Demesne

Demesne
N/A
Metacritic
42
Steam
24.75
xDR
Our rating is calculated based on the reviews and popularity of the game.
Price
$17.99
Release date
11 March 2016
Publishers
Steam reviews score
Total
42 (49 votes)

The main objective of the game is to survive in the taiga.

Show detailed description

Demesne system requirements

Minimum:

  • OS: Windows 7 64-Bit, Windows 8.1 64-Bit, Windows 10 64-Bit
  • Processor: 2 GHz Dual-Core 64-bit CPU
  • Memory: 4 GB RAM
  • Graphics: GTX 760
  • DirectX: Version 11
  • Storage: 4 GB available space
  • Sound Card: DirectX Compatible

Recommended:

Recommended requirements are not yet specified.
Updated
App type
Steam APP ID
333100
Platforms
Windows PC
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Reviews
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CougarBite
CougarBite

After 2 hours of play not been able to find a single piece of interactive game play.
Large open world, looks pretty enough some minor optimisation problems but VERY GOOD for early access. Well that's the good parts done.
So 2 hours in not a single herb found, content, animal, crafting items, or anything.

How can anyone recommend a game that lacks a game?
If you like the idea of the game Id recommend you just hit follow and wait for updates.
IF there is content then I don't feel bad for not finding it you're in early access please just wall of all the empty spaces so people can "experience" your game, if there is any game here?

https://youtu.be/-VWYti5t-uA

The Hunter
The Hunter

i would buy the game but wait for updates because there is nothing to do or interact with in the game its just a open world of nothing

Ryder
Ryder

[Note: Other reviewers are wrong. See additions below on interacting and inventory. Clothing and food in game.]

UPDATE. Following the update in the middle of March, there are a few more items to find... but I find that the game is buggier in general, and wants to crash. Often. It does try to respawn you between sessions where you left off (or crashed), but it spawns you beneath the surface of the ground... so you end up swimming under the surface until dead most times. Respawing should happen at least a 0.5 meters higher, so the player drops safely to the surface.]

This is a great start to a game with a great and surprisingly new idea.

New?

Yes, new. Realistic survival. As you survey games you find plenty of survival games... but include hordes of zombies, predator animals, or freaking dinodsaurs. Really?

That's not realistic.

People alone in nature rarely succumb to animals. Animals AVOID people. We hunt THEM. We chase THEM.

What kills us is exposure, dehydration, or starvation.

[Edit: bad issue.... if you get trapped... which is easy since jumping ability is very limited, your game will not reset when you quit (it reloads), and you can't commit suicide (devs... need a button!). You're going to be stuck there for a long time. ]

I'd LIKE to give this beautiful "tech demo" a thumbs up, but I can't.

Why? The dishonesty of the description... of the "game", and how it varies from their description of Early Access.

"... Understand that the Early Access release of this game is a representation of the core build of the game and contains the basic mechanics and gameplay elements..."

There simply are no gameplay elements, save one. You die. You may starve or drown, or fall from a high place, and yeah, you die.

Then I have to object to the continuing description:
"You must now fight for your survival by any means necessary. You must forage and hunt for food as well as protect yourself from wild animals and possibly other people trapped inside with you. You must find shelter to survive the unforgiving nights. As you do so, you will very likely encroach on the demesne claimed by someone other than you. The animals of the wild have laid claim to this forgotten land. This is now their demesne. You’re in their world, now… "

Here they are talking about foraging and hunting and animals... no such things actually seem to exist... yet they talk about it as if it exists NOW. [edit: I found two cans of food]

If they simply change their description so that it reads "Demesne will eventually have (...) and "Demense will be built around the premise of (...), then that would be honest.

Techninically, it is NOT just a nature walk, as other reviews describe. Within 5 minutes I found a defensible encampment... but it appears there is nothing about it to defend, nor is there anything to defend against. Then I found a walkway to a second pair of cabins. In it were a hat, a shirt, and two cans of food on a stove (non functional) There is an inventory interface (i key) but nothing in it, There is also a ladder, but no way to climb it that I could discover.

Edit: Interacting with objects! With the hat, shirt, and food cans, if you approach them with your inventory interface open, with the objects name displayed, press the E key to move the item into inventory. You can then drag and drop the clothing items onto the docking ports to the left of the character representation, and you will be wearing the clothing. consume the food by double clicking on the can in inventory.]

