The story is thin to say the least and the characters are unconvincing, acting and looking like a bunch of clowns rather than some gritty rebels. Our hero is Hamilton Rourke, a forsaken soldier fighting his own war against the almighty Prescott, the dictator who rules over a heavily industrialized New America. Overall the narration might have been intriguing and somehow appealing, but the way the story unfolds and the complete lack of imagination in developing it, quickly ruins an otherwise promising idea.
To spice things up, Rourke is assisted by three characters driven by their own reasons to overthrow Prescott, destined to provide extra information and additional fire power throughout the entire campaign. This was of course, another widely optimistic idea from the game developers, because these companions are nothing more than walking advertises for misery and a constant nuisance. Not only they look and sound like members of a freak colony, but they are so incompetent in assisting you, that it's much better to ignore them completely and rely on your own ability to overcome adversity.
Both the Mexican rebel and the female healer are wearing absurd clothing that make absolutely no sense, and are constantly uttering silly lines, radiating a tasteless sense of humor. Inaccurate and unable to run for cover or coordinate attacks, your teammates will frequently rush into the middle of a firefight only to get incapacitated and in dire need of your help. It's only fair to say that these companions are not completely worthless, but their only use is caused by another major flaw in the game design.
With each level being unreasonably large and in the absence of a map or any other guidance, observing the road chosen by these mindless teammates can help a lot. Frequently enough they'll run on a predefined path, climb a hidden ramp or escalade a wall, indicating the right path in a maze of blurry textures. On the other hand if you move faster and reach a certain checkpoint quickly, they'll instantly teleport next to you, advancing through solid obstacles with ease; this unusual "blink ability" is most obvious in a challenge where you are forced to ride a fast bike through canyons.
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Speaking of this
particular event, it felt like a breath of fresh air in the beginning, and a
welcomed distraction from the jumping/shooting routine, but the illusion of fun
couldn't last for long. Of course the concept of a turbo powered bike in the 19th
century is kind of silly, but this could have still been entertaining if not
for its tedious nature. Driving through the same twisted ravines while your
teammates are shooting at mindless enemies who can't hurt you, can't keep one
wired for too long.
The much praised "vertical" gameplay is nothing more than a grim joke, very similar to Tomb Raider mechanics, but adding some new features that make it feel quite awkward. You need to press an extra key to climb a ladder or to jump in a specific direction, and even to release when you're hanging on some girder. It's so unusual, that will frequently result in an untimely death and since the checkpoints are rare, will cause a great deal of frustration.
On the bright side, developers acknowledged this maddening situation and while they did nothing to prevent it from happening, or at least reduce its frequency, made if much easier to cope with it. While being gunned down will toss you back to the last checkpoint, falling to your death will cause you to respawn in the same place and with full life. Suffice to say that anyone stupid enough to play the game a while to notice this, but smart enough to take advantage of this absurd feature, will plummet down in the deepest pit faster then a speeding bullet, when caught in a crossfire.
Enemies can inflict enough damage to kill you in a couple of seconds, but unfortunately they are that dumb that will rarely take the initiative. In fact the AI is so weak, that these serum infected foes will fail to react in an appropriate way even when they are being fired upon from close distance. Their only advantage is that bullets bounce off them most of the time, and you need to deliver headshots at least twice before finishing them off.
While you've got two distinct ways of punching your opponents (most likely never going to use either) there are just a couple of weapons available, and they all are downright atrocious. It's nothing short of amazing how inaccurate these guns can be, and not even the mighty sniper can deliver a finishing blow with just one bullet. Shotguns and explosive barrels on the other hand with reduce any foe to a pile of meat, and only some dismembered limbs will remain after shooting an enemy from up-close.
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Conclusion:
Define irony: a title that completely suits a game in every imaginable way, except for its true purpose. Damnation truly feels like an everlasting punishment for the player, failing in each and every aspect, while pilling up enough frustrating elements to make sure no sane person will ever desire to replay it. To make the long story short, this is the kind of game you'd expect to find only in teleshopping, because it's a piece of crap and they don't sell it in stores.
Gameplay: 54
From the first minutes to the last mission of this excruciatingly long campaign, you can't evade the feeling that this is a train wreck, a failure of epic proportions that won't have a sequel. The repetitive nature of every mission, a shallow narration that slowly sinks into near-irrelevance and a bunch of retarded enemies firing inaccurate weapons, cripple the entire gameplay. There is nothing "Vertical" about Damnation, more likely a flat line announcing the premature death of a highly anticipated videogame.
Graphics: 58
Complaining about visual effects in this game it's like handing out speeding tickets in a NASCAR race, because those features that don't look bland and uninspiring are downright hideous. Except for the brief moments when you get a nice panoramic view of an area that you'll never really going to explore, the various tones of grey are overwhelming.
Sounds: 57
Terrible voice acting and cheesy dialogues further plague Damnation, the cut scenes are tedious and after playing this game for a while, you'll be increasingly annoyed by these interruptions. The music is reasonably good considering the context, but it's nothing to shout about really, while a propaganda radio will relentlessly hammer your ears with the same lines over and over again.
Multiplayer: 52
Why would anyone punish himself by trying the multiplayer of Damnation is beyond my comprehension, but those interested can try the co-op mode or the online action. Cooperative is only entertaining due to the human nature, making one feel less miserable if someone goes through the same desolation. On the other hand the multiplayer will see you crawling through a huge map, hoping that you'll eventually meet the other player.
Hardware: 60
Like it was not enough that this game is ugly as hell and has an appalling gameplay, you'll have to deal with constant glitches and frame rate issues. On the bright side (if there's such thing), you can always choose to reduce details because in the end you'll still get the same tasteless experience.