Dementium: The Ward (DS) Review
Posted by Ramon Aranda on 11.20.2007
A horrific and entertaining experience that comes with a price; your blood!
Title: Dementium: The Ward
Publisher: Gamecock Game Group
Type: Action, First-Person Shooter
Players: 1
Rated M - Mature
Though “Metroid Prime Hunters” made a successful stab at the FPS genre on the Nintendo DS, not many developers have taken advantage of the DS’ PC-like controls. With the DS’ success continuing to roll, we are finally seeing more FPS titles making their way to the little handheld that could. Renegade Kid happens to be one of those developers with their mature-horror game, “Dementium: The Ward”.
You begin the game with a cutscene in which you’re being wheeled into a hospital. When you awake, you have no idea who you are or why you’re in the hospital. As you wander around you’ll soon notice that there are blood stains all over the place, monstrous experiments-gone-wrong coming after you and then the panic sets in. “What the hell is going on?” is likely one of the first things you ask yourself as you scramble around in the darkness looking for illumination; and then you find the flashlight. From then on the story will unfold slowly as the mystery of the hospital and your own identity becomes the key focus whilst trying to stay alive long enough to escape.
Gameplay
Dementium’s control scheme works very much like those found on Prime Hunters. You move forward and backward and strafe left and write using the D-pad while using the stylus to look around you as you would on a PC. The left shoulder button is used to fire your weapon, melee attack and turn on your flashlight. The touch screen is very well-laid out as you have the weapon selection icons at the very bottom of the screen and you can open up your map by clicking on the map icon on the top right hand corner. Your health meter is displayed in the main portion of the screen (middle) coupled along with heartbeats.
The mechanics are pretty straight forward as you can double tap the D-pad forward to run and examining items will be highlighted on the bottom screen as you’ve seen on games like Resident Evil. I did find however that it can be somewhat annoying to have to switch between your flashlight to one of your guns as you’ll be firing in the dark since you cannot duel wield any items. Luckily the reticule on your screen will turn red when you have properly aimed at your target so at least you’ll know you’re not shooting at the walls.
The game is broken down into chapters that range from being very short to quite long that may also feature some cut-scenes. Every few chapters, you’ll encounter a boss battle that proves to be creepy and overwhelming (in a good way). Unfortunately however, the game is plagued by a horrendous save system that forces you to start from the beginning of the chapter if you die. This becomes quite frustrating during chapters that were lengthy and difficult. Every time you step through a new door, the game will autosave so that you can quit and come back wherever you left off but if you die or make it to a ‘boss’, you’ll have to start all over again. To add to that problem is that every enemy respawns once you have left a room so playing through a chapter after you’ve died a few times becomes quite repetitive, removing some of the frights.
Graphics
Renegade Kid did a fantastic job with the look of Dementium. Without needing pre-rendered graphics, the game is one of the better looking DS titles currently available. All of the enemies are spooky to look at and the entire hospital is rendered with excellent detail. The blood splattered walls stand out even in the darkness and the view of the hospital from the outside looks fantastic. In various areas of the game you will wander to the outside of the hospital and amidst the thunderstorm, you see how enormous the local is. As you walk around with your flash light, it will occasionally flicker as if the battery is running out. It adds a bit of tension because at times it blacks out momentarily leaving you blind for the creepy crawlers out to get you.
While playing you get a bit of nostalgia as the style resembles something out of Doom and Resident Evil with respects to the buildings, enemies and items you find throughout. Though the graphics are top notch, the game’s framerate never dips and the cutscenes are of high quality, similar to what we’ve seen from Mega Man ZX which uses the same codec.
Sound
I haven’t spoken too much about the game’s scary atmosphere but with good reason. I needed to first give kudos to the sound team as they’ve developed a perfect score to match the game’s atmosphere. The music really sets up the mood and constantly makes you look around as you feel that something is seconds away from jumping out at you. Its moody tunes couldn’t have been better and Dementium just would not have been the same kind of game without it.
I should note that this game is better played with headphones and the developers make sure you know that when you first boot up the game. It’s with good reason that you use headphones because occasionally you will hear someone or something talking or making noise. Every creature also screams out at you and it turns up the heat when you can hear something coming from around the corner or on the other side of a door. Of course you’ll also want to play close attention to all of the cutscenes so being able to hear clearly is imperative. I can’t tell you how many times I walked through a door only to be attacked by a creature. Hearing them screaming or crying out loud was often terrifying and made me jump; a feat that’s quite impressive given that it’s a handheld game.
Fun Factor
Not knowing what’s going on while searching for clues is usually a fun endeavor. The curiosity factor intensifies as you progress through the game and finding new weapons to use adds a little extra spice. Every creature has critical points so shooting should be done carefully so you don’t waste your ammo. One of my favorite weapons was a buzz saw that not only makes a ton of noise but just rips those creatures to bits. Trying out different weapons on different monsters was just as fun as learning about my character.
Lasting Appeal
The game is pretty long in length so you won’t likely run through it in two or three hours. One odd thing I found though is that the game only keeps track of how long you’ve been playing so long as you haven’t died. Any time you’ve put in that results in a death will be erased. So let’s say I played chapter 4 for one hour then died; I would have to restart chapter 4 and if it takes me 15 minutes to run through it, the game will say I played for 15 minutes.
Even though the game will last you for a while, once you’ve beaten it, there’s not much reason to play through it again. The puzzles are tough to crack at times but you’ll find everything there is to discover with the first run-through. I would have liked to see alternate endings or perhaps a different game mode upon completion to warrant another visit to the asylum.
The 411
“Dementium: The Ward” does many things right that it would be a shame for DS owners not to give it a try. Renegade Kid developed a solid first effort that although it’s not without its faults, provides plenty of thrills and screams in an entertaining horror-fest. Dementium comes with a high recommendation!
Graphics
9.0
Excellent graphics; some of the best I've seen on the DS
Gameplay
8.5
Great controls, bad save system.
Sound
10.0
Top notch soundtrack and creepy sounds! Use headphones for best experience.
Lasting Appeal
6.5
Not much to play for a second time around but a lengthy story.
The mechanics are pretty straight forward as you can double tap the D-pad forward to run and examining items will be highlighted on the bottom screen as you’ve seen on games like Resident Evil. I did find however that it can be somewhat annoying to have to switch between your flashlight to one of your guns as you’ll be firing in the dark since you cannot duel wield any items. Luckily the reticule on your screen will turn red when you have properly aimed at your target so at least you’ll know you’re not shooting at the walls. 
Not knowing what’s going on while searching for clues is usually a fun endeavor. The curiosity factor intensifies as you progress through the game and finding new weapons to use adds a little extra spice. Every creature has critical points so shooting should be done carefully so you don’t waste your ammo. One of my favorite weapons was a buzz saw that not only makes a ton of noise but just rips those creatures to bits. Trying out different weapons on different monsters was just as fun as learning about my character. 
