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Originally billed as Mordor II: Darkness Awakening, Demise is a worthy
successor to highly underrated Mordor: The Depths of Dejenol, and sports improvements
over its predecessor in every respect. Simply put, the game is a huge non-linear
dungeon hack RPG that features 3D graphics, great sound, and fantastic play in single
and/or multiplayer modes. As with its predecessor and other good Roguelike games,
Demise contains enough races, guilds, items, monsters, magic, spells, traps,
environments, dungeon levels (and even a storyline this time around) to keep avid
RPGers enthralled for hundreds of hours. Many players reportedly have spent over 400
(!) hours with the game, and still have yet to find all its subtleties. The game
takes place in Dejenol the same gameworld as its predecessor, where the city has just
been attacked and nearly destroyed by creatures. Your goal, naturally, is to explore
the dungeons below and find and destroy the marauders of the city and the source of
their power. As with all Roguelike games, though, the real premise is to venture forth
into the dungeon, kill monsters, find items and money, and advance each character's
level. One of the most significant improvements over the original Mordor is the
inclusion of a free game server which lets you host your own multiplayer game via LAN
or over the Internet. Graphics are not only improved, but are used to represent
different perspectives depending on each character's race and height. A tall character
will see the dungeon differently than a short one, and each race's eyesight differs
from that of the others. In combat, it is literally hands off - you set a default
option for each character's actions in encountering enemies - they either do nothing,
fight, or defend as ordered. You can pause the action to assign a spell to each
character for the next round and then return giving yourself an advantage. Quests
range from finding a lost item, to capturing or killing a specific enemy. Note that
this is an extremely difficult game and you'll likely die a lot before you get the
hang of the game's interface and how to maximize each party member's capabilities. |
