Lucy Lawless voicing Hunted: The Demon's Forge

Hunted: The Demon's Forge is an entirely new intellectual property from Bethesda, but gamers who play the fantasy action game will hear a familiar voice. The publisher has announced that Lucy Lawless of Xena: Princess Warrior and Battlestar Galactica fame will voice a character in Hunted: The Demon's Forge.

Lawless will lend her vocal pipes to the game to play Seraphine, an "adventurer-turned temptress" character. She will appear in the game as a ghost, possessed by the Demon's Forge's "ancient and powerful evil" and will attempt to lure Caddoc and E'lara, the game's protagonists, to perform malevolent tasks.

In Hunted: The Demon's Forge, players will take on the role of either the master swordsman Caddoc or the ranged-weapon expert E'lara as they work together to figure out what's behind a rash of disappearing townsfolk. Gameplay will focus on cover-based combat and puzzle-solving, coupled with exploration of dungeons, ruins, and urban areas.

Hunted is in development at inXile Entertainment, best known for the Line Rider franchise of physics-based puzzle games, as well as its 2004 PlayStation 2, Xbox, and PC revamp of the Bard's Tale role-playing game franchise.

Hunted: The Demon's Forge is due out on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC on June 1. For more on the project, check out GameSpot's most recent hands-on preview with Hunted: The Demon's Forge.