Hunted: The Demon’s Forge does exactly what it sets out to do, which is to capture the spirit of action-packed dungeon crawls in a way all the reference sheets and miniature orc figurines in the world can't. Combat is well-paced, visceral, and unrelenting. Ranged and melee are equally enjoyable, although a tendency of the melee AI to stand in your line of fire may give sword-and-board hounds an advantage.

The game's ranged, over-the-shoulder perspective is a little off-putting at first but soon feels natural. Switching between combat modes triggers a camera shift, but it's surprisingly unobtrusive - as it needs to be, because there's a lot of killing in Hunted, and you'll need dexterity and wit to get through it.

You may as well put aside your RPG assumptions here: there's no tossing up between an extra point of charisma or skill ranks in rat-catching. In the opening chapters you can't even carry a second weapon, meaning most players will favour something average and adaptable and rely on reflexes. Instead, customisation shows up in skill and magic choices. With only six skill paths each your choices are limited, but there's a surprising amount of flexibility. This can actually be frustrating, as there's no obvious way to reassign skill points if you spread yourself too thin.

On that note, there's also a lot of flexibility in Hunted in terms of challenge. Most of you will want to disable auto-aim, which is on by default, and avoid the well-named Casual setting. The difference in enemy behaviours, damage dealt and taken between difficulty levels is palpable, and beating the game on the highest setting would take some doing. There's almost no hand holding, so you might want to keep the manual tuned to the control diagram page.

Graphically the game is let down by a somewhat generic fantasy design, which a hint of South American aesthetic can't rescue. On an HD monitor some minor jaggies showed up in high contrast situations, but a really laudable number of detailed textures made for some nice eye candy. Some strange lighting decisions - character models glow strangely in the deepest darkest depths - detract, but the animations are in general pretty delightful.

The voice acting is rather good (although the stereo encoding is off) and exposition is kept to a minimum. Some of the writing is quite funny, as Hunted doesn't take itself too seriously, and in about ten hours I only heard a few bits of repeated banter. Levels are almost entirely linear, except for secret areas, because our heroes cannot jump: the slightest step down becomes an irreversible one-way gate. Loads of more obvious gates pepper the levels, in between distant checkpoints, which is a pain in the royal patella when you realise you've missed a secret branching room and have to restart.

The secret rooms are some of the strongest sections of the game. They make a nice breather from the relentless combat elsewhere, and while the puzzles aren't exactly Mensa material, they can be quite charming in that D&D; way. Quick, do a spot check! Whoops, stepped on a trap trigger, now I can't ride the bell-ringing platform back to the talking stone head.

It's this spirit of exploration within the confines of a devious dungeon master's narrative that makes Hunted such a lot of fun, complementing the constant battling. This isn't an RPG the way we think of them, but the story and setting will definitely please old-school RPG fans - especially in co-op, which, coming in local and online varieties, is a major draw.

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