Demonicon - Screens @ Blues

Some hopefully new screens for Demonicon at Bluesnews.
More information.

Yea, those are new. They were posted over at Kalypso on Friday. Prior to that they released some info about the main char Cairon (in German).

Cool, I didn't know a new RPG in the Dark Eye setting was being made. Looks good.

Nice, I love how the added a description to each screenshot, haven't looked much into this one but if its the same people that made the first two I'm defiantly buying this one.

Great! I hope we won't have to wait years for it to be available in the US. Who is the developer? I thought they went out of business?

Thrasher said:

Who is the developer? I thought they went out of business?

Click to expand...

It's like this:

- Drakensang 1 + 2 + add-on were developed by Radon Labs who went out of business. The remains of Radon Labs became a part of Bigpoint Interactive who are now working on Drakensang Online, a game that has nothing to do with The Dark Eye setting or the previously released single player games. They are just using the brand name, that's all.

- Demonicon was originally developed by Silver Style Entertainment (the studio responsible for the abysmal 'The Fall' post-apoc RPG). Silver Style -or more precisely their parent company The Games Company (TGC)- went out of business as well but at least parts of the company including Demonicon were picked up by Kalypso Media where development on the game is ongoing. The team that is creating Demonicon at Kalypso is named Noumena.

Ah, thank you. As I thought; there should be no expectations based on the previous Drakensang games.

Whoops, I too had completely overlooked this so far. What kind of game is it supposed to be? Shots look quite nice.
BTW: both the "homepage" as well as the link to Silver Style in the "more information" database are broken.

Rumor says - Kalypso more or less admitted it in their forums - that TGC more or less did *nothing* on the developmernt … They did show pictures every now and then, but all of their energy (and probably money) was flowing into other directions … In one post someone at the Kalypso forums expressed that he or she was quite surprised (or even shocked) how little had been done on the game until they bought it …

The game takes place in the BLack Lands (which are right now shifting into "Shadow Lands" - that' the title of the current pen & paper background book) …

If you want *really* dark & griotty games set in Aventuria, then this game will be for you. It will be VERY dark, I suppose, because the Black Lands are just infested with Demon, Undead ones, Black Mages, false gods, violence and pressure everywhere … Life has become so dangerous there that people have begun going away from the so-called "Twelvegods" and have begun praying to new "false ods" which are in fact arch demons (which they don't know, because they simply call them for example "The Mother" and "The Father"), which is partly supported by the Heptarchs, the ones who reign there.

There even is a Borbard Church there (think of it like the Church of Le Chuck in Monkey Island 4 or so).

The Black Lands evolved after the … third ? Demon Battle that took place in Tobria, a perverted land since then. In this battle, half-god Borbarad, who had been an evil sorcerer in all of his past incarnations throughout the millennia (and one of this past incarnations with the same name, is mentioned by the long-living Elves in Drakensang 2), had been defeated and been kept from doing The Ultimate Evil, so to say.


The Splinters of his Demon Crown - where each splinter came from one arch demon - are nowadays held by one Heptarch. Of which a few are Undead ones, too.
Of these Heptarchs, I think 3 are now dead, and the Black Lands are nowadays mostly reigned by on powerful ex-general (or sort of) and master tactician from the Middlerealm, Helme Haffax. His rule is less strict and less brutal that the reigns of the other Heptarch (although his minions are sometimes still brutal and bloodthirsty), because some of his belief is still clinging to what he has learned about honour and such when he was "working for" and living in the Middlerealm.

The current state is that of an Ultimatum by him against the Empress of the Middlerealm, Rohaja, which will culminate in one big, huge battle in the next years to show who has the better armies …


Besides, there also is an point&click adventure game for Aventuria in the works.
("Satinav's Chains")

But don't expect to ever see such lighthearted games like the Drakensang games again. That will never be.
Or, as we say here in German language : That train is gone.

TGC originally compared it to NWN1. One main character plus AI henchmen. The main character is predetermined. As I understood they also tried to create a more action-based gameplay. Dunno how much it evolved since then.

I guess it will remain so - more action-oriented.

Partly because it is just a niche they haven't filled yet ...

Although there could be room for some flexibility after Drakensang is dead.

Well, personally, I see this "Flexibility" already in the adventure game "Satinav's Chains", but also in the iThing game "Under The Copper Moon" (in German language only) - plus an mysterious hint that at the RatCon there might be revealed something …

Played the Battle Demo at Gamescom.

Still not sure what to think of that game. It looked nice, sure, but I didn't get that DSA/TDE vibe just yet (except the Targunitoth text after you died). Probably, because it was just killing undeads here and there (using a gamepad on PC). Cairon also moved quite fast… really fast, in fact.

Those screenies on the other hand promise a lot more. Guess I'll keep following the game and hope for the best.

So ... it's an action RPG (and you are a business user there, so to say) ?

It's in Hall 6 - one of the public areas. You'll be able to play it yourself. Felt very action-ish, yes, but it *is* called a Battle Demo afterall, heh. Therefore: don't want to judge the game just yet.

I agree with lef. Just a meaningless combat demo. No DSA vibe at all. I bet they'll show the real game next year. This won't come out anytime soon.

Thanks.

I'll watch it tomorrow.

I concur. Played it today as well and wasn't impressed.

More Details and Screenshots over at Golem.de