![]() ![]() Instead of creating combos, building a good hand in Book of Demons is about switching things up to play off your enemies’ weaknesses. It makes sense that cards should all operate well on their own, since they’re found randomly throughout the dungeon and it keeps there from being one objectively best combination of cards, but I would have liked to be able to play cards off of each other more. My only other gripe with the card system is that cards don’t really synergize much, like they would in a card game like Magic: The Gathering or Hearthstone. That means that if you want to build a very survivable character, you’ll need to spend most of your mana on defensive equipment and not have much left for spells, which could make for a dull experience. A single good card could lock up more than half of your mana at early levels, and even late in the game, they’re an expensive investment. The cost of equipment also tends to be pretty high. Because items, equipment, and abilities all take up card slots, loading up on one limits your access to the others. While the card system is flexible in the number of different hands you can build, it is somewhat limiting in how versatile you can make a single hand. There’s also a wide variety of cards to choose from, allowing you to add elemental effects to your attacks, teleport, stun enemies, become temporarily invincible, or just build up your defense. You’re free to move cards between your hand and your inventory at any time, even in the heat of battle, so you’ll never have to choose a specialization and close off other possibilities. It’s also a lot more flexible than most RPG skill systems. Building the best hand you can is key to your success in Book of Demons. You can also upgrade cards using runes you find in the dungeon, making them more effective but also costlier to use. You start out being able to hold only a few cards in your hand, but you can purchase extra slots in town. For instance, you might hold a potion card that you can use to regain some health (with a limited number of charges), an ability card that lets you shoot fireballs (at the cost of mana), and a passive card that lets you deflect missiles (but lowers your pool of usable mana while it’s equipped). These cards can represent anything from usable items and equipment to active skills and passive buffs. Instead of gaining new abilities from leveling up like in most RPGs, you’ll find new cards throughout the dungeon. Granted, that doesn’t sound too exciting, but that’s just where things get interesting. To speed up your attacks, you need to repeatedly click the enemy, or just hold down your mouse button. When an enemy enters your range, you’ll start to attack it, but painfully slowly. Similarly, basic combat is slightly automated. Instead of moving freely, you only issue basic commands, deciding whether to move forward or backward, and which path to take when the road forks. When you enter the dungeon, your character (a Warrior, Rogue, or Mage) is set on a track that leads through the dungeon. Your ultimate goal is to defeat the Archdemon who resides in the depths, and you’ll have to fight room by room to get there. ![]() You’ll spend most of your time in Book of Demons in a long dungeon that winds from the basement of a cathedral straight down to Hell (I’m guessing they got a good deal on that particular plot of land). It’s a glowing tribute to Diablo, but it also stands on its own thanks to its unique gameplay. ![]() According to the developer, the series is meant to comprise seven games, each of which is “a tribute to a single hit game from the 90’s: a reimagining of a single universal story for a brand-new audience, using modern means and innovative gameplay mechanics.” If that’s the goal, Book of Demons is a pretty remarkable success. Once you get into the dungeons beneath a ruined cathedral (sound familiar?), you’ll see what really makes Book of Demons different, as it trades traditional ARPG clickfest combat with a clever card-based system - there’s still a lot of clicking, though.īook of Demons is intended as the first entry in what developer Thing Trunk is calling Return 2 Games. ![]() Rather than mimic Diablo’s gritty art style, Book of Demons opts for a lively papercut look, and while you’ll still be facing off against hordes of demons and ghouls, that doesn’t mean you have to be deathly serious about it. Most of them try to mimic its infinitely addictive gameplay, macabre art, and pitch-black tone, but Book of Demons, a dungeon crawler that wears its debt to Diablo on both sleeves, takes a different route. Plenty of games have either taken inspiration from Diablo or been developed as direct successors to it. ![]()
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