As soon as a few notice a generate lack of western themed video games, a dozen different types of them fall out of the woodwork. We have had the classic western movie inspired Call of Juarez, and Call of Juarez Bound in Blood, the announcement of the open world free roaming Red Dead Redemption, and now we have the alternate Gothic take on the setting with the likes of Damnation.

Damnation was first released through steam on PC taken on as a download through Valve, originally a modification of Unreal Tournament 2004 that had come near to winning a conversion tournament. Now being published by Codemasters the game has found itself doing well for itself, as it’s now been produced for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 platforms.

However, its success and impression as an extravagant and creative modification can be very different in the context of being released through a professional publisher. So, does Damnation live up to the high standards of a current generation retail title?

Gameplay:

To set the given theme of the game, Damnation follows a fairly accurate depiction of a steampunk universe, but with a western culture laid underneath. The two fit very well, and the premise is very interesting, even if this style isn’t your cup of tea. You’ll get to meet Gothic cowboys, magical wielding Indians, and a good mixture of the two throughout your very bemusing playthrough of Damnation; as the first of many things that this game doesn’t present very well is the setting and storyline. This is not so much the setting itself, but why and where is this all happening, who these people are, and why they’re all fighting each other. Everything is pieced together in chunks for you as the game clambers on, telling the story in bits and pieces like this only really works with a setting with a familiar foundation.

Damnation plays like an old action platformer. An easy comparison might be the environmental musings of some of the original Tomb Raiders you might have found on the PlayStation, although, maybe more like Tomb Raider 2 and 3, as it’s more accurate with the combat and adventure ratio. The reason why I make this distinctive comparison is because of the balanced mix of shooting and movement in these games, Tomb Raider does this slightly better however, as those titles tend to throw a mixture of shooting and movement so you’re thinking on your feet a little. Damnation on the other hand doesn’t feel the player is capable.

Damnation takes the direction of wall and building traversing mainly, as you wander and sprint yourself around classical western themed towns, and then not so classical western themed towns. As the game progresses the artist tends to put another coat of colour desaturation to make the game darker, and darker, until it’s so gritty and murky, you’re wondering if you’re fumbling with the controls for your contrast settings. This effect is in effort of making the game’s levels more distinct; however the repetitiveness of the level structures still seep through.

As briefly mentioned earlier, Damnation attempts at mixing combat and adventure, and unfortunately the combat is the weakest part simply because there really isn’t any sophistication to it at all. No cover, yet you have to constantly run behind walls seeing as the enemies always know exactly where you are. There are a reasonable amount of weapons, and they’re all well balanced, however none of them are exciting to use in any way. There’s no recoil or power to the weapon, and this practically makes the whole shooting malarkey a chore. The 2nd half of the game is only a fraction more compelling than the shooting, as it gets you to think a little. Although I can also confirm the thinking process completely stops once you've found the first climbing element in the map; due to the game’s four way climbing system, map traversal becomes 2nd nature and accurate guess work. Main climbing spots are marked as being yellow ledges and ladders, and then the initial confusion is normally solved by a double jump onto a building or wall. This game makes it even less likely for the potential return of decent action-adventures, which is a shame, as it had potential itself in this genre, but tends to just fall flat on its face.

Having said that, Damnation is a relatively easy game to play, and although there are quite a few buttons to mess around with, you will end up using the same few combinations to get through. ‘LT’ is to draw your weapon; which is the equivalent of aiming, the usual ‘RT’ to fire, ‘A’ to jump; which you’ll be doing a lot of, and then ‘RB’ to prepare to jump; when you’re upon ledges and poles. These are the buttons that you’ll be definitely using to progress your way through the steampunk inspired world of Damnation. There are also vehicles to play around in, although not of choice. There are certain moments in levels where you’ll be given a bike, well actually, a bike will just appear and you’ll just assume to use it. The vehicles are an unfinished experience that’s for sure, you’ll move at insane speeds across questionably flat services, and then when you hit something immovable, you’ll just stop. This completely destroys the pacing of the game. There’s also a lack of rumble and heaviness when driving the bike, I think we’ve all come to point in videogames that when something crashes, or a vehicle moves, or just generally something big happens – like an explosion – the controller should respond with some vibration, this is rare in Damnation, and it really makes you appreciate the small things.

