RA Images, Cinemax and North American publisher Meridan4 team up to bring yet another European flavored adventure game to the United States with Daemonica. In this game, players jump into the boots of a "hunter," a person who solves murderous mysteries by using a combination of detective work, alchemy, the ancient language of Daemonica and "speaking to the dead." The storyline begins with one such hunter named Nicholas, who is summoned by the mayor of Cavorn to solve a most gruesome homicide involving the local undertaker and his girlfriend. This tattoo-covered stranger that dabbles in a myriad of dark arts finds upon his arrival to the town that the mayor has already decided that the undertaker was guilty of murder and had him executed. But that is not the end of the mystery for the town as ongoing disappearances and citizen's generally bad attitudes give Nicholas pause to fully agree with the outcome of said verdict. And so begins the tale of Daemonica, a game that third-quarter perspective 3D point and click adventure that combines light puzzle solving, a dash of real-time combat, alchemy, a dozen or so characters and tons of dialogue to create an interesting but not quite perfect gameplay experience.

One of the biggest problems with Daemonica is that it doesn't quite strike a balance with any of its more stellar elements. For example there are literally thousands of lines of dialogue but very few characters to interact with; there's also combat and alchemy in the game, but these elements fell like they could have been utilized a lot more than they were. More to the point, the combat in the game is so simplistic (block attacks and attack - not much strategy in that) and happens so little that you wonder why it was included in the first place. The alchemy, on the other hand is an interesting gameplay element that ties in with the main plotline of the game, so it works out pretty well. The biggest problem with it is that it is very limited in what you use it for and you'll spend more time gathering weeds than actually making potions.

The alchemy is used to create potions that play an integral role in the gameplay. Perhaps you'll give a potion to one character, use a potion on another character and create the mystical SoulGreep, which you'll use to get to a special location in the afterlife called Temple of Sacrifices. Once you use this rather vile brew you go into the afterlife, and solve a light puzzle (many of the answers of which you can look up in your journal assuming you asked the right questions of the right people). Solving these little mini-puzzles leads you to your deceased target who will then share with you the secrets of their demise. You find yourself doing this a number of times in the game, and it certainly as interesting way of solving a murder mystery.

To get to that point, players will have to do a lot of leg work, do a lot of talking and put all the pieces together to get the dead to talk back. It's not an easy task, and players will find themselves spending a fair amount of time traveling over the same locations multiple times, talking to the same NPC's, returning home and making potions, and occasionally fighting really, really bad people. That's the game in a nutshell.

My biggest problem with Daemonica is that the game is being billed as something else when it's actually just a dialogue intensive point-and-click adventure game. There's nothing wrong with that, but don't be fooled for a minute that it's a true action adventure game. And despite being an adventure game, players can easily blow through it in about 10 hours (give or take).

From a presentation standpoint, Daemonica looks good, although many of the game's environments are a little more drab then they should be. You can chalk that up to the developers trying to stick to a dark theme, but there's nothing wrong with splashing a little bit of color here and there. The worst part of the game's presentation is the dialogue, which is delivered in a very corny manner by the lead character. Luckily the soundtrack redeems the game's other shortcomings, with lots of dark age style music that fits in nicely and doesn't agitate the player..

In the end, Daemonica is a solid adventure game that could have had some of its elements scaled back (dialogue for example) and some of its lesser used elements (fighting, alchemy) increased. What's there will certainly appeal to those fascinated with short but dialogue heavy adventure games and the multiple endings do add a tad bit more gameplay (even though this additional content is mostly dialogue driven). You can learn more about it by checking out www.meridian4.com . – James Fudge.