Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Bard-Necromancer 01-08-05, 07:25 PM	Forgotten Realms - Demon Stone Review Well, I just finished FR-DS for the Playstation. This game was a dismal disappointment in almost every aspect of the game. It's not even that my expectations were too high either. As soon as I knew Stormfront Studios (the creators of Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers) was involved, I knew I was in for a rough ride. Let start with the things I liked about the game. 1) Graphics (Rating: 7.5) Graphically speaking, this game is a winner. The graphics were really good, with lots of cut scenes. During play the graphics were very fluid and realistic. Every one of the models (characters, monsters, etc) were done really well. I have to give credit to the team that were responsible for character modeling, because it was one of the highlights of the game (especially Drizzt, playing him was uber-fun). 2) Story (Rating 8.0) R.A. Salvatore did a good job on the story. I would like to get my hands on the original written work. The more I found out about our heroes (Zhai, Ranneck, and Illius), the more I wanted to know. Each one had a background story that I felt help round out the characters. They made the game more enjoyable, because you were wondering what would happen next in the character development. I have always enjoyed R.A.'s writing and have read all the Drizzt books a couple of times. 3) The Characters (Rating 7.0) Playing Drizzt was really, really fun. In the world as we know it, it seems like people either love Drizzt or hate him. I am in the former, and loved ripping though smelly trolls with his dual simitars. Zhai has really cool to play, especially when she could use her stealth. Sneak attacks are always fun. Ranneck and Illius were fun, but I played them more out of necessity. Alright now the stuff that drove me nuts. 1) Camera Angles (Rating: 0) In my 30 years of life, I have never seen camera angles so bad before. I remember the camera angles being really bad in The Two Towers. These are worse. In numerous points in the game, you could not see what you were shooting at. You had to guess whether you were actually aiming at something with ranged attacks. In some parts of the game, your hero would disappear almost entire behind walls, or a horde of Slaad. All you do was keep hitting the X button and hope you could get enough hero points to use your super attack and clear enough enemies to see your hero again. Zero effort, zero rating. 2) Environment (Rating: 3) Why would any gaming company in our modern era ever use invisible walls? The only reason I can think of is laziness. They didn't want want to take the time to develop their environment properly. An great example of this is in Chapter 10 when you are fighting the Slaad in the near the portal to Limbo. Archers appear across the room, and you have to shoot them from the platform you are fighting on. On the platform, there are numerous rocks that block your shots, including the air above the rocks. Ledges were also a problem. You couldn't fall off them. You could push your oppoents off the ledge, but they couldn't push you off. This 'safety net' takes away from the game. The whole game you are being lead around by the nose. There is only one way to the your goal and one way out. That's it. The only reason I gave environment a 4 is because the artists did a good job on creating the locations around the game. They were all different and help create the illusion that you were in the Realms. It really ties in the graphics end of things, but I will leave it at a 4. 3) Gameplay (Rating: 3) The gameplay was well...a bit boring. There are only two combos in the game for each character (I don't consider X+X+X or O+O a combo) There was only trip (X+O+X) or improved critical (X+O+R1). The interaction with objects in the area was a bit lame. All you could do was break things, most of which were barriers in your way. Most of them were only there to validate the fact that Ranneck and Illius could break them with the Gauntlets of Ogre Power or Beads of Forces. Not everything was lame. There is a Wall of Ice that you have to destroy while some Githaryi mages are constantly rebuilding, and there are a couple of switches the Zhai has to jump to. There were also some catapults you can activate, but they were basically pointed out to you and only usable once. I didn't find the AI of the two heroes you weren't playing to be very smart. They would fail to pickup potions if they were low on health sometimes, or keep firing their ranged weapons even though they were being blocked by the obstacles/invisible walls. They would run around getting picked off by ranged attacks, when a simple block could have saved them. In certain locations, it was up to the player to kill certain ranged opponents. Most of the time I played Ranneck, and in these situations I would try to protect the sorcerer so that he could take from a distance, but rather than target our foes, he would cast protection spells. Another thing that annoyed me was that some of the opponents would only target their ranged attacks at the hero you were playing. If you switched, they would change to target you. Although it added to the challenge of the game (which I didn't find challenging even on hard in an overall sense; some