Developer: Atomic Planet Publisher: Midas Interactive Release: 05/31/06 Genre: FPS
Ugh, this one is a personal embarrassment on my part. Back in 2008 when I began buying European PS2 games I bought Daemon Summoner because it was dirt cheap and the name sounded cool. The first red flag should have been its price: it was $15. Now I love a good deal as much as the next man but something was off here. I was not yet familiar with Midas Interactive, the European Majesco equivalent that publishes budget games, most of them crap. It is hard to think of anything that is not completely terrible in this game. Let this serve as a warning, stay far away, not that anyone has even heard of this obscurity.
Daemon Summoner follows James Farrington, a vampire hunter. After demons murder his son and turn his wife Emily into a vampire he picks up the stake seeking revenge. The story is very stupid, filled with overly dramatic voice acting and poor cutscenes. Considering the rest of the package that should come as no surprise.
I was not completely honest about my reasons for buying Daemon Summoner. I had played Dark Watch a few years prior and loved it. Horror themed first person shooters on console were rare and this looked like more of the same. I was better off replaying that game instead. A large reason the game sucks is its three month development cycle. That is woefully short and it shows. Daemon Summoner has no redeeming qualities whatsoever and is forgotten for a reason.
As far as first impressions go the game starts bad and it only gets progressively worse. The initial chase with Emily leads into the sewers. Here you must navigate a narrow series of passageways to pick up her trail. It’s bad enough there is little room to move but each passage looks identical. The sewers lead to the first instances of combat and give you an idea of what to expect. The hit detection is piss poor; enemies need to be shot in a specific spot to die. But you can hit it fifty times and get different results every time. You begin with a crossbow that has one arrow and needs a five second reload. It is as dumb as it sounds. The next mission you receive a pistol…and promptly told not to use it because of the noise it creates. Hilarious.
The enemy AI is aggressively dumb. Their only tactic is to run head first and slash at your throat. Funnily enough even enemies you behead stay in pursuit. There are only four enemy types: zombies, werewolves, imps, and vampires and they all follow the same script. One would hope the few boss battles would offer some excitement but no, they too bum rush you like an undead linebacker. A giant werewolf chasing you in an asylum should be terrifying. Instead it is downright laughable once you see its animation.
About the only saving grace of Daemon Summoner is that it is mercifully short. At most it will take two hours or so to complete. Most of that time will be spent replaying one of the worst stealth levels I have ever encountered. Nothing makes sense. I have blatantly been in plain sight and not been caught. Meanwhile there were times I was in cover with no enemies around and somehow I was found. And to make matters worse there is no reason for this stupid level; you are running around rooftops and such to avoid killing one lone guard and sneaking on the boat immediately. There is no satisfaction in beating the game, just the realization that you have wasted your time. If the hit detection and weapons worked properly the game would be over in less than an hour.
It should come as no surprise that Daemon Summoner looks like a first generation PS2 game. Textures are flat, ugly, and blurry. The few enemies you encounter suffer from bad modeling, especially the werewolf. There is next to no lighting to help add to the atmosphere which makes the game look even duller. The game even goes so far as to rip off music and sound effects from other games! There is nothing wrong with looking like an early PS2 game but this was 2006, during the system’s twilight years. It is flat out embarrassing.
In Closing
I want my money back. It has been a decade since I bought Daemon Summoner and I’m still bitter. Chances are you have never heard of this game with good reason. Let it remain a footnote in video game history.
