Platform: Xbox 360, PC
Genre: Third-Person Action/Horror
Developer: Terminal Reality Inc./Tiger Hill Games
Publisher: Majesco
ETA: 2006

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From the mind of horror writer extraordinaire Clive Barker is the third-person action-horror game Demonik. You play as a hellspawn released during the time leading up to the end-of-days on Earth. You're definitely an anti-hero in this game, spilling blood all over the place as a monstrous beast of Lucifer. Not surprising due to the story and characters, visually
Demonik seems to have a bit of a Doom 3 resemblance.

One negative the game will definitely have to hurdle is that this is a movie-based title, and we all know how many, many, many of them turn out: a horror to play due to their awfulness.

But this game's development is by Terminal Reality (responsible for the BloodRayne games) and is being overseen by movie director John Woo's new company, Tiger Hill Entertainment. 

Tiger Hill's goal is to try to marry games and movies that take advantage of a singular intellectual property and produce both a stellar movie and accompanying game. And Barker is having a hand's-on approach to not only the movie but the game, writing and directing
it himself instead of leaving it open to interpretation by a development house.

Here's the official game info:

KEY FEATURES:
-Master Horror writer, Clive Barker, to pen Demonik's story

-Wield over 25 deadly powers to maim, kill and wreak havoc, such 

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as: Hellfire: Burn everything in sight and rain down fire from above; The Devil's Hand: Grab and manipulate objects or humans before throwing them where the player sees fit; Plague: Spread disease and leprosy amongst targets. Body parts that fall off may contaminate others or even explode; Swarm: Command swarms of locusts, scarabs and other varied creepy-crawlies and set them against targets; often only bones will remain

-Cheat death by possessing and taking control of any human character encountered
-10 massive levels from around the globe featuring objects to throw, impale upon and wreak havoc with
-Challenge other gamers' mastery of their Demonik powers via Xbox Live death matches
-Demonik models created by world-famous Marvel artist David Finch (X-Men, Avengers)
-Supports HDTV and Dolby 5.1 Surround sound

The heritage of the development team assures that Demonik has a chance of being a hell of a good time. Throw Clive Barker in the mix, and this should be a gore-fest that will make BloodRayne look positively anemic by comparison. But this is a dreaded movie tie-in game, so that should caution us all to take a wait-and-see approach to Demonik.

-Lee Cieniawa
lcieniawa@armchairempire.com

(May 31, 2005)