What you need to know
- Demeo Battles is a totally separate game that doesn't require the original Demeo and launches later this year for $20 on Steam and Meta Quest.
- This new PvP game encourages team-based cooperation to fight against human-controlled units.
- Demeo Battles retains the tabletop mini-figure style of the original game and lets players control hero and monster units together.
Demeo, the popular dungeon-crawling card-deck-juggling D&D-like game is officially getting a spin-off called Demeo Battles. Launching later this year for $20 on Steam and Quest, Demeo Battles answers the question "what would happen if turn-based tactics could be a team-based sport?"
That question makes a lot of sense given that developer Resolution Games also develops games like Ultimechs and Blaston, two games that have sizable eSports followings. Demeo Battles takes the same tactics-based gameplay from Demeo and flips the script by allowing players to use both monsters and heroes to battle other human opponents. This time, it's 1v1 or 2v2 instead of players just cooperating.
Like Demeo, Demeo Battles can be played in VR on Quest or PC, or on a flat screen via Steam on the PC. VR and non-VR players can also play together, giving players true choice in play style.
When I asked Resolution Games why they decided to create an entirely new game instead of just making Battles a Demeo DLC pack, they had a great answer. Instead of requiring players to buy Demeo and then a Battles DLC, players can choose to buy one or the other instead of potentially splitting the player base. That makes a lot of sense, especially if Resolution Games is going for the eSport angle.
At the start of each match, players will choose a champion unit, special action cards, and a small army of monsters to accompany them. Players will control their champion unit and use cards for special attacks just like in Demeo, while monsters they have chosen will fight alongside them and are computer-controlled.
As the round progresses, The Burn will grow larger and push players inward toward the center of the map. There will always be four champions on the board when a match starts but, since this is a 1v1 or 2v2 game, players might find themselves controlling more than one champion at a time. As you might expect, you'll be visiting many of the same environments as in Demeo, just with a very different, PvP-centric board layout.
Wishlist the game today and check out all the other Meta Quest Showcase announcements for more VR games!
