Platform: Nintendo DS
ERSB: M (for Mature)
Genre: Survival Horror/FPS
Number of Players: 1
Publisher: Gamecock Media Group
Release Date: 10/31/2007
Official Website: Dementium
Writer: Cherith

Rating : 8.5

Dementium: The Ward is the story of a man who wakes up in a hospital. It’s difficult to tell what kind of hospital, but it’s obvious as soon as you step out of your room that something is seriously wrong here now.

As a long time fan of the Survival Horror game genre, Dementium: The Ward, was right up my alley, in theory. It’s clever enough to use all the aspects of the DS to make the game more engaging than your typical FPS or horror game. The game definitely lives up to both of its genre parents, and right from the beginning you’re caught up in the story line.

Graphics:
I was much impressed by the quality of the game on the DS. In a world where most portable games are saturated by sprite type characters and pixilated backgrounds, it was nice to find a game with realistic and quality visuals.

Controls:
As I mentioned before, Dementium engages the player by using multiple aspects of DS gameplay. You can quickly click with the stylus through weapons or other useable objects (like the very handy flashlight), write on a notepad similar to the one found in Hotel Dusk:Room 215, and keep a eye on everything around you by sweeping the stylus around the screen as you keep moving forward with the Control Pad.

Sound: Learning from its Survival Horror genre-mates, Dementium makes good use of sound. It’s important to listen when walking through what seems like an abandoned hallway – that may be the only thing that keeps the waiting zombie from catching you by surprise. I think the sound is also a notch above traditional DS games (with the probable exception of most rhythm games) because sound plays such a big part in these types of games. It’s very recommended (if you like this sort of thing) to play the game with headphones on to enhance the quality of the sound, and the gameplay.

Flow:
Dementium starts out strong and keeps up the speed until the end. It’s easy to figure out where to go next, or how to get there, but not so easy that it’s mundane. You still have to think about the staircases, or long hallways as you move through the hospital. What I especially loved was the ability to stop and save the game wherever I wanted. Walk into a room – save. Enter the staircase – save. This means that I can pick up the game and play just a bit while waiting in line somewhere and quickly save without worrying about losing anything. More games (especially for portable systems) should have this kind of saving mechanism.

Fun Factor:
If you like survival horror games, this should be a fun ride for you. Because it’s on the DS, it doesn’t really ‘feel’ like a FPS game. I would love to give this game a spin on a bigger system though. I think there’s a lot of world and puzzle expansion available on an actual console system that’s lost on a portable one.

Is there a female playable character?
No. But, your main character isn’t a talkative goof like a lot of lead in FPS games. This means, the main character feels more like me (the player) and lends a lot to the horror play style of the game.

Replay Value:
As I mentioned above, I’d really love to see this on a console system. I’m not sure I’ll continue playing through the game, since there’s not really an incentive to do so. However, it’s a great game for when I want a bit of horror, or a bit of a shooter, when I’m not home, or don’t feel like firing up the computer or a console. I feel that a console or PC version would add to the replayability though, especially if you could save multiple versions of the game (like at the beginning of chapters).

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