Daemonica Review

There is something about low-budget games that makes me tingle inside. It’s probably because usually the creativity involved in such a game makes up for their lack of good graphics. Daemonica holds its ground when compared to the big name adventure games of today, but is it worth the price of admission? Daemonica is what Coney Island is to Six Flags; not as amazing, but still great.

Cutting to the point, I think the hallmark of Daemonica is the storyline. The game takes place in England, after it was ravaged by the plague. You play as Nicholas Farepoynt, the hero with the ability to talk to the deceased. You are asked to go into the town of Cavorn, and as events leads to events. The story is dark, moody and very interesting. I’m not going to say it’s the greatest thing ever made, but it might just be one of the best storylines you’ll see this year.

The gameplay in Daemonica is the mixture of an adventure game as well as an RPG. The puzzles are decent and get the job done. I had a couple of problems with some, as they lacked originality, but I didn’t mind that much. The sword fighting was rather easy and simplistic (which really requires only 3 buttons), so that can be a good or bad thing. Remember that this is a mix between an RPG and an adventure game. The problem with Daemonica is the fact that they don’t master either one, leaving both groups disenfranchised. It doesn’t hurt the overall feel of the game dramatically, but it lacked real originality when it came to gameplay. I was playing more for the story as opposed to being excited for the next stage.

The largest problem comes with the audio and video. I am not a supporter of “graphics onlyâ€? games, but I’m not a supporter of “story onlyâ€? games either. The graphics would have been nice 5 years ago. The voice-acting is meager. There are no cut-scenes and you might just feel a little gypped at the end because of the lack of quality. But remembering that this is a budget priced game, it seems to somewhat even out.

Daemonica is the Coney Island for me of gaming this year. While Oblivion might have that dancing old guy, a ton of mascots, and really fast paced rides, what Daemonica has is a good storyline. They mess up on the graphics and overall gameplay, but if you can ignore that and if you can get this game under 10 bucks, then it might just be worth the ride.