Review for Book of Demons. Game for PC, Mac, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch, the video game was released on 13/12/2018 The version for Nintendo Switch came out on 30/04/2020 The version for Xbox One came out on 24/04/2020
Man has always been fascinated by magic and by everything that, for better or for worse, derives from it. Witches and monsters of all kinds and, of course, demons, are undoubtedly part of this imaginary to the point of influencing not only the modern media - more accustomed to the sole purpose of play - but also the great writers of every era: one above all Dante Alighieri , father of the Divine Comedy that everyone had to face, some with pleasure and some less, at school.
It is precisely with Hell and its circles that Dante faces the descent from hell and just like him, in Book of Demons, an indie title produced by Thing Trunk, we will begin our personal pilgrimage to hell with the ultimate aim of facing the Devil in person.
Book of Demons originally landed in 2018 on PC via Steam and today in 2020 it also makes its appearance on Xbox One and Nintendo Switch, offering for the first time to fans the opportunity to enjoy the title in full mobility. For those few who missed the advent of Book of Demons at the time, it is a must to present the title as it deserves, given that we are faced with a small pearl capable of giving hours of fun.
Although the plot of Book of Demons does not shine for its originality - given that it is the usual champion of good who has to face the awakened evil and threatens the innocent poor - the atmosphere, also not very original, nevertheless manages to amuse even immediately, thanks to a graphic sector in full popup animated book style. So it happens that opening the book of demons you find yourself choosing our character and, turning the page, you are immediately catapulted to the village (central hub of the title) to talk to its inhabitants and begin the descent into the bowels of the cathedral, in order to face the evil one, who is entertained in the expectation of our coming by taking a sumptuous bath in the flames of hell playing with a duck.
The analogies with Blizzard productions were wasted in the reviews of the time: the development team has never denied the evident inspiration taken by Diablo, and anyone who has ever faced the famous title can only agree. Book of Demons, however, despite being often compared to a Hack and Slash, actually approaches combat in a substantially different and original way. In fact, our hero can only move on fixed tracks and, regardless of the class selected at the beginning, he attacks from a distance anything that enters his range. It is up to us only to make it move forward or backward, to increase its attack speed and to use the peculiar abilities that we will have equipped it with through magic cards.
Interesting is the cascade development whereby through the advance in the procedural dungeons you accumulate gold and cards that can then be equipped and upgraded in the village. In the game hub we will find villains able to identify mysterious cards, recharge our health and our mana, as well as upgrade objects. We start with four free slots and little mana available, but as we level up we have the possibility to increase our power and unlock new slots thus obtaining the possibility of equipping new skills.
Basically the cards are divided into passives, which increase attack defense and grant permanent statuses, object cards and attack cards. Many cards can then be transformed into their magical variant - which increases their characteristics or provides new ones - and all can be upgraded with rune cards. Apart from the item cards, which are discharged with use and can be reloaded by paying, the other two categories have the peculiarity of being able to be activated or equipped only if you have a sufficient amount of mana.
For example, if you have 10 mana points and you have a shield and armor of 5 value, you will not be able to use the other attack cards even if you have put them in the active slots. It therefore becomes imperative to calculate well the type of approach to be adopted in dealing with the very dangerous dungeons.
In fact, the dungeons are all very populated with dangerous and quite varied creatures. Furthermore, each monster encountered has specific characteristics, such as belonging to an element such as fire or frost - with the consequent ability to set you on fire or freeze - and physical characteristics such as shields, resistances or magical abilities. You will often be literally surrounded by creatures such as acid spiders that can poison you and release small and aggressive spiders to death, or ghosts that will freeze you at a distance effectively slowing your ability to attack and move.
In addition, to provide an adequate level of challenge, there are also mini bosses, each with different attack phases. Each phase change corresponds to a moment of invulnerability that allows your opponent to unleash a magical attack, a summoning of helpers, or many other very interesting devastating features.
The level of challenge is appropriate and almost always balanced, but if you die, don't worry: a plaque with all your belongings will wait for you at the point of death ready to give you back everything you have accumulated. In addition, slain enemies do not come back to life after you die or when you leave the dungeon, so you can simply retrace your steps, retrieve your belongings and continue the slaughter from where you left off.
But be careful: this does not apply to the Roguelike mode, a game in which death is a definitive thing. This mode offers a high challenge rate and we definitely recommend it only for hardcore gamers who intend to try their hand at an epic undertaking.
An interesting feature at the time and which today finds a new dimension on the Nintendo laptop is the Flexoscope. This tool allows you to decide in advance the hypothetical duration of the game to adapt it to the time available: you can then decide to face the dungeon in a quick session, which naturally offers fewer rewards or to dedicate an hour to it to be able to bring home a booty worthy of the name. It is useless to explain how the Flexoscope turns out to be therefore a godsend on a console that can be carried around, perhaps while traveling.
Unfortunately, however, given the amount of text and menus designed for mouse and keyboard, some stages of gameplay and setting of the cards are difficult to use on the small screen. This sore point can be offset by the advantage of being able to use the title, entirely localized in Spanish, in full freedom. Another small sore point is given by the lack of variety of scenarios and enemies that in the long run can give a feeling of repetition. Fortunately, the Flexoscope and a good action component also mitigate this small negative aspect.
Book of Demons is part of a Return 2 Games project that aims to bring back and revisit 7 masterpieces of the past, rejuvenating them and giving new life to the videogame landscape. This ambitious Thing Trunk project started off on the right foot and the console port is worth the price to pay on the store. With a fun RPG component, interesting gameplay, a good graphics sector and many feature book of Demons it deserves a chance for those who haven't tried it yet. For those who appreciated it years ago, the possibility of facing the descent into hell in mode can be a good reason to brush it up.
► Book of Demons is an Adventure-indie-RPG game developed and published by Thing Trunk for PC, Mac, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch, the video game was released on 13/12/2018 The version for Nintendo Switch came out on 30/04/2020 The version for Xbox One came out on 24/04/2020
