Customer Reviews

Dementium: The Ward

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This game was one of the main reasons i got a DS, but when the time came to actually get it i was hesitant. how good can survival horror be done with the power of N64 in this day and age? pretty well actually. this game doesnt set quite as strong of an atmosphere as its console relatives like FEAR, but theres plenty of "holy s---!" kind of moments and twisted looking places to explore.

Gameplay - similar to Doom 3 in that you can only see about 3 feet infront of you without a flashlight due to extreme darkness. you use the touch screen to turn, switch weapons, and look at your inventory/notebook/map. you walk with the directional buttons and shoot/turn off your flashlight with L. there's some other control schemes but that one works for me. there's also one set up for the left-handed. all the controls work really well. precise aiming can take some getting used to but after an hour or so its no problem.

Graphics - wow! this is deffinitely one of the best looking games on the DS. pitch black corridors and some of the best textures on the system produce a tense atmosphere. if this game wouldlve been released on the 64 it would've turned the survival horror genre upside down.

Sound - dark, brooding organ sounds behind mournful piano most of the time, and that does a good job contributing to the overall atmosphere. i wish the sound effects of the guns were a little better though.

Story - somewhat nonexistant for a while, but once it picks up theres some interesting twists and revelations. it starts out, you wake up in a seemingly abandoned hospital. theres blood everywhere. you dont know who you are or where you're at, but it doesnt take long to realize your not alone.

overall 8/10

- everyone whining about the save feature.. just keep an eye on your health. if it gets to 1 just turn the game off then back on. it saves as you enter each room, so if you dont actually let yourself die, its actually really convenient. that might be too tough though. you decide.

When it comes to first person shooters, survival horror, or mature rated games, your choices on the DS are pretty limited. Besides Metroid Prime: Hunters and Resident Evil: Deadly Silence, there isn't a whole lot that Nintendo's smash hit handheld offers in terms of either genre, but Dementium: The Ward more than makes up for that, and ends up being a surprisingly good and very creepy and atmospheric blast. You start off trapped in a blood soaked hospital with no idea of what has happened or who you are yourself, and all you're armed with is a flashlight and a nightstick. Eventually, you'll come across a gun, and from that point forward, Dementium is all about shooting and puzzle solving. The game is also quite challenging, as you can't shine your flashlight and fire your weapon at the same time, and the game's dark and gloomy atmosphere only heightens the creep factor. Graphically, Dementium looks great for a DS game, and the lighting and sound effects are wonderfully utilized as well. With everything that Dementium has going for it, it also has it's share of drawbacks. Most notably is the game's map which really doesn't help you much in figuring out where you are or where to go. Also, the monstrous enemies you'll face have an annoying habit of respawning in a room once you go back in it, which will find you exherting effort that doesn't really pay off when backtracking. Negatives aside, Dementium: The Ward is a surprisingly good survival horror FPS for the DS that delivers the goods. If you own a DS and have been yearning for a new and good game that falls under either genre, you should definitely give Dementium: The Ward a deserved look.

well, this is going to be brief:
the game box says: "This is Doom 3 meets Silent Hill",
and yes! it is indeed.

pros:
the dark, creepy, twisted touch is definitely there.
the music and sound is really good and helps to create a great atmosphere.
the usage and variety of tools, and the overall riddles are quite decent.

cons:
for an experienced gamer, who has already played a lot of 3-d shooters,
and seen a lot of twisted and sick scenarios...this is just plain the same...
all backgrounds and scenarios tend to repeat a lot, making it quite boring...
enemies tend to repeat themselves a lot...and lack of clear objectives through the game makes it boring...

for a young gamer, this should be pretty attractive.

for me it was, at least for 2 days... :P

I was looking for another "scary" game for the DS. I bought this game after reading the reviews because it looked like a good game and I was very excited after receiving it in the mail.

So I start playing the game...the start is very simple, choose a heart..the left or the right to store your game data. There's no extras, no information about anything else. Next thing I know, I'm playing this character who I know nothing about and I'm learning the controls and now I'm wandering in some hospital of some sort.

That's what bothered me, the game had absolutely no storyline presented at the beginning, and I understand that you play and find out whats going on...and I did, yet I still think the storyline was not well developed at all.

Now, if you don't care for story in a game and just enjoy shooting stuff, then I'm sure you'll love the game.

But in my opinion, the game was poorly developed when it came to the storyline. Also they could have added more than two DIFFERENT bosses (not including the last one), add more difficulty to the bosses, and add more different enemies.

What I did enjoy was the music and the ease of the controls.

I'd say rent the game, don't bother buying it. After all it'll take 6 hours MAX to pass it.

