I have never really got into Table Top games, but I was interested in trying this sort of thing in VR when Demeo was announced. I have now spent time in Demeo with friends, so did I take to this in Virtual Reality?
Gameplay
As you would expect from a Table Top RPG, you will select a character role, move your piece in a grid based movement system, and roll the dice to determine your attack. Each role you can take comes with its own set of abilities and stats, and outside of these you will be using cards that have attack or defensive abilities to try and turn the tables in your favour.
You have a band on your wrist that will show you the order of moves, so you can determine who’s move it is next and when the enemies will get their turn. This brings in the use of tactics and team work to make sure you are not overpowered.
In order to move on through the two floors and get the boss, you will need to kill the key holder and get to the door to escape. You can do this at any point once you have the key, have made it to the door and defeated any enemies within a set distance of the door. However it is in you best interest to try and navigate as much of the board as possible to collect gold and open chests. This is due to being able to buy cards with your gold between each floor and the chest providing each member with a card – with the risk of this being you might be wiped and not complete the campaign.
The game comes with Skirmish mode, where you can play through the campaign in single player using three of the characters and taking on those three roles. However, I found this mode really didn’t keep my interest very long. With the game excelling in it’s multiplayer mode and getting around the table with friends, and going through the campaign together. Each group I have joined for the online mode have all been a lot of fun, and it’s interesting to see how different groups go about the tactics.
One thing that is currently missing from the game, but thankfully is planned, is the ability to save mid-campaign and continue it at a later date. Meaning at the moment you either have to push yourself to either the end of the campaign or your death, or just loose your current progress.
Presentation
Visually Demeo does everything it can to bring Table Top gaming to life within the scope of VR. Placing you into a 1980’s themed basement, presence of the other players around the table and bringing the board to life. This is done by allowing players to stretch the game board and give you a close up of the action and the game pieces animations – or stick to the tradition of just looking over the board. All while keeping a good image clarity and the texture quality not being affected.
Although, one issue that is present, when it comes to the player presence, is not including a social bubble option. Meaning, if you decided to shrink into the board in anyway, the other players keep their scale and you will soon have a glove in your face, breaking some the connection with the game and the immersion.
With the great visuals they have done a similar job with the audio. With each of the voice acted lines from the four-classes being clear and easy to understand. The noise of the attacks, use of potions and the slight backing music bringing to rest of the board and game to life. With a solid VOIP system in place to make sure each discussion in the multiplayer mode is clear and effective and keeping you immersed in the idea of playing this game with a group of friends around a table.
Comfort/Controls
With this being a table top game, you are able to play it seated or standing, I have spent the majority of the time playing seated. With you having the ability to grab the table and move it around you, there is no need to move yourself and makes the game accessible to anyone.
Using the controllers, all you will be doing is grabbing the table to move it around or zoom in and out of the game board. With the analogues being used to tilt the game board for a different angle on the action. You will be moving your game piece and rolling the dice manually, and to display you cards you will need to put your hand palm up and grab the card and place it on the board.
A pretty simple control scheme, that also keeps you immersed in the fact you are playing a Table Top game.
Longevity
At the moment the game comes with one campaign, which you might get through within just over an hour if you do it in your first attempt – and you also decided not to explore the full levels and leave as soon as you can. However, this will be hard to do due the difficulty at first, and it originally took a couple of attempts for me to get through it, taking just over three-hours. The team at Resolution Games have also added some procedural elements to the game, to make some changes in each campaign run, which will add longevity to some. Also, when playing you will get XP and you have forty-five ranks to move through – each giving you a new cosmetic unlockable.
Where this is the only campaign available at the moment, they are bringing more campaigns to the game over time for free, with the next one landing in Summer 2021. This is where some people may find an issue with the game, as they might not want to go back and play the campaign again and level this way – so they will feel short-changed for the time being.
Reviewed using Valve Index
For the purposes of transparency, this review was created using a review code provided by the company or their respective PR company. The use of a press code does not affect my judgement of the product.
Review Overview
Demeo has brought a solid social game to VR, while keeping the essence of Table Top RPG’s at its core, but in Virtual Reality. At present it only has the one campaign, with free campaigns being being added over time, which at the moment might leave some feeling a bit short changed on content for a game classed as a full release – so it might have made sense to label the game early access. However, where some will feel it is lacking content, some feel differently and are happy to continue with the one campaign until more are added – with the procedural elements offering some slight differences and the unlockable items enough to keep them going back. As someone who never got into the physical Table Top games I am really enjoying it, and certainly fall into the later and so far have played through the campaign a number of times and will go back in again.
