.

You eventually earn six offensive powers: three for each combat stance. Each stance lets you take a different role--usually long-range versus short-range--and three of those powers can be performed within that stance. You also earn defensive powers, and as you level up, you sink points into passive bonuses for individual skills, as well as for overall benefit. That sounds more complex than it really is. In practice, you hammer off standard attacks and tumble or block, while occasionally switching stances and firing off powers to clear the crowd, heal yourself, or send a fiery jackal to do your dirty work. It feels fluid enough on consoles; on the PC, it doesn't feel as smooth as you'd have hoped for a Dungeon Siege game. In most such RPGs, including prior Dungeon Siege games, you click on the target you wish to attack; in Dungeon Siege III, the autotargeting is not associated with your mouse pointer, so you must face your target first. You'd think you could just click on loot to gather it, or click on treasure chests to open them; here, you have to move in close and press a key. While tumbling and blocking feel natural enough with a controller, the way they function on the PC feels fiddly and out of place. And if you don't like some of the awkward key mappings, oh well: you can't change them

This isn't the only area in which Dungeon Siege III marks a turn for the worse in this series. While previous games let you accumulate full parties of four or more, you have a lowly party of two in this single-player campaign. (Though to be fair, you can replace your companion with the other two available characters once you've encountered them.) You can't take over control of anyone in your party, only the one you choose at the outset. Fortunately, some series standards have been retained, such as its seamless kingdom. Dungeon Siege III is a collection of corridors and narrow dungeons, but there are no loading screens separating them. Every so often, the game will load data and slow your healthy jaunt to a slow walk for a few moments, but such pauses are brief and don't hinder the forward momentum. Unfortunately, Dungeon Siege III's stubborn camera can make traversing those cramped dungeons a chore. You might find yourself backed into a corner by an undead horde, where the camera zooms in for an unhelpful view of your head. (Hello, inadvertent death!) Such camera failings aren't constant--but they're frequent enough to annoy.


Proof that if a tree falls in the forest, it definitely makes a sound.
Dungeon Siege III's greatest visual treat is seeing its characters don progressively more intriguing armor. Anjali's starting outfit is hardly worth noting, but you'll enjoy seeing this mistress of the elements in a looming headdress in the game's final hour. Environments are heavy on dark dungeons and light on scintillating vistas, but there's enough variety to keep your travels visually lively. An ominous crypt is made to look even more evil by a candelabrum's green flames. Impossibly tall reeds grow from a stagnant swamp's waters. The crystalline walkways and corridors of an ancient dwarven mine wear thin, however, and there aren't any graphical elements that might have you exclaiming in awe over their beauty. The game gets the job done, and every so often--during a close-up of a shaman in his kaleidoscopic costume, for example--shows you something worth admiring. The soundtrack does its assigned duty, its themes occasionally reminiscent of music from The Matrix and other times evoking late Tchaikovsky, but it rarely stands out of its own accord.

If you tire of having just a single AI companion at your side, you can have a buddy take over in local cooperative play or have three others join you online. Many dungeon crawlers are energized by the addition of friends or strangers, and Dungeon Siege III is no exception. Setting enemies aflame while Lucas dashes through a cluster of spiders and Katarina dispatches them with her dual shotguns is a blast. But the co-op play has some execution flaws that limit its appeal. One of them is the camera, which forces players to closely stick together, even when playing online. It also has a tendency to move into positions that limit your view of the surrounding area, and it's simply not fun to get hit by homing fireballs you can't see until they're upon you. And should you join another's campaign, you aren't taking your own character with you; you're just taking over for the AI in that player's game. You don't get to keep any experience, skills, or loot that you might earn for your trouble.


The causeways are a cool-looking way to move from place to place. Too bad no combat occurs there.
With Dungeon Siege III, you might have expected a game that lived up to the nine-year-old adventure that started the series. Instead, you get a short and simple dungeon crawler with no aspirations to be anything more. On its own terms, Dungeon Siege III is fine, if standard-issue. You mash a button, cast some magic, and earn a ton of loot for your troubles. This game drizzles gold upon you as if it were pennies from heaven, and because you can turn unneeded items into currency right in your inventory screen, you never need to leave anything cool on the forest floor. But you needn't have played the first two games to see where this sequel falls short of its potential. And if you did play them, you're bound to be disappointed by how everything that made previous Dungeon Siege games special was stripped away. It's not that playing Dungeon Siege III is a choice you'd regret--it's that you wouldn't remember anything about it once it was over.

