Combining tried and true adventure game elements with a top down viewpoint more common to action-based RPGs, Meridian4's Daemonica is a nicely unsettling way to spend a gloomy weekend. A medieval murder mystery with a rich supernatural undercurrent, the game does a great job of introducing Nicholas Farepoynt to adventure fans as a character worth watching. There are a few minor bumps in the presentation, but overall it's highly recommended to anyone looking for more than the usual modern-day CSI-style point and click experience. Playing through the game made me wonder just how or if any actual murders were solved during the real Dark Ages. I'd imagine people would be less than friendly during the Black Death about talking to a strange tattooed man walking into their homes and asking them about a recently deceased man's habits. Additionally, you don't have any microscopes, DNA or cell phone records to use - just your eyes, ears and a collection of herbs to make some interesting potions that do everything from revealing hidden items to calling up fearsome demons to aid in gleaning clues when all other methods fail.

Daemonica takes place in and around a small English village where you have been invited to investigate a murder. You play Nicholas Farepoynt, a member of Beast Hunters, the free organization of individuals tasked with hunting down mass murderers through uncommon means. As you're 'Haresh al-Dorem,' you can use the ancient language of Daemonica to communicate with the dead, a great but potentially lethal aid in solving cases. You're thrown a curveball right from the start, as the primary suspect has been hanged and his victim cremated, by order of the mayor. You hit town with no one willing to talk to you very much, so you get a workout initially from clicking around the village to meet and greet the reluctant locals.

Additionally, the mayor knows of Nicholas' investigative skills only through word of mouth about his successes and the need for absolute privacy in his work. He puts Nicholas in a simple house with boards covering the windows and a small cellar, thinking not too much is out of the ordinary. Still, Nicholas certainly has his work cut out for him right from the beginning, with a dead suspect and few actual clues other than what he gleans from the townspeople. Add a few more murders and some shocking revelations into the mix and the plot most certainly thickens as the game progresses.

There are five chapters in total and a hefty amount of text that adds a nice layer of depth to the game. Be prepared to break out the reading glasses if you've a monitor under nineteen inches however - the text is a wee bit on the small side and the townspeople have a lot to say, as does Nicholas. In fact, clicking on Story when you start up the game opens a fourteen-page journal that allows you to read up on Nicholas' history to this point, including some cases he's solved. This is great, as the potential to go both forward and back in time with the character in future games is tremendous. The controls are simple; just click on an area to move to it and watch for the cursor to change when there are items to pick up or people to interact with. The game has a default Always Run setting, which I absolutely recommend to leave as is. Nicholas' walking speed is poky at best while his run is more like a light jog.

Like most adventure games, you seek out clues by talking to as many people as possible and find items that you store away in your inventory. Depending on your conversation choices you also make a few friends and enemies as your investigation unfolds. The game doesn't really run with this aspect, however - you can't piss everyone off and make them stay that way. In instances where you have to fight, combat relies on your blocking skills and watching for an opening before you attack. Save for the combat, Nicholas moves pretty methodically and the path finding is excellent. You can click on an item that's behind a wall or blocked off by a stream and if there's a bridge or other pathway to it, Nicholas hoofs it on over to retrieve the goods. These include the aforementioned herbs, which are necessary for the creation of some interesting potions.

At certain points your investigation will be stymied by someone or something that requires you not only to make a potion but find a way to use it on what's blocking your progress. I don't want to reveal too much of the plot, as the better parts come when you're out exploring on your own. As to speaking with the deceased, once Nicholas has the proper herbs (and finds a lock for his door), all he requires is a corpse of recent vintage and the fun begins! Once he prepares the summoning potion, Soulgreep, Nicholas needs to drink it quickly and tie his arms down before his body dies and a demon comes forth to tear him apart.

Drinking Soulgreep transports you to the Temple of Sacrifices, where you need to select the correct room that corresponds to the manner of your subject's death. Then you need to use three altars in the room by choosing three demons that match the information you've collected in your journal. There's an excellent element of suspense here, as if you forget to save before drinking Soulgreep and answer one of the questions incorrectly then you're in for a nasty, game-ending surprise. The dead can be animated only once, so you need to pay attention to what they tell you. If you miss anything, don't worry - an onscreen prompt or a peek into your journal lets you know when you complete a quest. Again, there's a wealth of information to uncover and some gamers will spend a nice chunk of game time reading all the notes on people, places and things that Nicholas collects. Fortunately you won't need to remember just where the possibly psychic old woman lives if you need to talk to her again - once you visit a place you can use the game map to zip to it whenever you want. That is, provided you're not in the Temple of Sacrifices looking for a way out because you forgot to save…

Visually, the game goes for a moody, rustic sense of realism rather than concentrating on insanely high polygon counts or superfluous graphical baggage. Think of the game as a Snowblind homage without the hack and slash elements and you'll get the general idea. The lighting conveys the perfect sense of dread throughout, even when there's nothing happening. You may jump the first time you see lightning flash, blurring the screen briefly. Daemonica supports three resolutions from 800x600 to 1280x1024 and you can tweak the settings so that it runs on older machines. I did notice some trees and plants popping into view on some occasions, but this doesn't interfere with the gameplay.

Most of the horror elements are implied rather than shown, which might be a letdown to those who want to see buckets of gore and heads rolling across the floor. However, the best mysteries are those where you can't see what's coming or when you get a nice chill up your spine from the mere act of reading about blood splashed on the side of a house and scattered on the grass. You could make the argument that some of the parts where the game automatically takes over could have been playable; however, it would be more of an action-based than adventure game if this was the case. Still, if this ever comes to a console, I could think of a few ways to extend the running time.

There's a great, ominous score that makes up the bulk of Daemonica's music; in fact, the score carries most of the sonic kudos. One issue some players might have is with the minimal voice acting in the US version. The original Polish version had voices for all the important characters, but I'm guessing that the cost of localizing the game forced a slight change of plans. There's only one voice talent in the entire game that does Nicholas and the assorted demons, while the remaining characters are mute. This wouldn't be much of a problem, except the score still fades down when text boxes come up, so half the time you're expecting to hear some dialog.

Nicholas does comment on things from time to time and some of the characters speak when you interact with an item you're not supposed to. However, the NPC voices are still in Polish, which might be seen as a problem. Just think of it as a gloomy English village with bilingual residents who use English as their second language. Other than this, the biggest issue I have is with some of the loading times. Whether you're moving from one floor to another, walking out a doorway or warping to a faraway location, you're waiting about ten to fifteen seconds while the next area loads. Of course, this adds up during the ten hours or so it takes to play through the game, but you'll be used to it by then.

There's a lot to love about Daemonica, from the overwhelming sense of despair that permeates the sad town you explore to the unique methods used to conduct your investigations. It's great to see a horror-themed game that goes more for the cerebral end of the spectrum rather than the jugular, but there are a few moments where you might not want to step into a darkened area or find out what's happened to a character you've befriended. I'm truly hoping RA Images and Cinemax are thinking of a follow-up, as there's so much potential here for other Beast Hunter titles and yes, the return at some point of Nicholas Farepoynt and other Haresh al-Dorem. The concept and character are immediately intriguing in their current form and definitely deserve an even deeper look. Adventure fans in the market for a darker, demonic twist to their favorite genre will be pleased as punch to meet Nicholas and guide him to his destiny.

Reviewed by Greg Wilcox for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).