Does this have a non-VR version yet?
I really like the new module. Just played it in skirmish mode and was victorious with four characters, but I think I was fairly lucky. The first two levels were only a little harder than the first module, but the new enemy types made for an interesting new challenge - the Gorgon is nasty if you let him get any attacks. The torch is only needed from second level on, and it lasts nine turns which is often enough to complete a level, so the darkness isn’t as worrying as it appeared.
The boss level was crazy! I dropped a ‘detect enemies’ in the middle of the map and saw about 40 critters waiting for me. I triggered some poison, laid down a couple of ballistae and ran away until it went quiet, then discovered the boss in the next room - 90HP king rat who regains 2HP every time another rat dies. Fortunately by this time my archer was doing 6 damage per hit with strength potions, and with hunters mark as well it didn’t take long to beat the rat king down. Of course when he reaches half health he goes berserk and does enough damage to down most characters in one hit, and he gets two attacks. Having two guardians helped here!
Not sure what the optimal technique is. Hunter’s mark seems pretty essential, and killing as many rats as possible before starting on the king. I’d imagine two guardians and two archers is ideal if you have 4 players, any less and you run the risk of the rat king taking you out faster than you can get each other back up…
Pretty much the same as the first module. I’d read somewhere that the new module has five levels, but when I played it in skirmish mode, it was three levels again, and took about as long, with only the last level taking more time as it’s more like a regular level.
Playing a bit more of Demeo. I still can’t beat stupid second level of the Sewers.
In any case, it will be a great game, maybe even the VR game of the year… once it’s finished. Things I feel it needs:
-a third dungeon
-a pair of new classes
-ability to save games, mp included
-game difficulties
-‘house rules’, tweaks and mutators that can be applied by the players. Tweaks to baseline hp and damage for both players and monsters, spawn rates, tweaks to fov, max number of cards in hands, etc.
-stats at the end of the game. Kill counts, number of revives, damage amounts by type (I’m really curious to know how much damage it was done by poison in my last game, in between my poison cards, traps and bombs, it was constant green damage everywhere)
-an option to have the left hand with the cars always showing, maybe with the press of a button. My wrist hurts after doing a full rotation for so much time.
I must admit I spent most games with my left wrist turned up to show the cards while making moves with my right hand. It does ache after a while.
I played dozens of games of the first map and then one game of the second map (which I won) as a solo player with four characters. I kinda lost interest after that, not sure why. While the first boss fight seemed too easy, it was at least fun, while the second boss fight with the rat king just felt like a tedious grind and I didn’t feel much urge to play again. The boss level had a big central area just totally full of monsters so I threw in some poison, walled up the area and left until everything was dead. Then I found the room with the rat king, set up all my bombards and ballistas and healing totems and ground my way through to the boss. Since you can choose whatever characters you like I went in with two guardians and that was enough to tank all the damage while my archer did the work. Not hugely satisfying when the game just throws a million monsters at you.
I still think the game is a fantastic concept and I’d love to play more board games in VR but as a game Demeo is a bit samey after a while.
That’s how I’m feeling about this game at the moment. It’s a neat concept, I just think it needs a lot more fine tuning. The tactical combat is solid, but I don’t really dig wading through 50 monsters. Feels tedious.
I played the Rat King once. It was rather buggy and I admit the grind was really bumped up. It was less fun having hordes poor in from spaces you can barely see a few squares away due to the darkness mechanics. Something that was cool about Rat King was the increase of the rarer miniboss type creatures. I wish there were more types of those.
The Elven Queen was too easy though. IMO. I am not sure if I lost to her after dozens of runs.
I think the game was amazing, Rat King had some good ideas, but also the execution was too much, WAY TOO MUCH, of the same with not much to enjoy that was new. Hopefully growth and other modules can find the sweet spot.
The Rat king module 2nd floor goes too far with the limited light. Only 2 tiles of sight radius if you don’t have a torch, BUT this only applies to you, the enemy can fire you across two rooms.
Yeah. That was the buzzkill for me. There were so many attacks from really far off in the dark (intentional) and/or through terrain (bug) that it was just not fun even if I did like the torch mechanic.
I played a pair of public matches today and man, it opens your eyes with the strategic abilities of your average gamer… :O
Yay I finally beat the Rat King!
The key was (apart from playing well, in general), to be more aggressive with the good cards on the second level, to not wait until shit hits the wall as then it’s usually a bit too late to recover without suffering a lot. Second and third levels have so many enemies in general, that you have to throw all you can at them to survive, and not only that, because the way obtaining cards work, that killing tons of enemies give you gain tons of cards, so you aren’t really losing anything by using them.
Demeo update
I had the issue with the magic wall. I even did a screenshot when magically, monsters went through a blocked corner. :/
For a moment there, I got my hopes up that a new module was released. The fixes look good. I’m sure the save feature will be quite welcomed by some. The regroup orb could be very hand for staggered player joins.
Thanks for the information.
They have an AMA that is going to be done this Friday or Saturday. I wouldn’t be surprised if they present the new module on a few days.
New update will be on Dec 15th.
With three dungeons, new enemies, a new fourth class and save game feature, now I can recommend buying Demo.
Are there still plans to release a non-VR version?
Merry freaking Christmas to me! :)
I love that it’s just called “Demo” with an extra e in it
While I get the snarky angle, I believe it is Latin for decend or go down. I think they were aiming at a fancy way of essentially saying “dungeon crawl.”
Latin for “go down?” Where’s John Many Jars when you need him