Dementium II, the sequel to 2007’s Dementium: The Ward, has many characteristics spawning from a mixture of the Resident Evil-style survivor horror sub-genre and a first-person shooter. You control your character in a first-person perspective through many creepy, unsettling locales, but it’s not your ordinary shooter: it has many elements that are seen in your typical Resident Evil or Silent Hill, and the result is mixed. It has a lot of neat technical upsides going for it but often stumbles along the short but challenging 4-hour campaign.
It definitely features a plethora of technical wonder on the Nintendo DS's ageing architecture, something that developer Renegade Kid seems to understand. Running at a brisk 60 frames per second, Dementium II pushes the boundaries of what the DS’s five-year-old technology can handle but that comes at a price: every piece of art, every texture and every enemy design is very generic. There aren’t many varying enemy types so you’ll likely get sick of killing the same bad guys over and over again.
While the visuals are a mix of great tech and bland art, the audio is simply too generic. While it’s doubtful someone would come into Dementium II looking for amazing sound design since the original was similar, it’s definitely an irritating mixture of repeating measures and low quality sound effects.
Luckily the high quality single player campaign is enough to keep you hooked. In fact, the unsettling, surreal and downright scary atmosphere is done tremendously well. Playing a deranged inmate locked in prison with no recollection of what’s going on, you find yourself shifting between alternate dimensions while attempting to uncover a mystery that becomes larger than your typical prison escape. Unfortunately Dementium II features hardly any narrative: you will likely never really know what’s happening, and this can ultimately mar your experience.
The gameplay experience is fun, though. You might not even care about the story or what’s happening; the atmosphere is impressively realised and the controls work particularly well. Like its predecessor you control your movement with the D-Pad (or the face buttons if you’re left handed) while looking and aiming is done completely with the stylus and touchscreen. This makes for some fidgety design choices, though: selecting your weapon or healing yourself is done by pressing different areas of the interface on the touch screen. You could potentially press one of these buttons accidentally while aiming or moving around, making for some troubling times. It’s also disappointing to mention that the game doesn’t feature a D-Pad + Button control style, with no alternative layout for those who don't like the touchscreen.
Dementium II’s campaign is a mixture of puzzle solving and monster slaying. It’s not just a first-person shooter, think of it more as a first-person brawler that feels extremely similar to a Resident Evil game. You will definitely shoot your fair share of bad guys, but your main attack style will be with a knife or hammer. This makes for some interesting combat against some pretty gruesomely designed enemies. Ammo is unsettlingly scarce so you’ll have to decide to use each weapon at the most opportune time.
Sadly the overall feature set is poor: the campaign is a mere four hours in length and can easily be finished in a few sittings. There’s a simple survival mode that unlocks after you beat the game but is, again, very generic: you’ll go through multiple environments where killing the set amount of enemies will unlock the door to a new area, with the idea to get as many kills as you possibly can. It’s not very fun, it features no additional weapons or gameplay elements, and has no online connectivity – no leaderboards, nothing.
For all its problems though, you’ll find yourself hooked. You will sit there sometimes for three hours at a time trying to inch yourself toward the conclusion, often suffering through the cramped hands and hurting wrists because the game is ultimately engaging.
Conclusion
Dementium II is a decent game with lots of interesting elements combined with a surprising amount of impressive technology, but sadly it just comes together in a very bland, uninspired way. The campaign at four hours long is short, but it’s definitely sweet. Renegade Kid made a great first step with the original Dementium, and Dementium II has enough interesting elements to give it a try.
Comments 22
I deffo want to pick this up if I have the monies.
Never heard of Dementium, though I might or might not give this game a try...
Eh, this still doesn't interest me much. The short campaign doesn't help, either.
I can't help but feel that this series would do much better on a different platform.
More or less it has been done on other platforms.
Enjoyed the first, but ya, I like getting more bang for my buck.
Looks awesome!!!
@Shadx
I whole-heartedly agree. I think the series would be so much better on the PS2, Wii, or PC. The DS is just too restrictive for what they're trying to do.
first one was really boring and repetitive. A whole bunch of the same hall way linked together in a snaky pattern. Same blocky zombie in every room, that respawns every time you turn around (from being lost by seeing the same lockers over and over). if this one is anything like that one It really should start at about a 4 and go up based on basic things being fixed. People seem to give an automatic pass on first person DS games just because it seems like a difficult feat for that platform. doesn't make them any less sucky if you ask me.
They should make Dementium III for the 3DS
First one was a huge let-down The NA/US version was ridiculous in its difficulty and ultimately not worth the trouble.
loved the originial and "Moon" so I will get this, no doubt
Most other reviews gave it atleast a 8.0... I wouldn't trust this one.
STOP complaining about FPS controsl on the DS, THEY ARE EXCELLENT. Much better than any mouse, maybe not motion controller, but MUCH better than a mouse.
@Nintendoftw:
(a) 7 is not a bad score at all.
(b) there's more than one way to engineer an interface for an FPS on the DS; perhaps this one was more annoying than others.
Facepalm for the review title background. Good work there.