So apart from the sparce encampment, it does SEEM to be just nature... though perhaps there is something more to find that I missed.

Earlier versions of this "game" (november 2015) apparently had far more structures, even a weapon and many signs of human life. Why is it missing all of these things now? I get the feeling the Dev(s) did a sort of "reboot..." and are now further back in development than they were some months ago.

This is being released TOO EARLY... BUT, given that I found encampments, a TINY bit of food, and a little clothing (and a cumbersome but functioning inventory, the reviewers that said that this is nothign but a nature walk are not exctly correct. It is more than a nature walk, but only by an miniscule amount.

Get a game in here, Devs. Not a tech demo.

MGScott
MGScott

It did not take me long in the game to realize i really was alone in the forrest. I went on youtube and found a couple of videos of this game watched them and saw birds and even some loot from some buildings. So I thought I would give it a shot even after the mix reviews. I did find a building on top of a hill and it had a fence around it and well that to was empty. I remembered seeing a waterfall then some other buildings well I found the water fall but never found the buildings. So after walking and walking and seeing no birds no animals nothing my hunger went to 0 and started to lose health, I ended up just jumping off a cliff and start all over. Again I just walked around seeing nothing but weeds. This game looks good and sounds pretty good but thats it. There is nothing to do in the forrest, even though the description of the game says hunting, crafting, and survive well there is none of that. It is very misleading at this point, im not looking for a perfect game it is EA but what is a disapointment is in the description they say hunting, crafting, and there is not any of that. If you want to walk around a empty forrest and look at flowers and then just die and repeat then this game is for you. If you are looking for a open world survival with crafting, hunting, building well this is not what you are looking for. This game will sit in my library and wait for updates, but for now its going to sit in my library as a disapointment.

TheDude47 (  °  ) (  °  )
TheDude47 ( °…

The new version is pretty good, only the framerate needs polish, i get real low fps some times on a GTX 970 and Core i7 6700, 16gb of ram.

Will keep this review updates as i play more the new version and patch's are released, game is now made under Unity Engine, no more UE4.

Foxius1
Foxius1

Why would you e/a a game that just isn't there, it is just a walking sim at the moment. If the devs deliver what is promised then it will be a truly fantastic game.

Daan
Daan

I think the idea for this game is really awesome, im really curious as to what will will happen with the development.
We have seen games like stranded deep try to achive the same thing. I thought the survival aspect could go a little deeper, it's more like a swimming game in which you battle sharks which is really realistic :P.
I hope to see not only shelter in this game but maybe also the possibility to upgrade or fortify the places you choose to live. Like a realistic building system, not building whole castles on you'r own. But upgrades for instance; you find a shack but the roof i leaking or partially destroyed. In a real situation you'd be trying to fix that with branches or some tarp you find.A cave which will need some kinda door or cover with branches to keep in the heat from the fire inside. I'd love to see things like that and am convinced i will make this kind of game far more immersive.
I like the idea's for not trying to let this develop in a 'kill on sight game' im not sure though it's really realistic that wildlife will be atracted by gunshots, in real life it will be quite the opposite wont it? But the punnisment it will give for shooting at unarmed people i can only applaud. Ideas like these will hopefully lead to cooperation or evasion if you dont seem to trust the situation. Random killing is just to easy and there are enough games in which that is the core gameplay therefore i like creative ideas like thease as countermeasures.
For now there is not much to do in the game but on the highest graphic settings im really impressed with how the world looks even though it's such an early build it looks really lush. So in terms of playability right now it's kind of a walking simulator.But i am really excited about the possibilities.For now im just stuck on a log (in game)waiting to die because there is no new game option and i can't get free from it.

Valentino
Valentino

At this moment is not possible to interact with game elements. You only walk around. Hope the devs will add some interaction and gameplay content soon. Because of that, I would not recommend this game. Let´s give some time and see what happens further.

Zaxtor99® TTV
Zaxtor99® TTV

There's nothing here. A empty world and NOTHING AT ALL TO DO. ..Nothing.

All this shows is that the developers for this game are nothing but blatant LIARS.