Pretty good survival/horror game for the DS. Decent enough graphics for the DS. The control scheme took some time getting used to. My wife and I both enjoy it.

My first contact with this First Person Shooter (horror) game was through a videogame news website. Though it caught my attention, I wasn't expecting Dementium to be that much enjoyable. Some aspects of this game are pretty typical for its genre, but others make it a unique experience.

Story:

You wake up in a hospital knowing nothing. To uncover the mystery behind your presence in such a dark and lifeless place, you have to walk through a series of corridors and hallways, killing creepy monsters and larva like enemies. A pretty common scenario for a horror game, but with its ending Dementium stands out of the crowd.

Graphics:

Dementium looks great on the NDS. Most of the game is spent in the dark but once you equip your flashlight you're free to explore every corner of the hospital. Even though the environmental design tends to be repetitive; a big effort has been put to it to make it look appealing.

Gameplay & Sound:

This is where Dementium shines. The game plays smoothly. I find it to even play better than Metroid Prime Hunter. Throughout the game you'll have access to a variety of weapons from a pistol to a machine gun with different effects on enemies. You won't have any problems aiming with the stylus, as the control is very fluid.
Some people complain about the save system being frustrating (die once and restart the whole chapter) and I agree with them. But once I completed the game I realized that a standard checkpoint system would have made it way too easy due to the fact that it's already a short game.
Dementium is scary, especially if you're playing with headphones. There is little to no music. Most of the time the only sound you hear is your own breath or an enemy's grunt running at you. Don't get me wrong, it's not a bad thing; this idea was probably intentional as it adds to the atmosphere of the game.

Replayability:

Dementium is relatively a short game. After your first walkthrough, there's not much for you to come back for. There are no unlockable features. That's the downside of this wonderful game.


If you are a horror game fan and you own a NDS, Dementium is a must have title. Renegade Kid (the development team) did a great job with the hardware they had at their disposal and I'm looking forward to their next project: MOON, which is scheduled for November 2008.

I do like this game except for the saving part which other reviewers have said about it. I am on the 6th chapter and have gotten to the boss many times and keep dying. Have started over so many times, it gets frustrating that you can't start off at the boss stage. You lose things that you collected and have to do it all over each time. If it wasnt for that part I would give it more stars.

I was excited to play this game after all the hype. Unfortunately, I found the game to be extremely disappointing. As mentioned in other reviews, the save function for the game is poorly implemented, causing the player to repeat large aspects of the game.

Additionally, I was frustrated that the enemies continually respawn if you reenter an area. This discourages exploration of the maps, especially when you find yourself short of ammo.

It's unfortunate that these shortcomings hamper the game to this degree. I thought the environments, graphics and sounds were top notch -- but the gameplay left me frustrated and disappointed.

At first I thought this was going to be a really cool game after playing "Touch The Dead" and being disappointed in that games rail system. I wanted a simmilar game where I had control over the character. However, they may as well have put this one on a rail system, as even with control over where you walk to, you still follow the same paths each time, with not much more then 2 directions to chose to go in, usually either path results in ending in the same spot.

As you should have figured out, it's a shooter game, much of the style of Doom & Duke Nukem games. However most of this game requires you to carry a flash light to see in dark areas, and then switch to a weapon when a zombie or monster creature attacks. I got fed up with that idea, and used a game shark cheat to make it always light. Maybe some people might enjoy that idea, but I thought it was just annoying after a while.

As you progress your itinerary consists of a flash light, a night stick, a hand gun, a magnum, a saw/grinder, shotgun, sniper rifle & machine gun. By the time I had reached the end of this game, I was bored with all these weapons and seemed very disappointing to me that a boss that appears a couple of times in this game got a mini-gun to use (ya know that weapon usually found on military choppers that Arnie used in Terminator 2)

I think there is around about 20 levels, give or take a few, and by the time I was half way through those, I was bored at the repetitiveness of each level. In fact, I was bored stupid by the time I got to the final boss and rolled my eyes when the boss keeps saying the same things over and over again until you defeat him. Then to top it off, the ending was just a complete WTF moment. (a major let down)

The lack of options and extra games really has become a trademark of so many NDS games. This one is no exception with 0 other games to play other then the main game. No two player, no wifi, no nothing. And when you have completed the game, if you go back to your saved file and continue, you go straight back to the final level... you can not choose previous levels and there is absolutely nothing at all to unlock and make you want to sit through playing the game again from the beginning.

Even tho it was longer then "Touch The Dead" I still only grant this game half a star better then that one. It was fun at first, but the same thing over and over and over again becomes tiresome and boring after a while.

The controls are pretty unique and easy, the graphics are pretty good actually, and it is a little scary.