Coming out on the pc on December 9th of 2004, Demon Stone gives players a story created by R.A. Salvatore, one of the Forgotten Realms best writers. Putting together a great story, with decent action gameplay, Demon Stone will provide a good experience from start to finish for fans of the action genre, even though that time may be quite short.

The story sets up where two terribly evil beings, Slaad Lord Ygorl and the Githyanki General Sereka, are released from a Demon Stone to wreck havoc on the world. The story is simple enough, if one of the beings kills the other, than the world will be shrouded in chaos as the other one takes over destroying everything. A major character from the Forgotten Realms setting, Khelben Blackstaff, who originally sealed the two monsters into the stone, wants to do the same again, so he enlists the help of Rannek the fighter, Illius the sorcerer, and Zhai the rogue. Throughout the game’s levels, you’ll be able to play as all three of these characters whenever you choose because they’re all on the screen at the same time and all you have to do is push a button to switch between the characters at any time. As you progress through the levels, because of Demon Stone being a Dungeons and Dragons game, you’ll gain levels for each of your characters and with the new levels, you’ll gain new spells, abilities, and new equipment to buff up your characters. Although Demon Stone sticks to some of the rules of Dungeons and Dragons, this game really doesn’t give you a role-playing experience. These extra abilities and spells feel like any other action game the way they’re implemented. As you get farther into the game, your characters become stronger.

As you cover ground across Faerun, you’ll run across some memorable Salvatore characters such as Bruenor of Mithrall Halland Drizzt do’ Urden and in one particular level, you’ll actually be able to play as Drizzt himself, the dual scimitar wielding dark elf. And at some moments and levels during the game, you’ll take on the role of one of your three main characters and use one of their special skills to complete a task in the game. The three different characters are different from each other enough to keep the gameplay interesting till the end. Each one can be fun in their own right and you’ll find yourself never sticking to one. With the unique abilities of each character, you’ll be using the special abilities of each character to take out each of your enemies in different ways.

Graphics are pretty decent. The levels are different and unique from each other as you explore different parts of Faerun. The pacing in the game flows from one level to the next and the game’s action never really slows down. The graphics engine used in Demon Stone is the same engine used in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, with a few updates to the engine that does a decent enough job of presenting the story. The character designs are nice, and as you gain new equipment and skills between the levels, your character’s look will change also. One thing must be said, that Demon Stone is a port from the PS2 and in some respects, this can easily be noticed. Especially with the intro music and screens because if you put your resolution on anything more than 800 X 600, words and illustrations will be blurred.

Sound in the game is nice enough; the musical score helps keep the flow of the game going. As the action keeps going, so does the music. Patrick Stewart lends his voice acting to Khelben Blackstaff which does give the dialogue some depth and he does it extremely well as he has done with other games like recently released Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion.

Because of Demon Stone being a port from a game console such as the PS2, this game plays a lot easier with a gamepad controller rather than a mouse and keyboard. I myself played the first level with the mouse and keyboard, then the next few on a gamepad controller and never went back to the keyboard. Action games like this usually tend to play not only better, but easier on a gamepad controller. So, if you do intend to play this game, make sure you grab a controller with it or just pick it up on the PS2.

In the end, this game can provide anyone with a decent action oriented experience that has a little bit of Dungeons and Dragons with it. Although it’s a really short game, and there’s not a lot of replay value, the game is still pretty good for the time you spent with it. With a good story by none other than R.A. Salvatore himself, Forgotten Realms: Demon Stone can be a fun game for any fan of the action genre. If you’re a fan of the Forgotten Realms setting, this can be a fun game, but if you're looking for a good Dungeons and Dragons game, you might want to look elsewhere.