Have you ever wanted a Spawn game, but a lower budget version? Well, you’re in luck, because this is our Devil’s Hunt review.
I know maybe the intro sounds a bit harsh, but let’s be honest, Spawn but lower budget is about how Devil’s Hunt feels. Why? That’s what I’m about to get into.
My first issue was the graphics-they’re bad. They’d fit right in about ten years ago, maybe more, but for 2019 they’re weird, distorted and rubbery. The characters are stiff, even if the combat animations are actually pretty good. While the work on the faces and textures are good, the underlying geometry is bad and the actual movements outside of combat are pretty terrible. Add in that the facial expressions are half done, making Andromeda look like a masterpiece by comparison, and you have something that can be, at times, almost painful to play.
Our intrepid spoiled richboi “hero”
My second issue was combat. Yes, you have abilities and they could be useful in a strategic way, but even the boss fights seem largely to consist of dodging around while button mashing. Anything but your quick attacks has a delay, which your opponents can easily make use of, and frequently do. This gives you two options for combat, button-mashing fast attacks while moving around, or running away, hitting a skill and then running away again. I suppose you could intersperse them for variety, but it’s still pretty repetitive. I could see this as a benefit for new players, as it’s simple and easy, and to be honest the controls are pretty basic. For those looking for something meatier, though, this isn’t their game.
Fighting some “bad guys”-after a terrible cringy terminator reference
The story does play like a budget spawn plot, where instead of being a betrayed cop, you’re a spoiled amateur boxer whose fiancee supposedly cheats on him with his best friend. Honestly, you’re a jerk. And an idiot one at that. You die, you go to hell, you get given a job to go kill bad guys for Lucifer and are sent to crawl back out of your grave and wreak havoc. No, you don’t get a cool costume. Instead, you get burned and get to wear your jacket and jeans, which apparently, they buried you in. We won’t get into that.
The muddy leather jacket they buried you in for some reason and the terrible chapter heading.
I feel really bad for the voice actors and the musicians because, to be honest, the voice actors are actually one of the high points. They’re actually really good and expressive. However, their script is terrible. Like really really terrible. It is not just cheese, but rolled cheddar surrounded by flaming gouda. It doesn’t help that Desmond, the main character, frequently talks to himself, stating the obvious and making awful, terrible remarks that, I think, are supposed to be funny. The musical score is actually pretty good and fitting, and while I was playing, I wished I could have just opted for a completely different script so I could otherwise enjoy the voice actors and the music. As it was, I was tempted to just turn the sound off completely, the story and script were that bad.
Now this-this would have been a much cooler main character. Instead, so far, he’s effectively Head Goon.
And the last issue was navigating the game as the character itself. There are parts where you walk and can’t run, for no discernible reason, if you need to jump up or down, your placement has to be pretty damned specific since the trigger spot for actions is really narrow. Why? I have no idea. Add in that there are no side areas and that while you can jump on top of a bookcase, you can’t walk up an undesignated slope or over knee-high rubble, and it gives the game a feel more like a 3d visual novel with combat thrown in. No, there are no dialog choices, either.
By the time I got here, this scene kind of made me feel vindicated. As far as I can tell, Desmond’s an unlikeable dork and totally deserves this.
Note: A code was provided for this review.
