Dementium 2 Review - Nintendo DS - CheshireCatStudios.com

You find yourself being wheeled down a corridor in a maximum-security prison of some sort, and you're taken to your cell. However, upon finding a postcard signed by your name, the world around you changes into a hellish landscape, and we're thrown into the madness all over again. The Doctor who fought you as the final boss from The Ward reveals that whatever was wrong in your head has been released into the world, and it's spreading. Oh, and he's also the active antagonist. Will you be able to not only solve the mystery on your troubled past, but also potentially save the world from your own sick fantasies? Have fun!

Again, let's begin the review with the Story section because it helps clarify some things further into the review. First off, I must admit that the story is actually better and worse than the previous Dementium, for different reasons. In one respect, it is much more mysterious, and there are a lot of things that aren't explained. A lot more is left to interpretation and your imagination, like what exactly happens at the very end. I've actually seen fan speculation about what happens at the end of Dementium II, and that is the sign of a good game. I'm not calling it Bioshock in terms of storytelling, but it has a very tight set-up in that department for a DS handheld title.

In another way, the story is slightly more involving, and you are sucked into the world you're exploring as you get mysterious notes from yourself, and get to interact with other characters more often. This advances the story and adds to its depth, and that's a good thing, but at the cost of cutting out that loneliness that you feel when you accidentally lock yourself in the bathroom, and the power is out. Claustrophobia is one of the best elements of a survival horror game because it makes your heart race, and it feels like you have no escape. Claustrophobia is emphasized by the absence of other characters, even if they end up dying, and Dementium II is weakened because of the fact that you're always interacting with either the Doctor or Elizabeth.

Characters

William Redmoor: Back in the saddle, eh Nutty? Looks like you've gotten yourself in another tight situation. Luckily, you've experienced the madness before, and you're prepared this time!

Elizabeth: She's also back, it seems! Turns out, she's your wife, and you seem to be unable to catch up with her when you get notes from her in Chapter Two. What is her role in this game, I wonder?

Amanda: Remember the girl in white from Dementium: The Ward? Congratulations, she's your daughter! Upgraded from Japanese cliche to a plot device, you also need to find out where she is as you work to stop the mad doctor from accomplishing whatever it is he wishes to accomplish!

The Doctor: Remember that dick who came out of nowhere and wound up being the final boss of the first game? He's back too, and he plays a larger role in Dementium II. Truly, he will be the Agent Smith to your Neo, and dear god I just made a Matrix reference in a horror review.

Monsters

As well as a few returning favorites from the first game, we also have a whole host of new critters that will make your skin crawl! Are you excited? So am I! A lot of these are not the official names, so .... yeah!

Oh hey, these assholes are back, and gimpier than ever! Equipped with hook hands, the Chestmaws are the first enemy you encounter. They have been updated appearance-wise, and now move less like insane idiots who just run at you, and more like possessed marionettes, possibly due to their new legs. Smack 'em with whatever weapon is on hand, and move on.

Early on in Dementium 2, before everything goes to shit, there will be a hoard of security guards to try and put you back in your cell. Knife them for greater effect.

WAAAAH, WAAAAH, WAAAAH. If you played The Ward, you'll have that noise burned into your memory forever. Alas, these annoying fuckers return, but in blissfully fewer numbers. Shoot them once for a happy ending.

Complete with a creepy noise, these little assholes come out of nowhere and leap towards you. They are easy to avoid, but just don't let them get too close or they will chomp you with their big jaws. They take a few hits, so they are easily dealt with.

These guys are just plain creepy. They slowly stalk you while whispering very menacing things, and they cannot be killed. Running is your only alternative. If they catch you, they send you to a room in the Hell dimension where a whole gang of Chestmaws will no doubt eat you. Kill them to return to the room where you can try to get past the Shadow Whisperers again.

These flying anuses come at you in Chapter Two, when you step outside into the snowy village. They spit things at you from afar, they have a buzzsaw attached to their tails, and if you kill them they have a few Mollusci inside to eat you. FUN.

Close relatives of the terrifying and deadly Screamers from the first game (only because they look the same), Wailers are far less deadly, and far less terrifying. Instead of coming at you at a million miles an hour, screaming your health to zero, they spit black ink at you. Give 'em something to REALLY cry about!

Ooooh man, when I first encountered these guys last night in a dark room with no other noises to be found, you can guarantee I almost shat myself when several of these dudes came out of nowhere. They laugh at you when you injure them, and they spit wads of acid from afar. They take a little bit to kill with the earlier weapons, but this doesn't mean they are difficult to kill. They need to die, or they will keep following you.

These guys aren't that difficult to kill, they are easy to spot, but hurt like hell when they catch up to you. Since I can't find a picture of these guys for the life of me, they look like puss-filled orbs wrapped in chains. Acid splashes all over you when this happens, so you need to be quick with dispatching them, and do it far away.