God of War III Review

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After slicing a rampaging Minotaur repeatedly with your trusty Blades of Exile, you finally knock the exhausted beast down, leaving it dazed and disoriented from your virtuosic display of hatred-fueled combat. As the Minotaur writhes on the ground, badly wounded but still not ready to succumb to death’s waiting embrace, you sprint over and take hold of its piercing horns. With muscle-tearing effort, you grapple with the monster, twisting its neck as it desperately tries to break free of your hold. A horrific snap echoes across the room: You have won the fight. His limp body falls pitifully to the ground, forgotten as you run off to your next conquest. God of War III relishes death like few other games, glorifying the downfall of mythical beasts, rock-solid Titans, and not-quite-immortal gods in grotesque and satisfying fashion. The visceral combat and overwhelming sense of scale that have become the hallmarks of this brutal franchise have been pushed further than ever before in God of War III, creating an experience so focused and explosively fun that it's hard to put down, and even harder to forget.

Kratos has serious daddy issues. After being momentarily killed by his father, Zeus, at the beginning of God of War II, Kratos has spent every waking hour trying to return the favor. His quest for vengeance is unwavering. The majority of the cutscenes are centered on angry exchanges between Kratos and someone who dares oppose him, and end with an irreversible resolution. The motivation that pushes Kratos forward is easy to understand, but the repetition of his uncanny fury dulls the impact after a while. It's hard to relate to his actions after he gruesomely disposes of yet another mythical opponent with the same wicked scowl plastered on his face. For much of the game, the story hits just this one note. But things open up late in the quest, giving the game the heart it so desperately needs. When Kratos reveals a side beyond violent retribution, it makes his character more empathetic and gives the story much more weight. Freed from its overreliance on cold-blooded vengeance, Kratos' story becomes powerful and moving in unexpected ways, peaking in a thrilling conclusion that successfully touches on many different emotions and provides closure for this epic tale. God of War III begins immediately after the events that conclude its predecessor. Kratos stands on the shoulder of Gaia, urging her and her fellow Titans to climb Mount Olympus and strike down the gods once and for all. This incredible scene follows the trend set by the previous games in the series, kicking off your journey with a jaw-dropping experience that will immediately suck you into this epic adventure. The defining characteristic of your plight as you climb this sacred mountain is a breathtaking sense of scale. The Titans you are traveling with are gigantic. Kratos is but a mere speck on their colossal bodies, and the camera zooms and pans so you can fully appreciate the size disparity of these reluctant allies. The ground you run across is part of a living creature, flexing and swaying as you dispatch the enemies who dare stand in your way. The game seamlessly shifts from a bird's-eye view of this epic climb to an extreme close-up of Kratos in combat, and it's simply stunning that there are no dropped frames or other graphical oddities to lessen this effect. The feeling that you're riding a towering giant is conveyed brilliantly, and the game only gets better from there.

The culmination of this fantastic sequence is one of the most violent deaths ever seen in the series. Kratos is no stranger to blood, but the stunning visuals in God of War III make his penchant for beheadings and disembowelments so much more gruesome. By initiating a quick-time event on a wounded foe, you can rip out the entrails of a centaur, de-wing a harpy, and tear the eyeball from a Cyclops, complete with optic-nerve snapping. Some of these death animations have been recycled from previous games in the series, but seeing them re-created here in meticulous detail will elicit equal doses of nausea and sadistic joy. The only downside to these horrific death sequences is that there is only one way to mutilate each type of enemy, even though you have four weapons in your arsenal. So while it is amazing to slit a gorgon's neck the first time, it loses its impact after a dozen or so identical viewings. Even with the repetition, the brutality of combat is one of the most satisfying aspects of God of War III.
Of course, you can’t finish your enemies off in style until you whittle down their health first. The combat in God of War III hasn't changed significantly from its predecessors, but new moves and a few control tweaks make it even more fun to slice up your enemies. It's no longer a problem when cowardly adversaries keep their distance from Kratos' whirring blades. The bow you acquire early on isn't tied to your magic meter anymore, making it a handy option when a lumbering Cyclops is using his deadly reach to his advantage. If you charge your shot first, you ignite the arrow, and keeping a few enemies alight while you whale away on closer foes is a sadistic distraction during large-scale battles. You can also latch on to enemies and propel yourself toward them with a shoulder charge, and this painful technique is instrumental in stringing together long combos. Planting yourself in the middle of a swarming mass of undead may seem like a bad idea, but you can just grab on to any grunt and carry him around the battlefield like a battering ram, smashing into other enemies until his mushy body loses its usefulness.

