Demonik preview

It’s only recently I’ve come to know why many perceive Clive Barker to be a master of horror. Reading all six volumes of the Books of Blood, it’s evident Barker’s talent doesn’t come in how scary his stories are – because there really is a distinct lack of scares.

What elevates Barker above many other writers is his ability to describe, in excruciating detail, painful events. When Barker gets violent you feel it. What’s more, in the case of his short novella The Hellbound Heart, you may even want to feel it. In Short, Barker is deserving of every piece of praise thrown at him.

Oh, and John Woo wasn’t too bad back in the day either.

Be Good at Being Bad

With that in mind who could have guessed a master of horror like Barker and a one-time seminal action director like Woo would one day collaborate on a videogame and film tie-in? We certainly didn’t, but that’s evidently the case with Terminal Reality’s Demonik – a horror-tinged action adventure for Xbox 360 and PC.

Coming across like a horror version of Midway’s Psi-Ops, Demonik casts you in the role of Volwrath – a dreadlocked Demonik called to Earth to avenge his master. Volwrath is a hulking beast, capable of many abilities aimed at doing nasty things to humans.

Starting out with Devil Hand and Possession, the world depicted in Demonik is a playground of horror.

Devil Hand is essentially telekinesis, allowing you to hurl human beings left and right and throw vehicles great distances. But Demonik marks a difference over past titles of its ilk in the sense it allows you to interact with everything in the environment. Absolutely anything.

Devil-headed

Possession also proves more interesting than past incarnations. Due to the Xbox 360 and PC’s immense processing power, AI is placed rather high in Demonik. As such, if you manage to possess a security guard for example, you can have fun shooting the hell out of your buddies.

As the action heats up you can leave the security guard and posses another soul, watching all the time as the bewildered man you just possessed is shot to bits by his friends, oblivious to everything that has just happened to him.

Devil Hand and Possession are merely your initial powers. The game boats eight individual powers in total, and each is upgradeable by three levels – introducing RPG undertones to the action adventure. Again, the fun doesn’t end there.

One of the eight powers allows you to put the plague on anyone you chose. By using Devil Hand you can then throw the infected human into a crowd of other people and infect them just the same.

Hellraiser

Running around possessing and maiming humans would certainly prove a fun, if shallow aesthetic. As such there are other beings in the world of Demonik vying for your blood. One type of enemy are Demonic Hunters, who are able to withstand Volwrath’s power. Picking up a car and throwing it at them should do the job however.

There are a couple of boss encounters with other Demonik’s too. Some of these cast powers which easily show how impressive the physics system can be.

As one of the 360’s first titles, the possibilities of where physics-based games can go is hard to see. At this level, with every piece of scenery being interactive, it’s hard to imagine what could come next. One location puts you in a science lab where every glass vial, every test tube is interactive.

Clive Barker’s Demonik

Demonik is the kind of game that warms my heart. Terminal Reality has had a lot of trouble in the past with games barely reaching their potential (Nocturne, anyone?). But everything we’ve seen of Demonik hints at the kind of game Barker fans would love to play.

Which in itself is an interesting prospect. Five years ago Barker lent his talent to the sorely underrated and under-bought Undying – a first-person shooter set in the early 20th Century. What should have sold bucket loads thanks to its deep, horrifying plot and intriguing magic/shooting gameplay went amiss by almost everyone.

Demonik forgoes any esoteric decisions Undying may have had in favour of something much more mainstream. We have a badass protagonist capable of many abilities, a plot written by Barker, fantastic physics-based gameplay, and a movie in the works.

This is the kind of game which could bring Barker’s talent into the limelight of videogames fans. And it’s certainly a medium the man would be at home creating properties within.