Book of Demons - Preview @ TechRaptor

TechRaptor has previewed the upcoming deck-building RPG Book of Demons:

Book of Demons Preview – The Not-Quite Diablo Clone

From the very start, you can see where Book of Demons draws its main inspiration from, and really that’s the entire point. Presented by developers Thing Trunk as “the first installment of…a series of original mid-core titles, inspired by the early golden days of PC gaming”; it is clear from its basic mechanics and look that Book of Demons is meant to evoke that classic Diablo feel (albeit with much more humor and cutesy paper cutouts).

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The card and deck-building system is one of the unique aspects of Book of Demons. Cards are both your skills and your equipment, with only the cards in your card slots (located between your Health and Mana) being active. Loot in the game comes in the form of these cards, and any new cards require the Sage to first identify them before you are able to use them. At first you will only have three open card slots, but you can pay the Sage for additional slots.

You do not actually have any traditional stats like Strength or Endurance to manage. Leveling up in Book of Demons is instead simplified down to choosing whether to add to your Health or Mana pools. I found that adding to the Mana pool was clearly the better choice as both your equipment and spell/skill cards all rely on it. When you use equipment cards need, some Mana is reserved while they are active and will appear as green Mana in the orb. You will only have the blue Mana portion to cast any spell/skill cards, thus having a large Mana pool is a must.

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