Book of Demons (0)

Platform

PC Xbox One

Developer

Thing Trunk

Publisher

Thing Trunk

Aliases

Return 2 Games: Book of Demons

Overview

Book of Demons is an isometric Action RPG paying the tribute to Diablo from 1996. The game recreates the mood and experience of the original hack & slash while introducing some unique mechanics for modern players.

The game entered the Early Access July 28th, 2016.

Most important features to mention:

Flexiscope system – allowing the player to set the approximated time of each dungeon run, by dividing the story into separate, yet complete chunks similar to Diablo 2 caves.
The cards system – unified system used instead of active skills, passives and inventory. By juggling the available cards slots and mana pool, the player can create builds fitting the current situation. Opening card pane causes slow-motion encouraging to change builds on the go.
Unique paper graphics – Original Diablo experience is recreated by means of the pop-up book, where player and monsters are little figures instead of realistic 3d graphics.
Freeplay mode – After finishing the main story, the player can continue the game in freeplay mode, revisiting the know parts of the dungeon with increasing difficulties (unlocked by playing lower ones).
Daredevil characters – Perma-death mode with global leaderboards. In this mode, the player can create new flexiscope game only on the highest unlocked difficulty.

Classes

The game revolves around selecting a party of four in the town screen and then delving into a dungeon, of which there are five.

Warrior

Highly armored adventurer focused on Artifact cards (passives). Able to both push enemies away with hammer swing or cluster them in one spot to throw bombs on their heads.

Mage

Powerful scholar focused on Spell cards (active mana usage). Able to rise a wall of ice, throw fireballs, teleport or summon meteors falling from the sky (or dungeon ceiling).

Rogue (available on test branch)

Mischieving thief using bow and arrows to stay at the distance from enemies. Theatricality and deception are her most powerful allies.

Town Screen

Town screen is the place where the player can interact with the townsfolk. The player can gossip with each character, but also every one of them has some special features. For instance, Sage can identify cards, tracks players Bestiary and allows to unlock new card slots.

Crosscut Screen

Crosscut screen shows the player current progress in the story, allows him to create separate games using the Flexiscope system, entering the dungeons and picking up Quest challenges (main bosses).

Dungeons

The game is separated into three different environments, each of them ending with a big boss fight (called Quests). The three environments are:

Maze ending with the Cook
Catacombs ending with the Antipope
Hell ending with the Archdemon

For each run dungeons are generated randomly, so each run under the Cathedral will be different from the previous one.

Monsters

The game features 68 different monsters, separated into seven families including: classical skeletons, mad goatmen, ice exploding ghosts, fire demons, spiders, poisonous zombies and stone gargoyles. Thousands random generated mini bosses (based on the basic monsters), each having a few different states to go through.

Ability to adjust cards matching the current enemies is crucial for successful play.

Cards

The in-game combat is based on cards system, replacing inventory, passives and active skills. As of 09.27.2017, there are 32 cards available to each class, and 64 unique cards in game total.

Types

Cards are divided into 3 categories:

Spells - Each usage consumes mana that can be regenerated in various ways
Artifacts - Equipping them locks mana, turning it green, so it can't be spent on spells
Items - Cards having their own charges counter. The player can refill Item cards in town or by finding drops in the dungeon.

Progression

Each card can be upgraded up to 2 times, gaining better stats and new powers.

There are different variants of each card:

Common variant - a base version of each card
Magical variant - Gaining one random bonus power for the common card
Legendary variant - Named variant of the card with 2 magical bonuses and one unique legendary bonus