Riding the bikes is at least a good break from the stiffness of controlling Rourke (the main character) and being able to outsmart gravity by riding up the side of a sloped wall, and then when daring, moving to the ceiling at high speeds, there really aren’t many games I know you can do that in. It’s a shame though, as this mechanic never really takes off to being anything useful, except the odd cliff edge dodge. The level panning takes an easily tracked routine, and Damnation likes to make this even more obvious by giving you a tour around the map before actually playing it. You’ll either find yourself climbing up very large structures, or down very large structures – and if you’re really lucky – across very large structures. The missions become very distasteful and tedious, but Damnation does do quite well with some of the views when you reach the top, as your sight spans across the whole map, which tends to be particularly large; one of the selective few pleasing points about this game.

Graphics:

The graphics for any game – or the majority of games – can be cut into two halves, the style and technical achievement. Damnation performs particularly well in style I find, but falls far short in technical achievement, and as we all know, the two usually go hand in hand.

Damnation looks like a satisfactory PlayStation 2 game, and it seems nothing has been done to the highly adaptable unreal engine that the game uses. It’s understanding that this game used to be a total conversion modification of an ageing Unreal Tournament game, however to be released at full retail price on current generation consoles, there should have been some improvements. The steampunk style of the game gives it an identity and some aesthetics, the dark and Gothic theme that comes with this style is an acquired taste, yet I feel it works well as a whole. It’s a shame it has been wasted on such a ghastly and self-confused storyline. There are some very interesting design choices as well, obviously with inspiration from the Wild West. The steampunk brings out the ‘gothicness’ in the alternate cowboys and Indian inspired character models, but the character models themselves look outdated, showing no emotion in animation and movement, whether it be facial or just generally moving about.

The only technical achievement I can point out are the quite impressive draw distances, although with polygons this little, I can see why this was accomplished.

Sound:

I never normally worry about the audio too much in a video game, as long as it provides the sound that is suitable from the object that is making the noise, then I’m happy. And if the soundtrack is particularly catchy and well paced, then that’s just grand.

Damnation had a particular problem with its music, in that there really wasn’t any, the game is empty of harmonics and tune, and when there is it must be quite mundane to listen to, as I didn't notice it and it doesn’t affect the gameplay. The only tune that I can take account of is the action music, which came about particularly striking as it coincidently sounds like the Terminator theme tune.

The guns are the most disjointed of the sound effects in this game, as some of the weapons are painful to listen to. The machine gun is a great example of this, as it sounds like a copper pipe being pulled across nails, not something anyone really goes out of their way to listen to, and I would go as far as saying you’ll probably avoid the weapon just because of it.

The voice actors aren’t anything to shout and rave about either, as this is some of the most underwhelming voice acting I have ever heard, although being given a script this clichéd I can’t really blame them. Some of the acting is so unconvincing and ridiculous that it’s humorous deliberate or otherwise; repeating lines such as “come to think of it, you both shoot like girls!” had me and a few others in a fit of laughter, some of the rare enjoyment you’ll stumble across in Damnation.

Longevity:

I can give this game one disputable point in that it’s quite long, and there are a few ways to play it.

You’ll find that you’ll be able to play the whole campaign completely through online in 2 player co-op and also in offline co-op. The co-op definitely adds to the experience, it may not add anything new to the scenario and mechanics, but the fact that another person is there in the game with you is something to be appreciative of alone in this modern era of gaming.

And when you’re finished with the 12 + hour campaign, you can have a go of the shallow but refreshing multiplayer mode. The multiplayer can be seen as a mode that is just tagged on, it isn’t really anything to be excited about, and isn’t anything you haven’t already seen. You have the generic deathmatch, and king of the hill game types, both with the standard rules of play, which can still be fun, but part of the problem is that it does use the same poor and outdated mechanics of Damnation. Nevertheless, it can still break the monotonous trek of working your way through the campaign.

Overall:

I find it hard for myself, and anyone else for that matter, to forgive the scroll list of technical, chorographical, and design issues that are presented with this game. As I understand creating a modification takes a lot of effort and willpower for what would have originally been your free time, on that standpoint, this is an impressive achievement, releasing this as a professional title without a professional outlook is quite improper, and more so, if a game is put into production for retail release in this high bar generation of gaming, then there are a new set of standards a full retail priced game should take.

It is not acceptable for flickering splat textures to be present when playing, it is unsatisfactory for AI to shoot you during in-game cut-scenes, and it’s highly disappointing to have large areas of landscape with literally no environmental objects for some sense of immersion. There had been very little sense of enjoyment from Damnation, and the bit that did come from this game was due to the inclusion of the currently dying breed of offline co-op, and even that didn’t introduce anything new to the table.

And on that note, I’m afraid to say that even the alternate steampunk western universe cannot save the rigid, repetitive, and simply mundane experience offered by Damnation. I’d recommend anyone to avoid this game, unless you’re really missing the classic action-adventure genre.