Assassins of the Wild West. Review Damnation (2009)

Damnation offers us to plunge into the alternative history of the Civil War in the United States of the 19th century, where, as a result of the protracted nature of the war, the authorities were taken into the industrialist Lord Prescott with the same name by the Corporation PressCott Standard Industries (p.WITH.AND.). Purecott’s motive is banal – I want more power, but it is not specified and does not open until the end of the game. The path to power lies through classical propaganda, serum of fearlessness and humanoid robots. A group of several people – the leader of the group, Professor Winclow, is taken to confront this;Protagonist Hamilton Rurk, who is looking for a missing wife;A girl of Indian origin Yakiken, Mexian Ramon Zagato and, later, the daughter of the professor – Jack. Periodically in the frame appears a seer – brother Yakiken, whose role to appear at the right moment of the game.

What is in your hand for the subject?

Eh … ladies’ funny gun.

The authors of the game suggested that steampunk would look good within the framework of this concept. Indeed, in words everything is very good. Earth devastated by the war, lifeless steam machines and tasteless structures, soldiers embittered by serum and wild residents wild for the same reason. The population and its growth have been greatly reduced lately, the only employer has remained industrial p.WITH.AND., Winsing the brains with propaganda, and there was absolutely no strength or resources left for a massive and organized uprising. The micro-resistance controlled by classic revolvers and automatic rifles, a shotgun, a sniper rifle, a bolotrel, a kind of grenade launcher, a slaughter column and mines. You can also choose a hand grenade launcher that falls out after the murder of robots, but this is an extremely rare pleasure, since these same robots meet in the game a couple of times.

Gameplay involves dynamic battles at relatively short distances, since the accuracy of shooting at the machine gun and revolver is extremely small, most of the cartridges at distances above average flies into milk. At large distances, enemies do not react at all to the actions of the protagonist, continuing to stand in a pillar even when hit. And if there is a sniper rifle, then clicking the blanks does not cause any problems. Close to all exactly and vice versa. Opponents change positions, hide from shots behind the walls, perform acrobatic sketches, deftly jumping from the roof to the roof. At first, this makes you actively move, change your position and use the analogue of the “spider flask” to reveal the location of the enemy. Unfortunately, you quickly come to understanding the logic of the body movements of enemies and calmly cut everyone without problems until the very end of the game.

I didn’t feel a serious impact from weapons here. The shooting is flat and only in a sniper rifle is felt due to a deep sound and strong return. Enemies after the murder either fall with blanks or freeze in ridiculous poses, which is extremely unforgivable for 2009. But they shoot accurately and kill quickly, if you run into the stupid and shoot. Enemy hits on high complexity do it very painfully and you can die from a pair of shots from a shotgun or an automatic line. When the minimum health threshold is reached, the screen discolus, sounds from the outside are clogged with a strong heartbeat. This approach seemed interesting to me and fresh. In other games, the screen is abundantly filled with blood and/or begins to pulsate, which cuts the eye a little. There are no shelters in the manner of GEARS of WAR, although the environment hints at this – small concrete fences, barrels, boxes, many small buildings and large windows. Perhaps they decided to refuse in advance in favor of other aspects of the game.

If I lived in such finalcountdowncasino.uk a place, then some kind of creature would also have gobbled up, unless of course I had before I seized down from hopelessness and dullness of what was happening.

In the jumps, he took out the moon with his hand

One of the main mechanics of the game is acrobatic sketches performed by heroes when moving on the map. Each level is a multi -level structure, according to which we must pass to achieve the goal, which demonstrates a smooth flight of the camera before the start of the episode. We jump over the abysses, start from the walls in the jump to catch on the beam on the other wall, pull ourselves on these beams, walk along the edge, hang on the ropes, climb the stairs, and knock out the windows with our carcass in the jump in the jump. And all this happens, well, very slowly, extremely irrelevant and hard. Of course, it was stupid to expect the same ease and speed as in Prince of Persia or Assassins Creed, because we are in the Wild West, and the hero’s appearance corresponds to the cowboys of that time, and the guns behind our backs weigh a lot. But if you go from the nasty, then the heroes are too briskly jumping with such uniforms. Probably, in that reality, everyone takes up acrobatics courses with weapons behind their backs, otherwise death.

