Demon Stone Forgotten Realms PS2 [NTSC]

Demon Stone Forgotten Realms PS2 [NTSC]




* Atari


* Stormfront Studios


* Beat-'Em-Up


* Release: Sep 14, 2004 »


* ESRB: Teen




Forgotten Realms: Demon Stone Review

Those who appreciate this brand of brute-force, hack-and-slash gameplay should find in Demon Stone a great-looking and

enjoyable, if somewhat familiar, experience.




Within the dominion of high fantasy, there are two staples upon which you can always rely. Running parallel are J.R.R.

Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings and the Dungeons & Dragons universes--the former of which stays grounded thanks to a

Victorian travelogue-level of mundane detail, and the latter of which benefits from a voluminous world and detailed

mythos. A couple of years ago, Northern California-based developer Stormfront Studios established an accessible,

enjoyable formula for melding the high-fantasy feel with visceral action in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, and

now it brings the same to the Dungeons & Dragons world. Forgotten Realms: Demon Stone is an evolutionary step above

what Stormfront did with The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, and players who appreciate that brand of brute-force,

hack-and-slash gameplay should find in it a great-looking and enjoyable, if somewhat familiar, experience.

Having already brought Tolkien to the game-playing masses, Stormfront has given D&D the action treatment.

A party of heroic characters that goes out on grand quests is the very bedrock of the Dungeons & Dragons

experience--and, really, of all its high-fantasy ilk--and Demon Stone delivers this staple on multiple levels. The story

begins years ago, when Slaad Lord Ygorl and the Githyanki General Sereka, the malevolent leaders of two powerful,

destructive armies that have been fighting over the right to pillage the world of Faerûn, find themselves

imprisoned in a mystical Demon Stone by a clever wizard named Blackstaff. Now jump to the present, where three

individual adventurers--Rannek the fighter, Illius the sorcerer, and Zhai the rogue--find themselves allied on a

battlefield rife with orcs. Each is there with his or her own agenda, though upon entering the secret chamber that

houses the Demon Stone and accidentally freeing the evil antagonists, the three find that their fates are intertwined.

Consequently, they embark on a quest to re-imprison Ygorl and Sereka. The story is pretty archetypal, though the

inclusion of two antagonists who are also at each other's throat is a nice one, and overall, the story's delivered quite

well. The game uses nice, quick cutscenes to keep the story moving, and it usually manages to do so without disrupting

the flow of the action too much.

D&D aficionados will be especially interested to know that Demon Stone was scripted by R.A. Salvatore, who has

authored a vast number of novels based on the D&D world of Forgotten Realms. His familiarity with the subject matter

is apparent, because he employs a great many characters and locales that those familiar with the Forgotten Realms

universe will recognize.

Within this nicely established Dungeons & Dragons scenario, Demon Stone proceeds to hurl seemingly insurmountable

numbers of foes at your party of three. Though the numbers can seem overwhelming, your party is more than capable of

handling the workload. Melee combat is the primary means of taking out the bad guys, which mostly consists of a few

three-button combos. However, as you play, you'll learn the nuances of the system, such as riposte and recovery moves,

charged attacks, and the all-important coup de grâce move, which is great for finishing an enemy who has been

knocked down but is threatening to get back on his or her feet. On top of the core combat, each character also has a

ranged attack, a unique supermove, a team-up move that lets you call upon your teammates for a quick assist, and a

screen-clearing team supermove. All of these actions are quite useful when the odds are heavily stacked against you.

Once you get the hang of one character, the other two are pretty easy to adapt to, since all three share a lot of the

same basic moves.

Of course, each has his or her own specific strengths too. Rannek's core melee moves are particularly brutal, and

players will likely find him the easiest to use overall, because he doesn't require an incredible amount of finesse to

use well. Illius the sorcerer possesses strength that resides in his ranged spells, which are more powerful than the

other characters' ranged attacks, making them more useful for dispensing out-of-reach enemies. Zhai's stealth moves make

her the most unique of the three, simply because her mechanics are unlike anything that either Rannek or Illius has.

When playing as Zhai, you'll notice that shadowy areas are highlighted with a distinct speckled glow. If you move into a

shadowed area for a second, you essentially become invisible for a short period of time. Save for a few specific

instances, the game doesn't really demand that you sneak around your enemies a lot. However, when you're stealthed, you

can creep up on unsuspecting enemies to execute them with single moves, which can be quite satisfying.

Demon Stone eschews statistic-and-probability-driven gameplay for relentless hack-and-slash action.

