Initially, you'll be forced to batter slow moving zombie-like creatures which sport exposed throbbing hearts, but, sure enough, you'll also pick up a pistol and begin picking them off with ease, carefully conserving ammo where possible. As a result, the combat feels fluid and satisfying, as you control the viewpoint mouse-style with the stylus, with the d-pad for moving/strafing, and the left shoulder button for attacking. On the way, you'll find a map (ooh, locked doors), solve some relatively logical puzzles (a rarity these days, admittedly) and encounter a sequence of grisly monsters trying to eat your face.Īnd unlike most old-school survival-horror efforts, you won't be left battling with annoying 'atmospheric' camera angles, but view the entire game from a first-person perspective. The general idea of each of the 16 chapters in Dementium is fairly straightforward - just wander around, pick up anything not nailed down, and eventually work through to the next section of the game. Gasp! Could it be I need to find pieces of a photo to gain access to an object which will help me unlock a door? The abandoned medical ward even appears to employ the same contract cleaners Renegade Kid wears its influences proudly, but you'll forgive the more obvious riffs because of the skilful way they're applied. The initial similarities to Silent Hill are striking - the dreamlike ambience, the perma-darkness, the exact same mapping system, the lurching, writhing, otherworldly creatures of death, and the 'riddle-me-this' puzzles (which inevitably produce a key to get you beyond those tempting locked doors). In true horror gaming style, weirdness abounds you find yourself waking up in a stinking, derelict hospital without too much of an idea of who you are, or why you're there. Released to largely warm acclaim in the US millions of years ago by then-newly established publishing upstart Gamecock, it was lauded for its seamless blend of Silent Hill-esque surreality with the raw, unsubtle first-person combat that made us hug Doom like a perplexed therapist. The fact that Dementium manages to capture all of this on a humble DS is nothing short of remarkable.
Like all your favourite worst nightmares, they should involve trudging through an impenetrable gloom accompanied by an ever-present heartbeat thump, and never quite make sense.
For me, scary games need to be rancid, uncomfortable experiences that infect your dreams with sinister snatches of piano, bestial shrieks, and schlocky, slimy noises.
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