If you read the about game information, you read "You must now fight for your survival by any means necessary. You must forage and hunt for food as well as protect yourself from wild animals and possibly other people trapped inside with you. You must find shelter to survive the unforgiving nights. As you do so, you will very likely encroach on the demesne claimed by someone other than you. The animals of the wild have laid claim to this forgotten land. This is now their demesne. You’re in their world, now… "

None of that is in the game even in the least bit, and while I understand that this game is in early access, I firmly believe that I game should be more then 5% complete before the developers start asking for money for something like this. THIS GAME SHOULD BE ON KICKSTARTER, NOT TRYING TO PULL IN MONEY FOR AN EMPTY WORLD WITH NOTHING TO DO.

Not only that, but the lies given by the developers are already full force. I've been banned from the forums, and the developers are happy to delete threads and questions that they don't like, and are quick to ban anyone they see as raising points against them releasing this game is a far-too-early state to be asking for money here on Steam.

One big lie the developers gave is when people pointed out that the preview video made it look like your avatar must be a 12" tall midget because the grass is taller then the camera view through most of the video. ..The developers responded to this concern by stating "Oh, that's because the video was shot in a crouched position to show the detail of the flowers and grass, etc" THIS IS A FLAGRANT AND BOLD FACED LIE AND THEY KNOW IT. Rather then moving the camera perspective up a little in their Unreal engine settings (which would likely take all of 20 seconds to fix), they deny this perspective concern and act like their game and camera perspective is "perfect". {sigh}

These developers have also shown very poor public relations, are are quick to call their customers things like "lazy", "idiots", and other insulting terms. They blame it on their bad english, but this is yet another bold faced lie. Regardless of someones proficiency in a language, if you know it well enough to toss insults, that's not just because you don't speak the language well enough.

Do you really want to support a game where all they have made in 3+ years is an empty world with nothing to do and who are so quick to lie and call the very people who support them insulting names? Not to mention, at their current rate of development, it will take these guys about 20 more years to finish even a rough game with anything to do besides walk around. - Which is another lie from them as they state on their store page that the development is "moving very fast".

Value: 0 out of 40
Fun: 0 out of 30
Controls & Bugs: 2 out of 20
Graphics & Sound: 7 out of 10

My Score on this game at their early access launch: 9%
....EPIC FAIL.
Not even close to being ready for a release in which they are asking money for.

And yes, IMO if they are ready to release this game and ask money for it, they are ready for their game to get scored and reviewed.

Not recommended in any way, shape, or form. Burn your money with a match, you'll get more value, fun, and use your cash smarter then buying this empty walking simulator with nothing to do but uninstall it and refund it.

hazily2000
hazily2000

The View Is Pretty Good!

But only "The View"

Really Hard to Play.

Just Walking .... Walking .....

about 80min walking around.

No animal. no Food. Just Walk and Walk.

It is really Hard to Play.

Bishop
Bishop

Needs alot of work but im hopfull

jmcelt
jmcelt

Love the concept it just needs way more content the graphics are nice but some times quite blurry perhaps early optimisation problems. over all if the developers actually develop this game to its full potential i would recomend it to any survival game enthusiasts.

Beanbag37
Beanbag37

I want a refund. This only gets to the title screen and when I click on 'continue' game.exe crashes back to the desktop. I've tried reinstalling but with same issue. When I try to validate the file it fails so I redownload the file and it fails again. It just won't work and I have an MSI gt80 titan, so there's more then enough grunt to run this game. Please fix this devs or give me a refund, this does look good and I want to play it.. very disappointed .

RODE85
RODE85

I don't recommend for now and this is why. There's only 10 items in game that you can craft, animals are scares, I only saw one structure a cabin throughout the whole map that I ran around, no base building, the UI and some of the items in game are from unity store. You start off with a bow, but no arrows, so I ran around finding sticks and rocks off the ground, started crafting arrows, ran, ran and ran, but avoid the swamp, because you will sink to your death. I ended up being killed by a bear (asset) after playing for 15 minutes.

Safka-Jorkke
Safka-Jorkke

Do not buy. No updates in 17-18 months, that time is too long. Even I could make something to update in that time. Hopefully we'll get a developers response, if not this is a dead game and you have been warned.

As of today, June 23 2019 the dev hasn't logged in 800 days, so clearly he's not going to develop this game. Too bad, I liked the non existent content. May this game be announced as abandoned project.