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| Like I said, the graphics are alright. | There's plenty of these little narration interludes and they carry the game well. |
You take the role of Nicholas Farepoynt, who has been asked by the mayor of quiet little hamlet to lead an investigation into the recent murder of a young girl. As the game gets going the plot soon becomes an intricate web of mysterious murders, robberies, and the murky past of your own character. In-fact the driving force of the game is primarily the desire to learn more about your character and ultimately discover his fate.
Nick uses a few unconventional methods of investigation taught to him primarily by his late wife. Primarily, Nick has the ability to mix up various potions which can be made from herbs collected by the player from various places around the town. The most notable potion, Soulgreep, is one which allows Nick to enter the spirit realm and ultimately have a chat with the recently deceased. It's not such a simple process as it may have been. The body of the deceased must be close by, which means you have to find the corpse and then get it in your basement without freaking out any of the locals. Then, once you've entered the spirit realm, you have to know various bits of information about the deceased to enter conversation with them: such things like how they died, and what their main aspiration in life was.
The complexity of this process is the most unique aspect of the game and much of the investigative gameplay offered by Daemonica involves the gathering of the information required to talk with the victim. It's an unforgiving test of the player's concentration as incorrect answers in the spirit realm generally lead to a game over sequence. I'm embarrassed to admit, in-fact, the punishing nature of the game in general forced a few reloads out of yours truly.
Most of the puzzles in the game have a deducible solution and an obvious combination of talking to NPCs and using such-and-such an item with such-and-such a thing solves the problems; but a well composed story and primary character depth keep the game interesting. Use sleeping potion with wine, give drugged wine to guard, cut down hanging corpse from noose, and so on; it's all *classic* adventure game stuff.
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| Nick likes to handcuff himself up in the basement from time to time. | A very functional inventory/journal system. |
There's a nice map of the hamlet in-game which allows you to "fast travel" to places you've already been to. This is nice because Nicholas seems to move quite slowly even when he's running; which actually makes gathering herbs a bit of a pain. There's also an in-game journal which is very useful and provides up-to-date infomation on the charactors you've talked to, potions you can make, and so on.
The game also features an astoundingly primitive combat system which thankfully makes up very little of the game. I'm surprised they even bothered with it, I would have gone for an automated sequence with a "Luke, I am your father"-style dialog instead. It would certainly be more enjoyable than repeatedly clicking the mouse and waiting for the tedium to be over.
The graphics are nothing special; but there's nothing wrong with them. It's a 3d isometric world viewed through a camera which can be rotated and zoomed to the player's delight. The (English) voice acting on the other hand is appalling. Nick's part is played by someone with a thoroughly stereotypical cockney accent who sounds like he's more concerned about tonight's TV schedule than the script he's supposed to be reading; but it's the kind of 'streets of London' accent which gets Americans very excited, and that's probably why they went for it. I should note, also, that the voice output in the game is actually very minimal; generally only comprising the occasional mini-narrative summary by the main character himself. The game's music is atmospherically suitable, and rather pleasant.
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| I find it hard to describe the combat without using the F-word and the S-word. | The Spirit World; the first question to answer is - how did the victim perish? |
There's nothing spectacular about this game, but its fun and interesting. It lacks the legendary depth of similar titles like Planescape: Torment, Sanatarium, and Fahrenheit; but it's a very welcome break from 3rd rate first person shooters and movie franchise games. The combination of the sleepy little hamlet ambiance, the tiring townspeople, and your own mysterious history drive the game on. Adventure gamers and mystery enthusiast should definitely give this one a go.
Top Gaming Moment:
TOP GAME MOMENT
Interviewing the deceased.
