Customer Reviews

Damnation

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

'Damnation' is a new game by Codemasters and Blue Omega. I purchased it through 'Steam'; it's a huge game with the download taking almost 15 hours.

The Game:

'Damnation' is a third person (above and behind) platform game WITH some fighting thrown in. Running, jumping and sequenced key-strokes are required to get through each level; the fighting is from a third person perspective. What makes this game different is the stress put on traversing the massive vertical challenges. The visuals feature one stunning vista after another, encompassing spectacular canyons, cliffs and structures; one can easily feel some unease here if your uncomfortable with heights.

The first segment is your basic tutorial to help you get use to the movements required to jump and maneuver etc.

The Interesting:

1.)On-line (deathmatch, win the flag etc.) and co-op play are available through 'Gamespy' and LAN (I was unable to try this, as there was no one else to link up with at this time, so my experience is limited to single player only). There is also an on-line 'Versus' mode of gaming.

2.)There is a list of 'unlockable' items that, I assume, are available once certain criteria or achievements are accomplished. There is no hint as to what these are, nor does the rather scant on-line manual give any mention to these 'unlockables'.

3.)There are times that you get to ride a suped-up motorbike. VERY arcade-like in quality...but a lot of fun.

4.)The puzzles seem to be fair; when the most obvious way to accomplish an objective or to get from point A to point B didn't work, there was usual a different or more remote way to accomplish the task.

5.)If you miss a jump and die from a fall, you regenerate from where you fell.(not back at the beginning of the level)

The Cons:

1.)Having played this game for several days now, I'm beginning to see a very repetitive pattern to some of the platform puzzles and their layouts and to be honest I'm starting to get a little bored with trying to find a 'new' path through a slightly different scenario.

2.)The battles with enemies are very poorly done; the AI of the enemies is extremely 'dumb' and the AI of your fellow comrades is even dumber. All fighting has a very poor, arcade quality to it.

3.)There are no player game saves (F5 etc); there are however, check-point saves, generated by the game. This COULD be very irritating, because dying via a gun battle results in restarting the level over again at the last check-point game save (which could be quite far back...especially the finale).

4.)The audio features an ongoing propaganda announcement that continually plays in the background in nearly all of the in-town levels. The same announcement, over and over and over...very annoying.

5.)Some of the conversations between your computer comrades are very cliched and inane...like squabbling siblings.

Overall Impressions:

A game that seems to broken down into 2 components...

1.) an interesting platform game that focuses on massive vertical challenges and requires some spectacular jumps and leaps; as well as some precision key strokes.

2.) a VERY poorly done third person shooter, done in the most basic arcade quality...in a word TERRIBLE.

Conclusion:

A game with an enticing and nifty looking package. (how many times have I fallen for that trap; you'd think I'd have learned by now)

A game with that appeared to start with definite possibilities has quickly become rather repetitive and tedious to play. But to its credit, the platform aspect is well done, and any true enthusiast of this genre may very well love this challenge, however, I find it hard to think that I'll actually finish this game.

Rating of Platform aspect...3 1/2 to 4 Stars
Rating of 3rd Person Shooter...1 Star

R. Nicholson (cujo)

This game doesn't deserve 1 star. The AI is terrible. My teammates in single player mode kept getting hurt (you're supposed to revive them when this happens). I noticed that they were just standing still and getting shot repeatedly by enemy AI. It's almost comical, until I realized that I paid $40 for this crap. Also. when you want to reload your weapon, you have to AIM it before you can reload. What is that about? The graphics are barely average. Not much thought was put into creating a visual environment. Save your money.

Here is my super-short summary of Damnation:

Damnation looks cool because it has steampunk cowboys. Riding steamcycles is fun but pointless. Enemies are not smart. The "vertical" factor is a neat gimmick, but is not fully realized. Climbing around like Lara croft is kinda fun, but becomes kind of annoying about half way through the game. You travel with companions that are exceptionally hot, but fairly useless. There is a checkpoint save system, which always sucks. In-game movies look like crap. Very linear. Beautiful enviroments-it's a pretty game.
Wait to buy used or super-cheap on steam or D2D. This game is an obvious port, but not a bad one. A decent distraction until better games come along.

This game just plain sucks.