fights I found very challenging and had to try numerous times), it bugged me. Demon Stone is a very simple hack-n-slash that is hard pressed to hold the attention of an older gamer like me. 4) Game Length (Rating 3) The game length was way too short. There are ten chapters, each chapter would only take me about 15-30 minutes to pass (unless I had trouble with a particular battle). I was half done the game my first night playing it, and that is always a disappointment. There should have been at least 5 more chapters, or have each chapter 50% longer. Overall (Rating 3) Overall the cons outweighted the pros. I judge games more on their playability rather than visuals. From the beginning to the end, camera angles were a real killer for me. Add in a simplistic, linear adventure path and you have yourself a game that I should have rented for the weekend instead of paying full price. This game was clearly created for the younger gamer in mind (10 - 16) in hopes of sparking some interest in the Dungeons and Dragons line. It involves no more thinking than try to hit the X button as fast as you can. For all the older, advanced gamers, don't waste your money. Rent it for the weekend or borrow it for a buddy (don't forget your swear jar). If you are used to playing Icewind Dale, Balder's Gate, or Neverwinter Nights, you are going to be disappointed in Demon Stone. Recommendations for Wizards of the Coast. I want to end this review with something positive. I know my review is definitely negative, but you can't please everyone right? Here is the game I would like to see in the future. First, head over to your local gaming store and pick up a copy of Prince of Persia: Warrior Within. Play it from beginning to end. Now you get the style of game that I love. Not only is there lots of fighting, but there are lots of environmental interactivity involved. Levers to pull, buttons to press, ledges to traverse, and canyons to leap. In an environment like that, it would be the Ultimate DND adventure. Next, get your next trilogy schedule and plan a fourth story line. The fourth story line would not be pubished as a novel, but would be the screenplay for the game. The game would take place between book II and Book III of the trilogy. The trilogy and the game could be read/played separately and would not depend on the other, but each would make reference to the other. This is very similiar to the Matrix strategy. 'Enter the Matrix' game tells the side story of Niobe and Ghost. In a perfect world, the player would play Drizzt on some quest between the latest book 'The Two Swords' and whatever novel is coming next. The game would make reference to books and the books would make reference to the game, but they would both be able to stand on their own. Drizzt has numerous fighting moves (aka COMBOs!) including the infamous dual scimitar crossover parry with boot to the nose! Guenhwyvar would be a power that Drizzt uses during gameplay or only appears in certain missions. For variety you can add in the different heroes like Breunor, Catti-brie, Wuldgar, Regis, or the Bouldershoulder brothers (Oo oi!), but I would stick with Drizzt (personally anyhow). The final touch would be the unlockable bonus levels. These would be historical battles that Drizzt has been in over the years. Locations like the plains of Icewind Dale, the mines of Mithral Hall, the streets of Menzoberranzan, the sewers of Calimport, or the deck of the Sea Sprite. Must haves - 360 degrees camera angles - lots of combos - realistic environment that can be interacted with like Prince of Persia - multiple paths to your goal Other characters to consider: Liriel Baenre, Arilyn Moonblade, Danilo Thann, Elaith Craulnober. Anyone from the Return of the Archwizards trilogy or War of the Spider Queen characters, etc.
Draco Strang 01-11-05, 02:36 AM	Could you imagine the multi-player options for a game like this? I'd really like to see an Unreal Tournament style of FPS that involved Dungeons and Dragons. Do you know how cool it would be to rip through horders of enemies online in death matches in Mithral Hall, or the Neverwinter Woods? It'd be almost like SOCOM, with teams of rogues, clerics, fighters, and wizards. You could have all sorts of different games, like plant the bomb with rogues sneaking in, Assault and Defend, Hunt and Kill. While the idea is really cool, the actual mechanics would be a bear to hash out, balancing magic vs. ranged vs. melee, etc.
Dansan 01-11-05, 03:40 AM	I don't think first person shooter view is any good when it comes to close combat. They tried it before and it never really felt good. As to demon-stone, while I haven't played it myself, a friend of mine did and his comment was that it was too short as well. He's a true RPG a la Baldurs Gate player on the PS2 and thus knows his games, and this one was the worst yet. BG2 was pretty unbalanced as well. BG1 was too easy. And Everquest a bit buggy. Thus far, the only game I really enjoyed, even though it was a bit too easy with wolverine around, was the X-Men. Mostly good camera angles, good leveling up abilities, nice unique powers. I'd like to see more of that in D&D games, perhaps even using the format in the X-Men to create a party-wise D&D game, WITH multiplayer and perhaps even a little Danger Room where different parties can fight each other.
