Nerd Tuesday: Dementium: The Ward
Since it was nearly Halloween, I decided to pick up what's probably my last purchased video game until Christmas: Dementium: The Ward.
"What is this?" you ask, person who read this far. "A horror game for the Nintendo DS? What is this April Fool's Day?" No motherfucker, it's Halloween, and there's some scary shit up in this little cartridge.
But first of all, let's get past the bad. The monsters are laughably designed. Horror games need two things in monsters: variety and clever design. The first problem comes when you realize you've taken down the same weird Frankenzombie twenty times in ten minutes. I know there's evil a foot, but, Jesus, some variety would be nice.
Any monster that's half-zombie, half-Frankenstein, but can be taken down with a nightstick ain't half-zombie, half-Frankenstein.
The second problem is the design. Like with movies, going too over-the-top makes a monster silly rather than scary. And nothing's sillier than a flying witch head that bites you. Yeah. I mean, okay. In real life, a flying witch head would scare the fuck out of me. But in a game, it comes off as sort of dumb.
Sort of scary in the palm of your hand.
"What is this?" you ask, person who read this far. "A horror game for the Nintendo DS? What is this April Fool's Day?" No motherfucker, it's Halloween, and there's some scary shit up in this little cartridge.
But first of all, let's get past the bad. The monsters are laughably designed. Horror games need two things in monsters: variety and clever design. The first problem comes when you realize you've taken down the same weird Frankenzombie twenty times in ten minutes. I know there's evil a foot, but, Jesus, some variety would be nice.
Any monster that's half-zombie, half-Frankenstein, but can be taken down with a nightstick ain't half-zombie, half-Frankenstein.
The second problem is the design. Like with movies, going too over-the-top makes a monster silly rather than scary. And nothing's sillier than a flying witch head that bites you. Yeah. I mean, okay. In real life, a flying witch head would scare the fuck out of me. But in a game, it comes off as sort of dumb.
BUT.
Where the game rocks is its atmosphere and level design. And, yeah. Haunted hospitals have been done before. Here's why: they're scary. That's it. Done. Scary.
And the game uses clever level design to heighten the tension. While the monsters are rarely frightening, the designers do have them pop in behind your or drop down on you occasionally which does a good job of making the heart race. You won't be keeping the lights on at night, but I didn't think literally jumping in front of my DS was going to happen.
Second: it's a fully 3D engine on the Nintendo DS. Which in itself is very impressive. That shit is so fresh, it looks like it runs off Mr. Fusion. Look at the screen shot above. Now, for most systems, that's not too much. But for a DS, that's hot butter on your breakfast toast.
Dementium may be a game that runs half on the designers' pluck and half on the novelty of a horror game on the oft-kid-friendly DS. However, it's an interesting title if you've got the time and the money to invest in something a little different.
Where the game rocks is its atmosphere and level design. And, yeah. Haunted hospitals have been done before. Here's why: they're scary. That's it. Done. Scary.
And the game uses clever level design to heighten the tension. While the monsters are rarely frightening, the designers do have them pop in behind your or drop down on you occasionally which does a good job of making the heart race. You won't be keeping the lights on at night, but I didn't think literally jumping in front of my DS was going to happen.
Second: it's a fully 3D engine on the Nintendo DS. Which in itself is very impressive. That shit is so fresh, it looks like it runs off Mr. Fusion. Look at the screen shot above. Now, for most systems, that's not too much. But for a DS, that's hot butter on your breakfast toast.
Dementium may be a game that runs half on the designers' pluck and half on the novelty of a horror game on the oft-kid-friendly DS. However, it's an interesting title if you've got the time and the money to invest in something a little different.
posted by Mike Drucker at
12:21 PM
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