Daemonica (PC)

CNET editors' rating: 2.0 stars Mediocre
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Overall score: 4.8 (2.0 stars)
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Gamespot editors' review

• Reviewed by: Ryan Davis
• Reviewed on: 06/05/2006
• Released on: 03/31/2006

If you've ever been stuck in a small, boring town with little to do but talk to unpleasant locals and pick weeds, then you have a pretty good idea of what it's like to play Daemonica. This is an adventure game first and foremost, though the puzzles are few and mild at best, and the inclusion of a potion-making element and a real-time combat system--while laudable in concept--ultimately do little to abate the tedium.

You will do lots of reading before Daemonica is over.

You play the role of Nicholas, a brooding tattooed man in medieval England, living the life of a "hunter," someone who uses their knowledge of potions, the afterlife, and the ancient language of Daemonica to hunt down killers. His line of work brings him to Cavorn, a truly miserable village with murky skies, drab buildings, and a borderline-hostile population. Here, a young undertaker has been freshly hanged by a craven bully of a mayor for the savage murder of the undertaker's fiancé as well as a reclusive couple. Though the mayor himself summoned you to basically back up his shortsighted, impulsive actions, it's quickly apparent that the undertaker is not the killer, especially once more locals start coming up missing. So, through lots of stilted conversations, randomly wandering the city-block-sized village, some light alchemy, and the occasional swordfight, it's up to you to figure out just what exactly is going on in Cavorn.

There is a lot of talking in Daemonica--too much, in fact. Nearly all of your interaction with other characters starts and ends with a dialogue tree, and the game's not afraid to pack on the exposition during conversation. Even for its paltry size, the village of Cavorn is pretty underpopulated, and you'll end up speaking to maybe a dozen different people over the entire course of the game. Some of the characterizations are pretty pronounced, but there's not much for sympathetic or even mildly likable characters. The actual conversations are usually text-only affairs, though there are also plenty of voiced sequences where an embarrassingly miscast Nicholas drones on and on, almost defying you to find something redeeming about the character. As a story-driven game, Daemonica fails to deliver a very compelling story or cast of characters.

The best trick a hunter can perform is to brew up a potion known as soulgreep, which lets the drinker commune with the dead, who are often quite knowledgeable about the details of their own demise. You'll concoct several different types of potions over the course of the game, and they all require you to harvest specific plants you'll find around the village. This could have been a fun and organic addition, but there are only six different kinds of plants to be found, and after a few hours of wandering, it becomes apparent that the plants only have a few different places to grow. Since the game gives you clear and precise instructions on how to make the different types of potions you'll need, of which there are really only three or four, the whole process is just tiresome for most of the time.

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