Devils & Demons (PC) Review

Devils & Demons should have taken a few lessons from Ironhide Games, because the PC version is really just the mobile version, but with touch controls and no ads. That may sound like a good thing, but it's not—this is one of those games. This is one of those games with long, repetitive sequences of tedious grinding meant to frustrate and annoy players until they run screaming for the online shop. In fairness, there is no online shop in the PC version, but, ironically, that's part of the problem, since there's no way to skip these exhausting processes.

One would be forgiven for thinking that Card Hunter had been launched by accident, because the character models are only slightly more animated than cardboard cut-outs; in fact, the character models don't really move at all—they glide across the map awkwardly. No one walks. Characters and enemies have idle animations where their hands and shoulders move rhythmically up and down, but that's all there is to it, and it's jarring. The NES had better animations than this.

It's always alarming when there is no attempt to hide a mobile port, and Devils & Demons could only make that clearer if the phrase "This is a mobile port" was part of the initial splash screens. Every element of the UI was designed with touch controls clearly in mind, and they are far more obstructive than they need to be, because nothing was done to optimise the experience for PC.

At its core, this is a turn-based strategy RPG inspired by the Might & Magic games. Each character has two "actionpoints" each turn, while moving and attacking each consume an actionpoint. There is the option to double move and to double attack, both of which are useful, but there is still the problem that the game is played as though a battle is always happening. Getting from one side of the map to the other is inordinately tiresome, because each character has to be directed individually each turn. It's rather like Civilization in that regard, except Sid Meier's series allowed point-to-point automated movement… and is fun.

There are a lot of missteps here, and it's a good example of a game that should have stayed on mobile. Gameplay mechanics themselves are obviously designed to drone on and on, à la crafting in Dead Space 3, to compel players to drop more money. With that option removed, it's just a long, uphill grind with bad graphics, boring gameplay, annoying sound effects, and a clunky UI.