Book of Demons

[h1] Book of Demons is a very interesting hybrid of hack and slash, deck building and dungeon crawler games. It has super addictive gameplay with tons of interesting mechanics that will grant you dozens of hours of fun. [/h1] [b] Pros: [/b] + Procedurally generated dungeons + High level of replayability + Very fun and addictive gameplay + Hack and slash mechanics + Huge variety of monsters with different abilities and powers + Interesting deck building mechanics + Ability to set up your game session according to the amount of time you have + Satisfying upgrade system [b] Cons: [/b] - The story is pretty dull and shallow - Playing on Casual difficulty makes the game a bit repetitive and boring - Some of the cards feel a bit weird or overpowered Book of Demons is a game that stayed in my game library for a long time and I was not sure either I should play it right away or just wait for the end of the Early Access. The majority of my friends were not so happy with this game, so I was not ready to test my luck. And when the game was officially out and the review score looked pretty good, I decided to give it a chance and have a look. [h1] Story [/h1] The story is the weakest part in this game, something that you will not remember at all. Basically, there is no storyline in Book of Demons at all. There is a lonely church situated in the village with a dungeon system located straight beneath it. These dungeons lead deeper and deeper under the ground, where you have to face and slay the main enemy. To do this, the player has to clear procedurally generated levels, divided into three sections. During the game, the player always has a chance to visit the village between cleaning the dungeon floors and talk to its habitats. They can tell you a bit more about the lore of the game but it still doesn’t feel enough. [h1] Gameplay [/h1] In its core, Book of Demons is a classic dungeon crawler with an interesting mix of card deck building, hack and slash, and a few RPG elements. One of the most interesting mechanics for me personally was the ability to tail a perfect dungeon run based on the free time that I have. Before each journey, you can set the duration of your run, setting a short, long or big one, with a different amount of time from 5 to 40+ minutes. The whole gameplay thing is very simple and it’s presented as a simplified hack and slash game, where you control the character through the procedurally generated levels. Your moves are limited by the path you have to follow and you can’t turn off from this path. Player has to attack enemies by clicking the left mouse button on them or simply hold this button to continuously auto-attack them. Sounds pretty simple and trivially, but there is a twist! The player has a set of special cards that greatly helps him during the exploration of these dungeons. Cards are divided into four different categories: special cards, artifacts cards, item cards, and spell cards. Special cards are needed to upgrade the main cards that you use directly during the battles. Artifact cards grant you some great passive skills like a critical chance, chance to ignite the enemy, restore mana, etc. Items cards let you use a variety of different items like potions, the portal to town scrolls, throw a bomb to the enemy, etc. And finally, spell cards are the main active cards that do the whole damage and bring some fun to the game. It’s important to understand that you will have to find and build your own powerful deck for being able to complete the game. Some of these cards can be completely overpowered or just weird in its mechanics, but I guess developers will continuously patch them from time to time. The variety of demons in this game is simply impressive. I really enjoyed the battle effects made in this game. Enemies can freeze you, put you on fire, poison and stun you. The player can interrupt most of them if he is fast enough to click the shiny icon above the enemy’s heard. Stunning is the most fun part in this list - when this happens, you must complete a mini-game, where the player has to gather starts flying around the dark screen to become conscious again. If the hit is too powerful, your cards can be even disabled and you have to enable them again by clicking on them. After you finish your dungeon run and gain enough experience, your character will level up. You have to distribute one point to either enhance your health or mana. Also, when you level up, it’s a good idea to visit the town and have a talk with its habitats. They can offer you their services in exchange for money. Basically, the town is the main place where you make your character stronger and prepare for your next run. Here you can replenish your health and mana, upgrade your cards, identify the unknown cards and charge them. One of the most interesting offers is a magic cauldron that gathers all the useful stuff you gather during your runs. In order to obtain this stuff, you have to pay some gold and every next time will be more expensive than the previous one. Magic cauldron contains extra points, rare cards, and gold. Keep in mind, that every time you die during your journey, your cauldron will be emptied. If you are a streamer, then you will be happy to hear that developers recently added a new feature that allows your audience to participate in your game during your streams. The player can freely set which type of viewers are allowed to do certain types of actions such as setting traps, spawning demons or help you click on the abilities at the most intense moments. This is a very interesting addition that lets you communicate with your audience on the brand new level. Be aware that if you play on the Casual difficulty your game can turn into one big tedious and repetitive routine, where you will kill every single enemy easily. If you like to have a bit more challenging game, consider the idea of setting a game on the Normal difficulty. [h1] Graphics [/h1] To support the idea that the game is actually a book every single character, demon, building and all the items lying around on the dungeon floors are made with folded paper. It looks pretty unique and interesting. All these graphics effects of freezing, poisoning, setting your character on fire and screen shaking after the enemy rally on you are designed in a simple way but perfectly fit the whole atmosphere. Developers also made this really cool design of footprints that you leave behind yourself which turn into gold once you complete the area to prevent you from unnecessary traveling here and there. [h1] Sound [/h1] I really appreciate the voice acting in Book of Demons, it sounds pretty professional and polished. All these sound effects you hear during your journeys like goat bleating, fireball throwing, screen frozing, and many others are designed on the highest level. The only thing that can be annoying for players is how the hero repeat the same phrases again and again until you complete certain levels. [h1] Conclusion [/h1] Book of Demons is a truly interesting game with a great mix of different genres and mechanics perfectly implemented in one place. This game is a good choice for both casual and veteran players. It has a great replayability value and challenging gameplay on the higher level difficulties which can make your gameplay experience last for a very long time. Highly recommended for the hack and slash fans and someone who is looking for a good dungeon crawler game with an interesting mix with other genres. 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