There are few things more annoying than buying a new full priced game on the day of release only to find out it is a big fat turkey. Damnation from Blue Omega Entertainment is just such a game. It was heavily hyped by publishers Codemasters who described it as a steampunk shooter set to take things vertical. The gamble to buy a game before the reviews come out is always a risky business and in this case it proved disastrous. Damnation racked up a Metacritic score of 42 out of 100.

So what exactly is wrong with the game? Well to begin with the gameplay offers nothing new. Damnation is a standard third-person shooter, completely linear in nature and devoid of anything unique. The fact you can climb and jump up the environment and the linear maps tend to have more of a vertical slant than horizontal actually does nothing at all to create gameplay. You clear levels of sub-standard opponents who are posted at regular intervals. The weapon set is dull, the enemy AI is thick in the extreme with very poor path-finding skills and the odd fixed gun or vehicle section does nothing to spice the game up because they are implemented in such a predictable and boring fashion.

Advancement really doesn’t provide much of a challenge and turning to the plot things get even worse. There is a clunky American Civil war backdrop with some wealthy industrialist straight out of an old western lording it up over everyone and engaging in generally evil schemes. There is some kind of military serum and robotic troops. There is a fussy old professor, lots of big breasted idiotic women and a gay Zorro sidekick. The script and plot are clichéd and confused. The voice acting is diabolically bad and the attempts at humour fall flat.

Perhaps the art style is better? Steampunk can be a great style, a different branch of technological development which lends things a retro and futuristic look all at once. Sadly in the case of Damnation they seem to have used Wild, Wild West as a blueprint. The environments are the most impressive thing about the game. In terms of size and location they occasionally look quite good. The weapons are fairly uninspired and once you begin to explore the maps the endless series of empty boxlike rooms which appear to serve no purpose detracts from the reality. Worst of all are the characters. Your female ally is sporting the sluttiest outfit in gaming which barely covers her huge bust and your male sidekick is a surly, camp Zorro type who seems to hate you.

Damnation is a shoddy pile of flaws which is loosely tied together with a flimsy, boring plot. The gameplay is just dull and the only real challenge comes from bad level design which occasionally leaves you wondering about where the path forward is. The long vehicle sections sum up the game quite nicely as you zoom along a series of dull canyon corridors at speed. This is hopelessly linear with familiar gameplay and an art style which doesn’t hang together. Damn you damnation!