Damnation (PS3)
Bringing dramatic third-person shooter action to huge, steampunk-inspired environments, Damnation for PS3 puts a range of unique weapons in your hands and lets you test the limits of the human body by performing acrobatic stunts to move through vertical levels. Set in an early 20th century world where the Civil War never ended, this game will have you climbing walls, commanding killer vehicles, and seeking out ways to stop industrialists with a thirst for totalitarian power.
- Take up a rough fight against the PSI in a world inspired by American history and steampunk aesthetics
- Explore huge, detailed environments that maximize the impact of vertical space and levels that each include up to three hours of game play
- Cling to ledges, hang from scaffolding, slide down ropes and climb up them, all while taking part in firefights
- Use your unique Spirit Vision ability to see friends and enemies through walls or from far away
- Experience four distinct multiplayer modes and support for up to eight players on each map
Review by MisterDerp1975 for Damnation (PS3)
(1 / 5)
Rating:
Haze and Lair were both the tragic results of a developer failing to live up to expectation. It came as quite the surprise; despite the pedigree of the two studios involved adding integrity to their lofty ambitions and haughty promises, the titles turned out to be possibly two of the worst this generation has yet to see. And we all know, of course, how costly such disasters proved to be for everyone involved.
Blue Omega, on the other hand, has approached Damnation from the opposite position, with nothing to lose and everything to gain. Originally starting life as a fan-made total-conversion mod for Unreal Tournament 2004, Damnation’s premise was, much like those aforementioned titles, full of promise. Its heady combination of vertical platform action and original steampunk setting was, in theory, set to offer a welcome twist to the more typical third-person shooter.
Yet in truth, Damnation’s an embarrassment. Horrifically broken in almost every conceivable way, the end result is a far cry from the “exhilarating epic” originally promised. The initial shock of the PS2-era visuals is the first warning sign, as badly animated character models clumsily traverse their vertical playing field with the rigidity of a circa-1996 Lara Croft, while animations of characters beside you condense to a stutter in an attempt to reduce load. It makes no difference, of course; the game’s frame rate regularly dives into a crippling single-digit figure when only a handful of enemies dare venture into view.
Damnation’s AI – of both the enemies and allies – is comical at best, absolutely inexcusable at worst. When they’re not running into walls or getting stuck on objects, they’ll fire at you with an inhuman level of accuracy or simply disappear into thin air at the drop of the hat. Which makes your life easier at least; Damnation’s clunky combat is so woefully awful that Blue Omega’s comprehension of the genre is open to debate.
It’s just totally haphazard and unbalanced. Machine gunners can fatally wound you from miles away with a single piercing bullet, while snipers can often miss the target altogether. Get up close and personal and you’re guaranteed death regardless of whether the one-shot-kill shotgunners get you the first time; the screen blur implemented to warn the player of their impending doom is so over-the-top that it simply obscures your vision altogether. The rudimentary cover system too is altogether useless, requiring the player to physically remove themselves from behind cover in order to hit their target, despite the reticule flashing red to suggest otherwise. Fire when in cover and your bullets will almost certainly find themselves lodged in the object you’re cowering behind. To make matters worse, should your enemies be standing behind a low fence or similar themselves, your own bullets often fail to register, seemingly getting stuck in an arbitrary invisible wall in front of them. It turns the whole thing into a clumsy, impracticable mess, where the outcome of a firefight isn’t determined by the player’s skill, but whether the game decides to play fair.
Vehicle sections break up the frivolities, but again their implementation show Blue Omega up as a pathetic, and often plagiaristic developer (the similarities between some of Damnation’s design and Gears of War are obvious, least of all the game’s `Casual, Hardcore, Insane’ approach to difficulty), merely acting as exercises in time-wasting and offering very little purpose, or indeed, entertainment. Instead, they stick to the game’s unrelenting rule of being an unpolished – and clearly unfinished – mess, breaking all the laws of physics to jolt up a wall one minute, before randomly deciding to come to a sudden and unexpected halt the next. You just couldn’t make it up.
