inXile-developed, Bethesda-published Hunted announced

9:00 AM on 03.15.2010   |   Nick Chester

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Hunted: The Demon's Forge, "a dark fantasy" and a "story of sacrifice and addiction," has been announced today. Developed by inXile Entertainment (2004's The Bard's Tale) and published by Bethesda Softworks, Hunted is an attempt to update the classic dungeon crawler experience of old, with a heavy focus on cooperative play. 

The game puts players in the roles of E'lara and Caddoc, as they work together using range, melee, and magic attacks to take out rat-bat-looking baddies and other monsters. With its focus on a cooperative experience, each character has his or her own strengths -- E'lara, ranged attacks; Caddoc, melee. 

"We looked at a lot of co-op games that were out there, and we found that they did a lot of tethering of the players," inXile's Michael Kaufman told us during a demo last week at GDC. "We took a different approach; we wanted to spread the players out, use the environment, use the world. So the spells and skills that we created are based on these ideas."

The Unreal Engine-powered Hunted is scheduled to hit Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC. I'll have a more in-depth previewing hitting later today. In the meantime, check out the screens, which include your first look at the game's Wargar creatures (a.k.a Ratty McBat Dudes).