GM Edge

KingDiz is an experienced user of Game Maker; his talents really show through in his updated game – The Demon Within. Based upon earlier incarnations of the “Knight Man” series he created, this game brings a hefty lump of style and fun game play together to give a satisfying romp. Forget this game if you’re on Vista – version 1.01c is non-compatible.

Presentation throughout this extensive game is of the highest standard. A good game has a decent manual that details everything that the game will ask you to do, possibly whetting your appetite for features further into the game. The manual in this case hands all the information you need and teases you with Demonic Powers, in a very pretty and professional package. A tutorial is also included in-game for the lazy. After reading the well-developed opening story, unfortunately presented as just text, the main menu hits you and lays bare the intention of the author – the suspend your disbelief. Furthermore, the HUD, often neglected by game creators, is elegantly obvious to use. Everything is easy to read, rarely getting the way of the action on-screen.

Boy, is there action. Every screen has several enemies, the majority of which take a certain tactic to remove. Some just require a good bashing with your sword, others need you to hang back and nail them with your magic ball. Some swamp you, some charge, some blatantly camp. Every room has a challenge. However, as the game progresses, it becomes abundantly clear that the AI isn’t going to vary a great deal. Does the AI in Pacman change? No – This is partially what makes The Demon Within so addictive! There is permanently an abundance of enemies to blast away, hacking them into pieces (which, by the way, fly across the floor spurting blood) and frying them with your awesome powers. The game never hesitates to challenge you, but ends up with you firmly on top with a grin on your face. Fantastic.

As you’re wandering through this magical and intriguing land, you notice the sheer amount of environmental detail and graphical mastery KingDiz can produce. Boxes exist to smash, bushes to slice up, bits and bobs to break all over the place. In this respect it reminds me of The Elder Scrolls, surely never a bad thing. The graphics work seamlessly throughout, with nothing looking out of place, all maintaining the simple, clear 16-bit era style graphics. I’ve loved retro games because they go back to basics, working on what makes the game fun and a joy to play, The Demon Within is no exception. What is a disappointment, however, is the limited range of animations. Cendah, your little avatar in the gigantic world, has some lovely animation. Your enemies don’t – They simply run towards you and poke you with their swords or what have you. Another limitation is the 4 directions each sprite exhibits. Spriting is hard work but making that extra effort is important for the final effect.

How the game looks is one thing but how it sounds is arguably just as important. The soundtrack doesn’t let you down, with stylish opening tune and largely individual tracks for each area and each chapter. The fact that the music is MIDI is annoying, but the game is already rather large and sacrifices have to be made. I would point out that removing the 1.2 megabyte manual, as lovely as it is, from the game package might be a prudent move to either reduce download size or to add higher quality music. Sounds are very good but not as frequent as I’d like, with noises for attacking, taking damage and so on but not walking – I’d love to hear the crunch of the snow beneath my feet, or the ominous echo as I creep through a dungeon. This would add extra atmosphere to add to the constant surprises and changes in game dynamic as the game progresses.

Some annoying factors include the resolution change and the presence of the standard dialog box. There is no excuse for the latter and the former can be adjusted easily with a box in the corner of the screen that switches between 800×600 full screen and standard windowed mode. The number of checkpoints is surprisingly low, I’d prefer them to be more frequent, but I do understand that a game that has permanent rooms is tricky to create save files for.

Despite a chunky 6.5 megabyte file size, this game is a worthwhile download. The presentation as a whole is magnificent, every room dripping with detail, and the game play is on par with even modern 3D slack-and-hack adventures. The music and sound is of a very high standard, but can be improved further with a few tweaks. Unfortunately, a few minor problems mar the experience that stop The Demon Within achieving top marks.

9/10

Knight Man III: The Demon Within can be found at http://www.kingdiz.se/km3full.zip
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