Demeo PSVR2 review. It’s fair to say that a good chunk of my happier times as youngster and indeed, during the colder evenings with friends as a crustier dude, have been spent around tabletop games with a tray of snacks in tow. While tabletop games often do a grand job of transporting you off to some far-flung realm, so too do they simultaneously root you in the here and now with palpably real figures that you can hold, treasure cards that you can take and a world that you can physically touch. Clearly designed by a group of like-minded folks who have experienced the myriad joy that tabletop gaming can bring, Demeo feels in every way like a true love letter to the tabletop gaming spectacle, but brings with it a level of accessibility that should endear the pastime to an all-new generation of gamers.
Demeo PSVR2 Review
An Immersive, Accessible And Highly Enjoyable Ode To The Halcyon Days Of Tabletop Gaming
In no uncertain terms, Demeo on PSVR2 brings the spectacle and physicality of table top gaming to life in your living room/bedroom/whatever-room and does so with ample verve. After a chunk of narration from Demeo’s trusty Dungeon Master sets the scene of Demeo’s high fantasy tale of brave heroes doing battle against the encroaching forces of an evil Elf King, we’re off to the races as Demeo gets started in earnest. First experienced through a handy tutorial that orients you with the game, immediately Demeo both looks and plays exactly how you would expect it to.
Presented in something close to a real-world surrounding that takes in an expectedly nerdy tabletop room decked out with fantasy posters, game boxes and everything else you would expect, Demeo plays out on a massive tabletop board with dice, figures and essentially everything that you would associate with tabletop gaming. There’s a real thrill too in being able to lean in amongst the board and inspect the various figures and items up close – their resolute sharpness and fidelity made possible by twin boon of PSVR2’s OLED lens and 4K display. Playing Demeo really does feel like you’re taking part in a proper tabletop adventure – and I’m absolutely here for it.
Though it mirrors the tabletop experience so closely, Demeo also turns out to be refreshingly easy to play as well. Underscored by a turn-based system, to move in Demeo you simply pick up your chosen character and put them down wherever you’re allowed to, depending on their movement ability. Likewise, attacking enemies, looting chests and opening doors is achieved in the much the same way – you simply pick up and drop. It’s so simple, tactile and natrual that just about anybody can start playing. Brilliantly, the haptic feedback in the PSVR2 Sense controllers play a subtle but important role here, as you get a quick bit of feedback as you pick up figures, put them down and even throw dice (Demeo even brilliantly counts your dice if they fall off the board, which is nice).
There’s a good amount of depth with Demeo too. In addition to being able to move around the map and attack enemies, all of which cost a single action point each, you can also make use of special skills and items that are either synonymous with your hero by defeating enemies during combat, or are bought from the handy bazaar that pops up in-between levels. Costing varying amount of action points, these special abilities and items can do everything from replenishing the health and armour of your chosen hero, through to healing allies, setting up traps for the enemy and unleashing devastating magic and melee attacks on your foes.
Ultimately too this is where the various class synergies play into Demeo. With seven different heroes to choose from, including everything from warriors to bards and warlocks, and each with their own strengths, weaknesses and special abilities and fully supported cross-play with up to four players, Demeo’s dynamically generated dungeons and steep (though fair) challenge, always pushes you to work well with your fellow adventurers; looking out for traps, healing each other and buffing each other’s offensive and defensive capabilities whenever you can, or developing sophisticated strategies such as charm spelling enemies into traps, setting up ambushes and more. Accessing all of these various abilities and items couldn’t be easier either – simply open up the palm of your right hand, pick an ability or item card and then just drop it on the square, friend or foe that you need it to affect and away you go.
The common goal in Demeo’s many different levels is broadly similar; you find an enemy on the stage that is carrying the key, knock them into paste, take the key and move onto the next level before it doing again and then eventually going on to face a massive and often highly challenging boss foe. Though that sounds simplistic and broadly I suppose it is, there’s actually a neat risk/reward dynamic in play too. You see the enemies which attack you in each stage are never-ending and not only drop money and card points which allow you to gain new abilities and items, but you can also be overwhelmed pretty quickly too. As such, Demeo always has a slyly enticing feel to it – taunting players to try their luck for shiny loot at possibly the expense of the main objective itself.
Further afield, Demeo literally does everything it can to make tabletop gaming appealing to both veterans and newcomers alike. Rather than having to messily scribble over pieces of increasingly shop-worn, eraser smudged paper, remember spells, stats and all that sort of thing (let alone deal with local ‘hazards’ such as a pet jumping up on the table, folks barfing on the board and so on), Demeo does all of that lifting for you – allowing players to concentrate on the actual act of playing, rather than the often tedious administration of it.
With five entirely different themed campaign packs that certainly echo the presentation and function of campaign modules in real-life tabletop games whilst also providing a fresh array of unique areas, enemies, traps and more to deal with, Demeo certainly doesn’t skimp on long-term appeal either. Between the five campaign packs and the randomly generated dungeons, Demeo (much like its physical tabletop counterpart) will figure into your social calendars for weeks and months to come (just don’t forget the snacks).
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Where Demeo comes slightly unstuck is in how you’re not quite able to control your perspective as effortlessly as I would like. Though you can quite happily walk around the virtual board and peer into the various rooms and so on as you would do in real-life, the option also exists to basically ‘grip’ the board and turn it by rotating the two PSVR2 Sense controllers clock-wise. The problem is, I’ve rarely got this to work and surely there has be an easier way to rotate the board without physically walking around it. That said, this is certainly something that can be fixed in future update so hopefully we’ll get just that.
Another issue that I’ve experienced with Demeo on occasion is that the view will go a bit ‘wild’ with some massive wobbling and a blurring of the image for a split-second, but will correct itself before you know it. Now while this does happen on seldom occasion, it happens frequently enough to be distracting – not to mention quite disorientating. A fact that is further exacerbated if you don’t happen to have a particularly strong pair of VR legs underneath you. Again, this seems like something that could be easily sorted by an update, so fingers crossed for that too eh?
The only other thing that might frustrate some folks with Demeo is that there is no traditional progression for each character which you might get in a traditional tabletop game. Instead, you have an overall persistent rank system which you can increase by completing quests and provides increasingly opulent cosmetic rewards, such as shiny new attires and funky looking dice depending on how far you get. Sure, it dulls the incentive to play long-term slightly, but really, Demeo is much like the real-life pursuit of tabletop gaming itself, in that it is more about the social experience than perhaps anything else.
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In the end, Demeo does that most unexpected of things – it provides a deep and highly enjoyable tabletop RPG experience for folks who are typically put off by the notion of setting up a board, potentially losing important figures, worrying about missing dice and all that other nonsense. Absent such tedious administrative concerns and with clear design, tactile physical feedback and easily grasped mechanics that ensure everyone can play, Demeo is a shining example of how to translate one of the most socially beloved hobbies into an all new digital realm.
Demeo is out now on PSVR2 and PS5.
Review code kindly provided by PR.