I believe this game deserves an 8/10, but that is merely my opinion.
i love the game,got both games on a birthday(the first one i know for sure),love the story and gameplay and even a survival mode thats nice but could of done better
I had never heard of Dementium until I stumbled upon the "Dementium remastered" in the 3ds eShop. Since there is barely a handful of survival horror games on the system I had to give it a try. I absolutely loved it. It's one of the ONLY games that genuinely creeped me out and gave me a real sense of dread. First game was creepy and unsettling the entire time, start to finish. Yes its only a ONE NOTE game, but it plays the HELL out of that one note. It has very little replay value but it was great seeing such a good example of the genre on a system starving for it.
Now for the second game☺️. Sadly Dementium 2 never got a remaster the the 3ds and I honestly figured I would never be able to find the semi rare physical copy anywhere that wasn't online and overpriced. (I almost exclusively insist on inspecting a used game in person before buying, thus I HATE buying games online, and add in the fact that this particular game cartridge is semi rare and always at an inflated price online). But then few days ago when looking thru the remnants of the 3ds graveyard at GameStop I found a copy in pristine condition just sitting there overlooked in the partially visually obstructed bottom corner of the locked bin. I enjoyed it even more than the first one. Only complaint I have is lack of control option to turn with the face buttons. It's a great game and a testament to the greatness of the DS system. Imo renegade kid effectively proved that survival horror was NOT out of reach for the little underpowered wonder console.
LONG LIVE THE DS AND THE 3DS! Nintendo can discontinue it, but it can only DIE if we let it die. Never forget it's greatness and keep playing!
@Jhomesjones ahh I wish I was that lucky. You think $120 with case and manual is too much?
@Ren Dementium 2 is COMPLETELY different than the first one. You aren't stuck in the darkest hospital in the universe, you can use flashlight and weapons at same time, much for variety of enemies, interesting bosses, much more comprehend able story, and locations change , from prison to a creepy AF village, a mortuary, a mine , plus there's a silent hill -ish dark world version of everywhere. It's one of the best DS of all time imo. It's a genuinely kick ass survival horror game. Also I wanna mention that there's a remastered/remade version of the first Dementium in the 3ds eShop and it not only looks damn good, but it fixed the goofy stupid ass problems of the DS original , save spots, no respawning enemies, a good map, option to use face buttons as a second joystick. The flashlight in the remake is esp cool looking and lighting effects completely change the textures when the light hits them. Very cool for a semi low budget studio on 3ds hardware.
@Landanceo well... honestly my first instinct is to say no. But then when I think about all the little crappy games Ive bought, played thru once, beat and never touched again...and then think about the dozens of times I've enjoyed playing thru Dementium 2, plus how just completely awesome it really is to see a legit, console game like this on DS, it's not only a genuinely good survival horror, but the gunplay, weapons and esp the enemy variety and enemy AI completely blow away EVERY first person shooter on DS...a horror game that is a better "call of duty" than ANY actual DS call of duty game. There's even human enemies with guns, that hide and take cover...as opposed to the DS call of duty and goldeneye where they literally stand in the center of a hallway and just die. I cannot say that I wouldn't pay that for it. Imo it's in such a rare category of DS games, games that have qualities that just seem so completely ahead of every other game on the console. There's "Metroid Prime: hunters", "Super Mario 64 DS, "Okamiden", "Resident Evil: Deadly Silence" (which is a FULL authentic port of the first RE game and even has quality of life enhancements such as permanently equipped knife on the L trigger and it doesn't take up any inventory space)and then of course "Dementium 2". The DS library is so massive and spans decades so I'm sure there are more. But ALL the ones I mentioned are miles ahead of the majority of DS games in pretty much every way.
So....yes, if youve seen gameplay and you know that what you would be getting is gonna interest you for sure...then that steep price would be worth it imo. It's not AS extreme, but I paid 50$ for just the cartridge itself of DS "Resident Evil : (D)eadly (S)ilence" without a second of hesitation because I knew I would be getting tons of enjoyment from it. If you buy it, i hope ya enjoy Dementium 2 as much as I did.
@Jhomesjones I agree. The first game really impressed me but unfortunately I couldn't finish it. This one addresses the main issues of the first game which makes me more inclined to play. So you've played it multiple times? I like to have that replayability factor in games!
There have been so many games made for the DS that today I am still finding new games that I find a joy to play such as Fire Emblem Shadow Dragon and Advanced Wars Days of Ruin. It's such a blast to find hidden gems but at the same time its marred by the inflated prices from people who are only in it for huge profit. Once in a while I am able to find a rare game at GameStop but I can't help but feel people go in there not to play them but to flip them on ebay which is really irritating.
I was wondering if the pandemic had anything to do with the demand and post-pandemic, whenever that may be (hopefully soon), if the prices will ever go back down or will continue to rise, which I feel why people are biting the bullet at insane prices (myself included smh but only for the games I really want). I also saw a copy of Resident Evil DS but like you I saw an unfair asking cost. If I do end up getting Dementium 2 for the price I found and not any higher (please), I'm sure I will enjoy it being a horror fan. Thanks so much for your response!
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