Bear with me because this going to be a stretch hybrid. Have you ever wondered what Devil May Cry mixed with Darksiders with a very Miami Vice-esq protagonist would be like? (told you it was a stretch) but if you answered “YES” or “Hmm, that sounds strange yet cool” then 1C Company has the game for you!

Ladies, Gentlemen and demons of all forms, welcome to Devil’s Hunt!

STORY

You play as Desmond, a successful boxer, son of a business tycoon who lives in a lush mansion and is about to propose to the girl of his dreams.

Sounds perfect right? Well, yeah it does sound perfect. I am kind of jealous…stupid Desmond.

Sorry, lost track there! Desmond’s life turns upside down when he awakens from a dream, where he was fighting demons in hell. However strange, he feels somewhat connected and a familiarity with the demons he fought.

After turning up late to work, Desmond’s father blames you for the financial shipwreck his company is suffering, and demands you leave. Angrily, you storm off but not before being confronted by your best friend. He tells you to calm down, saying that you must get ready for the ‘biggest fight of your life’. You return home, propose to your girlfriend, grab your boxing gear and head to an underground fight club.

Surprisingly, you see your father in a VIP booth, seemingly making bets against you. As you square off against you boxing rival, his eyes turn primal yellow and a flurry of punches engulf you. You awaken a short time later, in the training room. Your face has been battered and bruised and you embarrassingly stumble to your car and head for the safety of your house. Upon arriving home, you find your best friend sleeping with your new fiancé. Gross. You drive off to confront him, but in a fit of upset you drive your car off a cliff.

You awaken in hell and after a series of events, you are confronted by Lucifer. He brokers a deal with you, bargaining you to bring him more souls in exchange for your return to Earth / life. Your first victim is your former best friend. Having acquired vengeance, the guardians of hell start twisting and alternating your former deal, and it appears that not all is fair in love and hell…

GAMEPLAY

The gameplay is like that of fellow third-person adventure games. The camera will stay in a fixed position as you move forward and back in the land of the living and of the dead. When a battle ensues, the camera raises up to an elevated viewpoint, allowing for a better scope and approach of the landscape / battle ahead. The game has a simple button mashing approach to fighting and reviving. Each fight rewards you with souls, which both heal you during battle and accumulate at the end of the fight. These can then be used in a tech-tree style ability board whereby spending X-amount of souls will unlock various upgrades and abilities to use during fights. These may range from a quicker rage meter build up to unleashing new moves etc.

Interacting with the world around you does tend to clip and get confused a bit of the time. The “interact’ button can sometimes freeze or slowdown Desmond in a variety of ways, which is not enough to turn the game off, but it does tend to have that lingering bad taste in your mouth when it happens.

CONTROLS

As previously mentioned, Devil’s Hunt in-fight button mapping is quite simple and effective. In fact, none of the button mapping in Devil’s Hunt is hard to utilize at all. Whilst some other games require you hold down two buttons while wrangling a third and wondering why the game doesn’t register your antics as you learn to undo the arthritis now setting in on your damaged fingers, Devil’s Hunt clearly displays updates and guides you through all initial button utilization and future upgrades you’re bound to encounter on the hellacious path.

GRAPHICS + SOUND

1C Company really do need to be commended on the graphics for this game. The art direction for the damage on earth, and the detail and imagination of their design of Hell really are breathtaking. I found myself wondering around the levels, ignoring the request of my on-screen, story-advancing ally and instead discovered just the beauty and creative nature of the level designs. From blood bubbles slowly increasing and decreasing in a freakishly breathable way, to the fire pits and spirals to the demonic hordes of enemies Desmond faces, all of them have a similar yet unique feel to them which makes Devils Hunt a nice, welcomed gaming experience — well, as welcoming as ripping demons apart can be!

The sound slightly lets the game down here. Although the voice over work is clear and precise, the level of actor intensity really does range. Some lines are way too forced or over the top, and some dialogue just flat out sounds pretend, very daytime soap opera style dramatization. Which, on the scale of things, may not be a bad thing overall but, it still is incredibly distracting. The music during the fights and scenes are perfectly complementary to the action scenes playing out before you, however when the next scene loads, the music does not fade out for a smooth transition over to the next scene. It just abruptly ends, as if someone had unplugged the music player.

CONCLUSION

All things considered. Devil’s Hunt is a massive journey and release for 1C Company. If you are a fan of demon hunting, thrilling story and having the powers of hell thrust upon you, then by all means do yourself a favour and grab this game today!

Written by: Brutaleo