Damnation

Accusation

So the story and setting are shot, but that could all be balanced out by the gameplay, right? In theory, yes, but where Damnation falls down is in the fact that the gameplay is as equally messed up as the story. Again, it’s a clash of genres and none of the ingredients really work together all that well.

On the one hand Damnation is trying to be a Gears of War clone, with the over-the-shoulder camera, cover system and the constant requirement to go around reviving your allies. On the other hand though it’s also trying to be Tomb Raider with a “verticality” system that basically involves lots of platforming and insta-death. On the third hand it’s also trying to be a rather nondescript racing game too, with ridiculous driving sequences lumped in awkwardly.

Individually, these elements all have a lot of potential, but they fall down when you realise that none of them have really been polished up at all. The cover system is about as much fun as vomiting in a scuba mask and aims feels stiff and jumpy – a feeling only enhanced by the defiantly uncomfortable SixAxis controller, though that’s an issue for another day.


More of a problem for the combat though is the atrocious artificial intelligence, which is so bad it would be funny if it weren’t for the fact that people are paying to see it. All too often you can run up to motionless enemies and proceed to pump round after damned round into them without reaction. Score a headshot for an instant kill – one which just sees their heads disappear instantly and completely.

The sole unique feature in the combat is also the most dispensable one; spirit vision, which is gifted to you by a seer near the start of a game. It’s basically a wall-hack and lets you see enemies in your immediate vicinity if you just stand still and hold down the key for a bit. It also lets you revive fallen allies from a distance, which really totally removes to point of having them get injured at all. Or, it would, if your allies actually fell down all that much. Most of the time they’re nowhere to be seen.

The reason for their absence is usually because of the so-called “verticality” system, as the developers have chosen to call it. We call it climbing. Between the regular arenas and gunfights this is what you’ll spend most of the time doing, with the levels conspiring to push you ever upwards over cliffs and smokestacks.


All too often you end up easily outdistancing your friends and having to tackle groups of enemies solo – all because you mastered Damnation's limited library of climbing moves in the first five minutes. You just keep pressing X and, occasionally, R1 to turn around. You can be pretty fearless too as one of the weird nuances of the game is that if you die in combat you have to go back to a checkpoint, but if you fall to your death then you’ll often just teleport back to safety even after you’ve hit the floor.

The system of forever hammering X to literally backflip up the walls works pretty well until the motorbikes appear, at which point all belief in a physics system goes out the window. Even when you’re going at minimum speed you can chortle along on the ceiling quite cheerfully, then hit the boost button to get instant acceleration. All the while your allies will sit on the back of the bike, sniping enemies with insane accuracy and taking no notice of the fact that they are upside down but not strapped in. This usually lasts until you run into a gravel pit, at which point the driving segment ends with all the transparency and pleasantness of powdered glass being rubbed into your eyes.

The gameplay then suffers from the same flaws as every other part of the game, in that the developer is somehow attempting to make a gourmet meal out of a bunch of mismatched ingredients, all of which you can taste in the final product and are all identifiably spoiled. It reminds us of when Joe first got a blender last summer, but even Joe quickly learned that cucumber, peanut, blueberry and banana smoothies aren’t very nice – so why is Blue Omega Entertainment attempting the equivalent?