Resolution Games has announced a release date for their upcoming digital boardgame crossover, Demeo x Dungeons & Dragons: Battlemarked. The game will be launching across PC, PS5, PSVR 2 and Meta Quest 2 & 3 on 20th November, with a demo arriving in time for Steam Next Fest on 13th October.
While it’s a contender for one of the most word salad-y game names of the year, Demeo x Dungeons & Dragons: Battlemarked – DxD&D:B for short – is an exciting combination of the digital tabletop adventuring of Demeo and the themes and familiar setting of Dungeons & Dragons. injecting more narrative and things to do between quests. That said, the main focus is really on combat and not the broader adventuring of either video game or tabletop D&D.
The gameplay trailer showcases some of these, so characters now have skill tree upgrades to work through, you can visit a tavern and grab side quests, and of course the dice system has become D20-based (albeit with simplified icons so you don’t have to cross reference numbers)
Available from 13th to 20th October, the demo will provide players with two quests from the game’s first campaign, and let you explore some of the bespoke characters and their classes. You’ve got the dragonborn paladin, Bolthrax; the halfling sorcerer, Tibby; the human ranger Jessix; and the tiefling rogue, Ash. Two more characters – the dwarven fighter Tharok and elf bard Lyria – will be available in the full game.
The demo, just as with the full game, will be playable solo or with up to four players, taking on a goblin ambush in Neverwinter Wood and then explore a Myconid colony where the typically-serene fungi have become suspiciously hostile.
Playing the demo and defeating both quests will reward players of the full game with two special skins for the Battlemarked 20-sided dice.
Looking back on the original Demeo, it was one of my favourite games from the PSVR 2 launch, and I said, “Demeo is a fun and accessible digital board game, evoking games like HeroQuest with its turn-based dungeon-crawling. In VR it’s a pleasingly tactile experience that’s great to share with co-op friends, but if you need or prefer to play on a TV screen? Well that’s still good too.”
Source: press release
