Demonicon is now more Mass Effect, less Left 4 Dead

Developer Noumena's Demonicon has almost completely changed since the last time we saw the game back in 2010. Now the medieval fantasy action RPG looks to be ditching the multiplayer and Left 4 Dead-esque formula and is embracing story-heavy, Mass Effect-like gameplay. Demonicon takes place in the Dark Eye universe (which is the German equivalent to Dungeons & Dragons). You travel the world as a brother and sister in the cruel and magical world of Adventuria, in which you'll experience the RPG tropes of building up your character, exploring the decrepit landscape, and battling demonic evils.

Demonicon's story makes up a huge part of the experience. As you travel through the world, you'll come across characters that will give you quests (like you would in any other RPG), but with each conversation you engage in, you'll also be making decisions. A Mass Effect-style dialogue wheel allows you to gather information from characters and make decisions on the current situation, which can determine the paths you take, your popularity, and your rewards. Every decision has the potential to have a huge impact on the story.

Outside conversations, you'll battle the world's hideous monstrosities with various weapon types and upgradable magic spells from a third-person perspective. The combat encourages you to build combo attacks by mixing your standard attacks and special abilities to increase your damage. In our demo, the developers showed a battle with a cannibal who had been terrorizing the local populace. After dropping a combination of area-of-effect fire spells, and movement-slowing ice spells, the opponent was defeated, but we still had to choose his fate. You could kill him and avenge many innocent villager's deaths or spare him and risk the wrath of the locals.

Either way you choose has some unforeseen circumstances, which makes each situation all the more interesting to play out. Be sure to check out more on The Dark Eye: Demonicon as we come closer to the game's release on Xbox 360, PS3, and PC this October.

Check out the following slides for additional images and more information.