It’s frustrating because, at times, Damnation’s level design can show a fleeting glimpse of the spectacle it should have been. Levels are large and sprawling, as tall as they are wide, and though their linearity doesn’t offer the same amount of athletic freedom as, say, Empire City, their ingenuity is inviting. Overlooking a canyon and working out how to best get across momentarily raises a glimmer of hope, before the game dashes it with another insipid firefight or ridiculous design choice.
So, though still far from perfect (or particularly pleasurable, come to that), it’s the platforming elements of Damnation that are – surprisingly, in fact – the game’s highlight. But when they’re the best part of an otherwise broken game, what does it matter? Blue Omega certainly has the vision, but evidently lacks the talent to do it.
Simply put, Do not buy it.
Review by W. Lippiatt for Damnation (PS3)
(1 / 5)
Rating:
as i said this game is utter litter. not only are the graphics poor and the motion cluncky (bit like gears of war)but your “team” ar pitiful you spend half the time reviveing them.
Review by FussyReviewer for Damnation (PS3)
(1 / 5)
Rating:
I bought a few games cheap recently and finally got round to playing this – I don’t know if I mixed this game up with something else but saw a review where it looked Ok and thought it might be fun.
It is definately NOT this game I was thinking of!!…
This was so bad it prompted me to search reviews and see if I had made a mistake. In fact after reading reviews from people who have never written reviews except this game was so bad they had to tell the world, I have to join in too!
I agree with every comment I have read about this game except one – “This is Awsome” – what !?!?- that guy made no specific comments on why other than great graphics, great gameplay etc so I’ll either assume he/she added a review for the wrong game or he is in someway financially vested in the product (developer or his company or something) because even he couldn’t add any specific comments highlighting a single good thing about this.
If I had PS2-BC on my PS3 (don’t get me started!…;-) I’d have assumed I put in a PS2 game by mistake. Even then I have seen lots of better graphics and better animations on PS2 (think battlefront, GTA San Andreas, hitman for PS2 games that blow this out of the water for graphics and playability). The AI are morons who just seem to get killed and stuck in a loop like a bad record with the statements they then utter every 2 seconds. The voice acting is among the worst I’ve ever seen in a game with zero emotion. There is a terrible droning noise in the background that is designed to create tension (I think…) but just irritates, jumping about has that kind of floaty,unconnected to the environment look that you used to get with old commodore 64 games. Shooting is terrible, weapons rubbish. I see nothing to recommend this. I’ve not gotten to the driving levels and I won’t be as this was the first game I’ve played for quite a while that I’ve not considered would give me ANY pleasure to continue playing. I am a bit of a game nut and will even play bad games to the end (I must have played 100+ games in last cpl of years and finished 4 in the last 2 weeks) but this is the only game I think I will NEVER finish. I think I bought this for 8 quid second hand and I still feel ripped off.
I can only presume they pulled the plug on this half way through dev and decided to release it anyway to see if they could get some pay back for a failed venture. I heard this compared to Haze in one review – Haze may not be great but the graphics were 1000 times better than this and unfair to compare it to this turkey. In short I have played better PS2 games and this is a shameful game to release on PS3 against the likes of uncharted2 and MW.
I don’t know what they were thinking tbh…
Really – don’t think despite the reviews this is worth a look (as some games (like dark void, Iron Man (1) are if you like that kind of thing…) – just avoid it…
Review by Andy Sumner for Damnation (PS3)
(1 / 5)
Rating:
I bought this based upon a reasonable preview and thought that it’d be worth a good punt. Turns out that i was very very wrong. Targeting is hard, guns are rubbish, general movement is laboured and as for knowing where to go during level play…well i give up…too bored with it to continue.
Review by Chris. D for Damnation (PS3)
(1 / 5)
Rating:
I have NEVER played a worse game. The best part of this game is that it takes ages to install, at least you are not playing. Controls – Rubbish, Graphics – Rubbish, Voice overs, Story, Characters all ‘Rubbish’ (or a stronger four letter variant of this word) . If you have bought this game – take it back. If you have lost the receipt – cry. Blockbuster have never gotten a rental back quicker than this load. Codemasters – Why?