OH GOD, IT'S CTHULHU. While this green critter resembles the Elder God, it shares its name with the movie adaptation of Herbert West: Reanimator. I think this monster is an homage to H.P. Lovecraft... as a matter of fact, this game might just be that as well. Anyway, they spit acid at you from afar, and smack you if you get too close. They cannot be killed with normal weapons, and require the Flamethrower to vanquish these cosmic terrors.

While their final design doesn't look as horrendous as the picture above, the Machine Gun security guards are the survivors who battle both you, and the monsters who have escaped from the Plane of Anguish.

JESUS, THEY'RE BACK! Wipe them out with a shotgun or machine gun to take them out, since they're still annoying to kill. They also explode after their death this time around, so be wary of that harrowing experience.

Bosses

As you investigate the sudden transformation of the prison complex, the Doctor releases this snuggly creature after you. The Gnaw is a fairly simply boss that will take a long time to actually kill because you only have the prison shank, which only takes small chips from his HP. What he will do to attack is try and swipe at you, or leap on the ceiling, try to get above you, and then come crashing down. When you get his HP below the midway point, he'll also spit a spray of goo at you that sometimes contains Molluscas.

After you escape the prison and come across a snowy town, you begin to find notes from your wife, Elizabeth, telling you to meet her in your special place. I'm drawing parallels between that and Silent Hill 2, but I digress. Eventually, you come across the second boss, the Wendigo Witch. This nasty bitch is the town legend that has a nasty temper. You get a knife that serves the purpose of causing the Wendigo Bitch some major damage, but you also have a revolver and a shotgun at this point.

Her basic attack is coming at you from the shadows, lunging across the battlefield. The screen gives you some indication as to what direction she is coming from, so just shank her with the knife and cause some damage. She has other attacks, like making magic rise from the ground and hurt you, but if you get half of her health down, she will fuck with your mind. FUCK WITH IT. If you use your gun, she'll make you drop it, and if you retrieve it, she'll be standing right there to hurt you with magic. She'll pose as Elizabeth and make you come near her, only to turn back into the Wendigo Bitch and slash you with her fuggin' huge claws. Your best bet in this half of the battle? Use the Mystic Knife. USE IT. Also, a helpful tip is that while you would have been able to shank her with your knife as she flew across the stage in the earlier half of the battle, this isn't advised in the later half. Wait until she stops moving to go in for the kill and slice her ugly ass up.

This big and lovable oaf actually isn't what I would call a boss, as he later returns as a regular enemy in the later chapters, but I'm keeping him here just for the hell of it. He's as easy as the Cleaver from the previous game, and he resembles him a little. All you need to do to beat him is to run away and shoot from afar. That's it, and he should go down after a barrage of shotgun and machinegun bullets. He's pretty slow so he's easy to evade, but don't let him hit you because his power is devastating if his fat ass actually catches up with you.

This fucking thing. THIS. This is not the final boss as the video above inaccurately states, but good god this thing is huge. He's invincible to every other weapon but dynamite, which you will be able to pick up during the battle. So how do you beat him if you haven't come across dynamite before this moment? You need to run away from this humongous monstrosity, collecting dynamite as you run. Then, after you collect enough pieces, turn around and lob them at the ugly fucker's mouth and watch him explode! This boss is actually pathetically easy for his size, and all you need to worry about is letting him get too close. If he's far away, you'll be fine.

Final Boss: Malatesta

No pictures could be found for Malatesta, so this youtube video will have to do.

So, you discovered the Doctor's evil plans all along, and you've survived all else that he has thrown at you. Are you prepared to enter the Plane of Anguish and end this nightmare once and for all? After you fight your way past all of the nasty critters that want to make you breakfast, you finally find yourself face to face with The Doctor, who is either eaten by Malatesta, or transforms into him via posession. This is it, kids. You get to fight the ancient demon that the Doctor wanted to unleash upon the waking world. Enjoy!

Once you get to fighting this hell of a worm/snake, I have to get this out of the way. As a wise guy who plays hard video games says, "You are going to die. A lot." When you first fight Malatesta, you will die a fair amount of times unless you follow these tips to stay alive. First thing's first, though: be sure to collect the Nail Gun and Buzzsaw because they will help make this fight 100x easier. I failed to do this, so the game was made a little more difficult, as well as the fact that I didn't have anything to heal with, so if you save before this final confrontation with no medicine, then good luck because there won't be anything else that you can find to heal you.

If you watch the video above, it gives you a fair idea of what his attack patterns are: he will either fly across the stage, come out of the ground to try and bodyslam you, fly out of the ground and try to land on the spot where you stand, or come out of the ground and fire meteors at you. When it comes to him either flying across the stage, or trying to fly into you, the plan is simple: stay away from the circles on the ground. These are where the boss emerges from, and if you stay off of these things than he won't have a chance of hitting you when executing these two attacks. When he comes out to fire meteors at you, get as close as you can until you are under his mouth. Fire all that you have into the blue weak point, and his meteors can't touch you. As for the bodyslam thing, he just stands there for a while before actually trying to smash you, so fire at his mouth, and then run away. He has a blue weakspot which is pretty obvious, so I won't elaborate on that. If you survive, then congratulations! You win the game!

