Score
Gameplay:	8
Graphics:	7
Sound:	8
FunFactor:	8
PlasmaFactor:	6
Overall:	7.4

Daemonica Review
April 28, 2006 by Matt Wetsel

by Matt Wetsel - April 28, 2006

Not much has changed since we previewed Daemonica, but that's not a bad thing - having already been released in Europe, the demo we received was very much like the final build of the game. Played from a 3D isometric perspective, Daemonica is a story-heavy murder mystery with a heavy influence from action-RPGs. Although you won't have much of a reason to play it more than once, mystery fans should enjoy their time with this involving title.

Players control Nicholas Farepoynt, an investigator who's been asked to come to a small England town to investigate a murder whose only suspect has already been put to death. Luckily for him, he's what they call Haresh el-Dorem, "one who speaks with the dead," and with the help of a little alchemy, he has access to some of the most reliable eyewitnesses you could hope for.

The interface will be instantly familiar to anyone but the newest of gamers, and with a few exceptions you'll feel right at home in no time. It would be nice if the camera could zoom out a little bit more than it does, or if the angle was adjustable, but these are minor complaints and won't prevent you from enjoying the game by any degree. Load times, on the other hand, are frequent and obnoxious, circumvented only by the use of the fast-travel on the map, which allows you to visit any location you've already been to with the click of the mouse. Still, when you travel to Farepoynt's house, it loads for about 15-20 seconds, but you need to go into the cellar, which is going to be another 15-20 seconds. But, since Daemonica's investigative gameplay is fairly slow-paced, load times aren't nearly as offensive as they could be, and you'll get used to them quickly enough. Despite the RPG look and feel, there isn't any experience gaining or currency to be found, but their absence just means you spend more time focusing on the story, which is a good thing for this type of game. Story progression is almost completely item-based, and you can spar with the local Blacksmith to practice combat and even learn some new moves.

While you won't be calling your friends to come and see Daemonica's incredible visuals, the game isn't unattractive in the least. The locations are well-varied, NPC's all have a unique look to them and are easily identifiable, and frame-rates are silky smooth. Best of all, you won't need a ridiculously high-end system to run it, something which seems to be rather common-place lately.

Let Me Get My Reading Glasses...

It's unfortunate that (assumably) budget restraints prevented the developer from using voice acting for all the dialogue, because the few spoken parts really add depth to the story and characters, but more importantly, there's a lot of text. You'll spend a good portion of your time in Daemonica just reading, as there are multi-branch conversations you can have with every character, and half the time a lot of what they say isn't entirely relevant to your investigation. However, all the dialogue is extremely well-written, which is refreshing in an industry full of bad lines and voiceovers. The music is also rather well done, fitting the gloomy town and creepy atmosphere without ever being over-the-top.

The only real issue I encountered was gathering items for making potions. In your inventory, you'll find notes on where to find all the various types of weeds and flowers you'll need, but some of them are so hard to find sometimes that it can really disrupt interest in the game. I spent about an hour looking for the last ingredient to allow me to traverse into the spirit realm for the first time, but by the time I did I had stopped caring. It seems like entering and exiting buildings can help reset the placement of the herbs, and I eventually found a spot where one of them appeared consistently, but it's still rather ridiculous to have to spend so much time doing it in the first place. It gets worse when you have to make your own healing potions from the same hard-to-find herbs, making them even more of a delicacy and the gameplay even more tedious.

While action gamers might get a little bored with the pacing here, patient gamers who don't mind solving puzzles and going through (a lot of) dialogue and notes will find a charming medieval mystery game with a fantasy twist. Communicating with the dead adds an extra layer of depth to Daemonica, but collecting the items necessary to do so can sometimes take up so much time that you wish they would drop the whole alchemy thing together. Still, the story and writing is solid, and despite a lack of replay value, Daemonica serves as a reminder that this often-neglected genre can still be quite fun, and you don't need a $3,000 machine to enjoy it.