Sometimes, life just doesn’t go your way. Super rich boy, epic sized house, amazing looking car and hot shot on the underground boxing circuit, there’s nothing that could go wrong for Desmond. That is until he’s blamed for a business deal turned sour from his father’s company, his newly ringed fiance was cheating on him with a close friend and he lost horrible to someone who he was pretty sure he knocked out in a fight. Concussed, angry, and honestly stupid about it, Desmond took his car in a chase out and wound up killing himself as he drove it off of a bridge.
Devil’s Hunt is something that hit my radar pretty close to launch. From the little that I had seen, I was thinking that it was a Soulsborne which would have made for the third one this month alongside Code Vein and The Surge 2. Instead, once actually in my hands I was pleasantly surprised that it was instead a fast paced action brawler like the Devil May Cry series. Getting the chance to beat up some demons and bad guys with a combo system that doesn’t actual rewards you with another more than keeping you alive, Desmond’s adventure is an interesting one, if yet, a lackluster one.
Waking up in hell, you’ll find yourself on the path of a mysterious figure in order to get some answers as to what the hell is going on. Catching up to him and told that it’s about time you showed up, you soon find yourself in front of one of the big men of history, Lucifer himself. Saying that you’ll do ANYTHING to go back, how could he pass that up? Setting you aflame in order to grant you demonic powers making you much more than you once were, you head back to Earth in order to start getting revenge on those that did you wrong and to those that simply just have it coming.
Now here’s a fine line to walk. I don’t mind an “on rail” adventure as long as it is done well. Love it or hate it, Final Fantasy X and XIII followed the same formula. Linear path for half, open space for a quarter, linear path for the finale. More controversial yet, The Order: 1866, was a full blown straight path of a ten hour adventure. So have been the entries in the Gears series. The fine line to walk is how much it feels like you’re walking it versus how much it feels like you’re being made to walk it. Devil’s Hunt? Often would have been better to have someone else move your feet as there was no point of giving you control to simply move from one hallway into a room just to have control removed again as there was yet another cutscene.
And this goes on for quite a while and some portions are much worse than others with an entire chapter really being you moving for two minutes to jump over a few ledges and then let go of the controller again. It’s not just the gameplay being on and off again though. For a lot of Devil’s Hunt, things are just… meh. In contrast with the actual opening chapter the rest felt like a let down as the first chapter is full of flames, and demons and things burning all over before you get into an epic boss fight. I was hooked. Then it goes back in time and you wonder, where did all of the awesome go?
If anything, Devil’s Hunt would have been at home in the late PS2 or early PS3 era. Graphically it feels dated, environmentally you are so blocked off from moving anywhere but where you are supposed to go I had to wonder at some points why I even had to be the one to move around as there’s no puzzle solving. There’s no backtracking. It’s just hop one or two ledges, fight, hope three or four ledges, fight, ledge, boss fight. There was no real oomph to it and this goes even into the combat.
When playing a game, especially a brawler base like this, there’s one thing above all else that is needed, and I say this even on top of a good story. It’s the satisfaction of landing a hit on your enemy. If your combat system is solid, that is often more than enough to go through to the end even if the tale is cheesy or lackluster. Unfortunately, the combat system isn’t which is a true shame as your main weapon, hell just about your only weapon, are your fists. You spend your time punching and dashing around like the boxer you were before you died which ties that part in nicely, but it’s just not satisfying. Your enemies never flinch, they don’t go flying and bosses really don’t care about your pitiful hits.
Even leveling up doesn’t really help on the above problem. You get new abilities sure, but the enemies can just hit you as you’re doing them. Blocking can only really be done when you see the prompt for it, otherwise you have to dodge or you take damage. It’s not even a case of getting the timing right. It’s you dodge, or you parry. There’s no real in between and adding that on top of the lack of oomph. I was left wanting so much more.
Finally, I think one of the biggest issues that I had with Devil’s Hunt is two fold. The first is that the story, the actual story, takes at least two real hours to get rolling before something interestingly enough happens to make you wonder as to what’s really going on. The second, was that Desmond is un-relatable. This rich laissez-faire spoiled whatever he actually does, has almost next to no personality until someone threatens his ex-fiancee. Really is an ex by this point as Desmond did die. But outside of that, it’s not like Dante or Nero that I want to know what happens next. One’s obnoxious in the best of ways while the other is a good touchou hot head that will do anything for the woman he loves even after having his demonic arm ripped off by someone. I won’t spoil that one!
So that’s it really. Devil’s Hunt feels dated and it probably could have done with a bit more polish to add in what this style of title needs the most. Oomph. You need to be able to feel the power behind your hits. The story is cheesy and that would have been fine as I love a good dose of cheese, but without a system to back it up and actually make it fun going between those doses of cheesiness? It gets really hard to want to continue as it just becomes a mindless and un-entertaining trek forward.
Game Information
PC
Developer(s):
Layopi Games
Publisher(s):
1C Entertainment
Genre(s):
Action, Brawler
Mode(s):
Single Player
Other Platform(s):
Consoles later
Source:
Provided by Publisher
Article by Pierre-Yves
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