Damnation preview

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Damnation preview

Posted by GeminiBros on 06/30 at 08:18 AM

 

 

In Blue Omega Entertainment’s Damnation, to be published by Codemasters for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC, the United States is in big trouble.  A 40 year Civil War pushed the country’s minds to develop a steam-powered industry of cogs and levers.  In short, an extended period of warfare across purple mountains and amber waves of grain pushed America into steampunk territory.  The game opens at the dawn of the 20th century on a country in which weapons manufacturers hold the most political sway.

Click through for the goods.

Wild, Industrialized West in Damnation

It is in this alternate America that we find Hamilton Rourke, a fleet-footed not-cowboy with a nasty-looking six-shooter and an acrobat’s grace.  He’s laying waste to an army of bad guys for mostly unknown reasons at this point, though it has something to do with some dead friends of his.  Whatever his reasons are, Rourke will have to negotiate some pretty massive environments in order to get the job done.

Each of the “levels” in Damnation’s linear narrative will take several hours to complete, usually with the final goal clearly visible in the distance for at least part of the time.  Rourke is more Persian Prince than Marcus Fenix; Damnation lacks any sort of cover mechanic, but Rourke is able to move himself about fairly easily.  Between Rourke’s agility and the large, open environments, Damnation seems geared more towards platforming and pathfinding than out-and-out combat.

 

 

 

Which isn’t to say that Rourke can’t take care of himself.  On his own, Rourke is a pretty dangerous fellow.  He can fill up to three weapon slots with the firearms he picks up.  He’s also able to tap into something called spirit vision, which makes enemies in the surrounding environment glow even if they’re behind cover.

What’s more, Rourke is not alone.  In fact, he’s never alone.  Throughout the game, Rourke will always be accompanied by at least one AI-controlled companion.  As you might also expect, the constant presence of companions means that Damnation will also support co-op play, both online and local.

Our demo with the clearly unfinished game was brief, but it’s looking good so far.  The environments are as large as advertised and very nicely detailed.  A clifftop vantage point at the start of the demo gave an overview of the entire level to come, with what appeared to be more than one route to the goal clearly visible.  For his part, Rourke moved around easily.  Some of his more acrobatic maneuvers were plagued by preview build bugs, but for now he definitely fits the part of an agile gunfighter.

That’s about all we have to go on for now.  Damnation is pretty clearly not trying to reinvent third-person action gaming, but the scale of the environments and the steampunk’d United States promise to at least allow it to stand out in an oversaturated market.  The game will be appearing at this year’s E3 trade show, hopefully in playable form, so check back here for more coverage in the coming weeks.

http://gamesblog.ugo.com/index.php/gamesblog/more/damnation_preview/