Customer Reviews

Demon Stone

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Now, alas, we meet three interesting heroes in what I think is probably the best D&D inspired hack'n'slash I ever saw. Better than Two Towers, or Return of the King this game is so well done it will leave you astonished.

Demonstone has:
1) Awesome graphics - characters are really detailed. But what will leave you astonished are the backgrounds... things go on, and you seem to be part of it. Ex: first stage you are involuntarily part of an Orc vs. Goblin raid. As you kill all you see to get yourself out of such mess and to save villagers, in the background you will see a dragon setting all ablaze, other scores of monsters battling each other, explosions, etc...
2) Great control system, easy to learn and use. Fun combos for devastating effects.
3) THERE IS ACTUALLY AN ORIGINAL STORY!!! Written by, nonetheless, R.A. Salvatore!
4) Voice overs from the various actors are really.
5) It is a bit short, but I prefer going through 8-10 hours of REAL FUN than 20 hours divided into 4 hours of fun and 16 hours of crap.
6) In one of the levels you play as Drizzt do Urden, the famous hero, as he defends Mithril Hall from a horde of trolls. Those who read the books will know which part of the Forgotten Realms timeline I'm talking about. Drizzt was never as fun to use. With twinkle and Icingdeath in your hands you will deliver incredible amount of damage in the most catlike and dexterous fashion!

BUY THIS GAME!

Expecially if:
1) You are a rpg or D&D fan.
2) You read and liked the R.A. Salvatiore Books.
3) You liked EA's titles for LOTR.
4) You are a Drizzt do Urden fan.
5) You know games. This is a great one, a must have.

Forgotten Realms: Demon Stone is a good game. However, it could have been great. More on that later.
The game is gorgeous to behold. Visually stunning, with a great soundtrack and wonderful music, it unfolds like an interactive fantasy movie experience.
You are thrust into a war in Damara in the shoes of Rannek, a fighter. Soon, you meet a rouge named Zhai and a sorcerer who goes by the name of Illius. The three characters have a great interplay with the dialogue and the subtle ways that they interact, be it in a cutscene or in the midst of battle.
The script has been penned by R.A. Salvatore (my reason for buying it) a great writer and a master of the genre. The story is cohesive and held togetther by little tidbits and information that is revealed as you progress through the levels.
The story is told in chapters, and there are 10 in all, after completing a chapter, you can unlock bonuses like concept art and backstory for the game.
Now on to the stuff that wasnt so great. While the game was awesome in the graphics department and ease of control, it fell short in a few areas. First and foremost, the game was way too short. I beat the whole thing in 9 hours. Super short, and that leaves one feeling short-changed, especially at the current price for the game at 49 bucks.
While the controls were easy to master, most of the time it felt like I was just button mashing. In fact the whole game, I never used Illius' charm spells to hold monsters or make them fall alseep. While you can switch between the players on the fly, I found myself confined to the role of Rannek most often...the fighter needed to constantly save the other characters from battle. Another thing that kinda irked me was the level upgrade system. If you got a good ability or spell, it would be overwritten the next time you leveled up, and you could not use it again. Example: Once Illius learns lightning, you cant cast a fireball anymore. Minor, but it adds to the overall experience of feeling cheated.
Dont get me wrong, I LIKE this game, I am a fan of Salvatore, and that is the main reason that I bought the game, I just wish it had been longer and more involved than it was. Sometimes I get a little tired of button mashing and fighting a boss monster for like 30 minutes straight.
The game held up nicely to my attention span, mainly because of the storyline, I know that I keep stressing the storyline...but in all honesty that is what holds the whole game together and saves it from being a total loss. The ending is nice and heroic, but obviously left open for a sequal or two...lets hope the next games in the series are longer and dont have the problems of the this first outing. If Atari and Stormfront play thier cards right, they could have a killer franchise on their hands.
Buy this game if you are a fan of Salvatore or Forgotten Realms in general (you will see some familiar faces) but if you are a game player looking for a fantasy game, rent it first. See how far you get and how long it takes you to get there...let that be the basis of your decision wether to buy or not. Mixed bag folks...give it a spin...you will like it despite its shortcomings. And thats a good thing.

