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Forgotten Realms: Demon Stone Review - PC

Three heroes have met by chance at the entrance to the ancient mine in Damara. Joining forces, they set forth on an adventure more amazing than they have ever imagined. Join Rannek the fighter, Illius the sorcerer and Zhai the rogue as they journey into the depths of the newly re-opened Gemspark Mine. The entrance has an alluring set of doors, each marked with a unique rune. After breaking through the doors, they find a large gem that breaks apart and falls to the floor, unleashing two spirirs: a Githyanki General and a Slaad Lord.

It was the Demon Stone. The two spirits reengage in the fight that was stopped when they were locked away many years ago. The two spirits summon more of their kind to fight in the battle, and in no time at all Rannek, Illius and Zhai have found themselves in a whole heap of trouble. This is where the game and the chase begins to rid the world of evil.

Gameplay

If you've played Lord of The Rings: The Two Towers or Lord of The Rings: Return of The King then you'll know exactly what sort of game Forgotten Realms: Demon Stone is - A relatively short hack and slash game with great scenery and interesting gameplay. It doesn't lift off as much more than a hack and slash game though, which makes the gameplay tortuous when everything seems to be repeating. As mentioned in the intro you have your three basic characters. At the start, they switch back and forth every ten or so minutes which makes the gameplay a little diverse as opposed to the Lord of The Rings games where you can only change characters between levels.

When you're one character, often you'll be in situations where you can help the other characters which will be in other parts of the world. For instance you can kill archers that are attacking them, or you can fire canons that will unleash a massive explosion on enemies that are confronting your friends. For most of the game though, you are able to switch between all three characters at any given time. In the midst of a battle if you're getting pounded by the enemy, you can press a "rescue" type button which will bring one of your fellowship members over to you in bullet time speed to help you.

In case you haven't played the Lord of The Rings games mentioned earlier, Demon Stone is a very linear action adventure game. Your one aim is to keep following the path through the adventure, destroying anything in the way whether it ranges from a crate to a dragon. Down in the bottom left corner is your HUD. It contains the health of all three fighters at the same time, your Hero Meter, and Ammo. All are fairly self explanatory apart from the Hero (continued next page)