Demetrios: The BIG Cynical Adventure
Let me start with the positives of this game:
First- The story behind Demetrios has been well thought out.
Bjorn Thonen is an antique dealer living in the city of Paris. His life is
self-centred and his customers are few. He keeps mostly to himself in his messy
apartment and nothing is overly complicated.
The game opens with Bjorn receiving a mysterious phone call in
the middle of the night that issues him with a warning, which naturally he
promptly dismisses. But when a tablet from his newly purchased statue goes
missing Bjorn is catapulted out of his solitary life in order to find the
culprit and retrieve the tablet.
He promptly makes contact with Sandra, his neighbour across
the hall, who is able to confirm a robbery having taken place the night before.
At the inadequacies of the police department, Bjorn takes it upon himself to
find the clues and track the thief, inevitably pulling himself deeper and
deeper into the mysteries of the statue and its origins.
The story that follows is delivered in written dialogue with
only the occasional sound effect tied in, and choices are made available to you
throughout the game giving you a feeling of control. However the progression is
very linear and very few tasks can be done outside of a set order. The
conversation varies from highly engaging and chuckle worthy, to slow and
repetitive in places. But inevitably you will end up where you need to be with
many puzzles along the way.
Second- the artwork is very charming and most cut-scenes are
delivered in comic book format, which is engaging. The backdrop scenery is colourful
and reasonably detailed. And while it is certainly not boring, it’s not amazing
either.
Third- Menus are easily navigated and inventory is quick and
easy to use. Your special items are simple to understand and your hints (issued
as collectable cookies) are not hard to find.
Fourth- This may seem simple and a bit of a nothing point,
but navigation! While many point and click games I have played have had
consistent delays in moving from area to area, this is certainly something
Demetrios nails. Screen to screen transitions are smooth, effortless and in
most cases instantaneous- which you will be thanking them for when you are
required to travel back and forth to complete a mission or puzzle.
“So with all these great things, why would you be
disappointed?” I hear you ask.
Simply put- I think this is a well put together game that
attempts but is not highly successful at any more cynicism than being purely
pessimistic. And while that is certainly a big feature, it’s just not enough
for me. Add to this that the humour so often attempted within the dialogue and
gameplay is lacklustre and cheapened with blunt force toilet humour. And as the
last ditch attempts for laughs threw demoralising moments in my direction, it
felt like Demetrios was scraping the bottom of the barrel.
There are only so many farts, burps, pee, vomit, poo, and
various other bodily fluids that I can enjoy as slapstick before the experience
wears thin. What is sold as being cynical humour is mostly just poor humour. Many
times I found myself skipping as fast as possible through terrible jokes and
annoying text as fast as the game would allow.
I felt as though
Demetrios was attempting to channel my inner 12 year old boy in a game that
would be far too mature in theme for said 12 year old. It left me wondering
just who the target audience was, and whether they even knew.
While this type of game is certainly not for everyone I know
there will be a select audience of gamers who will thoroughly enjoy this
experience, who will laugh out loud where I only chuckled a little. And for the
low price of the game it is certainly worth a look if this sounds like your
kind of thing.
-Rem
Demetrios offers mini games throughout- the successful
completion of which is often a requirement in order to progress. And in one
instance where I needed to attend a carnival in order to secure a mission item
I found myself wasting far more time than needed and felt far more invested in
this side activity than the game itself.
What should be said however is that Demetrios has been created
from a very dedicated and very small team, and for that the game is to be
praised. Terrible humour aside I enjoyed my play-through of the game. The
puzzles were good and the overarching storyline was well constructed. My only
wish was that a little more intelligence had been used to turn this game from a
bearable experience into a memorable one.
As for me- I’m off to go and find my missing brain cells…
-Rem