Relax - Hunted: the Demon Forge is good, just not great.
Ive always loved hack and slash games and have been following this game for a while in the hope it would be something I would enjoy whilst having a break from all the shooters I have in my collection.
Now of course, this is a shooter, kind of - only with bow and arrows.
Game:
Hunted: the Demons Forge follows a fairly linear path, which can be a bit too linear at times - all too often I felt quite fenced in by the game with small environments and invisible walls etc.. Althougth the game does feature a few branching paths and puzzles that yield goodies for those willing to go exploring (albeit in the limited manner the game allows).
The story and cutscenes are largely forgettable. The graphics are a mixed back, they vary from something that looks like last gen to actually quite nice, given there is some nice art design in the game and for the most part the developers know how to set a scene and establish atmosphere with a good bit of mist and some nice lighting.
The combat admittedly is better than I thought it was going to be, theres light and heavy attacks that can be used to execute a variety of simple combos, attacks feels weighty and the combat overall feels solid with reasonably decent animation. Caddic has a variety of finishers with different weapons, however I found Elara to be the more limited of the two characters, given she has no melee finishers and only one slo mo arrow cam kill with her bow. The shooting again is pretty solid, however it would have been nice to hold down the trigger to feel like you are actually drawing back the Bow rather than just simply pressing trigger to shoot. Also you can slow down some enemies with the ice arrow but it would have been nice to have a slo-mo ability when aiming at some of the faster moving targets. (Note: have since found turning on the auto aim assist helps eliminate this problem as Elara will auto target when not in aim mode)
The real fun comes when you start mixing up combat with the few powers and different abilities each character has which gives you different tactical options - again this is exemplified when playing with a buddy.
Conclusion:
Hunted: the Demon's Forge is just all round a bit too cheap and generic to warrant a higher rating. The combat is good and pretty satisfying, but not so deep to avoid getting repetitive, the graphics again are good but not great and the environments are ok but being too fenced in at times with bizarre placing of invisible walls - hurts the experience. The cover system is available on some bits of scenery but not on others and when stuck to cover the character will sometimes glide to the left then to the right? Random NPC's you stumble upon are like broken records literally, they say there dialogue... and then repeat, again and again. Which only serves to cheapen the experience. Theres not alot of variety in the loot, the money you find in chests doesnt afford you better weapons and armour, but simply unlocks things for the Crucible, which gives you something to work towards but the Crucible itself (a Arena mode editor) really isnt that complex or exciting, neither is it a fully functioning level editor like we've recently seen possible in Infamous 2.
All these things hold Hunted back from being a AAA title..
Hunted is by no means a bad game, dont let 6.5 put you off - anyone willing to give Hunted a look will find a decent game waiting for them, especially if played with a buddy - just dont expect the kind of polish and well put together game you would see in a AAA title..
However - until Lord of the Rings War in the North comes out - Hunted, although quite generic in its design, holds a uniqiue status in a game market overcrowded with guns!