Demon Stone - PC

Platform: PC, PS2, Xbox (review based on the PS2 version)
Company: Stormfront Studios
Current status: Game out worldwide on all platforms
Where to obtain: Your local game shop

From the makers of the LOTR games, there are a few things which give that fact away right off the bat, but there are some differences as well, in my opinion it's not as good as LOTR, read on...

Graphics:
Well the graphics are somewhat impressive, the areas are brilliantly drawn and are very visually appealing, the characters are very nicely drawn as well, most of the movement is very fluid as well. When the characters speak you can tell they skipped out on the mouth animations, they look absoloutly ghastly. That aside the facial expressions are amazing, in cutscenes the characters actually have different expressions as they speak according to the situation. Though something I really don't like about this game is in the combat, when you attack an enemy there's very little in the way of telling if you've actually hit them, sometimes they get knocked back a little but apart from that most of the time you can never tell if your sword has actually connected with the enemy. In relevance to the character appearances I like the way your character's appearance changes according to the weapon/armour you buy for them, it looks very good when you upgrade to plate mail and actually see the improvement.

Sound:
Now the sound in this game isn't that jaw-dropping, the combat sounds themselves aren't all that impressive, just your basic hack 'n' slash sounds and the occasional 'argh' when your character gets hit or an enemy dies. About music, I have no idea, there is music but in the midst of the combat it's not really that noticable, although there it a change in music in certain instances, usually like a boss fight or something similar. The best part about the sound in this game is the voice acting, they have gotten some good actors to do the voices, although there was only one voice I recognised, the narrator is played by none other than Patrick Stewart, he also plays one of the NPCs in the game.

Gameplay:
Well, as far as the game goes it has one good thing going for it, which is the multi-character system, you have three characters at the same time, you take control of one while the other two do their own thing, but you can switch between them at the press of a button. The controls are similar to that of LOTR, only you don't have fierce and speed attacks, just attack and the unarmed attack, not to mention ranged. The button to perform a Coup De Grais has been changed from LOTR, even though this button does little to nothing as the most time an enemy is on the floor is when they're dead so it's somewhat pointless. The combos from LOTR have been taken away, the one-hit kill ones that are started by a parry, they're no longer in the game, basically it seems to be an ordeal of hammering the attack button before the monsters can hit you first.

Storyline:
Well... they've made a good effort, in fact it's a pretty good storyline, but unfortunatly the only elements of the storyline come into the parts between levels rather than during the levels themselves so while you play you can just ignore the storyline really until you finish the level.

Overall scores:
Graphics 5/10
Sound 7/10
Gameplay 2/10
Storyline 6/10

Total 5/10

In conclusion, it's not that much of a good game, but it IS brilliant for stress relief, although in my opinion Dynasty Warriors is a lot better for that kind of thing. I wouldn't recommend this game at all, if you like the game system I would suggest LOTR: RotK and LOTR: TT.

I hope you found this review helpful and informative.