Daemonica tells the story of Nicolas Farepoynt, a man with a special talent
for speaking with the dead. This talent serves him well in his craft, as he is
essentially a medieval CSI. His reputation is widespread and he finds himself
summoned by the mayor of a small isolated village to investigate a particularly
gruesome murder. Nicolas arrives at the village to find a hostile local populace
and a mayor who promptly declares that he has solved the murder and hanged the
person responsible for the crime. But things don’t seem to add up to Nicolas,
who decides to see just what the man executed for the crime has to say about
things…
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| This town is not as peaceful as it seems... |
This is certainly an intriguing opening for a game, and having played a
preview version of the game I can attest to that first hand. Daemonica will most
appeal to RPG and adventure gamers as they will appreciate the amount of work
that has gone into creating the unique storyline. While the game does include
combat elements, the prime focus is on solving puzzles and ultimately the
mystery behind the murder. Expect a lot of conversations and branching dialog
where the violent approach is not the wisest course to take. Adventure and RPG
gamers will also be more forgiving of the game’s graphics which use a 2D
isometric view on par with RPG games of five years ago or so. This is not really
a knock against the game itself, but the reality is that gamers who do not
really appreciate a deep storyline in a game will be disappointed. To its credit
the game does add a lot of detail to its environments and it does generate a
suitably creepy atmosphere. Daemonica is one of those games that starts to get a
little creepy when played with the lights out when you’re the only one home…
The game uses a simple point and click control scheme similar to that of the
Diablo games. In a nice touch, the game includes a map on which special
locations are marked automatically. A simple click on one of these marks on the
map will take you directly to the location without the need to hoof it across
all of the screens in between. Other standard adventure actions such as
combining items and managing inventory are easily managed as well.
At this stage in its development, Daemonica looks like it could be one of the
more intriguing adventure games of 2006. In a genre packed with recycled and
overused stories and clichés, Deamonica looks to be a breath of fresh air. Cold,
dark and creepy fresh air that is…