While the game seems fairly friendly to basic button-mashing tactics in the beginning, it's quite necessary to

understand the strengths and abilities of your party, which becomes apparent after the first few levels. Fortunately,

Demon Stone does a pretty good job of introducing the basic combat tactics over the course of the first two levels. But

even on the default difficulty, the game offers a respectable challenge--know that if you have three or four trolls

surrounding you, it won't take long for them to empty your health bar. The boss battles can also be particularly tough,

as they tend to require some specific tactics which aren't always obvious, and they don't leave a lot of room for slop.

Though the only hard save points in the game exist at the end of each level, Demon Stone breaks the levels up into

nicely sized chunks--so in spite of the occasional tough fight, we rarely found ourselves having to replay more than

five minutes of action after one of our characters expired.

As you vanquish enemies, your characters pick up gold and earn experience that can be used to both purchase new armor

and learn new abilities. The character building isn't nearly as deep as in a full-fledged D&D role-playing game, but

your characters do become noticeably more powerful as you advance through the game, and new equipment purchases are

actually reflected in the characters' appearances, which is a really nice touch. Admiring the wicked new armor or weapon

upgrade you just purchased for your character is one of those small pleasures that helps bring the whole experience

together.

You don't need to be a D&D buff to appreciate this kind of action...but it helps!

You'll only have direct control over one party member at a time, while the computer handles the off characters. You can

switch between them on the fly at any time with just a tap of the D pad. The friendly artificial intelligence can be a

little inconsistent at times, and though it doesn't really require too much babysitting and is rarely a liability, there

are times that it could be a little more proactive. This issue aside, the gameplay remains relentless throughout, and

the ability to switch characters at any time, along with the gradual introduction of new, more powerful moves, helps

keep the action interesting. Stormfront makes sure the game doesn't overstay its welcome, though, and by the time you

finish the roughly 10-hour campaign, you'll probably have had your fill of the game's patented gameplay style. It's too

bad that there isn't a co-op mode, though, which is something that EA introduced in The Return of the King, the

follow-up to Stormfront's The Two Towers. Such a feature might have provided a good reason to revisit the game beyond

playing it at a harder difficulty level.

Demon Stone's intense gameplay is nicely complemented by some great visuals. Though the actual areas in which you'll be

fighting are usually relatively confined, the game lends many of the battles a grander sense of scale by surrounding

them with astonishing set pieces and massive battles--and by presenting them with decidedly dramatic camera angles. This

can be great for atmosphere, but the game will occasionally choose form over function by obscuring the action in favor

of showing off some really cool visuals, which can be a little frustrating. But the stylistic flare isn't confined to

cool camera movement, and the main characters themselves are, top to bottom, rather impressive. Each member of your

party has a unique set of animations, even for the most basic moves, which really helps give each a unique feel.

Rannek's sword blows have a real weight to them, there's a peculiar otherworldliness to Illius' magical gestures, and

Zhai's nimble acrobatic maneuvers are downright graceful. The game also makes liberal use of soft-glow effects, which

are good for masking some of the rough edges, but even with a bit of fuzziness, the game has a distinct clarity and

sharpness to it. All of these nice visuals come at a price, though, and large-scale battles can occasionally cause the

frame rate to become a little choppy. It's not a regular occurrence, but it happens enough to be noticeable.

Demon Stone is a good hack-and-slash romp while it lasts.

The cinematic-style score is also well suited to the frenzied pacing of the game, and like with the visuals, the sounds

of the battlefield use layers upon layers to give a grander sense of bedlam. The voice acting is appropriate and well

delivered--with the gruff fighter, the contemplative sorcerer, and the smart-alecky drow rogue all putting in convincing

performances. Demon Stone also features some celebrity voice acting, with sci-fi/fantasy archduke Patrick Stewart

playing the high wizard Blackstaff, as well as the game's narrator, and Michael Clarke Duncan voicing the Slaad Lord.

Patrick Stewart is a bit more convincing and natural than Michael Clarke Duncan; in fact, Demon Stone is a good case

study for the pitfalls of using highly recognizable voice talent in video games, because it can be difficult to believe

that Michael Clarke Duncan is a coldhearted, demonic wizard and not the enigmatically kind death row inmate from The

Green Mile.

To say that Stormfront Studios has just remade The Two Towers with D&D trappings wouldn't be entirely inaccurate,

but it wouldn't be completely fair to Demon Stone either. Stormfront has obviously honed its craft over the past two

years, and the overall experience feels richer and more robust. On its own terms, Forgotten Realms: Demon Stone is a

satisfying adventure, and in the bigger picture, it stands to introduce the fantastical world of Dungeons & Dragons

to a broader audience. Regardless of that, it's a very good game that's well worth playing.

By Ryan Davis, GameSpotPosted Sep 14, 2004 6:32 pm PT