The HD remake of Nintendo DS’s survival horror “Dementium II†on PC takes all the joy out of the original and turns it on its head. While certainly a fun game on the go, its PC counterpart feels awkward and dull, serving as a mediocre experience at best.
It’s clear now that the DS was the right home for the game, because its flaws weigh heavier on a platform such as PC; the enemies are poorly thought-up, environments are dull and the story feels as it’s going absolutely nowhere. However, it still manages to grab hold of your attention, compelling you to continue on.
For the purpose of this preview, we’ll play dumb, though we already know what to expect since the DS release was about four years ago.
The opening scene is weak and doesn’t really give an explanation for what you’re doing, which is fine, as long as it’s explained later on down the line in sort of a revelations sequence like the lighthouse chapter in BioShock Infinite, but we’ll just have to wait and see.
Combat in “Dementium II HD†gets better as you progress through the game and unlock new weapons. You start off with only a knife, but soon after receive a pistol and sledgehammer, hopefully this continues throughout most of the game to eliminate the possibility of repetition.
Many battles can be skipped and since the game features no leveling or item drop system we usually fled any unnecessary encounters. The battles that are forced all follow the same formula: a demonic barrier on the exit that requires you to kill a few waves of enemies to break.
Dementium II HD raises a lot of questions and it’s these questions that motivate you to play through the game, other than that there’s nothing to make the experience worthwhile. From what we’ve seen so far we can already tell, if you’ve played through the DS version, then a revisit to the series on PC will be a waste of time.
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