When a wealthy industrialist named Prescott decides to put an end to the American Civil War that has raged on for nearly four decades, you'd think Hamilton Rourke, the star of Codemaster's upcoming alternate history shooter Damnation would be pleased. Of course, the prospect of Prescott's well-funded private militia razing the American heartland in an effort to wipe out both the Union and Confederacy to establish a new regime might have something to do with Rourke's resistance. Partaking in a rebellious movement casually known as the Peacemakers, Rourke endeavors to stop Prescott's machinations.

You, naturally, take on Rourke's roll and journey throughout war-torn America putting Prescott's people in their place. Mind you, the Civil War is still going on strong, so the landscape is tough to navigate. Cities have been destroyed and the countryside burned, forcing you to perform a few gymnastics between shooting bad guys. Damnation peppers its shooting sequences with platform challenges. As such, the game has a vertical component to its combat that gives it a distinct feel. Levels, like the prologue we played, emphasize vertical movement through buildings and require you to engage in challenging vertical shootouts. In a way, it feels like a blend between the acrobatic adventuring of Nathan Drake in Uncharted: Drake's Fortune and the straight up obliteration served up by Marcus Fenix in Gears of War. The best qualities of both games appear to be combined here, which can only prove to be a good thing.

During the course of the single player campaign--which can be played cooperatively with a pal over Xbox Live--you're accompanied by a couple of fellow Peacemakers. Along with providing combat support, they're instrumental in helping you navigate through each level. Exploring a crumbling courtyard in the game's opening level, our comrades shouted out possible routes to us. You're free to take their suggestions and hop onto whatever platform they've marked or chart your own way through. Every level promises multiple paths to completion as a way of instilling variety in the campaign and potentially spurning you into another run through the game.

The action is quite intense, as we discovered in a firefight against a bastion of snipers hiding out in the tall towers surrounding the aforementioned courtyard. Joining them were a few foot soldiers that effectively harassed our teammates as we took aim at the snipers using our own long-range rifle. Despite being extremely deadly, the enemies weren't at all smart. The snipers stood in clear firing range after taking their shot, which of course made it easy to eliminate them. Not that the foot soldiers behaved any better. In one instance, we actually walked right behind an enemy, waited a second without any response from the seemingly unaware foe, and then knocked him out. We also noticed that it was possible to avoid direct confrontation by simply letting our computer-controlled buddies scout ahead and kill any enemies before moving up ourselves. It's great to be able to so easily take enemies out of play, but it also drains any real challenge from the game too. Hopefully this gets tightened up a bit.

Fortunately, Damnation has more going for it than unintelligent action. By default, Rourke is primed for platform challenges. The only way to fire off a gun is to hold down the left trigger and then fire with the right one. Normally, these are used in acrobatics such as scaling walls, shimmying across ledges, and the like. Completing the prologue involves scampering through the courtyard ruins, climbing up several walls, swinging from horizontal poles to reach distant platforms, and plenty of shimmying sequences. Amazingly, the game avoids the sense that the platforming elements have simply been tacked on for the sake of variety. The controls are functional and the puzzles interesting. Whether it influences combat in a meaningful way is a discussion to be had in review.