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So for the last week I've been playing
Forgotten Realms: Demon Stone and
Ratchet and Clank - both for the PlayStation2 - and it's been a pretty action-packed week of gaming.
Forgotten Realms: Demon Stone
Demon Stone is the latest game in the Dungeons and Dragons world of Forgotten Realms. Baldur's Gate made it famous in the video game world, but the script writer for Demon Stone made the Forgotten Realms one of the most popular amongst gamers. RA Salvatore has taken a break from his novel writing to pitch in with the video game license and bring a professionally written and entertaining storyline to a video game.
The game's talent doesn't stop with the story, with Patrick Stewart and Michael Clarke Duncan providing voicework, and a team of professional scriptwriters fleshing out the individual conversations you have through the world. Stormfront Studios brings their engine and experience from the Lord of the Rings action games to round out the talent put towards this game.
It plays much the same as Stormfront's other action games, a wild and frenzied hack and slash affair played in third person. The more you kill, the more experience you can apply towards new combos, weapons, extra health, extra speed, or more spells for your mage.
The new and interesting thing about Demon Stone lies in the fact that you get to control three characters instead of a single one, swapping between the three so that you can apply the fighting style or special abilities of each one to specific jobs. This reminded me of The Lost Vikings, an old side-scroller where each of your three vikings had different skills and you had to swap between the three for some puzzle solving.
Ah, my favourite part - the characters. Rannek the Human Fighter boasts a mighty punch as his special ability, along with boosted health, armour and a great sword that can cleave its way through the biggest of trolls. Zhai the half-Drow Rogue with her backstab ability to kill the biggest of orcs with one carefully planted blow, she can blend into shadows to sneak past guards and use her jumping ability to reach hidden levers and treasure. And last but generally most important, Ilius the Human Mage. You'll use and abuse his unlimited long-distance spells to take out multiple targets and his Bead of Force ability blows open weak walls and rubble that blocks your way.
The action is fairly frantic, many times you'll be jumping from character to character to clear up trouble-spots and losing sight of your other characters amidst the swarms that try to overrun you. Boss battles are impressive, with the bosses often reaching 20-40 metres high into the air. Tackling such big beasties requires specialised tactics and often the goal isn't entirely clear on how to defeat them. A little trial and error is your best bet, and the game saves your progress at obvious checkpoints so you don't need to worry about lengthy save processes while you're trying to get your beatdown on.
The bad points of the game are few, but they can be quite detrimental to replay value. The alternate characters AI isn't exactly as good as it could be, the game suffers from a distinct lack of multiplayer, and the shortness of the game - about ten hours - all make for some fairly serious flaws in what could otherwise have been a greatly engaging game. I'd recommend waiting until it's in the cheap bin before picking it up.
Ratchet and Clank
Since the third Ratchet and Clank game is getting a release this month, I figured I'd pick up the original and see what all the fuss was about. I can say I wasn't disappointed.This is a third person perspective action platformer game from Insomniac - the makers of the Spyro series of games - with puzzle-solving and mini-games strewn throughout some really good action.
Our main characters are forced together after the robot Clank crash lands nearby to our hip and cool hero Ratchet with wild stories about the evil Chairman Drek demolishing planets throughout the galaxy. The personalisation is quirky and unique, the cut scenes carrying a lot of cute humour and doing much to endear you to our two main characters.
You battle your way through with Ratchet and his wrench, picking up the game's large variety of oddball weapons as you jump from planet to planet; the weapons are the most memorable aspect of the game, with weapons like the Suck Cannon that you suck up tiny critters into then shoot them back out with explosive force. Or the Morph-O-Ray which turns enemies into harmless lil chickens. Or the RYNO (Rip Ya a New One) which does what its name implies. There's plenty of gadgets around also to whet your appetite for fun things to play with. Grind Boots to let you go Tony Hawk on steel girders to zoom from area to area, the snazzy HydroDisplacer that lets you suck up bodies of water and disperse them elsewhere, the Magneboots that let you stick to metal surfaces and walk upside down for a time, or even a metal detector to find buried treasure, this game's biggest draw is in the variety of toys to play with.
Unlike other 3D platformers, the gameplay is kept fresh and different by mixing up standard platforming with levels you must play with your robotic sidekick Clank, missions involving fighter jets, and other levels involving you taking the helm of planetary defense systems to bring down the airships attacking it.
The game itself is mostly linear, although you can split off from doing the missions to head back to previously visited planets in search of more money to expand your weapon collection, or the secret Gold Bolts that you can pick up to spend on the secret weapons.
Overall, I'd recommend a purchase of this game. I'm not all that into 3D platformers, but found this to be extremely enjoyable and has kept me stuck to the PS2 for the last few days not budging for food. Give it a shot, as it's likely to be in your local game store's cheap collection and has plenty of replay value.
http://www.atari.com/demonstone/ http://www.us.playstation.com/games.aspx?id=SCUS-97199
Games Roundup - Forgotten Realms: Demon Stone and Ratchet & Clank 
