Dementium: The Ward

After looking around for a horror DS game for a while at Gamestop, I came across Dementium: The Ward. A FPS for the DS, in which you are thrown into a bloody hospital room, located on the seventh floor of a nameless hospital. A measly $20.00 on the pricetag made me immediately buy it, as I love me some scary FPS's. (Except FEAR...)

After about 4 hours of blood drenched horror, I beat the game. So here I am to tell you all about it. You start as a nameless man, strapped to a wheelchair, being pushed quickly down a bloody hallway, passing many zombies and other horrible creatures. The intro cinematic then ends with you being pushed down a hole, lasting maybe a whole... 10 seconds? Anyway, there is no previous backstory to the nameless hospital or the nameless man. After a considerably short second has passed, you awake in the aforementioned room on the seventh floor. Nearby you find a notepad, with the words written: "Why did you do it?" You are then thrown into the horrible halls with scarcely a tutorial to help you, not that you'd need it.

The controls are extremely simple and work very well. Me, accustomed to the PSP FPS's, was expecting movement to be mapped to the directional pad, while the ABXY buttons looked in their respective directions. Alas, I was wrong, and it was a good thing too. The setup on the DS (apparently for ALL FPS's) is the directional buttons move, while the touch screen allows you to move the camera. Meanwhile L fires the weapon you are holding, and weapon select is done using the bottom of the touch screen. Opening doors are achieved by tapping the top of the touchscreen.

The game plays out very simple and linear. Essentially, all you have to do is escape, and that is the objective in 15 of the total 16 chapters. You obviously want to make it to the first floor. However, that won't be easy. Blocking your extremely linear path through the hallways, where nearly every door is locked ala Silent Hill, are various monsters. You can be expecting to fight dead humanoid... Zombie things, Screeching Skulls, Leeches, and other various monsters that are particularly more exciting than the ones I named. (Like the wheelchair guy with a gatling gun.)

Of course, as you progress, the monsters get harder. Luckily for you, there are plenty of weapons for you to find in your travels, from a nightstick, to a buzzsaw, to a sniper rifle. I believe there is 7 weapons to choose from, not including your flashlight, which acts as a weapon to more.... Nocturnal creatures... Of course, while your flashlight can be used as a weapon in some cases, it won't take care of every monster. That won't stop you from constantly using it though. This game is dark. I mean DARK. You can hardly see 3 feet in front of your equipped weapon in most cases, meaning you can't see the enemies you are running into until you run into them. Fortunately for you, your flashlight cuts a bright circular beam through the darkness, allowing you to see even the most distant objects. Unfortunately for you, your nameless character you play as cannot wield both a weapon and a flashlight. Meaning you have to do much changing back and forth between your flashlight and a weapon.

The sound is by far the best part of this game. While the meager amount of voice acting isnt done particularly well, the sound effects are brutally chilling. The afore mentioned screaming, floating skulls are identified before you even see them, due to their incredible scream. Many other enemies have amazing sound effects as well, down to the (for some reason) baby crying sound the leeches make.

And, of course, the graphics. I won't lie, the graphics are horrible. There is far better on DS. While this game is 3-D, it's objects aren't very well detailed. Most objects lack definition, and are grainy. The blood reminds me heavily of the extremely pixelated redness found in most PS1/N64 days, with an added touch of fakeness.

Luckily, graphics don't make a game, and this game is surely exciting enough for anyone to play at least twice in their lifetime. While there is no reason to play again, what with there being one ending and an extremely linear path, the fine tuned FPS controls make this by far the greatest horror - well, the ONLY horror FPS for the DS. It's considerably short, but well worth $20.00.

"...make this by far the greatest horror - well, the ONLY horror FPS for the DS."

*coughMooncough*

Moon isn't TRULY horror, but it's made by the same people - Renegade Kid. I plan to buy it next time I see it since it is also $20.00.

But I also forgot about Touch The Dead, which can also be classified as a FPS horror...

Agh, no matter. Dementium is still a fun game.

Oh, and Theresia came out not too long ago.. It's not an FPS, but it IS First-Person...

There needs to be more FPS horros for DS, let alone FPS games for DS.

And Moon was kinda-sorta Horror....

Time Hollow is a pretty frightening point and click. I'm playing it now, and will have my review up soon.

Really? I thought it looked really bad, lol. Of course, I should stop judging games by how they look and the small previews I read about them, and pay more attention to actual reviews..

Let's just start by saying it's the best point and click game ever...

>.>
<.<

Once you review it, I'll read it, and see if I'll buy it or rent it or not.

Hmm, I read a "blah" report of Dementium in GameInformer, which dissuaded me from purchasing it. However, after reading your review, I think I'll give it a shot.

As for Touch the Dead... Well, it's fun for an hour, and reminds me somewhat of House of the Dead, but it just doesn't give me the chills like HotD does. I need my survival horror games to be horrifying, and the closest thing TTD came to that was the part near the beginning where a cop-zombie randomly enters the screen from the left, right next to the player.

Is my review seriously that satisfying to make you change your mind? To think I was bad at reviewing.

It actually was a really good review, lol.

Yes, it covered pretty much every point of a game that needs covering. Controls, playability, replayability, story-quality, pros, cons, etc.

Maybe I'll get around to posting that Review of the newest Fire Emblem that I've been putting off for the past two months.

I would have a review up on Gamefaqs for this game, but unfortunately it already has a lot of reviews. I tend to write reviews for games with one review or less.