| Demon Island II | |
| by Ross Yancey | |
| iambobsushi’s Review | |
After playing the horribly failed Demon Island, many people avoided the sequel. Heck, most parties can’t make it to the Ice Tower before getting slaughtered by the hordes of Nightmare Imps and Fury Demons. In Demon Island II, however, things have changed on our little island. The lava is gone, making outdoor travel less tedious. The Nightmare Imps have been eliminated, thankfully, and the Fury Demons no longer wander unchecked. There are now more monsters, undead and the like, wandering the island, some powerful, others easily defeated. But there is familiar evil about, someone thought destroyed, still wandering, appearing, killing. It’s another wild party at Valgoth’s place!
First and foremost, this is, in my opinion, on the top ten list for best designed scenarios of all time. There is one bug, the 100 town thing (which is much more evil than Zerivix), which makes the game un-winnable at its climax, but another tiny scenario, can be acquired from the author, contains the ending. That’s about it for design flaws. If there were any others, they had no effect on the game. And it excelled in many areas: There were two ‘movies’ within it, more advanced than Doom Moon II’s, dungeon design was better than good, the Blue Chests provided an intriguing side quest, the monsters were much more balanced than before (though still difficult), and the Arena/Casino/etc. is perhaps the best designed dungeon in the history of BoE. Is spent hours in the chess room trying to get a godlike rating.
Puzzles were a big part of the scenario, and there were a lot. The maze, one of the first dungeons, would be nearly impossible to anyone who hadn’t played DI I. Zerivix’s gem puzzles were perhaps the most challenging I had ever had solved, and while not confusing, took a lot of trial and error to correctly complete. There was also the exorcism you can perform on the King is the most unique usages of a spell I’ve ever seen. Luckily, a hint file was included. While not required, it can save a lot of stress.
While there was a bit of repetitiveness in the plot that was played, the plot as shown in the movies was well thought out and well created. I suppose that key, guardian, key, guardian cycle did get a bit annoying, but the dungeons were so varied, I didn’t really notice. Finally, the ending scenes were, like most good endings, emotionally stirring and fun to play.
On to the cons. and there were a few. In the readme, Yancey said he made this scenario to be a challenge to those that wanted one. This scenario is not meant for parties without considerable experience, and almost ever boss showed this. Without the demon weapons from Doom Moon I, would have had considerable trouble against Zerivix. There was a lot of combat, not as much as Spy’s Quest, but still a lot. Most was difficult, but like Dragon’s Revenge, nothing a strong party couldn’t easily handle. Those that put scenarios like Election at the top of their favorites list will hate this scenario. Those that put Doom Moon II at the top will love it. Also, there were a few spelling and grammar errors, but a few billion less than DI I.
Custom graphics were, next to design, this scenario’s greatest asset. The castle, which is visited many times, contains very well made 3-D graphics. It’s a huge surprise to me that no one else has used them. Maybe if they’d take the time to play the scenario they’d find out about them. >:0 The warped reality was cool, and the Giant Squid was similar to the final monster in DM II, in that you attack multiple monsters making up a whole.
I give Demon Island II a 8, and Minidemon, it’s companion piece (the ending) a .5. So all in all, it gets an 8.5. I highly recommend that if you have a nice strong party, you give this one a try.
— iambobsushi