Knights of the Chalice Demo

The Dungeons & Dragons pen-and-paper game comes with a very specific set of rules regarding the combat, the character experience gain and the monsters that populate the Forgotten Realms. There are plenty of video games using the D&D rule set, although most of them soften it up a bit in order to make the mechanics more accessible to newcomers as well. Thus, even titles like Baldur’s Gate do not provide the players with the true D&D experience, regardless of how critically-acclaimed the series might be.

Knights of the Chalice does not make any kind of compromise and delivers the full set of rules, regardless of how difficult it might be for newbies to get the hang of it. Hence, the encounters are extremely hard to survive if you are not schooled in the mysteries of D&D, while the A.I. is liable to take you by surprise and respond in kind to your clever tactics. Despite that, fun is guaranteed to be had, especially if you are a fan of the universe and you do not mind having to reload a previous save once every other five minutes.

In the beginning of the game, you need to create a party, by choosing from the available characters and making sure that you do not forget to stack up on spell casters. Not all the characters necessarily need to survive the encounters waiting ahead, but the game becomes increasingly more difficult as you advance through the story, so it would be rather hard to finish the game with not enough people.

Speaking of spell casters, there are many spells one can learn and cast, most of which can be combined or used for a variety of other purposes as well. Unlike in most video games, the spell effects are taken in consideration with regards to the environment as well, which means that it is entirely possible for one to get rid of a spider web spell cast by the enemy using a fireball. Many other combinations are possible, which makes the gameplay that much more exciting.

The interface can be a bit tricky to navigate at first, but after a few minutes of getting used to it, you start to notice that it is quite intuitive and everything is easily accessible from the get-go. You can also customize your characters as you see fit and watch them gain experience along the way, only to become stronger and stronger before the final face-off with the great evil.

All things considered, Knights of the Chalice is definitely worthy a try if you are a die-hard fan of the D&D universe. However, if you do not know your way around the rule book, then you probably won’t enjoy it too much, given the fact that each encounter is incredibly difficult and it requires plenty of experience with the system to know how to tackle them.