Customer Reviews

Damnation

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

Damnation is not a bad game by any means. I would not use the word "bad" to describe it. It just feels.....incomplete. I love the idea behind it, as other reviewers have said, I just feel that it was executed in a very poor way. Graphically, if flops. The controls are also very clunky and difficult, as is the aiming. The fact that this game was designed for a computer as well as consoles really shows when you first start playing, mostly due to the fact that there is an option for how good you want the graphics to be. However, even maxed out, they still look like good PS2 graphics at best, not the top notch stuff that we've seen on every other PS3 game worth it's salt. The graphics looked so good in the pre-release trailers and I'm left wondering what happened between then and now.
As for the controls, when I was looking at the pre-release trailers, it looked like they were trying to take the excellent handling of Uncharted and put it in a Steampunk universe. A little un creative, but I was not about to start complaining, since Uncharted was such a good game and I am a big fan of the Steampunk genre. However, the controls are clunky and it takes a long time to figure out how to effectively move through the environment. Once you get them down, it's not a problem, but just that it takes you so long to do it speaks volumes to me about how little thought went into them.
As for the voice acting, ever since I first played Metal Gear Solid, I have put a high emphasis on having characters that sound realistic. This game falls flat on it's face in this category. The dialogue, perhaps if read by competent voice actors would be passable, but since the current ones are no good, it comes across as something from the new Star Wars films, only with worse CGI.
The shooting moments are where the game really shines, however, and it's a shame that the rest of the game doesn't back them up better. The enemies are some of the best looking that I've seen so far on the PS3, and they do actually try to fight you in an intelligent way, which is very nice.
Overall, I would not recommend this game, simply because it feels that so little effort went into it. It may look cool on the back of the box, but once you start playing it, you will learn that it really doesn't live up to what it should have been.

Wow, after all of the wait, this is what we get. This game is terrible. The graphics are not great, the acting is some of the worst ever. It's like they got some of their friends to read the lines.

The controls are clunky at best. As far as first person shooters are concerned, why would anyone want to use the R2 button combined with other buttons just to fire a shot?

ATTENTION ALL GAME DESIGNERS!!!!! R1 is where we want the trigger!

It's too bad. I'm a huge STEAMPUNK advocate, and I guess we fans are always doomed to crap. Nice try Van Helsing and League of Extraordinary Public Domain Figures, uh, I mean Gentlemen. I think the story and the idea behind this game could have been much cooler, but, alas, they have failed miserably

I rarely buy games right when they come out, but I was suckered into this one.

Save up your money for Ghostbusters or something else, I guess.

Like the other commenters so far, I was expecting a steampunk shoot-em-up ala' Doom/Unreal with a touch of the Old West--kind of like DarkWatch, one of my favorite old (unsung) PS2 games (which mashed up vampires/Old West/zombie blasting).

What I got was a game that is so convoluted at points that I had to go to the online game review sites and print out a walkthrough--just to finish some of the naviagation of the FIRST level. You wind up spending an enormous amount of time running around huge landscapes as well as jumping up and down across and between things in order to find your next "checkpoint." Each level seems to have 3 minutes of fun/shooting stuff and an hour of jumping around (and falling) through things to see where you have to go next. Again, when an online walkthrough for one level prints out to something like 8 pages and involves instructions like "go to the third stack of barrels, wall-jump to the ledge and flip behind them, go to the roof, break through the window, walk across the room, jump to the terrace there, ledge-crawl to the ladder, and grab the zipline" and that's just ONE step (I am almost not making this up; typing from memory but that's what you're supposed to figure out), you know that it was done with the game designer's ego in mind and not playability.

Figuring out how to pick up, switch out, and reload guns is also a huge pain. Also, if you're not playing on an HDTV, it's almost impossible to see how many rounds you have left in any given gun in your HUD, so when presented with an opportunity to grab another gun you really just have to go by memory.

Some of the things that could have been really cool--like the steampunk motorcycle--were also ruined by being stuck in "35 steps that you have to execute in 5 seconds to clear" landscapes. Even though the death penalty is minimal in this game--you re-rez at your last checkpoint--how many times can you try and fail at these digital acrobatics before you hit "Quit" and load LittleBigPlanet instead?

FPSs are supposed to be cathartic and fun, not a pain in the but requiring a phone book of printed walkthroughs. Skip this and wait for something else with less navigation and more shooting.

I bought Damnation on a hunch that it was going to be good because of all the hype I heard about the game. I guess thats exactly what codemasters wanted because this game is HORRIBLE! I tried and tried to give it a chance but it is such a weak effort. It had an interesting concept but the development was so bad. It plays like a PS1 game and the graphics are terrible. The voice acting almost made me cry of laughter it is so bad. Avoid this game at all costs.

ok this has got to be the worse title to hit the PS3!!! WTF!!!! I mean come on they had a good working title here and it feels like a PS1 game. Let me break it down like this:

Graphics: They are bad. I mean horribly bad. This is a PS3 game for GOD SAKES!!! There is no excuse for it to look this way. It looks like something the designed in a month on a PS1 port. Plus the characters moved as if they were simple polygons with a crisp clean makeover. You can't make out the difference between your teammates and the enemies if you are using any kind of turret.

