Recently, we at Lords of Gaming had the privilege to try out Demeo Battles early. So shout out to Resolution Games for the opportunity to try the game out. Let’s get into this near-perfect experience.
**The Meta Quest 2 was used during the preview period.**
About Demeo Battles
Amazing Visuals
One of the most important things to me in games is the visuals and aesthetics. Demeo was released to critical acclaim and received very high praise. Demeo Battles is no different in this regard. One of the reasons for this is the amazing visuals.
While playing solo against AI characters in this PVP experience, I was not surprised by how great it looked. Resolution Games has crafted many unique maps/dungeons where no experience is ever really the same. Just like in Demeo the characters, minions, and monsters all are finely crafted for this experience. It’s truly an epic sight when you drop a fireball on 2 opposing players and hit multiple minions. Dropping a Vortex card and pulling multiple enemies and lamps to cause giant explosions and lots of damage is an absolute thrill.
Intense Battles
Demeo Battles it’s a PVP-based experience. However, there is a single-player mode that puts you against 2 AI-controlled players. When you approach all the battles in this game, you can try out many different strategies. I tend to be a chest rusher to try and pick up a couple of extra cards than what I started with.
The battles start with some magic walls blocking some passageways, but after a few turns they disappear opening up even more passageways. Then each turn after that, the outside tiles turn into “The Burn” and move inward each turn. This makes you have to move toward the middle of the map and not continually run from a fight. I have had multiple intense moments, especially in one battle where it had me be two rogues and the opposing AI be two rogues.
We had 2 normal tiles at the end of this when I finally fell the opponent. Depending on which single-player mission you are doing, you might have some small minions to help you out. In return though the opponents will also have some minions as well. Then it just gets hectic from there. Based on which one you are doing they might have some huge minions too like Giant Slimes or Giant Spiders. There’s hardly a dull battle in Demeo Battles.
Near Perfect
The preview was a near-perfect experience. One issue popped up during a single-player mission where there was a chance to shuffle cards and buy cards in the shop before the battle started. The issue was the shop menu was stuck in the table to where I couldn’t click on anything except to start the battle. So that battle was the only one I lost – at the last minute as well – as I couldn’t buy any cards from the shop at the beginning. While not a major issue and only experienced it so far here, it still needs to be mentioned.
One other small thing I had when I first tried to play was an issue where one of the opposing AI players wouldn’t do anything during its turn. So I would have to quit the game and go back in, but I only experienced this issue that time one time.
Game Features
Demeo Battles does have quite a few game features and these are what you can expect to see in the game.
- 10 Distinct Arenas set in iconic Demeo environments and balanced for competitive play
- 7 Playable Champions each with their own unique approach to combat: hunter, sorcerer, assassin, guardian, bard, warlock, or barbarian
- 35+ Minions that players can choose from to form an army to bring into battle
- 85+ Action Cards that deliver everything from poisoned arrows to barricades and ballistas to deploy
- 40 Single Player Challenges to help players sharpen their skills for tactical triumph
- 1v1 and 2v2 Multiplayer allowing you to control your team solo or share the glory with a teammate
- The Burn slowly creeps in from every edge of the board, pushing champions together for late-game scenarios that get up close and personal
- Cross-Platform Play that lets players take on all competitors on every supported device
- Mixed Reality mode to bring the battle board into a player’s home using passthrough, and hand-tracking to let players pick up and play cards, dice, and miniatures just like they would with physical game pieces
Credit: Chris Jones
Multiplayer
I’m not sure if I couldn’t just find a match with random people or if multiplayer wasn’t active during the preview period. I did wait in a Queue for about 10 minutes without finding anyone. So for the purpose of these Demeo Battles impressions multiplayer will not be factored in.
Final Thoughts
Demeo Battles is a near-perfect game to supplement Demeo. I feel that people that might experience VR sickness, could actually be comfortable playing this game. From the intense battles, uniquely crafted maps, and amazing visuals I can say this is my second favorite VR game of all time.
You can pick Demeo Battles up currently on Steam, Meta Quest, and soon Pico for $19.99 USD. It will also arrive next year on PlayStation 5 and PS VR2. If it’s not clear yet, I highly recommend this game to everyone. It’s one of the best VR experiences I have ever had!
