Kalypso is a funny, little developer, making games people play and like, but riding so very low on the radar of many that they don’t stand up there with those AAA developers and publishers. Hey, that’s ok! Kalypso is a successful company for good reason, and they make games that fit their unique and distinct niche.
It’s for this reason that I’m curious to see how their just recently announced Demonicon is going to fare in the grand scheme of things. Based upon The Dark Eye franchise of tabletop games popular in Europe, Demonicon is a hack-n-slash title that takes the darker elements of The Dark Eye and runs with it.
This game is still very early, not releasing until sometime in late 2012, so it’s a little stiff and not the best-looking game at the moment (stiff facial movements, some aliasing issues), but considering the game is being built with a fresh internal engine with Kalypso’s internal studio, the game has some promise.
As far as hack-n-slash games go, it looks to be a difficult one, as our demo leaders struggled to survive many fights, which seems to be the point of the game. It appears they are going for a slightly difficult fighting style here, which I think is a good thing for the game as it takes on bigger action titles in the next year.
Regarding the story, it’s a little…weird. Players control a bald dude, who is a member of a magical family, including his twin sister. She had left her fiancée on the altar to enter a cave, where everyone thought she had gone to escape from her suitor. Instead, it turns out it was because some magical evils were going on in the cave and she wanted to stop it. By the time you get to the cave, she’s injured, and this is when things get a little weird. For these twins, their father had warned them they they could not mix blood, as terrible things will happen. Also, there seems to be a lot of focus on the virginity of the lady twin, which is…odd.
That said, when your character heals his sister, they unfortunately mix blood, granting them magical abilities, and unleashing some sort of evil upon the world. It’s early to see what’s going on, but there are some unique ideas at play in this game–ideas I’m both curious about and creeped out about. Kinda hope they make it creepier!
Demonicon has a long time before it launches late next year, but there are some odd and compelling elements at play. Keep and eye on it.
