The modern, or rather contemporary, video game world has certainly brought with it a degree of innovation that, while now rather predictable and in the realm of the realistic, might have seemed to a gamer or video gamer 30 years ago pure magic: virtual reality, graphical fidelity bordering on photorealism, new mechanics of insane depth, or even just game concepts inspired by pre-existing IPs that seem straight out of the original work. On the other hand, the distance from a physical place to play and the intra-our material detachment that the march towards all-digital makes us adopt today have rendered unfathomable a whole spectrum of emotions that only the sharing of oxygen and square meters might have been able to restore in time. Even the world of D’n’D has had to adapt a bit to these contexts and, perhaps needless to say, its influences are felt all over the game today. Demeo is indeed the fruit of these inspirations, but he decides to propose the formula again without reinventing it… except in its ‘aesthetic’ context, that is to say the format in which we find ourselves immersed in its solid central loop. (because proven many times). Demeo is actually a cross-platform cooperative adventure that allows four players to recreate all the magic of a D’n’D campaign in the absolute comfort of the relative newness that PlayStation VR2 offers. The alter-egos whose sordid shoes we can don are classic (hunter, wizard, assassin, guardian, bard, mage and barbarian) and, as you might expect, each offers slightly different gameplay possibilities: if with the he assassin can stand behind an enemy and attempt a critical attack, the barbarian has great mobility thanks to his chained scythe. This actually leads to quite a varied experience and approaching each map differently depending on the champion chosen is enjoyable and a source of curious and unexpected pleasure.
A second important factor at the level of mechanics is the use of “movement cards”, each with its own cost in action points and its own effects: while some of them are generic and universal (among others, the move that makes us use a potion), most of them are specific moves for our character and they are the ones that give greater depth to the abilities of individual characters, without reinventing the wheel in any way either. So far we’ve described a rather generic RPG, so what makes Demeo that special treasure we talked about at the start? Precisely in its aesthetic rendering, because in the title of Resolution Games, we are an ethereal presence in a cellar, surrounded by role-playing games, leaning over a table on which our game will take place, a bit as if we were really in front of the board of our board game. It would seem like a minimal effort if Resolution had not gone further: Demeo indeed allows us to move freely, we practically become the playroom, and zooming in on the playing field to almost the height of the characters, here represented by very well made statuettes. The level of detail is very high, for the characters, and a similar care is obviously found in the design of the enemies and the creation of the environments, even if the latter suffer a little from the random generativity of the title, inherent in the “campaign” structure. which Demeo also embraces at the level of its UI. Going back to the freedom offered to the player, it’s borderline extraordinary how the ability to go from an aerial view to an American shot on the various characters goes through an immersive journey that fits perfectly the detachment that we want to have in relation to the game.
Interesting gameplay despite a sketchy story.
In this context, the story almost takes a back seat, either because of the repetitive structure (not in a negative sense) of the main loop, especially in the single-player game, or because of the propensity to emphasize about the short-term strategy of clashes rather than why you end up in a dungeon, slaying goblins and ravenous elementals. The solo is a point on which I have to dwell: playing Demeo alone is borderline useless. It may be able to give you an overview of your abilities, allow you to discover the different avatars to find the one with which you are most comfortable… but functionally, it does not bring you anything: to even finish that only one of the 3 floors that each “level” has is far too difficult and any XP you earn will only unlock cosmetic features for the character themselves or for your alter ego around the table. In short, you have no reason to face Demeo alone. It is therefore armed with patience and ready for some frustration that we decided to spend the rest of the game on Demeo, always in company: the drop-in of a game in progress is quite efficient and fast, thanks to the cross -play and the ability to play it without VR on PC, and even in situations where me and other party members found ourselves prone, it never reached the frustration level of other multiplayer experiences . There is however a remark to be made: in at least half of the matches that we faced, it was still rare to find yourself in a complete match, that is to say with three other players, and to face the floors of the dungeons with only one other companion, sometimes even with only two other people, is almost as difficult as facing it alone. In short, the game seems balanced for four-player play and this is a feature that could have been implemented a bit better. You should never leave a player alone if the enemies and the dungeons are calibrated on a full team, especially when the XP collected in the event of success has only an aesthetic function, therefore without long-term gameplay value. We can’t even speak of a player’s skill growing or evolving, since each enemy must be approached differently and the combinations in which we end up finding them make a more far-sighted strategy than a few moves almost useless.
An interesting implementation would have been the ability to command more than one character, so you could tackle a dungeon with another person while commanding a full party with relative peace of mind. Another element of imbalance is hard to miss in the mechanical management of traps, sorts of “containers” (you want poison, fire, ice, etc.) that seem to be approachable only from a distance, so as not to not hurt us. That’s all well and good, but there’s only one PG that has ranged attacks, so it’s a tough choice to justify and contextualize. There are just under ten Adventures available at the moment, with more to come, and they can be tackled in any order you prefer, knowing that the more advanced Adventures will offer a very high level of challenge. Depending on the replayability promised by Demeo, there is another negative point to highlight: the save system. Indeed, there is no way to save during the session, and it is only at the end of the dungeon floor that we can save: we sometimes speak of sessions of one hour per floor , and the fact of not having the possibility of pausing the game (obviously with the agreement of the participant) is a notable lack. On a technical level, there are not really any remarks to make to the Resolution Games team: the manual movement of each character in the chessboard projected on the ground of each of the different dungeons is immediate, the animations of attack are quite simple and minimalist, and the limited sphere of vision of our character is a great incentive to freely explore the game map with our head, to speculate on the routes by which the enemies will attack us, or perhaps on the positioning of a chest or a source of regeneration. The presence of coins that, once collected and only after successfully completing the dungeon plan, allow us to buy new cards is a logical addition, but one that is implemented in a rather safe way.
VERDICT
Demeo is one of the closest experiences to physical tabletop gaming with friends, and it’s the aspect of Resolution Games’ title that works best. The game is strongly oriented towards multiplayer, which is not too openly expressed but which we discover, willy-nilly, very early on. The attention and aesthetic care given to the characters is high, and the barrier between the player and the game itself is very quickly broken, also and above all thanks to the freedom that one acquires as a game camera. Too bad , however, that some aspects (like saves) deeply detract from the enjoyment of an experience that has the high potential to be enjoyable on all fronts.