The most noticeable improvement to the combat is that your secondary weapons are now viable alternatives to the Blades of Exile. You unlock four unique tools of death by the end of the game, and though their basic move sets don't differ significantly, they feel so distinct that it's a blast to use them all. You can now switch between every weapon at the touch of a button, and it's incredibly satisfying to swap out your long-reaching Blades of Exile for bludgeoning cestuses and pound your enemies into a bloody pulp. The pain your enemies are feeling is communicated beautifully. Every hit you dole out feels as though an angry man-god is behind the action, and the bone-cracking impact makes it a joy just to hack and slash your way around the arena with malicious intent. Defense is also more fun this time around because countering not only provides a devastating retaliatory blow, but is far more consistent as well. The timing needed to deflect an attack is more forgiving now, so luring your enemies into attempting the first swing and then slamming them back in the face is always fun. Ultraprecise controls provide the perfect backbone for your actions. Whether you're peppering a harpy with arrows, deftly rolling away from a fire-breathing Cerberus, or countering a sword strike from an undead skeleton, every one of your actions is responsive and entertaining.

AFL Live Review

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Australian Rules Football video games have a long history of mediocrity, so it may not seem much to proclaim AFL Live as the best digital re-creation of the sport to come along in years. The praise may be faint, but it's still deserved, because AFL Live nails the basics of Aussie Rules much more so than other recent attempts, feeling and moving like an authentic re-creation of the fast-moving, bruising sport. It's a pity the rest of the package doesn't match the core gameplay; AFL Live features bugger-all game modes, mediocre looks, and at times dodgy AI. The game doesn't build on its promising foundations, making it fun to play with friends but merely passable at other times.

AFL Live gets it right where it needs to the most: its gameplay is a convincing re-creation of Australia's homegrown version of football. On-field players move and act realistically--forwards lead into space the way you'd expect them to, midfielders jockey into position and run off rucks well, and defenders try to spoil every time the ball rockets into the 50. AFL Live also gets the speed of the modern game right. You have little time to dispose of the ball once you're in possession, and even at the lowest difficulty, quick handballs and kicks are positively mandatory, with defenders tackling early and often. Holes in defences close up as quickly as they open, and there's a great feeling of satisfaction when a string of moves work, such as landing the pill on the chest of a full forward after a hard-ball get and handpass from the bounce.

AFL Live's controls are mainly up to the task, letting you move as quickly as you need to in the game. Handballs and kicks can be performed in any direction using the left stick, while having a dedicated button to kick at goal means you can perform snaps at the sticks much more quickly. It's easy to get out a quick handball before a tackle, and with a bit of practice, it also becomes easier to kick to a player on the lead upfield. Spotting them, however, is problematic. AFL Live comes with several different views of the field, but none of them give you an ideal view that doesn't affect your perspective of either the play or what's happening further down the oval. The game's default side view is the best compromise, and even here you're forced to rely on the small mini-map to spot free players.

The way AFL Live handles rucks is its most interesting control feature, though. Instead of pressing buttons, to win bounces or throw-ins you need to move the right stick in the direction you want to tap when the bounced (or thrown) ball reaches its apex. Good timing is required to win the ball, and it is genuinely rewarding to win a tap, especially at higher difficulties or against human opponents.

While AFL Live gets the basics of the real-life sport right, there's little else goal-worthy in this title. There are quirks in player controls, with selected players often stopping for a second before running to collect the ball. This breaks the flow of this otherwise fast-moving game, and it's jarring every time it happens. Defensive controls also don't fare very well. Tackles are easy to perform, with selected players automatically running at the ball carrier if the tackle button is held down. But trying to get your defender to spoil a mark or get in front of a player who's about to receive a kick doesn't work that well, and he feels sluggish and unresponsive.

