XBox: Forgotten Realms – Demon Stone

This game slipped under my radar. I don’t follow a lot of gaming blogs, nor sites, so do sparse research on what’s good and not; usually by talking to other gamers.

Not sure how this one slipped so far, though. This was one of the games my wife bought used, but damn it is good. It takes place in the Forgotten Realms, a D&D specific fantasy land that book readers are familiar with; a place of magic, monsters, and deep characters.

One book writer in particular, R.A. Salvatore, wrote the game’s storyline, proving any good writer can transition to game writing, which the game industry really needs.

This point, however, is key since he made some of the Realms most memoreable characters, and I own all of his books in the Drizzt Do’urden line.

You basically play 3 characters thrown together in an adventure to save the land. Each character has their speciality in fighting, and each is essential to winning the games levels.

The cons. From the title, I scoffed it off in the past. I didn’t like the writer’s storyline from that series he wrote, Demon Wars, and wrongly associated the title with that series. Secondly, the Forgotten Realms logo was soo small on the box and online ads, I didn’t associate it with that. The box does not show the best screenshots from the game, nor imply the gaming style really well. The game itself, at least for me, does not give enough need to block & defend against attacks, nor give you many moves to utilize when you are surrounded by a throng of vicious enemies. You basically hack and slash your way to a super move to break free. Any good gamer would call this game really short.

The pros. Wow, very good cinemtography. I felt the same way about the introduction of the game that I did about the Playstation 2 Medal of Honor port. Medal of Honor is a World War 2 game for PC that Steven Speilberg helped direct. He apparently point more of his touch on it for the Playstation 2 version because from the get go, you feel immersed and blown away. This game had that magical, epic introduction where you are literally thrown into the action, un-ready, ill-prepared, and fighting for your life. It exactly mirrors what is going on in the game so it gives you this feeling of “wow… holy $H$(*)&$E!” as you feveriously push buttons.

The graphics are great, and push the XBox to the limit. D&D never looked so good.

The characters in the game, those that are in books, are just like I’d expect them to be (my wife said that the same thing about those she knew), which is extremely risky to do; you can either do really well, or really bad thus ruining the game. They took the risk and won gloriously.

The party itself is cliche, which is really good; any good D&D party is cliche by having balanced races, complimentarely classes, and overall a good team. I usually find it hard to identify with some characters in games, namely the ignorant, ogrish brute in FarCry; while I did like him towards the end, that was just out of respect for the tribulations he had to go through.

Throughout the game you are exposed to each characters flaws, and learn of their history, and how they deal with it. It really adds the suction this game has at pulling you into the story.

Some monsters have a creative twist, while others are exact to the D&D book rules, giving you a really good feeling about how this game is unique. Buying equipment & skills to pimp your character out feels really cool.

Finally, they got Picard to do voices! There is one major surprise for Forgotten Realms fans I won’t spoil, but pretty much makes this game worth picking up and playing just for that 1 fact alone.

Overall, while short, the game rocked, and you can at least play the game again with all of your equipment and skills if you start over. Some of the camera angles get weird, but overall you can tell each level and battle was planned with good shots in advance making this a great weekend ride.

Demon Stone

7 Replies to “XBox: Forgotten Realms – Demon Stone”

  1. Coool!!!

    I too own the Dark Elf Series onwards, and between . Salvatores work and Feist any game centered around these two worlds is umm on my buy list for sure…

    I hope hollywood also looks to either of these authors for the next ‘Lord of the rings’ style movie… that would be very cool

  2. I have all the Dark Elf series books too.. most definitely an awesome series, and I’ve read it over and over again.

    Might think of picking up this game, although my lack of time is really hampering me to play long drawn out games like D&D stuff.. still though, I do play them quite a bit and even remember what it was like playing Pool Of Radiance on my C64 when I was a kid. haha…. bleh..

  3. This is not an RPG. If you’ve played the Baldur’s Gate series on XBox, it’s very similiar; there is no role-playing, you just fight for your life. Very fast paced and un-forgiving.

    I beat it in 2 or 3 days, playing for about 2 to 3 hours after work.

  4. Yes, I don’t know why RA and crew don’t approach Hollywood about FR movies (maybe they’re afraid it might get sullied?)

    They could make a ton of cash if they were able to produce a quality Dark Elf movie.

    Get Jackson to produce, it would be killer … Drizzt would be an instant hit. :)

    I guess for now it’s better if we keep Drizzt to ourselves, but sharing the character would be awesome in it’s own right.

    … and talk about under the radar. It’s been a few years since I’ve read any FR books, but I was surprised to see how many Dark Elf books there were after Passage to Dawn. I’ve got some reading to do …

    -sj

  5. The Hunter’s Blade Triology is really good, although, it’s nice to see Wulfgar emotionally deal with things, and to see Artemis and Jarlaxle go through some crazy shiot.

  6. Wulfgar the drunk! heh..

    I love how authors do that, take one character and turn a series around them. Drizzt is like the bad ass zen-grasshopper dude who knowith all…

    I also love Drizzts ‘Not to self’ style writings, where SA gives a lesson in life ;) some of those quotes rock.

    Now, off to my local Electronics Boutique and buying the game :)

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