(Also posted on Gamestop and elsewhere)

Lets start with the good. The voice acting is superb. Having Michael Clark Duncan and Patrick Stewart as Ygrol and Khelben lends talent and recognizability to the voices, and it pays off.

The environment, graphics and overall appearance of the game is also excellent. At first, the way the camera scrolls to emphasize things happening in the background is obnoxious, but once you are used to it, it's like taking your own part in a movie.

The story by Salvatore, and the familiar D&D personalities and places is very enjoyable, and the story is as original as can be expected in the fantasy genre.

Now, the bad. I beat this game in 8 hours, on normal difficulty. It can probably be done in less. As there is no multiplayer option, the character development system is rather limited, and the ability to explore the game maps mostly non-existant, the game has very little replay value. Is it worth the $50 dollars for 8-10 hours of entertainment? You decide.

The combat is very unimaginative, and, due to the difficult camera angles, sometimes very frustrating. I found aiming in melee difficult if not impossible, and when I could actually see what I was doing, it was just button mashing. You learn to live with the camera, but, the combat never does become more exciting.

Character development is the bread and butter of these D&D games, and is what lends an otherwise short button-masher replayability and depth. The options for character development are too limited, especially you can't play again with different characters. The three you have to start are all you will ever have, and accordingly they should have more complex and challenging management choices.

In summary, Demon Stone is a great looking, well acted button masher, with a great story. However, its very brief length, sometimes boring combat, and limited development system really take away from what is otherwise a great game.

This game was fantastic!! but only the first time through. the game has no replay value. you do not participate in the story, there is no gathering of information, it is a hack and slash game.

For that reason, i recommend renting this on a five day rental and playing through it a couple of times (takes about six hours to beat it on the most difficult setting).

However, I do recommend renting this game at least once, as it is extremely fun the first time.

Ok this is my first review for amazon so bear with me if it's bad. First off, this game is quite good. The plot is true Salvatore material, and is the highlight easily for getting it. That and being able to play as everyone's fave drow Drizzt doesn't hurt either. Plus the graphics are well done and tie with LOTR: Return of the King for best looking adventure game.
But with all this, the game does have it's dark spots, mainly it's length and the upgrade system. As cool as it sounds to give your guys better armor and whatnot, you'll more than likely just go with the autobuy option and skip it. Sure you can fine tune what elements your weapons are imbuned with if you go in and do the shopping yourself, but it's all rather meaningless. Also, i beat the game in one afternoon..not the best length for a $50 game. Plus there is one other gripe..and that's the lack of co-op. If this game had co-op it would easily be better than ROTK. Nevertheless, if you are a fan of epic adventure games in the vein of ROTK, then you owe it to yourself to get this game.

The graphics, storyline, and voice acting is superb for this title. However, the story itself is way too short. I expect RPGs to take at least 20 hours of my time -- this took maybe 10. The fighting mainly consists of slashing your way through monsters and would have been better served by a turn based system. However, this is one of the better D&D games for the PS2, so I would recommend it as a rental.

The game is pretty much three characters slashing through hordes of enemies. Simple concept that makes for a fun game.

The leveling up your weapons, arms and skills in between levels was a nice touch. Some items even change your characters appearance.

Is this game worth the money?

The game is fairly short so on average most people will beat this game with in 4 days.

This game had a tone of potential. It has a decent story written by Salvatore. It has some nice graphics, and even better it allows you to play as Drizzt for a level. The voice work is nice as well. The problems I had with the game are some wonky camera angles sometimes, the fact that you can skip cut scenes(which is annoying when you get killed over and over on a boss level and have to sit through the same 2 minute cut scene for the 12th time). The game play is fairly basic with your party of 3. Warrior/thief/wizard. You can switch between the 3 and use their special abilities when needed. You level up with better weapons and spells and you hack and slash your way through the different scenarios. Fun for the most part with just enough annoying features to keep it from being a terrific game.