There's not much challenge in AFL Live. Your AI opponents are pushovers, and the only real test is at the game's highest difficulty setting (and even then, wins are easy to score). Gameplay modes are nonexistent; AFL Live's cupboard is as bare as the top of Leigh Matthews' shiny head. The game offers the 2011 season to play through, as well as the preseason NAB Cup and one-off matches, and that's it. None of the extras from previous AFL games are included, such as multiseason options, and there are no teams or guernseys to unlock and no classic matches or teams to relive. Even the game's training modes are stripped; you can play a training match, but there are no videos or other form of in-depth tutorial teaching you how to play the game (apart from a few still screens with control instructions). You can, however, create players, teams, and competitions, but the dearth of out-of-the-box content is disappointing.

AFL Live may not offer much for the solo player, but it fares well as a multiplayer experience. The speed of the game makes it a fun and fast-paced affair when playing with friends, and it supports four players in offline matches. That number moves up to eight online (four per side), and AFL Live has an interesting points system which gives scores based not only on win/loss, but on what's achieved during the matches played. You can earn points by making a set number of tackles or kicks, scoring goals, and even not quitting matches. Points, however, don't count for much other than positions on the game's online leaderboards. Matches ran smoothly during testing, and as you'd expect from a game based on an Aussie sport, there was no shortage of local competitors to be tackled.

Presentation is where AFL Live really comes up short. Players move well enough when viewed from a distance, running, marking, fending, and tackling realistically. Shifting to close-ups or any tighter views reveals plenty of rough patches, though, with player models looking little like their real-world counterparts and animations looking jerky and stilted. Commentary is handled by announcer stalwarts Dennis Cometti and Brian Taylor, but there's so little dialogue that you hear the same phrases repeated ad nauseam. The commentary also makes blatant mistakes (such as stating marks from outside 50 as "certain goals" whilst questioning whether kicks 10m straight in front will get the six points), so turning off commentary altogether is the only sensible option.

Red Faction: Armageddon Review

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If you're familiar with the Red Faction series, then you know Mars as a dangerous place where the regimes are oppressive and the building codes are lax. In Red Faction: Armageddon, alien infestation replaces armed uprising as the series takes on a new tone. This third-person shooter may tell an unremarkable tale and lack the freedom of its open-world predecessor, Red Faction: Guerrilla, but Armageddon serves up a fresh new batch of creative mayhem with extensive destructibility and a devastating array of weapons and powers. Blasting your way through hordes of aliens and wreaking merry havoc on the overrun human infrastructure is an entertaining endeavor, but it's the ingenious and versatile magnet gun that takes the thrills of destruction to new heights. Whether you're soldiering solo in the single-player campaign or staving off an enemy onslaught with friends online, Red Faction: Armageddon provides a lot of great ways to indulge your destructive desires.

The events of Red Faction: Armageddon take place two generations after those of Red Faction: Guerrilla, so while fans can spot connections between the two games, they are little more than historical references. The most pertinent fact is that you play as Darius Mason, grandson of Guerrilla's protagonist, Alec Mason, and like his ancestor, Darius is a man of action, not words. After a brief prologue, he gets caught up in a deadly alien outbreak that threatens every human on Mars, and his quest to save the day drives the rest of the campaign. The cutscenes that chronicle the alien outbreak may look nice, but they tell an uninspired story full of action-movie cliches. The profanity-laden dialogue might make you smirk from time to time, but don't expect to get much out of the boilerplate plot.

Instead, expect to get caught up in the thrill of destruction. Right out of the gate you get a taste of the power at your fingertips with a plasma cannon that blows a three-story hole in a building and topples a guard tower in a single blast. The familiar sledgehammer from Red Faction: Guerrilla returns, but the combination of your powerful melee attack and expansive arsenal makes it likely that this implement will take a backseat to more potent weaponry. A charge launcher that lets you fire and then remote-detonate explosives, a laser that dissolves walls and enemies with equal vigor, and a gun that shoots miniature black holes are just some of the enticing weapons you pick up along the way. Almost every man-made structure in Red Faction: Armageddon can be destroyed, and it's very satisfying to take out a sniper by detonating the walkway under his feet, or to splatter a group of advancing aliens with a few well-placed charges.

