Dementium II HD Review: Better in Your Hands

“Dementium II HD,” developer Memetic Games PC remake of the classic Nintendo DS survival horror made by Renegade Kid in 2010 is anything but impressive- it’s an odd experience with arguably nothing to make it worthwhile.The enemies follow basic, repetitive motions and attacks, graphics are on par with a 2004 PlayStation 2 title and environments are substantially dull and boring.

HD remakes of handheld titles usually aren’t the best ideas. The DS is a unique platform and while it normally doesn’t support great visuals, it features some high quality experiences. “Dementium II” was a wonderful example of this. Flawed as it was, on DS, it was easy to focus more on what’s good about the game; on PC, however, the bad sort of pops out at you.

For starters, “Dementium II” does not have a strong story. All throughout, no matter how well you search every nook and cranny or listen carefully to the dialogue and cutscenes (the latter seldom occurs), you’ll be stuck with one lingering question: what is the purpose of all this? The best way to lock down an understanding is to find and read all the in-game collectibles, which give an idea of what is going on, but never fully elaborate.

There is really no moment we were hoping for, which we compared to the lighthouse chapter in our initial thoughts write-up, the sort of revelations sequence where you discover why you’ve gone through such an endeavor. The game makes an effort to explain a few things leaning towards the end, but it’s poor attempt and probably won’t answer the entirety of your unanswered questions.

It’s perfectly okay to end a story and leave the players with a ton of questions, in fact, some games execute this technique remarkably well, but “Dementium II HD” is one that does not. We won’t spoil anything for you, but let’s just say that the biggest question will arrive just before the credits start to roll, which could potentially be interesting to some, though for most, it’ll feel like more of a cheap way out, a disappointing end for a disappointing game.

Let’s make one thing clear, we enjoyed the hell out of the original. For an on the go horror experience it was an exciting game. However, the PC counterpart just doesn’t live up to the expectations one who played the original version would have and does absolutely nothing to lure in newbies to the franchise.

Despite all the aforementioned complaints, “Dementium II HD” does do a few things well. There’s a pretty decent variety of creatures to fight and a ton of guns to find… though we do mean find. If you’re looking to obtain every weapon in the game you do have to undertake a bit of a search, though nothing challenging and you should find every weapon in the game as long as you take a quick moment to search every area.

The combat is fun, simple, but fun. The ability to chose from over eight different weapons in a roughly five hour experience is a solid addition. Enemies are usually slow and repetitious and it’s very possible to engage all creatures with the same technique, but why in the world would you do that? You can clear a room with ease using the sledgehammer that’s acquired very early on in the game, however, wouldn’t it be more fun to attempt headshots with a nailgun? Yeah, thought so. Still, if only there was a bit more of a challenge, maybe players would feel more motivated to strategically think up their next encounter.
Ammo is scarce is some parts of the game, so you must make every bullet count, especially when facing the final boss, because, although we won’t mention what, the alternative option for killing the creature is quite the annoying affair.

Overall, “Dementium II HD” is a step back for the franchise. It’s an experience that was made for a handheld device and should have stayed that way. While it’s in no way a bad game, the PC remake does this game absolutely no justice and if you were hoping to jump back into the world of “Dementium” you’re better of sticking with your DS.