Steam-punk is one of those strange, uncanny ideas that ought to make no sense. Steam in place of electricity, buildings that shouldn’t stand, gravity and aerodynamics defying airships and often just impossible wardrobes – look at any steam-punk world and you’ll be hard pressed to even imagine how any of this junk is even meant to work. But when it’s done right, it magically comes together and you believe. We think ‘inherent coolness’ is the force that keeps the impossible running. Game’s development often feels like it operates under similarly hazy rules; with various eclectic elements of style, mechanics and gameplay hopefully brought together to form a fun, cohesive experience. If it always worked, we’d be hip deep in great games, but more often than not great ideas fail at the execution stage, becoming less than the sum of their parts.

Sadly Damnation, developer Blue Omega’s steam-punk cowboy third person ‘vertical’ shooter, is a good example of that. What was meant to be the first time developers original, fast paced, parkour inspired shooter with a fresh vertical dimension, has ended up as a last generation Tomb Raider derived, combat poor and graphically sub-par platformer, failing even on the steam-punk ‘coolness’ factor. Its fiction reminded us of old Saturday morning cartoon ‘Brave Star’ more than anything else- not we’re willing to bet, quite what Blue Omega were gunning for.

In Damnation, an endless Civil War and steam punk technology has allowed the evil Lord Prescott and his PSI Corporation to become dictatorial rulers of ‘New America’, addicting its citizens to his mind altering ‘serum’. Only cowboy hero Hamilton Rourke and his rag-tag band of rebels, the most over the top, clichéd characters we’ve seen in a while can stop him. There’s the oh so good guys, laconic, square jawed Hamilton, his fiery non-union Mexican equivalent Zagato, the peace loving Professor Winslow and their tough as nails, huge breasted Squaw healer Yakecan, and the pantomime bad guys, evil Lord Prescott, his bitchy henchwoman Selena and her manga inspired robot ninja - but there’s nothing here you haven’t seen before. Blue Omega’s film backgrounds may account for Damnation’s committee style plotting, but not much from their ‘cool games ideas’ tick box actually sticks.

Even an angry lesbian sub-plot between Selena and the Prof’s daughter can’t spice things up, and scant characterisation meant huge revelations later in the game left us unfazed. Poor presentation doesn’t help and the lack of graphically polish on even the highest PC settings made us cringe in sympathy for our lesser console brethren if this is what we have to put up with. Cut scenes feel unfinished and in game characters are pretty box shouldered and janky, with occasionally dubious animation, and worse yet, collision detection across the climbing, combat and vehicle portions of the game.

What makes it worse is that we’re now all so used to the fluid, natural and beautifully animated climbing of games like Assassin’s Creed and Prince of Persia that Damnation’s climbing action can’t impress, feeling almost jarringly mechanistic in comparison. You can hang from ledges, slide down ziplines, double jump against walls, clamber up ropes and pull yourself up over out croppings and windows, but everything is marred by imprecise, jerky controls, and a camera you have to continuously wrest back into the right place.

… continued