The robust weapons make you feel like a powerful warrior, and Darius' mobility lets you move confidently and quickly around the battlefield. The sense that you are a force to be reckoned with is further augmented by your suite of nano forge abilities. Powered by a gadget on your wrist, these unlockable, upgradable abilities operate on a cooldown timer and can significantly boost your destructive potential. The forceful push can topple walls and send enemies careening off into the distance, while the protective shell can block enemy projectiles and slowly kill any foes unlucky enough to be caught inside it. Shockwave launches any nearby enemies in a floating stasis field where you can blast them like clay pigeons, and berserk supercharges your weapons for a short period of time. These abilities are fun to wield in concert with your weaponry, including the seemingly out-of-place reconstruction ability. The idea of actually building something in a Red Faction game may seem strange, but being able to magically reconstruct any structure that has been destroyed is immensely helpful. Repairing the building you currently occupy can offer crucial protection from enemy projectiles, and being able to reconstruct walkways and bridges means you don't have to think twice about blowing them up in combat.

Being able to destroy things with impunity is important, because Red Faction: Armageddon is a linear game that takes place mostly underground. While the cave systems and human structures are varied, there is a finite number of things to destroy in any given area, and you may find yourself itching for more opportunities to wreak havoc. Fortunately, there is the magnet gun. This little beauty fires two sticky magnets: one anchor and one attractor. As soon as the second shot lands, the magnetic pull kicks in, and things collide in dynamic and deadly ways. You can tag an enemy and then send him flying up towards ceiling, rocketing into the floor, or even on a collision course with another enemy. If you tag a building and then an enemy, you'll watch with eager anticipation as a wall of debris descends upon your unsuspecting foe like a flock of murderous birds. These are just some of the myriad ways that this simple gun turns fighting aliens into a creative exercise. Unlimited ammo means you can always put it to use, and the area-of-effect magnetic pull means your plan may take an unexpected destructive turn. Momentum also factors in, so attracting a far-off enemy to the floor makes him splatter, while doing the same to a nearby enemy might just make him fall over, ripe for a pummeling. Wielding the magnet gun turns what could be another predictable enemy encounter into a physics-fueled playground, and bringing a pillar down on an unsuspecting enemy's head will make you cackle with glee even if you've done it a dozen times before.

The campaign offers about eight hours' worth of opportunities for destructive experimentation, with a few vehicle sequences thrown in that offer a nice change of pace. You can collect salvage to upgrade your skills throughout, and completing the campaign unlocks a ludicrous new weapon and the ability to replay the whole thing without sacrificing your upgrades. There are some decent cheats to unlock, and two other modes offer good opportunities for continued mayhem. Infestation is a four-player online cooperative mode in which you try to survive against waves of alien attackers. Depending on your settings and your companions, Infestation can be a reasonably challenging romp or a brutal test of skill. Ruin mode provides a few arenas for unfettered single-player destruction. You can strive to earn a spot on the online leaderboards or simply cut loose in free play, but be advised that those who buy a used copy of Red Faction: Armageddon will have to purchase an unlock code for Ruin mode in order to get more than a short demo.

Red Faction: Armageddon returns to the linear roots of the series with great success. Thanks to an enjoyably powerful arsenal and remarkably thorough destructibility, tearing your way through this alien-annihilating adventure is a blast. The campaign and Infestation mode offer a good amount of content, and the arrival of the magnet gun should be celebrated by anyone with a hankering for havoc. It's one of the most powerful, inspiring, and downright hilarious gameplay mechanics to come along in a while, and it makes Red Faction: Armageddon immensely appealing.

Hunted: The Demon's Forge Review

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A game's success or failure often rests on the little things. An otherwise ordinary game can soar to great heights by nailing the details; conversely, a smattering of small flaws might cause fine ideas to flounder. Hunted: The Demon's Forge is the latter type of game: conceptually sound, yet clumsy as delivered. As a result, this cooperative action game feels like an ancient relic, in spite of its attempts to use modern gameplay elements popularized by Gears of War and co-opted by countless games since. It's a shame that a game with such promise feels so unfinished. Imagine this scenario: you take up your bow, and a buddy grabs his mace and shield. Together, you cut through swaths of maniacal monsters, seeking the most effective ways of ridding your fantasy kingdom of a rising menace. When Hunted comes together, it captures the essence of such a rambunctious adventure. But sloppy locomotion, technical glitches galore, and all sorts of basic flaws rise up to smite you. PC players also get a special problem to call their own: barely functioning online play. And that's a damning issue in a game designed to be played with another.