The Simple Seeker II 01-11-05, 11:07 PM	It is nice to see, that someone has seen the pitfalls of this game...and here, it was discussed a while back.http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=250237&highlight=demon+stone
Mystic_7 01-13-05, 08:57 AM	Hello, Yes this game was very much a let down, {cannot say much for the design team stormfront studios}. The game it self had'nt even considered a decent combat engine....press the button, press the same button again! oh...wait a yuan-ti is attacking me oh no! I must block WOW, I used another button. All this was sung to the tune of sarcasim. Even the games visuals were second rate oh lets try to up the game with decent graphics....they failed. The game even tries to sell Drizzt as a promotional icon, {Stormfront: O.k. lets put Drizzt in the game but wait it gets better lets only put him in the game for one level...yeah that will sell the game} The only 2 things going for the game was the voice of Kielben blackstaff: patrick stewart. The guy was born to play that part....even if it was a short one at that and the half-drow MEOW, who was a welcomed toast of visual distraction even if she is programed material. The games that lame....Well that's my 2 cents...ah alot of my chest!!
The Simple Seeker II 01-13-05, 12:43 PM	It is sad, that the game maker admitted, that the overall game, was just an introduction...just eye candy. 49.95/29.95 and four hours of play? Hey Keith Baker...please make sure Dragon Shard doesn't go the same way as well. X-Box mag, gave a beautiful rating...I have to honesty question the sancity level at that time. In the end, the game was rushed for the 30th anniversary. I love playing D&D games, since the Commodore days...but mercy, even they were better than this...this... :yuck: :turkey:
ryld_argith149 01-19-05, 09:57 AM	I heard that Demon Stone was coming out (or alredy did come out) on Xbox, and I was looking forward to renting the game, even though I heard it sucked nuts. :D
Corellon 01-20-05, 02:55 PM	please do not forget this : Demon Stone is not Baldurs gate, neverwinter nights and icewind dale.. this game for kiddys and i very disappointed for Demon stone.. it looks like fool Lotr games and real Forgotten realms fans will not love it... There is only one good thing about game : you can use Drizzt.(over)
The Simple Seeker II 01-20-05, 10:34 PM	please do not forget this : Demon Stone is not Baldurs gate, neverwinter nights and icewind dale.. this game for kiddys and i very disappointed for Demon stone.. it looks like fool Lotr games and real Forgotten realms fans will not love it... There is only one good thing about game : you can use Drizzt.(over) Yeah, just for a few scenes...when it came to the X-Box, they priced it at 29.99, less than the PS, X-Box Magazine gave it a 8.7 score, I seriously have to question the favoritism giving to this game, the designers admitted that it was just made for eye candy, inticement...lord. This is not the proper way to recruit the next generation.
BrianCritchley 01-20-05, 11:49 PM	this game for kiddys and i very disappointed for Demon stone. it's arcade hack and slash, not nesscarily for kiddies
Blaze the monk 01-21-05, 08:26 AM	A lot of console ports (e.g. GTA, Halo, etc.) are thankfully much improved over the original console version. From what you guys have been saying about the game lets hope this is true when they port it to PC/XBox. I'm going to buy this game whether it sucks balls or not (and I wasn't much of a fan of those LotR games I played at a mates house, testament to my devotion). Salvatore is my favourite author from any genre and I'm buying it for the storyline which I know will rock. Again. I hope these bugs and bad points will be ironed out for the port version.
