There is something to be said about truth in advertising. Honestly, I don’t think I could have picked a more fitting title for this game.
Have you ever started playing a game and from the very first load screen you knew, this just wasn’t going to be a fun experience? From the very start of Damnation, I knew something was wrong, actually, a LOT of things were wrong.
Starting with what hit me first, the voice-over work. Now I realize that trying to convey emotion while talking to a microphone in a booth isn’t exactly the easiest thing to do. But the lines read in this game are the true definition of “phoning it in.” Most of the actors read like they are just waiting in line to get a check. The ones that try to show a little something in what they are reading usually just come across as overacting, but it’s understandable to be a little less than enthusiastic about dialogue when your lines are trite and full of horrible one-liners. An actual line from the game read like this: “See that his death does not come easy. I want him to make sure he remembers it.” What? If he is dead how will he remember ANYTHING?
Well yeah, why wouldn’t you wear that?
Next on the chopping block are the sub-par graphics. Just being honest here, the game looks like it could run on a PS2. I have seen nothing at all that looked even remotely “Next-Gen” about this game. I will say this for it though, the levels are pretty big. The draw distance is nice, you can see buildings at the tops of mountains that eventually, you will actually be able to get to. The characters all seem like walking mannequins. The character modeling seriously looks like they just slapped a texture on their face and kept going. They show no emotion, never blink, and their jaws move like puppets. Just not something that is acceptable anymore with current games.
Let’s talk control. The third person perspective for the game works just fine. I really didn’t (amazingly enough) find that many situations where I had to fight the camera to get a good view of where I was going or what I had to do. This is largely in part due to the fact that the camera is controlled by the player, thank god. Though the camera works well, the shooting mechanic is a different story and my biggest gripe. To shoot you have to hold down the L2 button to bring up the reticule and R2 to fire. It’s really not that hard to get used to I guess, but when you factor in trying to move/strafe or god forbid reloading on the fly (by pressing the L3 stick) it can get a little tedious. I do however like the “style” of a game they are going for here, the “Steam Punk” western is fun enough. Traveling around the world, it’s a sort of third-person action platformer. One positive thing I will say for this game, surprisingly the AI does well on its own. I’m not exactly sure if they ever got a kill by themselves, but they didn’t die every five seconds either. Also, they were pretty good about catching up to you and always telling you “I’ll be there in a second.” when you got too far ahead of them.
How about the story. I’ll come clean and be completely honest, I have no idea what the story is really about. From what I can gather through the gameplay, it’s about a group of good guys fighting through a larger group of bad guys. The “PSI’s” are trying to take over the free world and make everyone unaware they are slaves. Think of it as the Half-Life 2 story set in a western, and dumbed WAY down. That is about as close as you can get. It’s chock full of every action game cliche’ moment. Nothing at all to write home about. I have skipped many of the cutscenes b/c I can’t bear to hear the actors drone on about people being “juiced” anymore.
More brown than any one game should have
Finally, there is the sound and music. If anyone has read any of the previous reviews I have done, I am a HUGE music and sound person. This game fails horribly in some spots while managing to shine in others. The ambient sound around the world is kinda wishy-washy. You get some things, like the announcements, being broadcast that really add to the overall feel of the game. However, you also get things like the jet cycle noise, that just sounds tacked on.
The weapons worked very nicely, as guns are fired you get the sound of steam blasting out of the gun itself, and the reloads sound authentic enough. The music (when it is playing) works well, however, it never really added to the anxiety of the game for me. None of the tunes in-game are memorable enough that I could, or would, hum one later on when not playing.
All said and done this game is probably barely worth a rent. I am quite the Trophy/Achievement whore, and I can’t bring myself to try and get all of them from this game. If someone were to give me this game as a gift, I would probably play it but had I actually paid for the game, I would have been quite pissed. $60 seems like a rip off for this one, if you find it in the bargain bin and have nothing else to play, maybe.
*originally posted June 23, 2009 on Games Are Evil.com, no longer an active page.
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