A village in the middle of nowhere has been attacked by demons and only you, the brave
hero, can save them and the rest of the world from being overthrown by the devil and the
minions of hell.
No, this is not Diablo, it's Book of Demons.
Greetings one and all.
I'm Red Angel, and welcome to another episode of Hatchling Games; a series where I take
a look at games that haven't been fully released yet to give you something to look
out for in the future.
Today's Subject: Book of Demons.
Book of Demons is part of a project by Thing Trunk called Return 2 Games, which plays off
of the gaming community's natural nostalgia for games of the past by attempting to recreate
these experiences.
Book of Demons is the first of these attempts.
It goes back to the days of Diablo, from a time before Blizzard became a mega juggernaut
of online gaming and long before their buyout by Activision.
Just a simple hack and slash game about a valiant hero going to rescue a town from Satan
himself; what a grand old time that must be!
Well, there's of course a lot more to it than that, which I'm going to tell you about!
First things first, let me really discuss the aesthetics because it's one of my favorite
parts of the game.
The entire book unfolds like a pop up book or craft style which adds a great flair to the
story.
Everything just explodes from the "page" in color and the designs themselves all have
a unique flair to them.
Between the zombies, skeletons, demons, ghosts and countless other creepy crawlies that you'll
bump into in the crypt, you're easily able to figure out just what these creatures are
going to do and develop a strategy to defeat them.
Their designs are straightforward and what you see is what you get; if they're glowing
blue, they're ice, if they're glowing green and explode, they're poison (and they
are going to be the bane of your existence for the entire game).
I'm not joking about this; they make poison creatures swarm you.
I don't know if it's the AI or by design, but it will be the cause of at least one of
your deaths.
Whoever designed these monsters tried to give them a unique aesthetic, giving them a name
that's unique only to them along with an outfit that makes them stand out from everything
else in each of the dungeon floors that they inhabit.
It's rather cute, and while the stage bosses have nothing to do with the overarching story
other than "Kill everything that stands in your way."
It still provides these creatures with personality that would have been lost in the hands of
A clumsier developer.
It's an admirable effort on their part and makes up for the lack of story in the game
proper.
That said, you can unlock small chunks of the story by defeating certain enemies and
bosses, but that's about it.
The story isn't the focus, and that's just fine; that's not what this game was
made for.
It was made for a quirky, fun trip down memory lane, while still accessible enough to a broader
demographic that they won't feel alienated by this sort of game.
Thus far, Book of Demons has done this incredibly well.
It gives you a sort of "pick your poison" way of playing, which means that whenever
you're about to pick a level you can tailor it to how long you'd like to be in said
level.
You're given a rough estimate of how many enemies you'll be facing and how much gold
you'll make in that area if you complete it 100 percent.
This gives you the opportunity to customize your game experience to your liking, leaving
room for a lot of options.
This doesn't even go over the card system in the game, which allows you to further customize
how your hero fights or defends themselves.
There's a lot of options to utilize including elemental damage, area of effect, knock back
and even things that make most projectiles miss you.
This is incredibly useful considering how easy it is to get bombarded with a swarm of
arrows descending upon you from on high while you are frantically trying to stab at a single
enemy.
Admittedly, projectiles in this game are a little ridiculous and I don't quite know
how the rogue – the final playable character in the game after the mage – is going to
be factored into this in this games' upcoming update, but we'll see.
For my personal favorite build with the Warrior Class, I tend to go with the Shadow Blade
since it gives me extra attacks on the enemies and the bloody armor which gives me collectible
hearts when I'm damaged.
Which becomes increasingly useful since it prevents you from using too may potions which
are limited consumable items.
This might seem like a lot of information at once and in a way it is, I'm not even
covering every facet of this game, but I can assure you that despite this, the game does not
feel cluttered.
For a game that's still in Early Access, Book of Demons feels like a fully realized
experience that has successfully added layers upon layers of features onto itself, giving
it plenty of replayability and appeal.
If you want to invest your time in a title that revels in that old Blizzard feel that people seem to love so much.
All while improving and innovating on its own volition, I highly recommend giving Book of
Demons a try... if only for the fact that there's a devil in a fiery bath waiting
for you with his evil rubber ducky.
I'm Red Angel and I'll see you next time.
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