In spite of its numerous foibles, Hunted: The Demon's Forge isn't devoid of fun, and it boasts a great concept: combine the best parts of fantasy hack-and-slash adventures and Gears-style cover shooting, and then throw in some loot. One player assumes the role of Caddoc, a bald-headed melee specialist. The other takes over the ample assets of E'lara, an archer with impossible curves and no desire to shield her backside from swords, arrows, or the stares of lascivious passersby. Together, you move through dungeons, flaming villages, and more dungeons, slicing away at the titular demons while occasionally casting spells, grabbing loot, and trading barbs about who killed the most meanies in that last battle. Caddoc and E'lara are in it for the cash and are hardly heroes worth remembering once your eight hours with Hunted's campaign come to a close. Yet they share an easygoing camaraderie that's appealing, if wholly unexplored.

Hunted's good aspects follow from that mishmash of gameplay elements. Both characters wield melee and ranged weapons, but E'lara is best when shooting from afar while Caddoc wades into the fray. When you're wielding a bow, Hunted plays like a cover shooter: you crouch behind a low barrier or press your back against a wall, lean out, and fire. With sword or axe in hand, you swing away at a limited variety of snarling savages, rolling and blocking when necessary. As either character, you cast spells that work well in tandem with your partner. E'lara freezes enemies, and Caddoc smashes them to pieces. Caddoc lifts monsters into the air and slams them into the ground, while E'lara fills them with arrows. Two brands of action plus varied magical skills make for some fun battles. That diversity goes a long way toward veiling just how linear Hunted's levels are, how mundane its infrequent puzzles are, and how few enemy types there are.

If you don't buddy up with another, the AI takes over and does a respectable job, if not an outstanding one. AI companions are there to distract enemies and soak up a lot of damage rather than to dish out the pain. They rarely need reviving on medium difficulty, and as a result, playing on your own is easier than joining a friend. And things get mighty challenging in co-op. Demons can combo five attacks together in succession; should you fail to block the first one, you've no choice but to be walloped, which means going from full health to practically none. The limited number of health potions and the inconsistent rate at which potions drop add to the occasional combat frustrations that develop. Should you like the challenge and want to explore it further, you can play around with Hunted's level creator, called the Crucible. It's easy to use, but the results are limited: player levels are simply a series of battle arenas separated by doors that open when you have defeated every spawning monster. The limitations don't end there, however. You unlock new enemies, items, and arena environments by accumulating gold during the campaign. To earn the most interesting playthings, you need to collect a lot of gold, which means playing lot of Hunted. This is a disappointing restriction in which the reward doesn't match the effort. And while you can allow others into your private realm, there is no way to share your creations or download others to explore at your own leisure.

You stumble upon plenty of random equipment on your adventure, though looting isn't Hunted's best feature. You find equipment on the ground or smash weapon racks, but the loot that falls from a rack is only for the character who smashes it. Most of the time, what falls is useless, making you wonder whether the team might have earned something more valuable had the other player smashed it instead. You might also be annoyed by the lack of a damage-per-second stat on weapons. There are slow, medium, and fast bows, for example, but the base damage stats don't help you compare different types. This is a small gripe, but it is one of many senseless, clumsy elements that crop up time and again in Hunted. A list of such oversights could continue for pages. You automatically pick up potions by walking over them, but to collect gold, you have to press a button. Why not have you collect it automatically as you do other items? You can perform finishing kill moves at random times, and these slow-motion brutalities look cinematic enough. But performing one means leaving your partner without assistance for several crucial seconds. Sure, you don't have to perform the action if you don't want to--but the game encourages you to do so. It feels as though Hunted's creators chose to implement the mechanic because it looks cool, and because all the popular games do it, rather than because it belongs. In actuality, it doesn't belong: it interferes.

You could say the same thing about the Gears-style "roadie run" sprinting. The barely controllable run often causes the screen to jitter uncomfortably. And in the case of a particular boss battle, when you have a limited time to run at full speed away from a charging monstrosity, it's a mess. For some reason, developer inXile chose to throw in useless cover spots between you and your destination, making it easy to slide into cover by accident when you need to charge forward. In fact, that entire boss fight is a mess. When you first enter the arena, you are prompted to hold a button so that the camera can redirect your focus to a key event, as so many games do nowadays. But you aren't given enough time to react, or even understand what is going on, before you're crushed to a pulp. (Hello, trial and error.) Hunted is fond of taking away control in this manner. During the final boss battle, for example, the camera pulls away to show you spires falling over, multiple times. But all the while, skeletons stream toward you. You might still take damage from this undead crowd, but you can't do anything about it, because Hunted: The Demon's Forge prioritizes cinematic excess over basic playability.