Corellon 01-21-05, 05:38 PM	it's arcade hack and slash, not nesscarily for kiddies yes you`r right it is not for kiddies, i just try to explain my feeling
The Simple Seeker II 01-21-05, 06:45 PM	A lot of console ports (e.g. GTA, Halo, etc.) are thankfully much improved over the original console version. From what you guys have been saying about the game lets hope this is true when they port it to PC/XBox. I'm going to buy this game whether it sucks balls or not (and I wasn't much of a fan of those LotR games I played at a mates house, testament to my devotion). Salvatore is my favourite author from any genre and I'm buying it for the storyline which I know will rock. Again. I hope these bugs and bad points will be ironed out for the port version. Uhm, not to burst your bubble, which port are you talking about, X-Box, which will NOT have a multiplayer(and is out already), or PC, which will be a straight port, with the hack/slash. The maker has stated, that nothing will be changed period, the game is made as is. And here, I am reposting and relinking this interview, with the game designer on a Q&A, everything should be answered here (http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/demon-stone/545636p1.html)
Aragorn 01-21-05, 08:03 PM	It sounds like most everyone has Demon Stone for a consol game system. I havn't seen any reviews for the PC version of the game. So I guess i'm the first. Take my advice, Save your $30.00 and don't even think about buying this game. Zono is the the company that converted the game from a consol setting to the PC. They didn't even test it before they released it. The game is so buggy, there are 3 major bugs (so far) that prevent you from even finishing the game. 1) the Shield Gardian doesn't move when activated. It just stand there while your wizard is pummeled. My solution to the problem was to completly uninstall the game then reinstall the game and it seemed to fix the problem. 2) The raft constantly sinks, as soon as you are allowed to move on the raft it sinks to the bottom of the river. you can move around and fight, but the raft still sinks. I personally called Technical support on this one, thier response, "we havn't tested the game that far, we will get back to you." Still no word from Technical support, and don't suspect to hear from them any time soon. My solution to this problem, I don't have one. other than try your hardest to keep the raft balanced. after the 30th time of playing the level, i finally got the raft to stay up, it was very hard to do, and it almost sunk on me several times. However the raft did sink and help me out greatly, the queen spider was really beating me up good, couldn't kill her, then the raft sank, she couldn't hit me but i could hit her, and presto, end of chapter. 3) You can't kill the trolls. Even after you light them up with fire, and you have your weapons on fire, and you coup-de-gra them, they just won't die, just lay there. seems to happen to 4 of the trolls. you can't move forward until you kill them. I've been able to Play Drizzt once, and he couldn't even kill these trolls that won't die. My solution to this problem, I don't have one. If anyone else does please let me know. All in all, It is a very poor game and i wouldn't recomend it to anybody. Aragorn
The Simple Seeker II 01-21-05, 08:39 PM	Well, I think that seals the final review on Demon Stone, the next game to be reviewed, will be Dragon Shard, strickly a PC game format, with elements of Baldur, IceWind Dale game mechanics. That will be one game to review(wait, have to see when it comes out), and the other will be D&D Online, but I will not be touching that one...reason:budget on the money. Salvatore is my favourite author from any genre and I'm buying it for the storyline which I know will rock.A little fact here, he didn't write it, just signed his name to it, so I have heard, but I do hope, that somehow, somewhere, someone would take this as a lesson, and know better next time, on using name on product placement, much better. And Blaze, I am not being bias or the sort, just plainly honest from I saw at Gen Con, last year. But if you wish to get it, please by all means, it is your right...but I hope the replay value, will be worth every penny spent.
The Simple Seeker II 01-21-05, 08:43 PM	It sounds like most everyone has Demon Stone for a consol game system. I havn't seen any reviews for the PC version of the game. So I guess i'm the first. Take my advice, Save your $30.00 and don't even think about buying this game. Zono is the the company that converted the game from a consol setting to the PC. They didn't even test it before they released it. The game is so buggy, there are 3 major bugs (so far) that prevent you from even finishing the game. 1) the Shield Gardian doesn't move when activated. It just stand there while your wizard is pummeled. My solution to the problem was to completly uninstall the game then reinstall the game and it seemed to fix the problem. 2) The raft constantly sinks, as soon as you are allowed to move on the raft it sinks to the bottom of the river. you can move around and fight, but the raft still sinks. I personally called Technical support on this one, thier response, "we havn't tested the game that far, we will get back to you." Still no word from Technical support, and don't suspect to hear from them any time soon. My solution to this problem, I don't have one. other than try your hardest to keep the raft balanced. after the 30th time of playing the level, i finally got the raft to stay up, it was very hard to do, and it almost sunk on me several times. However the raft did sink and help me out greatly, the queen spider was really beating me up good, couldn't kill her, then the raft sank, she couldn't hit me but i could hit her, and presto, end of chapter. 3) You can't kill the trolls. Even after you light them up with fire, and you have your weapons on fire, and you coup-de-gra them, they just won't die, just lay there. seems to happen to 4 of the trolls. you can't move forward until you kill them. I've been able to Play Drizzt once, and he couldn't even kill these trolls that won't die. My solution to this problem, I don't have one. If anyone else does please let me know. All in all, It is a very poor game and i wouldn't recomend it to anybody. Aragorn Thank you for your review...sir.