Book of Demons

Book of Demons is not at all shy about its inspiration: the original, and immortal (no, not the phone one) Diablo 1. The moment you jump in, you'll see very obvious tribute and light parody of the story, characters, and setting. I feel like the fortune teller should be saying "I sense a soul in search of answers!" whenever I talk to her. But even with a generous helping of inspiration from Diablo, Book of Demons does its own thing and manages to stay fresh and engaging. The most obvious deviation is in the art style: Book of Demons is presented as a papercraft pop-up book. Taken in this context, the predefined movement tracks make sense; it's like those pop-up books where you push/pull a tab, and some character or other object moves along a track cut into the page. Stats and inventory have been simplified, and while I think calling it a 'minimalist' approach would be going a bit too far, it's fair to say that it is 'reductionist'. You have two character stats: max health and max mana. When you gain a level, you choose which of these to increase by one point. Enemies also have their max health reduced by one heart, representing your character's increased offensive power. Inventory has been simplified to a card system, and while there's not really any card-play like in a card or board game, the cards represent your equipped items, skills, and consumable items, all of which are available in different common, magical, and legendary varieties. There is a LOT of room for character customization and build optimization here, easily on par with Diablo 1, despite the simplifications. There are three character classes available - warrior, rogue, and mage, naturally - and I'm looking forward to trying out the other two. There are also three modes/difficulty levels, one of which is a "hardcore"/roguelike mode. I'm finding Normal provides a perfect level of challenge. I'm staying on my toes, but not getting frustrated. Book of Demons is highly recommended for Diablo 1 fans.

This game caught my attention by the Diablo hommage. However, it is much more than that. It's a great blend of roguelike and Action-RPG, with a unique look. But the main thing is the game mechanic which works just well for me. It's extremely hard for me to put this game down, it's one of these "just one more floor/level" things. Having a lot of fun with it, highly recommended to try.

"Book of Demons" is an altogether charming and entertaining game. The "pop-up book paper world" art style is original and memorable. Production values are good, sound and music are fine, the writing is silly but fun, and the whole Diablo homage works. (But I laughed a lot more at this game than I did at Diablo.) The "flexiscope" system that allows you to set the size and density of dungeon levels is a great idea, making this an excellent game to play if you have a 15 minute lunch break or an hour to wind down before bed. Gameplay wise it works surprisingly well considering how simplistic the mechanics seem. There is a good variety of enemies and abilities to play with, with a good bit of tactics involved in picking the right cards/abilities and using them at the right time. There are some fun mini-games with status effects like poison and stun, as well as with enemy defences like shields, all of which involve having to click interface elements in specific ways that feel surprisingly intuitive. Difficulty progresses smoothly, and for me at least I managed to play through the campaign with several characters without dying, but with plenty skin-of-my-teeth I-can't-believe-I-didn't-die escapes. And that was on normal difficulty in non-roguelike mode, so there's more challenge to be had if you care for that. The only downside would be one the game shares with the original Diablo: with only 3 characters and no real "builds" to experiment with, the game grew stale fairly quickly for me. There is an infinite play mode with increased difficulties and new mechanics where you lose access to certain cards, but after a while it just became "more of the same" for me. That said, some people certainly seem to keep playing this for months on end, and the game was definitely worth its money. Recommended for people looking for a stylish, fun, casual-ish dungeon crawler.

This is a great game to get a quick dungeon crawl fix if you have a time budget. The developers have put a lot of effort into being mindful of the players time. I can have a satisfying 10 minute session or an hour jaunt through hell and back. This isn't a game with a deep story or an RPG but more like a rougelite with optional elements so you can tailor it to your playstyle and difficulty desires. Although the levels are randomly generated I still found them pleasing. Perhaps that is due more to the lovely art style. Speaking of which the people behind the art did an excellent job balancing a 'cute' style with the grimness of the setting. Somehow it all just works.