At a time where genres are crossing over and every game is labelled as an RPG or feature open-world, I’ve been yearning to try a game that played it straight. Devil’s Hunt, the indie action game from Layopi studies looked like just the thing I needed. A story-driven action game where you take on the forces of heaven and hell using fast-paced melee combat? Yes, please. Fast forward 10 hours and I’m ready to answer the most important question of all. Is Devil’s Hunt worth buying?

Story & Setting

Desmond had it all. The house with the best view in Miami, more cash than we’d see in two lifetimes, a loving girlfriend, a ripped body and daddy issues. But shit happens. Desmond loses his job, the biggest fighting match of his life, his girlfriend and soon, his life, as he drives a sports car off a bridge. Reborn in the service of Lucifer as A reaper of souls, Desmond sets on a journey of power and self-discovery. What follows is a mess of jumbled and nonsensical events that will test the patience of players.

I did like Devil’s Hunt’s cinematic presentation of its story. Sadly, this potentially-badass collection of tropes is ruined by the amateurish writing and one-dimensional characters. When the protagonist himself is the most boring and generic character in the game, you know something is wrong. While the supporting cast tries to make up for it, the terrible script they’re given ensure that they don’t.  The game tries to take itself very seriously, but thanks to the cliched and overly cheesy dialogues, comes across as unintentionally funny. It doesn’t do the messy storyline any favours. Devil’s Hunt is apparently based on a novel but ends up feeling more like a B-movie than anything else.

Gameplay & Mechanics

I was very open to the prospect of playing a no-nonsense linear action game. Devil’s Hunt does play it straight, but more than it needs to. The major problem lies not in its constricted levels, the drawn-out prologue or the repetitiveness but in the core gameplay itself. When I say core gameplay, I mean the combat.

While Devil’s Hunt takes inspirations from the hack n slash giants, it fails to live up to them. The obvious reasons are stiff animations, clunky controls, the lack of target lock, how the combat camera doesn’t centre itself on Desmond and above all, how unsatisfying the combat is. I get that it’s an indie title, but how hard can it be to nail down the basics? Each action feels like separate entities rather than parts of a flowing combo. Even a basic mechanic such as dodging feels clumsy. Even when you do pull off combos, most enemies shrug it off like it was nothing, thanks to the terrible enemy feedback. The sticky controls don’t help either.

I appreciate Devil’s Hunt’s arsenal of slick moves with three different skill trees that can be switched at any time. And I have to admit, the combat does get better halfway through when you unlock the final skill tree. It feels as if the entire game was built around these skills as they are more fluid and connecting than the other two. But chances are, you might have lost the interest in Devil’s Hunt by then.

There are other annoyances including the low FOV (especially when outside combat), constricted level design, unable to turn off camera shake and the likes.

Visuals & Performance

Devil’s Hunt isn’t a looker by any stretch of the imagination. The animations, both skeletal and facial are some of the biggest culprits here. But I do appreciate the visual design and some of the levels, as well as the particle effects, does look cool as a whole. I’ll cut the Layopi Games some slack, considering the budget and their size. What I couldn’t appreciate, however, it how generic the protagonist looks. He just looks so bored all the time. When minor characters are better designed than your hero, then you need to rethink how you want to proceed.

Devil’s Hunt ran weird for me. The game had no trouble getting over 90 fps at some areas at 1080p maxed out. But then you turn around to look at another section of the map and the fps drops as far as low 40s. Lowering the settings didn’t make much difference and didn’t improve the occasional stutter. Installing the game on an SSD didn’t help either. It’s also baffling why the game lacks the ability to turn on Vsync, the most basic of all graphical options.

Music & Sound

Devil’s Hunt does feature some decent music tracks, especially ones that play during combat. Nothing to get excited about but nothing bad either. Voice acting is decent considering the budget. It just adds to the whole B-movie vibe I mentioned earlier. I do wish the combat sounds had a little more oomph to it.

VERDICT

Devil’s Hunt had every bit of potential to be a guilty pleasure game. For a story-driven action game, Devil’ Hunt doesn’t do a great job of presenting either aspect to the player. The unsatisfying combat, clunky controls along with the cheesy storyline and a protagonist you just can’t connect to makes it hard to recommend the game, even to a person who like ‘rough’ games. Hopefully, the developers will resolve some of these issues and the game will become a sale-pickup down the line. As it stands, Devil’s Hunt is a relic of the past that is not worth the asking price of $34.99.