Controls: Why on earth would you hold down a button to shoot. Toggle people!!! Toggle!!! There is no need for the action to stop cause your left finger gets tired. (Bionic commando anyone) And whats with all this button combos to move around the map.

Sound: The guns blazing and bombs going off makes you feel like blowing things up but the voice acting made me turn off the volume cause it was that bad.

AI: If there is no choice setting to make it easy or hard then expect to die alot. And I do mean alot. The enemies seem to know what they are doing which felt good and different but your teammates seemed like they had no idea what was going on and left you to fight the good fight by yourself alot. Which made me feel like why even bother to bring them back.

I know this review is long but I truly was let down with this title cause I like the alt history games and this looked liked something good to kill a few days playing. And what do I get? This crap! I mean even some PS1 titles looked better then this and played more smoothly to boot. Like the intro says AVOID AT ALL COSTS! Hell Star Wars the force unleashed held my interest at lest for two weeks. I would wait until there is nothing left to buy in the bargain bin before looking at this title. Only good thing is I got it used and going to use it get something worth playing. Side note to any developers reading this: STOP WITH THE R2 TRIGGERS!!! They don't feel right when after almost 15 years of pushing R1 to shoot we the masses are already programed because of this instinctively. Can't reprogram through worthless titles like this.

At first glance when it loaded, it looked great. The graphics were fairly cool, although not super detailed but the opening sequence looked promising. And then I started to play.

Cop-op mode disaster - Let's start with the co-op "featureless" mode. You can't even easily find your partners. I kept hearing "over here" but no sign of where "over here" was. Would have been nice to have a sort of "beacon" option to be able to find your co-op partner as well as the guy leading you around.

Enemy battle - The enemy's when they appeared where pretty stagnant. They basically stayed in one place shooting at you. Not a whole lot of moving around or even making it hard to see them. And there weren't even very many of them. However, you would think that would make it easy to hit them right? WRONG! The aiming control was so lacking I could barely hit anything. Even moving the sensitivity option to it's lowest setting it was tough to get a lock on an enemy to actually shoot it. I've played several shooters before and have no trouble aiming, but this game I found to be impossible to enjoy as a shooter.

Where do I go from here? - No idea! I tried following the main leader guy around but literally I had no clue on the point. No idea where exactly I was supposed to go. It seemed to be a constant battle to figure out where to climb, jump and grab onto, not really much of a strategy.

Where those actually actors? - They could have at least paid some college kids to come and act for the game rather than grabbing the stock boy out of the mail-room on a slow day. I mean come on...I felt like I was listening to my high school english class reading some boring novel with no emphasis on the story at all. This was by far the worst acting I have ever witnessed in a video game.

Don't forget the glitches - Within the first 5 minutes of playing the game had 2 major glitches. First, the "help" menus that popup seem like a good idea, until you get one that sticks and won't go away. I tried everything including doing what it said to do and even selecting the option to reload at the last checkpoint. Nothing would make it go away. And of course it is right over my reticle for aiming so killing anything was pointless until I completely shut down the game and came back in fresh. The second glitch and definitely the most frustrating to happen so early on in the game was "getting stuck". Don't get me wrong, I know it's hard to find every single place that a player might get stuck, but in the opening area to actually get "stuck" on a wall, unable to move or jump off is just silly. Save mistakes like that for later in the game.

This could have been a great game if they would have taken the time to test it, polish it and make some major improvements. What happened? Did they run out of money? Whatever you do, don't waste your money to buy or rent this garbage. Luckily, we bought it as pre-owned game from Gamestop, so I will definitely be taking advantage of the 7 day return policy.

The game looks AWFUL! The environments are blocky and boring. It really does look like something ported over from a previous generation console.

There is no cover system, you can crouch behind objects, but that won't keep you from being shot. This got frustrating fast. The game also gives you a Tomb Raider type climbing system, sound cool? Its not, its really limited and ends up being completely pointless.

I'm surprised this game was even released, with so many good games on the market its amazing that someone out there actually thought this turd could compete in any capacity.

Its really too bad, the premise was promising, and the steam-punk visual art could have been amazing if talented artists had been allowed anywhere near this thing.

Do not buy this game. Do not even rent this game. This game is terrible. They have a lot of potential, but need another 2 years of programming. I feel sorry for the programmers who think this is a piece of work. Man will their wives be mad at all that time away.
The game is bad. The framing is bad. There is constant loading even while in gameplay. There are only 2 people online. Call of Duty 5 kills this game. Please do not buy this game. I got burned by buying it for $64 and I only got $27 store credit. The enemies AI is weak, and the people who help you or are with you do not even stay near you to help. This is like an early Atari game, so 1990s. I would rather play anything. Just a lesson I learned from this. There was never any advertisement or anthing for this game and now I know why. Again PLEASE do not waste your money, money is very tight these days and I would not want you to waste any of it. I am even willing to let my worst enemy know not to buy this game...let me tell you it has to be bad for me to do this.
Peace and bring on prototype....

This game was purchased as a time killer before the newer couch co-ops come out this fall. While it lacks in graphics and some controls are clumsy, overall it is a good game to sit with a friend and kill some time. The story is creative the weapons are numerous and the costumes are skimpy.

I don't want to waste my time for this pile of ...
I just think people are criminals who releases such "products" on the market.