Hunted has some good ideas but the world is so boring, cliche, and ugly that it ends up being a wasted effort.
Hunted's co-op mode is functional, and like every game that freely let's players mix and match spells or ranged weaponry with melee combat it can be pretty entertaining at times. Depending on who you're playing with, of course. The problem is, is that the rest of the game is so uninspired and uninteresting that it isn't really worth your time. There are much better dungeon crawler games out there and while this one has a few neat ideas the execution is completely lacking.
First off, Hunted makes use of a cover system akin to Uncharted or Gears of War. Considering the game is a sword and sorcery type adventure, this might sound rather bizarre. It is. It isn't a horrible idea, but the cover system is so lackluster and glitchy that it really isn't fun to use. Popping up and firing off a few arrows is infinitely less satisfying than doing the same thing only with a machine gun. Enemies use cover as well, but depending on the way you play you might ignore this feature all together and just hack and slash, which the game doesn't do very well. Animations are clunky, hit detection is off, and moves are limited and dull looking.
Of course, the rest of the game is dull looking as well. This is a fantasy world in the laziest of forms. You'll fight skeletons, giant spiders, orcs, and yeah... what else right? God forbid they attempt to throw something new at us. The world itself is just as uninspired. You'll run to a number of various areas but they all look like something taken straight out of the last Dungeons and Dragons game. There are a few cool moments, such as early on you'll find yourself in a crypt and the skeletons will start clawing at you in fun haunted house fare. Unfortunately if you walk up to one of these skeletons their arms will just go through you and there is no danger, so it's all for show.
Aside from being poor on an artistic level, the game just looks dated. There are PS2 titles that look better than this and a lot of the creature design specifically is just plain bad. Giant spiders have blocky legs and character armor glitches while you attempt to perform finishing moves. Skeletons (again) have giant block spots in between their bones meaning you can't see through them. It looks like a child on Halloween wearing a skeleton tshirt as his costume, and even that would be more convincing because he wouldn't be a blurry, pixelated mess.
The characters and story line follow the pattern of the rest of the game and are just as uninspiring. Voice acting is admittedly good, but scripting is completely cliched. The two main characters, whose names aren't worth remembering, are the typical "small but fearless, sarcastic girl" and "brooding, seen horrible things brawler". They have a bit of fun banter but again, it's nothing new. The basic story premise is a demon (or demon looking) woman promising wealth and fortune and the two decide to trust her... but wait, it isn't what you think. The brooding guy had an eerie, death filled vision of her so it's totally justified that they should trust her. Right? Either way, it didn't take too much on the demon's part to convince them. The girl asked "Why should we trust you" and the demon basically said "Listen, I'm not lying" and the two were like "Alright, what's the worst that could happen?"
Again though, for everything it does poorly you can have a little fun beating things to death with little to know effort with a friend. Unfortunately, if you don't have a friend to play with you're stuck with the stupid AI partner, who will acknowledge what you're saying and not do it. You can switch characters and take control of the other, but then the one you were just controlling decides it would be fun to stop being intelligent and run off to do their own thing.
Hunted: The Demon's Forge is hard to recommend to anyone. Aside from ok banter and decent voice acting, there really isn't a lot going for it. Everything is forgettable, cliched, and boring; even if some of the ideas were good.