Book of Demons, aka Paper Diablo

I’m pretty sure you can just hold the mouse down instead of clicking, which makes it a bit less finicky.

Or maybe try using controller. It locks on and you can just tap B to break the shield. :)

Book of Demons is an ARPG at heart, and like all ARPGs, it boils down to explore dungeon, kill monsters, collect loot. It’s repetitive by nature.

What makes the game different is the card mechanic means you’re not just hoping for a legendary piece of useable equipment to randomly drop or some special gem you can socket if you have the right weapon/armor. The cards encompass everything from spells to equipment to items to runes, and every character class can use them all. They add a layer of strategic thinking that is missing in most standard ARPGs. Instead of needing to choose from some overgrown skill tree, you can swap out cards on the fly to give yourself the skill set needed for a particular stretch of dungeon, such as adding fire damage to better combat ghosts for example.

But yes, in the end it’s a clickfest ARPG, plain and simple. You have to destroy the shields of certain creatures before you can damage them. You have to hold the mouse button on casters to interrupt their casting. You have to kill the minions of certain bosses before the boss can be damaged…stuff like that. If you hate that sort of thing in games like Torchlight and Diablo, Book of Demons isn’t going to change your mind about it.

My opinion is pretty harsh on Diablio and Torchlight, but I actually kind of like Book of Demons. I wonder if part of that is difficulty tuning. When I played Diablo 3 it was so easy on the forced difficulty level of normal that I really didn’t have to pay attention to what I was doing to win. Torchlight was even more of a cakewalk.

Like I mentioned earlier, there is a lot less clutter on the screen in Book of Demons too than in Diablo 3. You still get to make positioning decisions and need to keep your eyes on the monsters (especially summons) in BoD even with the limited movement, Perhaps your positioning is even more important because your avenues for escape are much more limited.

I don’t see the card mechanic as that different from skills and loot in Diablo though. In D3 you could change your skills on the fly right? it is true that you don’t know what your going to get in BoD and it takes some planning to try and make sure you keep your mana sufficient to equip the equipment you find.

Well, I got to the end of the demo with the fighter. I’m kinda mad (well not really) because they killed the demo right when I got to the first big boss (The Cook). I would have liked to see what one of the big boss fights were like. I mean, it’s not like I;m going to buy it just to see the big boss fight. If I buy it it;s because I want to continue.

Is there an endless permadeath mode with a leaderboard? That would be a draw for me.

The Flexiscope is the feature I perhaps most appreciate about this game, being able to tailor a dungeon to a desired playtime duration is amazing and awesome.

This is one thing I find rather interesting about Book of Demons vs most arpgs. Routine fights can be very, very dangerous. There’s much less of a power gap between bosses and other stuff.

Anyone know if the save game carries over if you buy the game on Steam after playing the Steam demo vs selecting unlock within the demo? Also, if buying from within the demo does the coupon still work?

Save should carry over, yes. No idea on the other.

Yup, and it’s great.

It does have an endless mode with leaderboards, so I am now the proud owner of a shiny new copy.

Remember when you said you were going on a trip to France and weren’t gonna buy any new games? :D

I can’t hear you. I’m being crushed by this pile of games.

Another nice thing about Book of Demons is that the enemies actually feel different. In other ARPGs, the enemies seem to spew different colored projectiles, or maybe shoot them in different patterns, but they don’t really feel that different.

BoD actually has some cool ideas how to make the enemies feel different - Disabling cards either for a time period or until you straighten (click) them, an enemy that bull rushes, one you can’t damage too quickly or else they rage and heal up.

Yeah, it’s still clicking on stuff to kill them, and it does feel weird to be a warrior and be range attacking, but there is enough variety to keep me interested … so far. I’m past the cook and maybe 20% of the way to the next one.

The Antipope (2nd boss) has fallen, one more to go.

Does the endless more unlock once you get to the end of the campaign 1x?

There are plenty of times I get in trouble, but I’ve only died 2x. Once towards the beginning and once to the Antipope. I’m playing a fighter that relies on lots of artifacts, so the only hotbar items I use are healing potions and sometimes another potion. I’ve been almost exclusively choosing mana as my level up perk so I can equip many items.

I still like how the player needs to interact with many things on screen - monster shields, collecting hearts, un stunning equipment, etc… The one thing I don’t like and I think it’s my only real complaint is how much the game relies on just teleporting monsters in.

To be fair, that also happens in other ARPGs.

