In a world where the American Civil War continued, where cowboys wield steam-powered rifles on motorbikes against crazed gunmen, clockwork robots, zombies... How cool does that sound? With such outlandishly entertaining source material, imagine what fun could be had with such a game? Imagine no longer, as you now have the chance to find out by playing Damnation.

It is a sign of how much I have been grabbed by the game’s scenario that I have had to poke around online for plot detail. If I had to go to these lengths, then I doubt my going into much detail about it here will be of much interest. Suffice to say that there's a really bad guy with an army of steam-powered thingummyjigs and you're a dark, broody cowboy chap who's looking for his missus who may have been abducted, presumably by the very bad person with the army. He is joined by some other guys who dislike the bad guy just as much, one of whom can be played by another person in a co-op game.

Other excellent examples of the lack of thought in the game's production are the sections where you get to ride a motorbike. Any of the companions that are with you in the game ride on the back, and may take pot shots at any passing bad guys. Given the inadequacy of the weapons in the game and the speed of the bike very little is achieved by doing so. Should you ride away without waiting for any of the characters to join you on the back of the bike, the passengers appear as if by magic after a couple of seconds. Another problem arises because you can't turn the bike around. This means that if you should slow down before a jump over a chasm the only way of continuing the game would be to hurl yourself into the nearest crevasse and play from the last auto save point! Also, God forbid that while driving up the walls you should come back to the ground at the wrong angle and stop moving. If this happens the bike will stop, whilst remaining vertical. Without being able to get the bike on the ground, the nearest crevasse gets another visit to allow the game to progress!

There is very little in this game that can justify it being a good buy. More than anything, I find myself disappointed by something that could have been so good. If it looked better, sounded better, been designed better, had decent writers, been adequately tested...