Demetrios is a solid point and click title from Cowcat. It is point and click and dialogue-driven, even to a fault at some points, but the difficulty will be enough to offer up a challenge to those who love the genre. Demetrios certainly isn’t perfect, much like its main character, but it is intriguing enough to warrant a go.
I feel like I’ve been torturing myself this week with point and click games. When I say ‘torturing’, I mean giving myself a good challenge, not actually hating the experience. My first game I have been tackling this week, which is still in progress, is Full-Throttle Remastered for iOS. It was and has been as difficult as I remember it being from the 90s. With lots of puzzles to figure out and things to find and uncover, it has been a doozy.
The second point and click title that has been keeping me occupied in between other game and movie reviews is Demetrios. A one-man development crew named Cowcat put together this title that is set in France. While not as challenging as Full-Throttle Remastered, it still brings about plenty of good mystery and chin scratching to keep one occupied.
Official Synopsis
Demetrios is a quirky point and click adventure game inspired by classics like Broken Sword, packed with tons of humor!
Bjorn Thonen, a slob of an antique dealer living in Paris, is robbed one night after coming home drunk. Forced to conduct his own investigation with the help of his neighbor Sandra, he ends up involved in a murky, mysterious affair.
Will these unlikely heroes be able to rise up and discover ancient secrets?
Demetrios is an interesting title. For point and click genre-loving people it is going to be a difficult challenge that is filled full of tedious moments of mystery and discovery, yet also packed with some decent humor to help make you forget how tough the game can get. In other words, it has some moments to remind you of the genre you’re playing and it doesn’t take it easy on your noggin.
Let’s dig right into it.
The main crux of the gameplay is searching rooms and items to move our main character, Bjorn, to the next step of his mystery. The game allows for two types of gameplay modes (both user-driven), which include sitting back and actually thinking through some of the puzzles you’re piecing together from what Bjorn knows of his current situation or by simply clicking on everything in the room until you find something of interest progress the story.
Now, dear folks, how you choose to play this game and how much excitement you want to garnish from it depends solely on how you treat solving the mystery. If you simply click the hell out of everything in Bjorn’s adventure, then you’re going to spend gobs of tedious time just searching for that next bit that leads to more dialogue. It’s like if you played Skyrim on invincible mode, then eventually you’re going to get bored of it. I know that’s tough to believe, but it can happen. Anyway, I know a few reviewers have dinged this game for that issue, and I get it, but it’s unfair for a reviewer to knock a game for going through it in a lazy manner. This type of gameplay is a lazy way to play Demetrios, but I do realize it is a planned option, so I can’t really ding reviewers for that either (full circle).
If you decide to go the cerebral route, then you’re going to get quite the challenge. As you progress in the game in hopes of solving Bjorn’s robbery, he gives up clues to what he’s trying to search for and where it might be during his text-driven dialogue. For example, if he is looking for his wallet and keys, then where do you expect to find them? Coat? Pants? By the door? The hints are verbally given in the game, but the user must actually think through the clues instead of go hog-wild and click on everything on the screen. Yes, it’s tough. Yes, it’s a challenge, but that’s the very nature of point and click games. Need proof? Go play Full-Throttle Remastered, Day of the Tentacle or Grim Fandango Remastered. That trio of games is tough as hell and I challenge anyone to avoid looking at walkthroughs and trying to get through them on their own. It’s tough folks, but that’s the point of the genre, as is the point of Demetrios.
Having said all of this rant, do prepare yourself, as well as your eyes, to read-read-read and do more reading. There is quite a bit of dialogue to go through and sometimes it’s like reading a bad novel. Well, a purposely bad novel, but a bad one nonetheless. Now, in defense of Cowcat, though, I suspect it’s cheaper for an indie to type out the dialogue than it is to hire voice actors, who have a union and policies to follow. There’s a strong possibility that the humor may not be delivered as good as it would have been spoken. Some of the dialogue works well, while some of it misses the mark, though, so expect it. Regardless of the amount of text or how it is delivered, please do keep in mind that it’s very old school point and click, because you know there was a time that the Secret of Monkey Island didn’t have voice acting on it. That doesn’t make Demetrios’ text any less tiring to the eyes, though.
As for the characters and the dialogue choices, I thought that was well done for the game. Bjorn speaks to certain folks, like his neighbor, to get bits of information out of them about the night someone robbed him, as well as some other things, such as returning a cook book. The dialogue is simple and the interactions are fun, and the choices are easy, though they can be a little on the dry side of the humor well. One aspect of the dialogue I do appreciate is the ability to push some characters too far and eventually getting an end game screen unexpectedly from the main plot. For example, early on the game you’ll find yourself at a police station reporting the robbery that occurred at Bjorn’s home. There is something that Bjorn can do to set off the police into giving him several warnings, which will eventually, if you keep pushing the police, find Bjorn in jail. It’s kind of neat that there are spots of moments in the game that will get you into hot water unexpectedly and not just placeholders of humor that simply repeat over and over again when pressed. Side note: Feel free to pee on the tree in the police station. That ends well.
Anyway, the game is a bit slow going because of the amount of dialogue, but it is also driven by nice shrouds of mystery that will be brain teasers for those willing to go the distance with it in the proper gameplay manner it was built on. While not all the humor in the game works, it does match the presentation style and the main character, who is a total slob, quite perfectly. Don’t discount this game, folks, as it does have some life in it and it does offer up a healthy challenge, again, for those willing to take the hard route instead of the tediously easy one.