inFamous 2 Review

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The Beast draws ever closer. The prophesied monster from the end of Infamousmarches toward its inevitable confrontation with Cole McGrath. Toppling your colossal foe is the impetus for your latest adventure, but there is something far more sinister stalking you: an unshakable feeling of deja vu. The superpowered third-person action that was once novel and exciting has turned predictable. New problems arise as well. An overactive camera is a mild irritant, but the biggest issues stem from aimless pacing and suffocating enemy encounters. Infamous 2 is a disappointing sequel, but a solid foundation ensures there are still plenty of thrilling moments. There's no denying the inherent fun in sliding along an electrical wire while shooting bolts of lightning from your fingertips. And a few notable improvements, such as revamped visuals and a robust mission editor, add to the experience. Infamous 2 struggles to reach the lofty heights of its superb predecessor, but wanton destruction and carefree exploration provide good reasons to see how Cole's journey plays out.

A little bit of power is never enough. Cole can absorb an unholy amount of punishment, scale buildings with a simian grace, and wield lightning like he's Zeus' son, but such parlor tricks aren't enough to vanquish the all-powerful Beast. So he travels to New Marais to find out just how much stronger he can get. Although the premise is decent enough, the story lacks a hook to invest you in Cole's affairs. New characters such as Nix and Kuo are one-dimensional caricatures who represent the two sides of the morality coin, and the slight growth exhibited by this bland duo does little to make you care about their well-being. Zeke resumes his role as the comedic best friend, though his banal dialogue fails to make a lasting impression. The cast of supporting characters is certainly lacking, but it's the star who drags this ho-hum tale down. Cole is the kind of guy who chuckles at the term "penal code," and his gruff voice acting is just grating.

Karmic decisions should invest you in the story, but the implementation of the morality system is woefully inept. During certain story sequences, you have the choice to complete the mission in either a good manner or a bad one. Unlike in Infamous, in which evil and pure were sometimes indistinguishable, your options here are entirely binary. Without a moral gray area, there is no reason to give these decisions serious thought, which makes the adventure seem slight. This issue is compounded by how the game grades your actions. You may set out on a mission to rescue a group of hostages from a gang of armed assailants. Ideally, you would kill the henchmen to free the captured citizens, but it's not important to exhibit such loving care. Instead, you can kill the whole lot of them with a devastating tornado attack and still ring up the good karma points. The system is flawed at a fundamental level and turns what should be interesting decisions into laughable situations. The bright spot is that there are unique missions depending on which branch you choose, which makes it worth replaying this lengthy adventure.

Thankfully, showing off your heroic powers is a lot more entertaining than the bland story. The controls from the original game are virtually unchanged. Exploration is still a strong part of this adventure, and movement is forgiving enough to ensure that even those afflicted by acrophobia have fun. Stickiness is the defining feature of your jumping abilities. Cole gets sucked toward nearby objects, which makes it a cinch to jump onto thin electrical wires or leap across treacherous rooftops. The breezy nature of your movement makes bounding across the city a pleasure, though just like in the original game, problems do crop up when you need to be precise. Cole has a mind of his own, so if you want to shimmy up a specific drainpipe, he may grab hold of a balcony, guardrail, or ladder instead. When you're out for a joy run in the sprawling city, these tiny issues aren't too noticeable. But things take a turn for the worse when you're caught in life-or-death struggles. Cole latches on to ledges even when you're desperately trying to flee from a treacherous shoot-out, and those moments can lead to more than a few frustrating deaths.

It's a shame the movement controls haven't been refined at all from the previous game. Luckily, combat suffers from no such problems. Shooting enemies with your lightning blasts feels as great as ever, which makes it a snap to pull off a headshot or land a sticky grenade right on some poor sucker's back. Infamous 2 is at its best in large-scale fights across the expansive rooftops of New Marais. Mixing up your attacks between long-range sniper strikes, devastating rocket blasts, and rapid-fire electrical bursts gives diversity to your actions, and you can seamlessly unleash your destructive powers while gliding along a wire or hanging precariously off a drainpipe. Melee has also been vastly improved from the original game. You now wield a two pronged bludgeoning device called Amp that lets you beat down your foes in a few powerful smashes. This is an effective way to clear out a crowd, though the camera is too interested in delivering a cinematic view during these attacks. It moves with a disorienting style that makes it difficult to know what's going on around you and where your still-living threats stand.