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| Reviewer | Platform | Publisher | Developer | Players |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Matt Bailey | PlayStation 3 | Codemasters | Blue Omega | 1-2 (Split screen, Online co-op), 1-8 (Online multiplayer) |
| Requirements | Also on... | Buy from Amazon.co.uk | ||
| Around 3GB free HDD space for initial installation, further space for saving | Xbox 360, PC | Click here to buy Damnation. | ||
Let's make this clear right away: Damnation is a game that lives up to its name. A game that promises a lot with its Steam-punk theme and its grand scale, but fails to live up to expectations. A game that is ultimately damned. To understand why, we need to look at where things went wrong.
Huge Scale. Well, this is something that Damnation does deliver. The scale of the game, powered by Unreal Engine 3, is impressive. There are plenty of vast landscapes on offer and the draw distance of these is impressive. The detail, however, is a little mixed. Close-up a lot of objects do look good, in particular there's some nice architecture on display, but the detail on distant objects isn't so great, and this will be particularly notable in cut-scenes (which use the in-game engine). The biggest compromise from the game's "huge scale" is the framerate. Some fights can see you bogged down with a large number of foes, but it seems the game sometimes has trouble keeping up with displaying great quantities of enemies, and it even suffers during some of the cut-scenes, which is somewhat embarrassing. The framerate drops generally are distracting, but it's especially an issue when it becomes almost impossible to fight back properly. Thankfully these moments are short and rare, but they are noticeable, and will damage the experience. Another compromise is the large amount of loading that needs to take place. The load times are still reasonably long, despite the over 2GB install, but their frequency is the problem, and it's also going to damage the impact of the game's scale.
Vertical Gameplay. This was a phrase used quite a bit to explain how Damnation is different from other third person action games out there. It refers to the fact that the game's grand scale isn't just about traversing across vast distances, but that the game's environments are rather tall too. This means there's lots of climbing up buildings and jumping across ledges, but the resulting experience doesn't feel unique at all, and is in fact rather similar to the Tomb Raider series or the excellent Uncharted. Compared to Uncharted, however, Damnation feels a bit lacking and is simply not as smooth as you clamber to the top. The game relies a lot on a wall-jumping technique which doesn't always work as expected, with ropes similarly an issue, again impacting the flow of the exploration. The gunplay is also noticeably inferior to Uncharted; it feels too lightweight and a bit clumsy, and the lack of a cover system only makes the experience more awkward. To add a bit of a variety to the climbing and shooting are the vehicular sections. However, as is often the case with vehicles in third or first-person action games, they feel a bit tacked on, with substandard handling and a curious need to guess when you're supposed to turbo over a hidden jump, providing a confusing and disjointed journey across levels.
Steam-punk. Damnation has always been promoted as a steam-punk game. That is, the technology in the world is steam-powered, rather than electrical motors or oil-driven systems. To support its inclusion is a story that explains why the technology exists; the American Civil War is still raging, decades on from when it started, and thus steam has remained the dominant power system in the US, leading from everything from steam-powered motorbikes to giant canons. However, the long-running Civil War has also led to an industrialist trying to destroy both sides and take over as dictator of the United States. Of course, it's your job to take down this evil before that happens. It's all a bit silly really, and the technology, while it can be impressive to look at, also seems rather implausible, sometimes even laughable. The characters are also a bunch of stereotypes, including the ludicrously clothes-lacking female member of your team suggesting the Civil War has resulted in a materials shortage. There's also curious magic-wielding native Americans who give you the power of "spirit vision" - a gameplay mechanic which allows you to see where enemies are through buildings, a nice touch, but with the awful gunplay mentioned earlier, the orange-glowing men serve as something to avoid rather than targets. Overall, the characters are uninspiring, and with some terrible dialogue linking the bits of the story, you really won't care what's going on.
So we have dubious gameplay, framerate issues, and a rubbish story you don't care about. Things can't get worse, right? Well, the game also has many glitches. Your character can often be found getting stuck part-way up a wall if you fail to make a jump, and while (thankfully) it isn't game-breaking, it does disrupt the flow of your aerial antics. There's also an issue with the other characters suddenly appearing at certain 'checkpoints' in the game; if you're playing solo the computer is controlling the others, and it doesn't always manage to keep up with your jumping around the map, leading to those awkward moments when you have to wait for them, and sometimes they're with you all of a sudden. Damnation's volume also seemed to be all over the place; cut-scenes were particularly quiet, so you'd turn up the volume, only to find the sound booming at you when you return to the game.
The last point to comment on is the game's multiplayer options. Damnation does well to include support for drop-in, drop-out co-op, but finding friends, or even strangers, to play with you might prove a problem, particularly if they've read the above. This is the same problem you'll face with the proper multiplayer component which seems to find itself with some rather empty lobbies.
The game certainly has the feel of an unpolished mod, which is appropriate considering the game's origins as an award-winning modification for Unreal Tournament 2004. Maybe with a bit more time and experience Blue Omega could have made something interesting here, but as it stands Damnation is a bit of a mess, and should be avoided.
| Overall | Damnation is not a particularly enjoyable game, beset with various issues, and fails to live up to its promises. Avoid it, and seek out Uncharted instead. It lives up to its name; it's damned. | 3/10 |
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