This is a decent mission-based Star Wars arcade action game. I'm sure most people looking to purchase it either played it on PC or N64, so I'll focus on some flaws that I had forgotten that made the experience rougher than it should have been. 1. Configuring a controller requires you to boot in Windows 98 compatibility mode... but that makes the game's menu's super slow... so after you configure your controller, you'll want to exit and reboot in Windows 7/8 normal mode. This means any time you want to adjust a control, you're going to have to boot the game twice. 2. Extremely low draw distance - You can only see around a football field's length in front of you. On some levels this is frustrating and impedes progress, while on others it simply makes it difficult to get immersed in the game's graphics. 3. I played the game for a decent length and never got a mission where you freely flew in 3 dimensions (such as a space dogfighting mission). In what seems to be all missions, you're more hovering above the ground rather than freely flying, making the game feel more like Star Fox than an X-Wing game. A consequence of this is that I found my Saitek X52 flight stick to be overkill for this game, and opted to simply play with an Xbox 360 controller. 4. Alt tabbing breaks the game, and it can be frustrating to close the game with task manager. It was frustrating to be doing well in a mission, and then have the game crash because my friend sent me an IM over AIM or the java update checker popped up. 5. The sequels are only on consoles. Not a huge deal with this game, but if you'd like to play the much better Rogue Squadron 2, you're stuck dusting off the GameCube and playing with a gamecube controller (which isn't really optimized for flying games) The missions are still pretty fun, and if you can ignore the flaws I say grab this game ASAP, even if you aren't a Star Wars fan.
Fun game, but I'm unable to play in Windowed mode like in my original release. Adding -w after the shortcut in the original game allowed playing in a 640 x 480 window. This version does not allow this.
Demon Stone is a familiar hack-and-slash experience to anybody who has played the Lord of the Rings hns games - which makes sense because they use the same engine. Combat is fun, all three characters have their strengths and weaknesses. I ended up using each one about equally. In addition to the standard attack-attack-attack combo, there are a few other combos which can be learned through spending points. Each character plays differently - the fighter is hardy and can take a lot of hits, while the thief excels at hiding in shadows and taking out powerful enemies in a single shot from behind; the mage excels at ranged combat and can attack multiple enemies at once with several spells. Buying items and weapons between levels is a nice touch that adds some replay value. The graphics are a mixed bag. Character models look great, but the backgrounds aren't very impressive close up. I would recommend sitting a bit further away from the screen than you usually would since the graphics were designed with consoles in mind - and therefore won't look as nice close up. The story isn't amazing, but it's reasonably entertaining for the genre. You play as a trio of adventurers who accidentally free two evil beings from a prison. Each character has their own moments of development between stages. Production values are overall great. The music is excellent and always fitting. The voice acting is overall great, but I think they could have found a better choice for Khelben, whose voice actor is a bit too associated with that of Captain Picard. My only real complaint about the game is the length - five hours is all you'll need for your first playthrough. You may play it through a second time to buy different items at the store, but overall the game is a singular experience. For only $10, I would highly recommend this game to Hack-and-Slash fans as well as fans of the Forgotten Realms setting.
