Demeo: PC Edition review

I’ve been playing Dungeons & Dragons for years now, and it’s easily one of the best games you can play with your friends. Dual creativity between the Dungeon Master and players, you build a world unlike anything that’s existed before. Whether using source books or home brew content, there’s so much joy to be found in fighting monsters, building characters, and exploring fantasy realms as a team. Nothing can capture the essence of being sat around a table with paper and dice everywhere, fiercely planning your next move while bringing to life your character with a dodgy accent. Perhaps the only thing that has come close is Demeo: PC Edition, which is no small feat at all.

Resolution Games has managed to recreate the tension of battle, the fear of the unknown lurking in the shadows, and the co-operation needed to slay beasts that feel straight from the pages of the Monster Manual. The concept of each adventure is simple enough, but what transpires through each level is enough to induce that familiar anxiety many table-top adventurers have felt before. To call Demeo an RPG dungeon crawler feels somewhat of a disservice. It feels so much more than that. You’re free to play through each adventure alone in Skirmish mode, but the real fun comes when others are involved.

Demeo: PC Edition: A faithful recreation

The Black Sarcophagus, The Realm of the Rat King, and Roots of Evil are the three main adventures, and before you even load them up, the artwork looks straight from those classic 1st Editions from the 70s.  Each one feels different to the last, taking players on a dense journey through claustrophobic and eerie settings. After checking out all three in Skirmish, I went into my first multiplayer game in the Roots of Evil. Not only was it thrilling to chat with others (who thankfully knew the game much better than me), it gave me a better understanding of how everything worked. Demeo isn’t a complex game, but the various moving parts gave me plenty to sink my teeth into.

Each adventure is made up of three levels. The first two involve your party hunting down a key which is being held onto by an enemy tougher than all the others in that level. Once you have the key, you’ll need to find the exit. The third and final level requires you to beat a boss, and once you’ve done that, it’s time to leave the cursed location with your spoils of war. Between each level, you can spend coin on new cards that range from party buffs, powerful spells and attacks, as well as summons, bombs, ballistas, and more. It’s hard to explain just how well-constructed these levels are, but you are never truly safe, and that’s always in the back of your mind.

Danger around every corner

Take the dank and filthy dungeons of The Black Sarcophagus. From the moment you arrive, every pathway is engulfed in darkness. Only when you decide on a path do things start to appear. If you’re lucky, a clearing will open up leading to a chest that houses a new card, or a pile of money that can be spent at Cleepto’s Bazaar, the shop between levels. However, if that turn leads you into a spider’s nest or a sanctuary of goblins, you better be ready to fight. Sometimes, Demeo is tough. If you’re not prepared, then death will come knocking. Also, and I cannot say this any clearer, don’t split up the party.

Demeo: PC Edition features five Heroes, all with specific perks and class-specific cards that help you balance the party. Kai is an assassin who uses the shadows to her advantage, along with a range of bombs and traps. As a guardian, Sigrun has additional armour as well as health, can use her spear to cause more damage to enemies, and has some impressive wards available. Zedokar is a mage that uses a range of elemental spells to smite enemies from afar. Ailín is a master with a bow, using her knowledge of nature to bring the hunter an array of help from the wild. Finally, Molthas is a bard that sings songs to heal allies, and damages foes with a strum of his lute.

Demeo: PC Edition: The fundamentals of war

Every character gets two Action Points which can be used to move, attack, or utilise one of the cards in your deck. Whenever it’s time to attack or make use of a certain card, you’ll need to roll the d20. Instead of having numbers on it, the dice has been simplified to have one dagger, two daggers, or a skull on it. If you roll one dagger, the damage assigned to the attack or card is used. Two daggers doubles it, and the skull means you’ll either miss, do damage to a party member nearby, or if you’re lucky, hurt another enemy. It offers that risk felt in DnD where rolling high could mean serious damage dealt, or rolling low could mess up the entire fight for you.

It’s great that PC owners now get to experience the recent VR-only release. Using the mouse and keyboard to look around the board, select cards, and move characters is easy enough; however, it can sometimes be tricky getting a good angle for the fight. To roll the dice, you click on it and throw across the board. Most of the time I had no issues, but I was getting outcomes that didn’t reflect what was shown on the dice. Regardless of these small hindrances, Demeo: PC Edition is marvellous. I loved the aesthetic, and the fact you’re sitting around in a basement resembling the one from Stranger Things was a nice touch.

With three adventures already available and more to come, Demeo: PC Edition is not only a homage to classic table top RPGs, but it’s been crafted in a way to faithfully recreate the feel as well. It offers thrilling gameplay, a great opportunity to play with friends and strangers alike, all sharing a love of role-playing and fantasy. The ability to cross-play with others who’ve been playing on VR is great because you’ll not only learn quicker, but appreciate the nuances of Demeo’s gameplay without being stuck with a lack of understanding of how everything works.