Rannek, a forlorn warrior with a haunted past, walks along a lonely path. He believes he is alone in the world and has nothing to live for. A dragon's shadow passes overhead. Are those orcs he hears stalking him? There is a cry for help.

Without even a moment to consider the danger, sword drawn, Rannek thrusts himself into a battle for which he is destined.

Thus began one of the best written video games I've ever seen.

Yeah, it's short. Seems that every bad review out there has this as their top complaint. You can finish the game in 5 to 10 hours. (Probably 10 unless you are good at this sort of game.) Since this game was originally sold for half the price of other games, I failed to see the point of this criticism back then, since "short" is meaningless except in the context of how much you get for your dollar. Now that you can buy the game used for a few bucks, this criticism is entirely meaningless. Even the worst reviews of this game admit it's got good graphics, nice action, and an interesting story. But they just couldn't see past the short play time -- which never did turn out to be an issue. Heck, you'll probably want to replay the game more than once.

The other main complaint about this game is it's lack of multiplayer. Okay, that would have been awesome. But isn't that a bit like complaining that High Noon just isn't a very good Sci Fi movie?

This game is what it is. It's hands down the single best example of how to integrate narrative with action game play and RPG elements. (There are plenty of places where the narrative was ill adapted to multiplayer, so the choice to be single player only isn't merely an oversight.)

This is a living breathing world populated with believable and sympathetic characters. Not a word of dialog is wasted. By the time I was done, I felt like I knew the characters and cared for them. I felt more connection to Rannek, Zhai, and Illius then I ever did for the characters of my favorite RPGs. And this was with only 5 hours of game play! Oh my gosh, the game industry needs to hire the writer(s) and let him (them) do something of some length. This is no small feat we are talking about and it's sad that people "didn't get it."

Many of the levels are just breath taking. I know, I know, graphics don't matter. Oh, except that they do. And this is on an old style x-box and ps2, no less. It still puts many xbox 360 and ps3 titles to shame.

But it's not really the graphics that mattered so much as how they integrated so well with the world, the action, and the narrative. For example, my heart stopped beating when I realized the "cutscene" dragon -- that looked so real -- was attacking me. He transitioned from "cutscene" to "boss" seemlessly. And the digital actors show real emotion. Moments like this kept happening.

And the game has real emotional impact that is so often lacking in games. I nearly got up and cheered when Drizzt entered the fray. (Then I realized I was controlling him!) But that was nothing to all the other poignant moments where the characters shows us what they are made of and display what's in their hearts through their actions. I still remember the moment where Rannek finally gives a nod to Zhai as they decide to help Drizzt fight and the music swells as the leap from the wall into battle. I truly felt Rannek's anger as my own at the trolls who had destroyed his town -- and I felt true companionship for his friends helping him come to terms with his past.

And who could forget the moment where Rannek decides to take up the silver sword -- and to seize control of his life and take responsibility for his actions.

And I loved the ironic ending where Ygorl (ably performed by Michael Clarke Duncan) realizes that he sowed the seeds of his own destruction.

Do yourself a favor and buy this game. If you don't like it as much as I did, don't worry, you can always sell it used for basically the price you bought it for, so this is risk free people. But don't be surprised if you end up keeping this one for the collection.

I finished Demon Stone... it's actually a fairly short
game. The story, not suprisingly is written by RA
Salvatore, and is as awesome as you would want it to
be. The play control is just ok... but there is some
method to the button mashing, when you level up and
stuff you get new skills and spells etc. You also
spend money on weapon and armor upgrades. By the end
your characters are really cool fighting Dragons,
Slaad Lords, Githyanki Generals... all in hopes of
saving Faerun. There are extra things too... Diary
of Drizzt type stuff, that you unlock that gives you
more story depth.

The enemies are fricken scary and it's a good thing
that they are often fighting each other. The opening
sequence is pretty sweet... instantly thrust into a
battle between two waring orc armies. It's all
the epic you'd want from a really cool game! :)

And, the price is right.