Demeo

Developed By: Resolution Games

Published By: Resolution Games

Price: £23.79 / $29.99

Strategy, RPG

Over quarantine, many ran to VR to get that feeling of togetherness by playing virtually in-person with another human being. Apps like VRChat and Tabletop Simulator alleviated this, but they also felt like the same old. Demeo sets out to be a game that brings back that feeling of playing a tabletop RPG with friends, with the advantages that being in virtual reality brings.

Free Their Spirits

Demeo’s story is rather simple and nothing to talk much about, so I’ll just get it out of the way. Elven spirits, including their mad king, are trapped in their sarcophagi by some evil force, and it’s up to your merry band of adventurers to free them. To do so, they must descend into the deepest levels of the dungeon and defeat the Elf Queen.

To start, you have four adventurers to choose from: Guardian, Sorcerer, Assassin, and Hunter. Each comes with their own abilities and weapons, like the Guardian having armor alongside health, and the Assassin being able to deal backstab damage.

Bring On The Atmosphere

Alright, with that done, let’s get into the game. So Demeo is basically a tabletop RPG in virtual reality, and it loves showing it off. Your game environment is a basement filled with nerd paraphernalia that you can explore and soak in. Your tutorial is led by a goth punk looking chick who you could totally see being a dungeon master. They made sure you feel that atmosphere that many are so used to. 

Of course, in the center of all this is the table which you will be playing your game on. You move around the table by pulling yourself around, and rotate with both hands, one of them moving. I will say the rotating did make me feel sick, which is rare in VR games for me, but I got a bit used to it over time. 

Along with this, VR does cause a lot of neck strain, and I certainly felt some craning my neck when playing Demeo. Luckily, they allow you to tilt the table up and down so you can still view the battlegrounds while sitting comfortably. The names of characters and enemies, however, don’t angle themselves along with the table, requiring you to move or crane your neck just to see it, which kinda defeats the purpose. 

Let’s Begin

To start a game, you choose between singleplayer and multiplayer. In my opinion, I didn’t find singleplayer to be all that great, as you don’t have other people to discuss moves with. In multiplayer, you and three others choose from the four characters to fight through the dungeon with.

Each game of the campaign consists of three levels. The objective of the first two levels is to acquire the key to the next floor, while the third floor’s objective is to defeat the Elf Queen. Each level has secrets of its own, marked in the fog of war that darkens whatever isn’t in your line of view. These secrets are either healing fountains or chests, with only one of them being the way out. The key to this exit will be on an enemy, and requires them to be killed for it to be taken.

Pick A Card

In between each level, you are taken to a shop where you use the gold you gathered to buy and sell the Demeo’s main mechanic, cards. While you can do regular attacks on enemies, the cards are where you’ll be doing most of your actions. Cards are abilities, magics or items you use as you play, earned by opening chests, buying them, or filling a card meter. Most cards are single use, but some specifically are reusable, like the Guardian’s Repair Armor and the Hunter’s Arrows.

When you each make a move, use most cards, or attack, you use action points. Each player normally has two, unless they use the card that gives them an additional one. Once those action points are spent, it moves on to the next person, though there is the choice to end a single player’s turn in case they don’t want to make a move. The last turn leads into the enemies taking their turns. One thing to keep in mind is that some cards don’t take action points, such as Healing Potions and Panic Powders.

Whenever an action is involved, like attacking or using an offensive card, you’re given a virtual die to pick up and roll. This will determine if you hit, critical hit, or miss. The latter two only take up a single spot on the die, so odds are in your favor. 

The Name Of The Game

Though of course, luck isn’t all you’ll need, as Demeo can get tough if you don’t know what you’re doing. Enemies could take you down rather quickly, and they can take several hits before they are downed. In other words, coordination and caution are your best friends. In time, you learn about each enemy and their strengths and weaknesses, which will help in the long run. 

Once you either defeat the Elf Queen, or lose the campaign, the game will take you to a battle pass like screen. In it, they take the experience points you earned and put it towards cosmetics for both you and the characters. I did wish there was more to it, but that’s a fine enough incentive to do better. 

Rolled A One

That’s the real problem with Demeo, though. There should be more. As I said, there’s only one campaign, and it can be finished in less than 2 hours. There’s not much variation to each game, I think the environments have only a couple different layouts. Sure, there’s another campaign coming soon, but I think this should’ve been listed as Early Access, because this all feels rather barebones. For the price it’s going for, there needs to be more to warrant that.

Besides that, the only other problems I had were glitches and minor things. Of the former, there was a time where I loaded into a match and we had five characters instead of four. Because of this, we couldn’t even start the game, so we had to leave. That’s probably the most severe one for me, as I haven’t run into many others. 

I also wish there were actual animations for the enemies. The most they do is move around and bop you with the underside of their piece. The player characters have animations, so seeing this disparity between them takes away from it a bit. I want every part of the RPG to feel alive, not just my characters. 

Looking Ahead

So, the only reason I kept joining games was interacting with other people and working together to finish the campaign. It was fun to coordinate with the other players, using cards in turns to better fight off the enemies. Nothing was better than the cheers from hitting a critical, or the groans from rolling a miss. That’s what made Demeo appealing, and almost every multiplayer VR game. The interactions. 

Demeo did allow for that, and that’s why I’m giving it the score I am. I had plenty of fun, but I realize things will get stale eventually. There’s plenty of potential here, and all it needs is more content, more campaigns, more everything. The upcoming campaign is promising that, and I hope that Resolution Games keeps up the momentum to make Demeo truly special. Especially with a desktop version being in development as well, which is sure to bring plenty more players.

 

Verdict

Recommended

 

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Reviewed by Freelance7. Game provided by Resolution Games.