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
After a long gestation on PC made up of two years of early access and the official release in 2018, Book of Demons lands on the console market at the interesting price of € 24.99 and lays the foundations of a long-term project designed by the small Polish studio Thing Trunk. Indeed Book of Demons is the first chapter of "Return 2 Games", an operation that aims to revisit seven great titles that have made history on PC.
What could we start from if not paying homage and reinterpreting that masterpiece that has the name of Diablo? And here's what happens: Book of Demons takes the title Blizzard, strips it of that dark aura that distinguishes it and catapults it into a world made of "paper" by expertly mixing genres and styles.
The deeds of the hero of the moment take root in the world of Paperverse, the basis for all the "books" of Return 2 Games. Specifically, we will find ourselves in a town that houses a cathedral that became an antechamber to hell due to a prelate attracted to the underworld rather than heaven. Certainly distant from Tristram, if not for some common elements, the Book of Demons setting is designed to remember and wink as much as possible to the famous Blizzard action rpg, in a reverent and at the same time ironic way.
The animated book style (or pop-up) is an interesting gimmick and well suited to this mix between an isometric hack'n'slash and a card game, in which a warrior will descend to hell, passing through various levels populated by undead, goat demons, succubi and so on, to rid the city of the demonic threat. Each enemy, however lethal, will be characterized by an element that will make it fearful and ridiculous at the same time and even the final boss, represented by the infernal lord on duty, will be shown with parodic tones, while he relaxes during a pleasant bath in the magma together with his demonic ducks.
Speaking of the levels, Thing Trunk has thought the title to leave the player the decision on the time to spend in the various sorties in the dungeon (in fact, manual saves are not available): it will be possible to vary the duration of our foray with short raids or long and demanding descents into the subsoil. In this sense, the main differentiation between small, medium or large levels will concern the depth in which we are going to explore (we will obviously go down much lower in the case of long games) and the loot that we can recover and which will obviously be variable in quantity and luster according to our choices.
Compared to the PC counterpart, of which you can read the review here, almost nothing has changed except the passing of the baton from mouse and keyboard to controller, the use of which in certain situations is made uncomfortable by the lack of a visible pointer, especially in the choice of the cards. Yes, because Book of Demons as we said is not a simple clone of Diablo but tries in a pleasantly successful way to insert new elements in a tested gameplay. And here then is that instead of the skill tree, objects and potions, we will have a series of typical board game cards of the dungeon crawler genre.
Consequently the personalization of the character's growth, with the leveling up, will be limited exclusively to the choice between increasing energy or mana while our equipment made of cards will be the main element of the customization of our hero. The other characteristics will automatically go up, while the element not "leveled", whether it is mana or energy, will go to make cash in a cauldron, along with a whole series of ingredients that can be recovered in the dungeons, and then be redeemed in the form of a small treasure, paying a sum to the innkeeper in town.
The latter will not be the only NPC we will interact with, in fact in the city we will find various characters that will seem very familiar to Diablo players: the Deckard Cain on duty who will identify our cards and will allow us to unlock new slots for our collection, the Adria-like that will reload the potions cards and will also allow us to level up the highlights of our collection and, finally, the double of Pepin who will be able to cure us and will be able to share with us, more than useful advice, fears and fears.
The gameplay of Book of Demons returns an excellent impact in the initial stages of the game, with the discovery of the cards dedicated to the three classes available: the warrior (available immediately), the thief and the magician (unlockable). However in the long run the title will prove to be a bit repetitive and, once we have found an ideal configuration, only in rare cases or when unlocking a new card slot we will go to modify our equipment. In this regard, the various secondary bosses scattered around the maps will not be enough to make the gameplay more varied, also very similar to each other and not sufficient to alleviate this possible monotony also due to a little varied level design.
Fortunately the high level of challenge partially manages to mitigate this defect, keeping the player alert in his goal of not succumbing to the many hordes of demons and the like that will appear in front of him to complete the three game missions that consist in the elimination of as many bosses: "The Cook", "The Antipope" to finally go to face "Hell" with its demonic lord. Instead, with a discreet sound sector, accompanied by a good dubbing, and a discreet soundtrack to accompany us in this difficult mission, together with good effects of light and particles, the technical sector and the visual experience of Book of Demons is truly satisfying with the aforementioned "paper" style that is also realized in the clumsy and "plastered" movements of heroes and monsters that more than once will arouse a smile that will have the flavor of nostalgia and at the same time pure fun.
Book of Demons manages to pay homage to the past and at the same time bring something new to the action rpg landscape by mixing hack'n'slash and card games. The animated paper book style, the particular movements of heroes and enemies and the right dose of irony do the rest. Unfortunately, the title soon falls into the repetition of the few game areas, but still manages to return a sense of satisfaction at the end of each map due to the good level of difficulty that Thing Trunk has designed for Book I of the Return 2 Games project .
► 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
