Dementium: The Ward

Aesthetically a very impressive game for its time on the Nintendo DS. But gameplay is always far more important than aesthetics, and Dementium: The Ward aged like milk, especially in the gameplay department.

Pros: Visually stunning for a DS game, nowadays it looks OK. It sounds somewhat scary for a survival horror game. The music and sound design are decent. The storyline ikeeps things interesting by not revealing much initially. There are several difficulty levels, which can help to introduce new people to the game and to give players of the old game a new challenge.

Cons: Combat is an aggravating mess. It takes awhile before you get something better than a standard pistol, and before then you're forced to fight multitudes of Chest Maws (essentially zombies), the most basic enemy type, with a Nightstick. It takes 5+ hits to kill a single one with a Nightstick, and Chest Maws run pretty fast and have giant lightning-fast hitboxes, so it's best to ignore them when possible. There are some areas where you enter a small, narrow room and a Chest Maw or Banshee is right in front of you, so you have 1/10th of a second to react which almost always ends up with you getting hit because the room is so small that you have no space to juke the attack.

Many of the rooms are poorly lit or almost completely dark. Though you pick up the flashlight early in the game, it is useless in combat because your charcter decides not to dual-wield a weapon and the flashlight at the same time. Some of the enemies, like the Molluscas and Banshees, cannot be seen without a flashlight unless they are two feet in front of you, and by that point they are so close that it is impossible to avoid getting hit. Add to that the fact that Banshees can nearly one-shot you, and you can see why no dual-wielding with the flashlight was a terrible combat design choice.

On the hardest difficulty, many of the rooms are littered with health items so there's no real "survival-horror" challenge. However, there are long stretches where you fight Banshees with no ammo or good weapons where it is better to avoid them, and these rooms have no health items. The poor difficulty curve is all over the place. Many of the rooms tend to look the same, which can become very boring. The game takes around 3 hours to finish; for a super short 20 dollar game that is nearly 20 years old, it is a little expensive.

Overall: This was average for a DS game, and the poor combat system made it a mess. With so many old and modern FPS survival horror games nowadays outshining Dementium: The Ward, it baffles me how this game holds such a high average review score on Steam. Overrated garbage. 3/10.

It has its moments, and I can see this being someone’s first horror game, but it gets dull pretty quickly. I liked some of the enemy designs, but that’s pretty much it. Honestly, I didn’t bother finishing it. Partly because I screwed up and missed an optional OP weapon, and partly because I got bored of the identical room and corridor templates filled with annoying flying banshee heads.

Originally a Nintendo DS game released in 2007, this remastered version came out in 2015 and plays pretty good. You can't tell it was meant for the DS.

Super creepy atmosphere, music and enemies. This game will hook you in to see how it ends.
Normal difficulty is perfect, although the last level gets hard as there's less health pickups and no save point before the final boss.
My favorite part is that there's no batteries for your flashlight, it's unlimited, THANK YOU!

The Electric Buzz Saw is OP, use it once you get it and save on ammo!

9/10

Fun and simple little DS horror romp. Only took about 4 hours to beat but not a bad thing. In the last half to last quarter the game did start to feel repetitive. The puzzles aren't too annoying the exploration is pretty good but simple. Combat is simplistic but not bad for a DS game. Dementium 2 is out on Steam now and its definitely a big step up from Dementium the Ward. I'd give Dementium the Ward a 7/10 and recommend on sale.

--> This game runs on Manjaro Linux without proton or wine! <--

I remember this from the DS. The controls were obnoxious and fetid, the movement no better. Using a stylus to control and use items was a nightmare; even worse than the nightmare from the game was. I could barely go anywhere in the game.

This has changed and it takes the PC to do it. Dump the stylus and use the keyboard. The nightmare is over but the game is now more fun than it ever was.

The game now is quite smooth and the controls are so easy to use. The graphics are downright grungy just like the original Doom and it's perfect as it gives it's creepy vibes from the second you start. The jump scares are still there which is very nice. The game's creepiness and dark foreboding imagery is still there. The sounds are crisp and clean and the maze of halls are just welcome to behold.

I highly recommend this release over the DS any time of day. Give yourself some time and check this game out. It truly is a ton of fun.

TO THE DEVS: Let's see a third installment of this game please exclusively for the PC. If not can we see Moon updated to the PC as well? Either would be wonderful. I look forward to Dementium II asap.