Preview by: Neilie Johnson

Bethesda—in cooperation with developer inXile Entertainment—is bringing what looks to be the start of a new (old) trend; a co-operative action RPG with a decidedly old school sensibility called Hunted: The Demon's Forge.

Hunted is an ambitious title for developer inXile, a company known for its founder, former Interplay head honcho Brian Fargo, as well as its casual web and iPhone games and 2004's irreverent RPG, The Bard's Tale. As 'big' as the game is for inXile, it's a perfect fit for Bethesda, being set in a dark fantasy world. The story involves the adventures of unlikely mercenary partners, E'lara, a sexy elven bowmaster (bowmistress?) and Caddoc, a thick-necked, human swordsman. As happens so often in fantasy games, humanity is in peril, beset by demonic creatures that are kidnapping them for some dark purpose, and is waiting for someone to come along and save them.

Hunted is made with the Unreal 3 engine and in the spirit of the retro dungeon crawler, is designed to be co-operative. Two players take on the roles of either E'lara or Caddoc and set out both to defeat the kidnapping demons and to discover the fate of the villagers. Our demo started with the two heroes being sent on a mission by a mysterious spirit named Seraphin. They entered a seemingly deserted village only to witness a bevy of grotesque skull/demon things busily tearing the hearts out of the few remaining villagers. They responded by attacking, showing off their skills with both bow and sword. E'lara exhibited fearsome special ranged skills and spells (she could even light arrows on fire using nearby braziers) while Caddoc's talents were exclusively melee; both of them however, had the ability to perform some form of ranged, melee and magic attacks.

We continued to watch as E'lara and Caddoc fought their way through the village, taking cover behind wood and stone barriers and picking up mana and regen vials along the way. As they took damage, a blood spatter effect appeared on the edges of the screen that faded when they kept their heads down, and they were also able to revive one another, even long distance. Not wanting to force players to be joined at the hip, inXile has implemented an unusual revive system that allows players to heal one another by targeting each other and lobbing healing vials. From what we saw, it worked great, giving players more freedom to move and to strategize. Another unusual and very cool co-op mechanic is the way players are able to swap characters at every checkpoint, thus experiencing both styles of gameplay.

Both Caddoc and E'lara expanded their skill sets by buying upgrades from that shifty Seraphin character with crystals collected during their travels. During the demo we were shown spells “Hellfire”, which shot a big ol' fireball, and “Levitate”, which rendered enemies helpless by lifting them off the ground. We were also shown a co-operative mechanic called “Battlecharge”, in which one character charged up another with spells, giving both of them more power. After fighting their way through a slew of demons both armed and armored, and moving out to a vast outdoor arena where a humongous demon was seen moving in the distance, the heroes were confronted by a big horned boss demon that appeared to be immune to basic attacks. After vainly shooting, pounding and casting spells on it, E'lara cast lightning on Caddoc's sword, giving him a much more powerful Lightning Sword, and they beat the ugly thing, taking it down with an impressive co-op finishing move.