Weapons

Guess what? In addition to more monsters and bosses, we have MORE WEAPONS! HELL YEAH! In addition to the returning weapons like the trusty revolver and buzzsaw (Jesus), we also have some new goodies!

It's a prison shank. The first weapon in the game, it's not all that great, as it doesn't take much damage off. And you have to kill the Gnaw with it. FUCK.

Remember how this was one of the last weapons in Dementium: The Ward? It's one of the first, this time! EEHAW!

Well this is pimpin'! A sledgehammer?! It's time to crack some skulls! You can use this to break down some pesky wooden boards blocking your way! Hell yeah!

The Shotgun:
shotgun boomstick

Again, what would be an FPS without the trusty BOOMSTICK? It's a shotgun, they are in every FPS known to man, there is no need for introductions!

I didn't actually use this so much because there were the other weapons to use, and because, per shot, it was weakish. However, it's pretty awesome if you just hold down the trigger button, and watch the bullets fly!

A fucking flamethrower. Amazing! You can use this to fry regular enemies, kill the Reanimators, who can ONLY be killed with the flamethrower, and use it to burn down the doors that specifically need to be opened with it. HEAR THEM ALL SIZZLE!

Jesus, this little fucker hurts! It's one of the best weapons in the game, so all you need to do is find it, and then you too can know what it feels like to be Jason Voorhees on a killing spree.

This is found throughout the story, and is put together to form a strange boomerang that serves the primary function of being the main weapon used to whoop Malatesta's ass. It's so cool to use!

Graphics

While the graphics in the previous game were plagued with repetitive settings, Dementium II has fixed those problems with making a huge, expansive world that doesn't fail to please your eyes. The 'normal' world and the Hellish worlds are both beautifully detailed, and are pleasing to look at. Dementium II has also been blessed with higher resolution and more pixels than its predecessor, so Renegade Kid has been able to push the envelope and develop a much more expansive game.

Even though the capabilities of the DS can only go so far as to resemble the best that the N64 had to offer, Dementium II's graphics engine is very impressive, and is one of the best looking games on the system! In contrast with the previous game, Dementium II also boasts some pretty epic moments, including the spectacular boss fights and the much larger landscape that has greater depth than anything else I've seen on the DS! It has a higher particle and polygon count than its predecessor, so that's definitely something to say about Dementium II!

Gameplay

Renegade Kid took extreme care to fix or improve many aspects that made Dementium: The Ward a good game. The same fluid touch screen-oriented controls are left intact, but they added a very easy-to-use jump and duck mechanic that has proven to make the game more expansive in its design and settings. They also added a wider variety of monsters and weapons, added an inventory that not only lets you easily access your weapons but also allows you to store pills for when you're in a pinch (as opposed to consuming health on the spot like in the last game), and SAVE POINTS. PRAISE THE FUCKING LORD, THEY ADDED SAVE POINTS. Remember in the last game when you couldn't save, so when you died you had to go all the way back to the beginning of the chapter and start all over again? Remember when you had only one more hitpoint on the final boss, but then he kills you and you had to return to the beginning of the chapter? Finally, that bullshit is gone. Now, in addition to autosaves at the beginning of each chapter, Renegade Kid has also placed Save Points throughout the levels, especially before you encounter each boss.

They also swiped an idea from Silent Hill and added the Plane of Anguish, an alternate and more frightening world that traps you with constantly respawning enemies and little means of escape. While I admit that it's not entirely original, this is a welcome change of pace to the Dementium franchise because it changes up gameplay. The transition to the Hellish World happens at random intervals, so you'll never know when one of those hectic, frightening moments will pop out of nowhere and scare the shit out of you. In this respect, I'm glad that they didn't just lock you up in a repetitive, slightly disturbing building because that would have sucked. Instead, in short, they gave you more locations to explore.

Sound

Again, this area is great and lacking in certain respects. They reuse some of the themes from the previous game for background music, but it works to good effect so I can't complain that much. The atmosphere can be crushing in many instances where you're in a dark hallway, and suddenly you see a Shadow Whisperer coming towards you as you try to make a quick escape. What helps make this frightening is the use of sound to freak you out!... however, they fuck this up as well when they actually added music for every time you encounter an enemy. Don't get me wrong, when you have a good sound system in place you're still creeped out, but the Monster Encounter theme kills a lot of the tension. It sounds like a slasher theme, and it begs the question - WHY? Why did they feel that a survival horror theme needed MORE music when one of the freakiest things about a horror title is, at times, the absence of sound? That makes Silent Hill freaky as hell at times, that's for damn sure!

The Verdict: