Damnation Game Review

I really wanted to like this game. For one the atmosphere is really cool. The old style western meets futuristic steampunk is pretty neat and the set up for the story is certainly interesting. The whole thing kind of reminded me of an old 80's cartoon called Bravestarr which I thought was awesome when I was eight years old. I also like the alternate history of the civil war where a weapons dealer sells measures and counter measures to both sides extending the length of the war and ultimately rising to power. All this is well and good but the story following a small group of freedom fighters against said arms dealer is very poorly told with a ton of awkward voice acting.

Really, that's the entire problem with this game, with every good thing it does, it turns around and does like two things wrong. The graphics are good from a technical standpoint, the draw distance and scenery look breathtaking at parts but then the textures look like something running on a PS2. The shooting is lacking and the biggest problem is that the A.I. for your allies and enemies sucks and there's absolutely no cover system which is odd as this game tries real hard to be Gears of war. The jumping mechanics and climbing are all well done with lots of polish so it's really baffling how they screwed up the shooting and drving so much.
Another strong gripe is that the boss battles are bland, all four of them and two of the fights are with the same girl whose voice acting is awful. Seriously, I think someone on the dev team had their girlfriend read the lines because they went over budget. On that note, this game is full of weird glitches and bugs and the game has random loading sequences that literally stops the game for like ten seconds. In one case they put a loading screen in the middle of a conversation.

So overall, it's not really terrible, but it sure is sad that this up and coming studio took a great concept for a game and nearly ruins it with lots of stupid problems. I can't really recommend this but if you find it under ten dollars like I did, you can certainly do worse, just make sure you jump in with lowered expectations. I say pick up Gears of War instead but if you want to try your hand at something a little different and aren't afraid to over look some of the serious issues, then give it a spin.

Verdict: 60/100