Damnation Preview

Codemasters upcoming Damnation mixes the Old West with a techno future to create a steam punk atmosphere with an abundance of jumping, grabbing and shooting.

Damnation

Damnation takes place in an alternate reality where the Civil War never ended and the Old West still rules with new technological prowess. You play as Hamilton Rourke, a rebel leader whose main focus is to bring down the tyrannical industrialist known as Prescott. Prescott intends on using his advanced technology to put a stranglehold on the country. As Rourke you must use your wits, athletics and major gun power to survive the ordeal.

Shooter or Platformer?

While Damnation may be classified as a shooter by some, it has more in common with games like Uncharted: Drakes Fortune than Gears of War. The many shooting sections are divided up fairly equally with platforming areas. The majority of these areas utilize a lot of vertical movement often giving the player a bird's eye view of their surroundings.

Breaking up the platforming and shooting areas are some driving sections utilizing various vehicles including motor bikes and the "Trike," which both have the ability to do wall rides as a means of maneuvering past gaps in the path. It is unknown how much driving will be part of the final game, but it was included in two separate sections fairly early on in our preview build.

Damnation

Damnation mixes the past and future to create a time of its own

Spirit Guide

The controls are simple with jumps and grabs being performed with a single button, often without the need to push the stick in the direction you want to go. While this is nice for beginners, it seems a bit over simplified for more seasoned players. Shooting is done with the Left and Right Triggers, and pushing in the left thumbstick will manually reload your weapon while pushing the right thumbstick will pull your view in closer for a more accurate shot. When not shooting, the left bumper can be used to deploy Spirit Mode, a type of mind magic that will reveal the locations of enemies in an upcoming area. In Spirit Mode, the bodies of the enemies glow a bright blue and reveal themselves even through walls, giving the player a healthy advantage before entering a new area.

Damnation has a rich campaign mode that can be played alone or cooperatively on the same console using a split screen. There will also be various maps that can be played in multiplayer versus mode.

Originally slated for release this holiday season, Damnation's date has been pushed back until early 2009. In the end, this is probably a good thing for a title that would likely get lost under the crush of this holiday's AAA titles like Fallout 3 and Gears of War 2. There will always be multiple games competing for gamer's attentions but a late winter release pretty much guarantees that unknown new games like Damnation will get fair attention without too much competition. We'll be sure to update you on the status of Damnation as soon as a solid release date is announced.

Damnation

Motor through the world of Damnation on a steam powered motorcycle

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