Forgotten Realms: Demon Stone Critic Reviews

With a load of unlockables, an involving story, and more action than any similar game before it, Demon Stone is the premier action/rpg title to own.

To understand how Demon Stone beats the odds, all you have to do is play through the first level, with its epic battle and brilliant camera work.

Demon Stone just happens to be in a more frantic, third-person mode, yet the same immersion is multiplied ten or twenty fold. You’d have to be pretty jaded to dismiss this game without giving respect to Stormfront for pushing the visual envelope on the memory-starved PlayStation 2 and bringing gamers who’ve never experienced a Forgotten Realms game a taste of one of the worlds of D&D.

It can be visceral and exciting and it does a good job of trumping its own redundancy by offering extensive skill trees for character advancement and continuously introducing new areas and adversaries.

Admittedly, the game is on the short side, but that doesn't detract from the overall experience too much.

Through its heavy use of cut scenes the game does a fantastic job of developing its storyline and characters. Though it is a little bit short at only ten chapters, the game features three difficulty modes and interesting unlockables to keep you busy.

I've been following Demon Stone for months now, watching it transform from a gorgeous looker with decent sword-and-magic hack-and-slash gameplay to a superbly complete D&D-based package.

A game with both style and substance. Yes it gets repetitive and yes it might seem like just a button-masher, but it’s an enjoyably addictive action game fans of the genre shouldn‘t miss.

My main objection to Demon Stone is its length. The game is MUCH too short.

An evolutionary step above what Stormfront did with "The Two Towers," and players who appreciate that brand of brute-force, hack-and-slash gameplay should find in it a great-looking and enjoyable, if somewhat familiar, experience.

Demon Stone's epic battles are also its biggest failing. For all its multiple combos, dynamic looking spells and various magical items (which can all be handily purchased at the end of each level) the hack and slash gameplay is still extremely basic.

But after completing the game in a three-day span, the challenging and short-lived ten missions felt average. Or in another case inefficient, with the only extras being that of a short clip of concept art and one unlocked movie that had just been seen.

Ultimately, the story is what carried the day here and kept me playing to the end.

An addictive action RPG that just falls short of the mark due to sheer difficulty, linear game play and the lack of multiplayer options.

Gets rather repetitive, and can often be frustrating because of the poor decision making of your AI colleagues...Yet strangely, Demon Stone can still be disturbingly addictive in its own quirky way.

The combat is good, the production values high and the promise incredible, but unless you’re a huge fan of the Forgotten Realms storyline, you’re better off renting Demon Stone.

The graphics are of a very good standard, with sharp crisp colours and lots going on at the same time.

Gives D&D fans the chance to enjoy virtually identical gameplay from "The Two Towers," but set in their favored backdrop. Aside from the trio of switchable characters, there's barely anything to distinguish the two titles.

It’s not as deep or story-driven as, say, a "Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance," but there’s still enough here (especially in the surprisingly well-presented bonus features should you find yourself interested in the characters or world) that will keep the die-hards coming back.

Sure, it's got some issues, and I don't know what's up with Stormfront Studios' inability to realize that gamers like to play together, but what we have is a solid single-player adventure that feels more like an extension from The Lord of the Rings franchise than D&D, but either way you look at it, it's a good thing.