For fans of Vigil Games, the fall of publisher THQ meant that a followup to Darksiders 2 was highly unlikely. The promise of a four-player co-op game featuring the four horsemen of the apocalypse seemed like a no-brainer, former studio boss David Adams told Eurogamer in a recent interview:
“One of the first things we said when we got here was, we are absolutely doing a four-player co-op game. That wasn’t even up for discussion. It was like, okay, here’s one absolute we can all agree upon, and go from there.”
But when Crytek picked up Vigil after THQ went belly-up, the new publisher offered Adams – who’s now the CEO of the rechristened Crytek USA – the chance to make that four player co-op game they always wanted. Enter: Hunt: Horrors of the Gilded Age.
Set in the 1880s, the over-the-shoulder shooter features a quartet of monster hunters with an RPG twist. According to the Eurogamer profile, Hunt won’t feature the Zelda-like exploration, but will feature layers of character customization which, from the sounds of it will offer you some of the varied play styles of the Darksiders series. Adams calls the experience “old school” for the free-to-play game:
“I will say that old school sensibility is something we still try to carry over,” he says. “I don’t want to use the word retro, but we’ve taken some of the old school elements of shooters and reintroduce them in a new way in this game. We found that interesting because it’ll be a different experience. It’s not like every other shooter you’ve ever played.”
I’m definitely intrigued. Darksiders and Darksiders 2 are the definition of competently-crafted games that simply work. They didn’t change the world but instead brought together a host of influences into a largely successful whole, woven through some pretty clever (and dark) fiction. While it’s unfortunate Vigil isn’t able to play around in that universe any longer (Nordic Games picked up the rights last spring), Vigil was on to something with Darksiders and I’m hoping they can bring that kind of inspiration to Hunt.
[Source: Eurogamer]