1) The AI is horrible. Not just bad, but epic bad. The only game I can think of that has worse AI is the legendary Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing. Your team mates are worthless and your opponents incredibly stupid. Expect to watching your allies run right into the line of fire, get shot to pieces, and then require you to revive them. Alternatively, they'll just sit at the beginning of the level and do nothing.

2) The writing, voice acting, and sound effects are all b-grade and irritating. Especially stupid are repeating announcements, silly bickering fights between characters, and cut scenes that just make you want to stab yourself in the eyes instead of having to endure one more second of their insipid dialogue.

3) Gameplay is poor. The game is supposed to have 'innovative' levels (one thing touted in the advertising is the aiming while sliding down ropes, etc) but are in fact just variations of much older games and are about as innovative as the necessary gaming cliche of weapons/health crates. There a whole host of earlier games that had the same things--and usually did them better--such as Prey, Rainbow Six Vegas, or even the tomb raider games. There is nothing compelling at all about the gameplay, and coupled with the horrific AI, repetitive level design, and uninspired weapons and you're left with nothing more than a game that feels like a headache to even complete.

4) Even the 'otherworldly' enemies are lame because they are so easy to kill given the poor AI. The bosses are hardly bosses at all and are remarkably easy to dispatch. Replay value is nonexistent.

The only thing this game will do is bring damnation to your enjoyment of gaming. Stay far away from this one; it's not even worth buying from the bargain basement where it will land in a few short months.

All the hype about this game was just that. HYPE
It falls short of every expectation people had.
Poor AI for both the enemy and your own teammates.
Poor graphics even in the cutscenes.
Poor storyline.
Poor voice acting. (redundant statements and childish arguing throughout the game)
Poor boss battles (if you can call them that) Some bosses were dropped in 3 shots with a rifle and I took out the final boss with a handgun.
A cut scene would leave you frequently wondering "Where am I supposed to go and do now?"
Your teammates would sometimes stand there at the beginning of a map and do nothing to help you but when you get to the end, they spawn next to you...???
Other times, when you're trying to sneak up on enemies, your friends go running into battle and ruin everything. Then sometimes they take the fastest route to the exit leaving you behind to try to figure out how they got there.
There are two types of motorcylces to drive but they're pretty boring. You think you get to fly a glider at one point but it's a cut scene only.
There is no save system but like others have said, if you fall to your death, you respawn in the same place. If you die fighting, you go back to the beginning of the last save point and puzzles aren't very hard at all.
There are some kind of artifacts to collect but there was no explaination what they are for. I collected 17 of 20 and when I finished the game, I received no prize for it or even any idea what it was for.
There are only 2-3 unlockables listed online and they are useless.
Keep your money.
Stay away from this until it hits the bargain bins or you need a cheap game for traveling and then borrow it from one of us who wasted the $$.

from going into the past to fight to fighting in the real time war. great game, love playing the game over again in different modes

This PC game is actually my first experience with the Steampunk genre. This is the only Steampunk based game I have encountered. I ran into it on the STEAM online gaming site. Since I am a huge fan of first person shooters I gave it a try. The game has a pretty steep learning curve and the gunplay is a bit odd but it becomes very entertaining eventually. I liked the back story of a US civil war gone out of control to apocalyptic ruin and the fight against evil. There is a lot of fun to be had driving the vehicles in the game and the large graphic vistas are often quite eye-popping. The game has a unique system of movement since much of the progress is vertically oriented. While progressing through the game the player needs to be on the lookout for the usual collection of weapons and ammo as well as valuable objects that accumulate game points for the STEAM challenge scoring system. There is a cooperative mode of play for two players that I did not attempt yet. Overall, the game is a lot of fun but some of the movement and progress can be a bit of a challenge to solve all the little puzzles.

I know this game has gotten poor reviews from a lot of people, but I think it is pretty entertaining. I originally had it for the xbox before i got red ring and i bought it for my computer. it is challenging enough to keep things entertaining, but also different enough that it isn't like every other game out there. I would highly recommend trying it out. I'm not the best reviewer of video games, but you can always go to ugo or gamefaqs, ign, or somehting liek that for reviews. This game hasn't been rated very highly, but I think it's a good game to kick back and play once in awhile. Worth a try at least.

