Demon House Demo

Making a good FPS is not as simple as throwing a bunch of guns and monsters into the same pot, because a lot of other elements have an impact on the experience. As such, the gameplay must be smooth and engaging, the weapons must be tricky to master, yet fun to use, while the mechanics should blend together seamlessly from one end to the other.

Demon House is a horror-FPS that did not aim very high from the very beginning, because it preferred to be a mindless shooter with tons of enemies and whacky guns. Naturally, this is an understandable and thoroughly enjoyable choice, as it was demonstrated over the years by classics like Doom, Quake, and Painkiller. However, the title at hand did not benefit from the same level of dedication or professionalism as the aforementioned games.

Instead, Demon House comes across as cheap and rushed, especially from a story point of view. As it happens, everything takes place in a steampunk alternate universe, where demons are real and technology is a curious mix between what musketeers used during the Victorian Age and Half-Life. Here, you must clear a monster-infected mansion, which is crawling with demons, robots, and various other unsavory creatures.

Gameplay-wise, the title is not exactly terrible, because you can certainly enjoy moderate amounts of fun. The shooting is very repetitive and the AI probably has like five lines of code to its name in total, but the weapons and the fast-paced action don’t leave you with too much time to think. You can also take advantage of various upgrade stations and purchase better weapons, although not all of them are unlocked from the beginning.

Health packs and ammunition are dropped by the monsters you manage to kill, so you do not have to worry about running out of either at any point. Just like in Hexen and all the other old games, the main purpose is to find all the required keys to open the way forward, so a bit of exploration is due. Unfortunately, the bad level design can sometimes get you stuck for good, so you should be wary of tight places.

In the end, Demon House is nothing more than a boring rail shooter with a few clumsy horror elements thrown in there for giggles. Hence, unless you want to relive the old days and for some reason you are too lazy to pick up the actual old games, this could probably fill that void to some extent.