The Haunted: Hell's Reach

Last year, the team behind The Haunted: Hell’s Reach won $50,000 and a commercial license for winning the Make Something Unreal mod contest put on by Epic. Soon players will have a chance to experience the full PC retail release.

The developer, now known as KTX Software Development, has teamed up with THQ’s ValuSoft label for publishing. Both PlayStation Network and Xbox Live editions are expected to release next year. We took The Haunted for a spin recently to see what it’s all about.

The core concept is that you and your human survivor friends blast away at waves of demons in a variety of arena-style maps. This third-person shooter also includes plenty of melee attacks to knock back or stun demons or charge up for an instant bloody kill. Weapons include all the standards like pistols, shotguns, and assault rifles. The better you play, the faster your weapon experience bar fills up. Each gun has several upgrade levels. For example, the standard pistol goes to semi-automatic pistol then a revolver. The next three upgrades offer dual wields of all of these.

The primary mode called Inferno allows up to four players to work together to take on finite waves of enemies ultimately making it through all of the rounds and finishing the game rather than fighting forever. If your buddy dies in combat, you have to run around and find his soul stone and bash it. If you don’t make it there in time, his soul is stolen by a demon that runs off. The humans have to chase and kill it to revive their lost friend.

Survival mode works almost exactly the same except it has no defined ending. Your team keeps going until everyone’s dead.

Battle pits four human players against four demon platyers similar to Left 4 Dead’s versus mode. Demon players actually control a dark cloud that floats around the map. You can look down on the action and send in a variety of demons to attack. The most powerful enemies, like the flying demon, for example, take longer to cool down before you can drop them into battle. Don’t worry, you can also actively control any of your summoned demons to attack the other team. They will be able to tell a human’s at the controls with a handy blue haze that outlines the demon. In other words, “Kill me first.”

In Demonizer, four players control humans against the standard legion of demons. However, when a character dies he’s turned into a demon. Then when you kill a human player as a demon you turn back into a human. The last human standing wins.

Single player is also available in The Haunted, but it’s basically like a less fun version of co-op. An Internet connection is required to play the game either way so you might as well team up with some friends or strangers to fight the evil horde.

If this sounds like your thing, you’ll get the chance to start blasting demons on October 25 for an inexpensive $20.