Demon War - Review @ RPG Codex

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RPG Codex has a review of both Din's Curse and the expansion, Demon War, focusing mostly on Din's Curse as the expansion is more of the same good gameplay. I'll quote from the review about Din's Curse first, and then go on to quote from the review about Demon War. First Din's Curse:
Din's Curse is unique in how much of the game is procedurally generated, and how it evolves dynamically. In this game, being told that 'bad guys are starting an uprising' will mean bad guys will actually rise up into your town instead of obediently waiting to be stopped in the nick of time like almost every other RPG. It's fantastic: the 'Diablo with dungeons that fight back' moniker is wholly justified. It is not only the bad guys who get up to stuff (besides invasion, they also lay curses which give debuffs until you take the quest to solve it, produce machines to make dungeons harder, block the gates, fight amongst themselves, etc.) the good guys can also head off to do the quests themselves, turn on each other, or betray the town in any number of ways.
Then about Demon War:
Din's Curse has an expansion: Demon War. It fittingly old-school fashion, it is a 'more-of-the-same' sort of thing. A new class (Demon hunter), more monsters, new quests, more NPC behavior, etc. (even Soldak's blurb says "Basically experience a lot more of what makes Din's Curse incredibly unique"). The extra bits are fun, although not game-changing (they are also well-balanced, which is a refreshing change from the plague of overpowered goodies DLCs that do the rounds in the mainstream). If you enjoy Din's Curse, Demon War is worth a look; if you are not a fan, the expansion is not going to change your mind.
And finally, a snip from the conclusion:
Din's curse manages to nail the fundamentals of the genre whilst extending it in a new an innovative way. The basics of the game-play, although not perfect, are solid, balanced and, most importantly, fun.
More information.
 
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I'm a big fan of the game. It - and Peeler's earlier title, Depths of Peril - are two of my favorite indie RPGs. (I liked Kivi's, but it didn't quite appeal to me the way the other two did). I thought the review was pretty much dead-on.
 
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Ok, that's it I'm buying the dang expansion. I've come down hard on Din's Curse because for two games he ignored factions and companions from Depths of Peril that I absolutely loved. It made Depths of Peril go from a standard Diablo clone to a game that was absolutely brilliant.

However, I've been giving it another go lately and with a different character class than I normally play. I have to admit that the dynamic world has changed a lot since I last played and the new character class is a lot of fun. I was only playing conjurers before (necromantic of course ;)) and while I did get pretty far in the game that class is still really difficult. The pets don't seem to be able to keep up with the enemies or maybe I was just playing them wrong, but now with the ranger class I've been having a lot of fun trying to keep up with the problems that arise in the dungeon.

I played this game quite a bit when it first came out and while it was ok it was not the shining gem that it is now. He has made a lot of improvements not just for Demon War, but for Din's Curse as well. I still wish that there were some factions to compete against, but it's not such a big deal now.

Now I wonder what this space game is going to be like. With Steven's games you can't really foretell what kind of game he's going to make. Even Depths of Peril and Din's Curse are quite different even though they are the most alike. I know it'll be an instant buy no matter what it is because I do love the dynamic part of his games, but I wonder if it'll be more like Depths of Peril or Din's Curse or completely different in every way (please not different like Kivi's Underworld)

Edit: Steven just tweeted that there is a new beta patch for Depths of Peril on his site. Now this is why I love indies. Some will try to improve their game even years after they made it.
 
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just played the demo for an hour, and it's pretty fun for an action rpg. As a ranged character player, it's always nice when you can dodge the enemies ranged attacks and trade shots w/ the enemy, killing them while rarely getting hit yourself if your timing's good. Love that type of gameplay.

Lots of options, and I like how the dynamic world keeps you on your toes. The graphics leave a little bit to be desired, but theyre adequate. The sound is blah, it's really repetitive and pretty annoying at times. Could have varied it up a little.

Lots of hazards, lots of stuff going on dynamically in the world (an NPC for instance starved above because I didnt go help feed him a cheeseburger or something), and lots of loot make for a decent and nicely chaotic dungeon crawler overall that I'll probably end up buying. I'll probably be cranking some music while I'm playing it tho
 
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