I've commented on this before, but sans polling. To keep it short and simple, I LOVE having a local co-op option in my RPGs. I love the experience of exploring a world in wonder with a good friend who also is a fan of the genre and immersion. It is one of the few things that I actually find wanting about The Elder Scrolls. So when I first heard about this game, with its local co-op modus and the name Bethesda was attatched, I was elated. I know now that Bethesda is publishing, not developing, nevertheless, my biggest dissapointment was learning that their were only two character options for player. One male, one female, one Elf, one human, one warrior, one archer/mage. A little too prescripted and predetermined, a little too constraining for my liking. I had hoped to explore a magical realm with a character of my choosing alongside a friend roleplaying as a character of their choosing, playstyle and prefference. :confused:

Caddoc has as many magic options as E'lara, if you're going to attach /mage to her it's only fair to do the same for Caddoc.

I like creating my own characters but I don't mind having pre-determined characters here because there is a clear reason for them to be pre-determined (more developed characters give the devs more options with how they interact).

just give Caddoc a Lightsabre and Elara a Laser crossbow and call it good lol.

A company doesn't exactly just 'put their name on it' and simply fund them and sell the game. They do have some input and say as to what's what, so having some of the company that is Bethesda in this game will make it much better than if some other company published it. Wasn't really interested in Brink though... shooters don't really scream Bethesda to me.

The degree that a publisher is involved in a project can chance quite a lot. There are some situations where a publisher wants to make a certain game and looks for a developer to make it, and in these situations the publisher is generally very involved in the project. You also get the opposite situation where the developer is largely independent and can do what they want, and they find a publisher who will handle the marketing, distribution, PR, et cetera but the publisher doesn't have much input at all in the project itself. Of it's really a question of funding: is the developer funding the project themselves or is the publisher footing most (or all) of the bill.

These are sort of the extremes and there is plenty of room in the middle - I don't know what Bethesda's role in Hunted (or Brink) has been.

I would rather have 2 characters that are more fleshed out and are very unique than have 10 characters that really only differ in stats and looks.

As Donner said above at #02, both character have the same choices of customizing character's skills and spells. The point is which way you want to develop your character. Offensive magic spells, defensive magic spells, supportive magic spells, which one you would like to learn(unlock) / upgrade more as your character leveling up?

And for weapons....both character can handle both ranged and melee weapons. And of course, E'lara is far more better in range weapons while Caddoc is opposite (melee). For their apparel, it seems like we can only change their skin mod. Although players will never tired on customize character's apparel to makes them looks like more or just the way they want. But I'm fine with this.


Or you mean we could have a quick, assassin-like character or a heavy armored magic templar-like character? Or further, completely build your own character like add "agile" more to build this character as a Assassin? Well, Hunted is a 2 players co-op game which you don't need that much. And that is what makes these two character so differentiate and unique.

In Left 4 Dead, each character have their very own background and personality, but beyond that each character is totally the same on in-game performance (except the Hit-box). So what change the character's do is the skill of the player and what kind of weapon they are using. And for this, both characters in Hunted not only have the personality differences, but also different in in-game performance. That changed the co-op and behavior between players and also bring a new gameplay experience to them. So unlike Fallout is "being who you want". Hunted is "being who you not",.....I mean...may not...you are not a elf...aren't you?

I can appreciate that to some degree, and forgive my mistatement concerning Caddoc. That said. . . deciding the look of your charcter, from gender to hair (at least whether or not they have it) has increasingly become an important feature of many RPG video games (it was always a feature of the old school board games, of course [which were almost ALWAYS multiplayer party co-op), especially with games like Fable III and The Elder Scrolls as a series. I would not for a moment expect all the choices of Elder Scrolls in this game. It is a different world, for one thing. But I would at least like to see basic options like, male Elf or Female Human. . . Human with hair instead of without. Robes instead of armour, slimmer build rather than heavy set.

I am sure this will be a good game, for what it is, but I cannot help being dissapointed, in that an epic RPG of this style could be so much more rewarding if players had more freedom in deciding who their characters were. I hope that one day, not long in coming, such a game shall emerge, and hopefully Bethesda shall be involved.

Same here: Two well-balanced and deeply drawn characters are better than a pile of colorful clowns trying to do everything other than the next one.
RPGs with more than four characters will be flat and boring because every one will be limited to just one or two RPG aspect (Meele, Ranged, Tank, etc.).
Having two characters makes this a bit more enjoyable, because you can specialize and still have the ability to use skills of other aspects than the
chosen one.

And having only two characters makes it also easy to add another one with an expansion pack without making one of the old characters obsolete.

There's certainly nothing wrong with wanting a multiplayer RPG that has a lot of character creation options and isn't an MMO - once studios were rushing to make the next MMO cash cow the multiplayer RPG genre pretty much dried up. Hunted isn't trying to be this sort of game, but it isn't unreasonable for people to be surprised by fixed characters especially with Bethesda Softworks as the publisher.

Every element of the characters that the developers determine gives them an extra hook they can use when working on dialogue and characterization. A fixed name, race, and gender greatly simplifies the dialogue they need to write and the latter lets them focus on a single voice actor per character. Even a fixed appearance gives them opportunities. Setting an element is only worthwhile if it is used but with the banter we've seen so far it does look like inXile is doing this.