I played the PC version. I found even though the game has issues, it was a pretty fun game. I have to admit, its a platformer like no other. The levels make your jaw drop in awe, and manuvering thought the levels using the climbing ang jumping mechanic was all of the games fun. The story isn't that strong, but decent. It made you like some of the charcters, and wish you didn't have to go through some levels with others. The vehicles control decently, and its even cool that they can intentionally ride up walls. Though, I can only guess how vehicle combat works, as you always end up driving in single player.

I found the weapons pretty interesting. Though none of them stood out as the game's "BFG", you'll find that you'll just stick to the three that you like, and avoid the rest. The AI is pretty dumb, letting you shoot them dead befor they react, then other times your bumrush by a whole lot of them. The good thing is that the heavy waves of enimies comes at good times, and the dumb ones alow for less combat and figuring out the next climbing puzzle.

Multiplayer sounds fun, but I could never find a game. The bugs and other issues have kept this game from becoming popular, meaning low replay value in the multiplayer market.

Damnation is mainly a platformer like Prince of Persia or Tomb Raider with shooting involved. The story takes place in an alternate history of the US, where the Civil War never ended. There's this big powerful guy who owns a corporation called PSI that is slowly taking over the whole US with force, and you play as Rourke, a man a part of a small rebel force intent on bringing the big bad guy down. Pretty much typical video game stuff.

The game uses the Unreal engine, the same used for Gears of War, but you really can't tell. The graphic quality isn't all that great. Textures of the environment look kinda bad, but at least the main characters themselves look halfway decent (especially with all the cleavage and underboob you're going to see). The enemies look plain and generic and there's nothing that really stands out about them.

Although the game has shooting in it like Gears of War, there really isn't any kind of cover mechanic like in Gears of War. Although you can hide and crouch behind objects to avoid fire until your health regenerates, there is no sticky cover system. But considering how dumb the enemy AI is, you probably wouldn't need it anyhow.

The one unique thing about the graphics, or rather the art style, is that the game uses a good wild west steam punk setting. Me personally, I like steam punk so I thought this aspect of the game was good and fun. You defiantly don't see too many games using this type of setting, so you at least got to give the developers credit for that.

The game will throw you into this big environment and show you a cutscene of where you are and then slowly pan the environment to show where you need to get to. You'll be jumping through windows, hanging off ledges, sliding up and down poles and ropes, climbing ladders, wall jumping, and other typical platforming mechanics. Occassionally you'll have to stop with all the jumping around and shoot up some bad guys. The shooting is pretty dull, considering how stupid the enemy AI is. For example, at one point I jumped through a window and landed right next to a bad guy. Did he shoot me? No. He simply ignored me and turned his back to me and started to walk away.

In typical third person shooter fashion, you'll only be able to carry two rifles and a pistol. You'll also have grenades to use, although there is only one kind in the whole game to use. So often you'll come across certain weapons just lying around, and you'll have to make the decision on what you think will be best to use in the fight ahead. The weapons themselves are the typical shooter fair, with a sniper rifle, machine gun, rocket launcher, pistol, and a shotgun.

I read several reviews before purchasing Damnation, and in several of them people complained about the weapon sounds. How they sounded weak. I myself didn't have any problems with the weapon sounds and thought they fitted well with the fact that they are steam powered weapons.

The developers only handled the dying aspect halfway good. When you die from missing a jump, you simply respawn where you fell from, with no penalty. However, if you die in a fire fight, then things become much more annoying. The checkpoints in the game are kinda far apart, so if you die from taking too many bullets, you'll usually have to repeat a big section of the game over and back track a good bit. Which is kind of funny, because during certain parts of the game you get to ride on motorcycles, and during these missions, the checkpoints are very close together so if you run off the road and fall to your death, you never have to back track that far. Weird.

The voice acting is bad, and on my computer, I had problems with the beginning of cutscenes being real choppy and the sound glitching in and out for a few seconds. Now, I also had problems with cutscenes stuttering when I played Gears of War on my PC, so maybe my PC and the Unreal Engine just don't get along. Or maybe it's just the Unreal Engine itself, I don't know.

My advice to you is that if you enjoy platforming games such as Tomb Raider or Prince of Persia, and are looking for a cool wild west steam punk setting that you don't find in most games, then you might want to give this game a try. If you're looking for another good third person shooter or something with a deep and interesting story, then by all means, look elsewhere. I had fun with this game, but don't expect anything great from it.