I’m digging this game a lot so far. I’m almost to Boss 3 as the archer and I have several cards still to find, so that’s exciting. And it’ll be fun to try the bosses on harder modes with keys, which I haven’t tried yet. I haven’t died at all yet, and while I agree teleporting enemies are annoying I don’t think I could die at all if they didn’t exist so…
And roguelike difficulty sounds neat in that you can discover the cards in any order.

We’ll see how long it lasts but it’s great so far!

We seem to be around the same place in the game and playing the same character type. I defeated the AntiPope and have finished a half dozen or so levels of hell on the way to the Archdemon. I have yet to die, though I did set off that anti-death skill at least once and it saved my bacon.

Yes, if you finish the “story” mode you will be granted the endless mode.

My warrior has 9 slots unlocked. I use three for consumables : Healing Potion, Remedy Potion (a must have for big fights that include poisonous critters) and an Ice Bomb (very handy in Hell when swarmed by demons). The other six slots are equipment : Armor (Legendary, drops hearts like crazy), Shield (also Legendary), Sword (Magic, max lvl to gain all 3 attacks per click), Ice Flail (to make those attacks do ice damage, very handy in Hell), Boots (max leveled for best resistances) and Skeleton Belt (magic, leveled, nice bonuses and resistances). That loadout makes it pretty much impossible for me to get into real danger unless I’m swarmed by a screen full of monsters or there is a nasty boss in the mix.

I’m at around 48 HP and 55 Mana, and like you I’ve mostly taken Mana on the level ups for some time now. I’ve also purchased the cauldron three times, once early on when it was just a couple of silver rewards, then again when it contained my first gold reward, then just recently when it reached two gold rewards. I probably won’t touch it again until it hits three gold awards, as that’s the final achievement for the cauldron.

I find the biggest challenge (aside from fighting) is deciding which equipment, spells and items to upgrade and at what time. It takes some meticulous plotting out of mana resources, thinking ahead about what sort of creatures you’ll be facing, and more than a little luck in finding runes and equipment at the right time. When it all comes together though you can cut through the next few levels like a knife through butter, and it feels awesome.

After tonight session I think we are very close to having exactly the same progress, as I did some more levels. I have 9 unlocked slots too, 2 for consumables : Healing (2 stars), Divine (1 star - damage immunity), Amulet of Life (2 stars, regenerates health), Shadow Sword (2 star, generates an extra attack vs enemy in range + dodging), Frozen Flail (1 star), Boots (3 star), Bloody Armor (1 star), Shield (1 star), Helmet (1 star). I have 48 health and 49 mana. I think I’ve purchased the cauldron 3x too. I need more mana to upgrade the equipment some more. Have you used any keys yet? I haven’t. Maybe it would be worth it to get some more mana.

I have not used any keys yet, though I possess two of them I received at some point (have not purchased any).

I would highly recommend upgrading your sword to 3 stars ASAP, especially if you’ve found a magic or legendary variant of it. The 3 attacks a fully upgraded sword does each click makes a HUGE difference in clearing rooms full of critters quickly, especially in Hell since you have the Frozen Flail and thereby get a full hit per attack against flaming hearts.

Also, if you have a Skeleton Belt, especially a magic variant, consider what it can do vs. the Helmet. I gave up my Helmet for the Skeleton Belt mainly due to the belt’s ability to extend the timer/potency of effects, which means my Remedy potions last much longer (or Divine potions in your setup), my Healing Potions heal DOUBLE the amount per use (making them essentially a full heal), and it effects my equipment as well, such as the Boots letting me stand in flames for a lot longer before taking damage. For such an innocuous piece of equipment, it’s almost overpowered.

I love the humor in this game. Much of it is pretty obvious, but there are blink-and-you-miss-it moments too. My favorite is the Terminator skeleton on some levels in Hell…if you see him and click he will sink into the lava slowly, giving a last thumbs up while your character says “Somehow, I suspect he’ll be back” or something similar. Awesome.

Yeah, I want to upgrade my sword but i just don’t have the mana for it yet. I still need 1 more even if I unequip my helmet. Actually, I guess I could downgrade my amulet for now and get the extra attack. You’re right, the belt is definitely better than the helmet. My problem with games like this with lots of equipment is that I tend to just stick with my stuff until I have trouble, so I don’t really reevaluate my load out.

I don’t think I noticed the skeleton yet, pretty good! I don’t know if I was just distracted or it hasn’t happened yet.