Let’s look at the typical displacement scenario by level. Here we are in a destroyed building, where there is no staircase-we pull ourselves behind a beam and jump to the other side. From there we cling to the rope, possibly linen, and overcome the abyss. And then the destroyed bridge. Not a question. We scatter and jump, clinging to the edge. And so we are met by several ugly multi -storey buildings in a row built on small ledges, without a hint of cranes or communications systems there with both the outside world and between the buildings themselves. But there are whole kilometers of stairs and stretched ropes. Who built all this, and most importantly why? What people did there and how they got to work? And the further we are moving around the game, the more such questions arise. The designers of the levels do not explain this in any way and do not argue. There are no hooks or stories told through the environment, there are no notes or stories of residents, exactly, like the inhabitants themselves. You will not learn anything about this alternative reality except what the creators of the game will tell you. It turns out that the parkour has grown from scratch. Instead, it would be possible to make a Steampankovsky cloth that produces a hook cat or boots with a mechanism that allows you to jump high and overcome long distances. In my opinion, this would look more impressive, and would support the dynamics of the game. And in the current form it quickly bothers and does not create any new situations to the final credits.

Before the start of each level, a drunken camera makes a complete flight around so that we definitely do not get lost, but for sure we have earned dizziness.

Each new level is similar to the previous one like a twin brother who filled a couple of tattoos and a hairstyle changed. Moving options from point to point usually two, no more. Sometimes you can get lost in four walls, and sometimes everything runs up as fast as if you miss most of the location. Fortunately, you will not regret it.

At each level, I tried to imagine how I entered and go out how my pedestrian route should take place in this zone.

My motorcycle was angry under me

The third unique game mechanics are a motorcycle that is able to easily call on the walls, changing its position in space. And again, a wonderful gameplay is drawn in the imagination, where we fall at high speed, enemies, traps are everywhere, everything explodes, and the brutal soldiers or residents are overtaken from us on similar motorcycles, or even on steam tanks. Some crazy max. In fact, we go most of the time in proud loneliness, except for the partner behind his back, who occasionally tries to get at least someone in this, sorry for the pun, desert. There is nothing happens around at the same time, not counting the last race (again inappropriate pun), where lazy explosions occur, which can be ignored and the same lazily shooting enemies. The change of position in space is also not clear why it is done. The locations are long tunnels in the shape of an intestine, and the paths for travel are clearly marked with traces of tires, so no freedom. Even spectacularly jump from the motorcycle in the gta manner and knock them down a couple of adversaries will not let them. It’s a shame.

A partner is trying to aim, but everything is in vain, since the speed is too high to shoot someone at all.

Two friends went home

In a single campaign, you will never feel lonely, as a partner is always somewhere nearby. Yes, and where is he, by the way? Okay, somehow he will get. And this is the next drawback of the game. A partner is easy to lose sight of almost at the very beginning of the level, and then jerk abruptly, meeting him behind one of the corners. On the other hand, he (or she) often takes attention to themselves and roll off enemies well. At the same time, if the partner was wounded, then he will wait endlessly while you resurrect him. This is done by pressing one button from any distance due to a special ability that allows you to reveal the location of enemies. By the way, you cannot move in the “trance” mode, but it is a pity. This would give additional space for maneuver or the opportunity to run around the enemy behind the back, which, however, is also impossible. Stlass is not provided here, as well as quick murders. Do not sneaking, but if you are noticed, then everything is at once. So we live.

Between the shootings, the protagonist often throws up a couple of phrases with partners, mostly banal and necessary only to promote the plot. “Look, he poisoned all the water in the city” or “What a large … factory”. The character of the heroes does not reveal this, and does not need. Everyone has their own open goals. One main thing is to stop the Lord Prescott and one personal. Rurk’s protagonist wants to find his wife, Yakiken subsequently-to find a brother, the doctor-to find a daughter, and then she is a father, and Zagato-to protect the city of Terra-Verte and its inhabitants.

Conclusions

On the one hand, the game has a lot of a mechanic, and on the other, their poor implementation makes gameplay gray and monotonous. Unsuccessed potential is felt at every level. Here are the ruins of the city after hostilities, but they are felt as if these actions took place 50 years ago. There are no fallen warriors, there are no characteristic consequences. But the factory on which the flames should play, the anvils and numerous mechanisms are ringing, where simple hard workers work without fingering the spin, preparing for production an unclean number of combat robots. There are metal structures here, but they are lifeless, as if all the workers have gone at once for lunch.

I did not mention the graphics with a separate item, since everything can be seen from the screenshots. The classic UE3 without additional superstructures demonstrates the average picture and suffers from the same sores as other mid -budget games – Peresvets and an incomprehensible haze, from which you constantly want to wipe the monitor. The only thing that is done is well – textures. They are clear here in fact everywhere. Models of characters and weapons look nice, but do not do the weather against the general background. With sound the same trouble. It is and sounds, but catastrophically lacks good dynamic, suppurate music that would smooth out the corners.