Forgotten Realms: Demon Stone PS2 Review

You seemingly can’t move for Dungeons and Dragons related videogames these days. We’ve had Baldurs Gate and Dungeons and Dragons Heroes, two games that never rose to anything more than decent in our view. And now we have Forgotten Realms: Demon Stone, which is without doubt the best use of the licence yet.

The plot of Demon stone is certainly an improvement over the aforementioned efforts. It covers three characters that are seemingly brought together by fate, who reluctantly release two warring leaders. Interest never once waned in this admittedly clichéd narrative, thanks in most part to the three strong central characters, who are all shamed from their homelands for various reasons. Rannek is the typically heroic warrior, whilst Illius is the knowledgeable sorcerer and last but not least is the amusingly sarcastic Zhai who is the sole female of the trio. The pace of this plot moves at an almost terrifying velocity and the game also boasts outstanding voice acting, with Patrick Stewart and Michael-Clarke Duncan being the most famous names featured amongst the highly talented cast.

The actual gameplay consists of mostly hacking and slashing, with the occasional bit of magic thrown in for good measure. The game also boasts some truly fantastic set pieces, which are cinematically executed. One particular memorable moment, being a castle battle later on in the game, which you must prevent from being breached.

The three characters are unsurprisingly a diverse bunch. Rannek is the swordsman and the best all rounder of the three and will undoubtfully be the character that you’ll end up using for the majority of the game, Illuis is the sorcerer and his particular strength is long range combat and protection spells, which can really make a brutally tough battle all the easier. Zhai on the other hand is probably the most ineffective character to use in a direct confrontation, but can make a tough battle less so, with her stealth skills.

For its bare bones combat the game utilizes a combo system, with a fair few means of attack, however we often found the best course of action to be just insanely bash the X button, which isn’t to say that the vast majority of the combos are useless, they’re just not really a necessity for the most part. Although successfully pulling off combos, does add to your hero meter, allowing you to pull off a super attack, once your current characters meter is full. Furthermore, once every characters hero meter has reached its apex, team attacks are even possible, which are unsurprisingly massively destructive, wiping out every creature within a wide radius and most probably leaving you with a smile on your face.

Forgotten Realms: Demon Stone is fantastic. The combat is satisfyingly accessible, the levelling up portions of the game thankfully aren’t too complex, the graphics are stunning and the game offers a decent challenge, which is a good thing considering the short length of the game. A glaring oversight is the lack of a two-player mode, which would have fit nicely into the game. Nevertheless we recommend both Dungeons and Dragons and hackandslash fans to pick it up this instant.

8/10