Since PlayStation VR2 launched a few weeks ago I’ve been playing a variety of games from the launch lineup and quite a few of them have stood out. One of the standouts is Demeo from Resolution Games, a tabletop RPG that is playable either via flatscreen or in virtual reality. Here is my review of the PlayStation VR2 version and why I think this should be one of the launch titles that you absolutely add to your collection.
Demeo previously released on PC and other devices but my first time with it was with the PlayStation VR2. While playing it for this review I played it on my TV in the traditional way but the majority of my playtime was playing it in PlayStation VR2 where it just feels more immersive. Demeo has you playing through five different adventures that are divided up into multiple levels. You’ll go through a short tutorial upon starting out to teach you all the basics. You are given seven different characters to play as and have to form a party of four out of them. Classes include Assassin, Hunter, Sorcerer, Warlock, Guardian, Barbarian, and Bard and they each have their own attacks and special attacks to set them apart. Every turn you can use your two action points to perform movement, attack, or use cards with each character. Playing in PlayStation VR2, you actually perform the actions so you’ll pick up your pieces to move them, roll the dice to attack, and reach and actually play your cards.
While this is like a tabletop game it is a very easy to play one and doesn’t have a ton of the usual rules for you to remember. You don’t even have to worry about missing your attacks usually as the dice you roll to perform attacks will almost always succeed. There is one side I think that can cause you to miss but all the others are attacks and then an increased damage attack on another side. Levels are full of enemies who can dish out considerable damage to you so you need to always be on the lookout and plan your moves wisely. Outside of enemies there are also a ton of chests to find that will reward you with new cards to use. With all of their helpful abilities you’ll want to gather as many of these as you can to ensure you are successful in your run. Each adventure ends with a boss battle and you’ll really want to make sure you have some cards up your sleeve for these moments.
Actually moving your pieces and rolling the dice isn’t the thing I liked the most about Demeo it was actually the fact that the game is cross-play across platforms. Demeo already had a pretty big player base on PC and being able to jump in and play with them on PlayStation VR2 made me enjoy this that much more. The community has been welcoming in my time with the game so you shouldn’t have any issues with learning the strategies and having fun with people. Social games like this were some of my favorites on the original PlayStation VR and I’ll likely be jumping back into Demeo quite a bit moving forward.
The visuals in Demeo on PlayStation VR2 look clean and there is a good amount of variety in the biomes as sometimes you’ll be exploring forests and other times you’ll be in catacombs or towns. The game also makes good use of the hardware features providing some nice feedback through both the headset and the Sense controllers. Really the only thing that was a bit annoying to me while I played in VR is how you had to move around or grab and turn the board to get a good look at various things. I wish you could do this with the sticks instead to make it a bit easier. On rare occasions it was also a little hard to reach out and grab what I needed to but this didn’t happen but a few times.
Demeo is an excellent dungeon-crawling adventure that is fun playing by yourself but even more so with others in the community. You can play it without VR but it feels much more immersive inside the headset as you actually perform the actions. If you enjoy tabletop, dungeon crawlers then I highly recommend Demeo and would call it one of the must-plays of the PlayStation VR2 launch lineup.
*Demeo is available now on PlayStation 5, PlayStation VR2, Oculus, and HTC Vive. PlayStation 5 & PlayStation VR2 version reviewed. Review copy provided by the publisher for this review.
Demeo
$39.99
Pros
- Very fun tabletop dungeon crawler
- Good range of classes to play as that each feel different
- Cross-platform play with a welcoming community of players
- Makes good use of the PlayStation VR2 hardware features
- Highly replayable
Cons
- Not as fun playing solo
- Some minor issues with grabbing things in VR
