Damnation Reviews

This game tries to be a mix of Gears of War and Prince of Persia but fails in both regards. I really like some of the verticality of the levels and the premise but it isn't enough to save it. It definitely would have been better if it was several hours shorter. Honestly, pass on this.

Good memories, I know some may not like it, I had real fun with it.

If you are fond of steampunk setting this game worth playing But be warned,: gameplay is clunky, graphics outdated even for the release time, I just like the atmosphere and weird world to replay few times

if you love jank, this is the game for you. some impressive world building is going on in the background but the gameplay is just terrible. yet somehow charming. liked it.

This game was quite unknown to me and probably is to most people. It's a game released in 2009 by Blue Omega Entertainment and published by a bit more known company, Codemasters. Damnation is an Gears of War style game where you proceed in a linear environment and shoot people from behind cover. You regenerate health to recover and you have your sidekicks whom you also must keep alive. You can carry 3 weapons and different kinda cartridge based weapons is given for you right from the start already. The start is completely weird, you have this guy in some cave who starts telling a story and soon you're being showcased some war at bridge without really knowing what time it's set in, why they attacked and most importantly.. when your team arrives.. why they arrive, who they are and where the heck they came from? This game doesn't explain alot of the reasons it also doesn't seem that interesting either. Forexample on this bridge scene there ends up being some guy who slaughters armed men with a sword because for some reason after these guys see how their fellow soldiers were just killed in closecombat, instead of them just shooting the sword guy from distance, they decide it's a good idea to confront this guy and go and die :D Alotta stuff in this game really makes no sense. The game offers platforming, faster running and in general more agile character when compared to GoW. This is also where things start to go wrong. Reason Gears of War gameplay succeeds, is because it focuses on only one aspect, covershooting and all the effort was put on that aspect only. Damnation tries to do alot of things without really excelling on anything. Forexample the platforming feels very clunky and just bad because the controls aren't really suited for that kinda gameplay because they're tanky and yet at the sametime somehow also still overly sensitive. In Tomb Raider when you turn, it doens't instantly turn, in Damnation your character does instantly a 90degree turn and this makes very confusing to control your character on some very narrow space. Gunplay feels also bad because the character's handling just totally doesn't fit for a shooter kinda game because it also was balanced for the platforming style but apparently the movement doesn't really work that well with either gameplay style. So you are left with a goofy game that feels cheaply made. The game is a very much handhold game. It heavily holds one's hand because if you don't do some act your sidekicks tell you to do (ie. shoot this object), they just do it themselves then. Aka game plays itself. Map design is also very non-challenging because everything is just so obvious and completely linear. Enemy AI isn't also good because sometimes they just stay still looking at you without taking any actions against you, so you'll just have to end their life because you can't stand looking at that brainless enemy. Now some of the good things.. This runs on Unreal Engine 3 and due to that, it's also very configurable thanks to the .ini files and because it's an UE3 game it also runs pretty well. As a aesthetic style choice, this game had potential kinda because it tried some weird steampunk cowboy thing and from what I know.. that kinda stuff hasn't really been done. Main menu works pretty well and loading screens are fast. But then you have this audio side of it.. when characters speak, it sounds as if it was said up in the space. Aka there is absolutely no spatialization. The voices totally do not react to environment in anyways (no echo, no reverbation..) they just come and disappear, sounds really odd. I tried to see if that thing would be fixed if you use hardware accelerated audio and so I switched from the .ini file the game to use OpenAL API but that didnt' fix anything. The game still suffered from the horrible environmental audio where the panning/location of sound also was still completely off. Forexample if you stood right next to your sidekick, on leftside of her, the sound would come from the backright instead of from just right. Like wtf? Visuals aren't also that impressive because as I soon noticed, the overly bloom and postprocess filled world was put for a reason. So that you cannot see the dated look of it. Once you disable those effects from the config, the game ends up looking really barebones. You see all the low res textures that the background environment has and also the actual area where you play doesnt' look that nice either. Not recommended even from a sale because nothing in this game feels good, nothing.

The best description for the game old shit. Nice story, it would be better if they made a movie in the clips more interesting than the game. The terrain is almost the same and there is no map. Ai are dumb and those who help you are more. The weapons look great but . Terribly not accurate, weak, slow to reload and almost out of ammo. The game is more about climbing and jumping or riding a motorcycle than fighting, and the battles are repeated. You also collect blue tokens that maybe unlock codes for you or you simply find them on the Internet. The sound is also bad, the clips are different from the game and when you turn it on. There are no bots and the multiplayer is dead. Buggy and terribly unbalanced. Either with a discount, for nostalgia or don't waste your time.

I previously had this game on Disk, but it seem to have a lot of problems. The Steam version I have now played for about 100 minutes, and I have not encountered any bugs...very happy about that. I do a lot of exploration, so I am not progressed as far as many others who like the combat. The story line is pretty decent, and the graphics and game play both seem nice to me. I did notice all of the bad reviews and comments this game had received, but I decided to purchase it anyway. I am glad that I did. The game lay out is very large, especially if you like to explore, and find items, etc. I would recommend this game to all, but it probably will not fly with the hardcore FPS people who like to run and gun, or like to do nothing but shoot targets. Otherwise, the rest of us would probably find some nice content within this game.

Damnation is a third person steampunk adventure/platformer/shooter. The game consists of shooting bad guys, platforming, solving rare puzzles and some driving. [b]pros[/b] + gameplay variety + nice scenery + weapon variety isn't very high, but some weapons are nice to handle + while the game is linear, there are often alternative paths to reach your goal + a lot of platforming. but it is never frustratingly hard + graphics + some gore [b]cons[/b] - overall average gunplay: enemies hardly stagger when getting hit and some weapons are way too inaccurate for my liking - story and especially the characters need some polish - way too much bloom that makes it harder to see visual cues where to go next since almost everything seems to be highlighted [h1]Verdict[/h1] Damnation is a decent adventure with some flaws. My biggest gripe is that some weapons feel a bit weak. But I liked the occasional driving, the alternative paths and especially the verticality of a lot of maps. Recommended to adventure players.

Despite the mostly negative feedback from others, I would recommend this game. It still offers a lot of fun for its price and has some surprises. Granted, the main plot is ridiculous, gameplay is very linear, and the cutscenes and any form of conversation between Rourke and his comrades is carried out with far less attention than you can demand for a game released in 2009 - they all behave like robots. Enemy AI is not a big concern. There might be more auto-save points as well because some failures will send you back just a little too far (no, can't save whenever you want). But on the positive side, movement animation in the action is nicely done, the controls are intuitive, and most of the world you are running around in is kind of beautiful (if you like steampunk). There are some nice puzzle situations such as aligning elements redirecting a stream of water to create a consistent flow, and some really fun motorcycle rides. That is not so bad after all.

Not too bad, bit short and very buggy game, feels rushed and unfinished but aside from that it's not terrible. The platforming system is pretty good, the gunplay is like Gears of War and there are some parts where you can ride a bike that can drive on walls which is fun. Overall I'd give it a 6/10. Not good, certainly not great but a fun little game to play coop.