But it’s not until you’re back on the ground and the camera switches to an over-the-shoulder viewpoint and the fighting kicks off that it all clicks. Damnation is currently early in development, being built on the Unreal Engine 3 and the level Blue Omega Entertainment took us around serves as a tutorial. It was when a few telltale animations kick in that the game boils down to a simple equation. Tomb Raider + UTIII = Damnation. Oversimplification? Not at all, and not surprising, given the title’s development history. As producer Richard Gilbert and lead designer Jacob Mimkoff tell us, Damnation was originally a mod of Unreal Tournament, one that won second place in a competition run by Epic.
Spurred on by the high praise thrown at it, the developer started fleshing out the idea while seeking a publisher. Cue the entry of Codemasters and fast forward two years right up to the present day, as Damnation becomes a fully-fledged title, but one that’s still in its early days - the fluidness between the two different play types isn’t quite there yet.
Taking its inspiration from two of the biggest console franchises and splicing them together is certainly a good idea on paper, but the transfer between Croft-loving platformer and shooter by way of camera change isn’t dynamic enough - the third-person view is tracking for slightly too long before deciding what mode its supposed to adopt. The enemy artificial intelligence leaves something to be desired. We weren’t left sweating by flanking tactics or superior numbers - but there’s enough development time left to polish it up.
What’s really exciting us is the promise of jump in/jump out cooperative play in the main campaign, as a second player takes control of whatever Peacekeeper is trailing Rouke at the time. The level we were shown - a large town - had multiple paths to the central objective, the mammoth bridge that dominated the skyline. We could already imagine splitting up and racing to the top, while teaming up to take out enemies along the way. It’s going to be pretty awesome. Currently this looks like a small project in comparison to the bigger releases, but it will be worth watching Damnation closely from the fringes to see if this gunslinger manages to draw its way to the top, or shoot itself in the foot.
Apr 4, 2008
