Damnation

For those who can’t seem to make up their mind between buying a new shooter or a platformer, now you can have both in Blue Omega’s upcoming release, Damnation. The game takes place in an alternate future, as though the American Civil War has dragged on well into the 22nd century. You play as Captain Hamilton Rourke, who leads a guerrilla resistance force called the Peacekeepers. We were able to get our hands on some gameplay at last week’s Codemasters Gamers’ Day 2009, but with the release date only a month away, we could only hope that the final build will show some improvements.

There are times when a game’s influences are buried well beneath its own style and fresh ideas leaving only the internet’s finest forum detectives to stroke their cyber-chins and ponder what rival discs were spinning away in the dev’s debug kits during development.

To fully understand what Damnation is about, you have to forget about Gears of War 2. Forget that they’re both third-person shooters. Forget that they both use the same satisfying over-the-shoulder aiming method. Forget that both have the same darkened ‘ruined beauty’ visual style that is the Unreal Engine’s trademark.

Maybe Brendan Fraser, Adam Sandler and Steve Buscemi had a point. The Lone Rangers might have been a terrible name for a band, but at least the three airheads realised that you’re guaranteed a longer lifespan as a unit. So while Captain Rouke apes the quintessential Eastwood-loner, he’s going to be a few bullet holes short of a brain if he decides to go it alone.