The Haunted: Hell’s Reach was KTX Software Development’s winning entry in the Make Something Unreal competition last year and now, 18 months later, has got a retail release. Since it’s a $19.99 game that means that the quality bar could be lowered a bit for the review. But I hold all games to high standards of playability and enjoyment so let’s see what it’s got in store for us.
The Haunted: Hell’s Reach takes a mixture of iconic locations like a wild west frontier town, an old castle, ancient temple, etc. and throws in demons and zombie-like creatures that have invaded the planet. It’s a weird mix of locations and modern weapons like assault rifles and semi-automatic handguns in the game, but in the end it all works well together for a decent third-person shooter. The Haunted: Hell’s Reach features 30 stages in 8 levels, around 20 types of enemies, four characters (which have no bearing on gameplay aside from appearance) and four game modes.
Inferno Solo - Fight off the waves of demons until the final battle against Abaddon in hell.
Survival Solo - Fight off the demons as long as you can while the hordes continues growing.
Inferno (MP): Up to 4 players work together to defeat the minions of hell. Send as many back to Hell as you can!
Battle (MP): 4 human players against 4 demon players. Demons place and control hell-spawn and can take direct control.
Demonizer (MP): Each dead human turns into a demon. Demons can resurrect as players if they kill another human player. Longest surviving human wins!
Survival (MP): Up to 4 players try to survive endless waves of demons until every human has been wiped out.
It’s built on the Unreal 3 Engine, as part of the contest rules, and has some Steamworks integration. The thing it doesn’t really have is an actual campaign or story mode. In single player, you simply pick your level and mode and off you go.
