Forgotten Realms: Demon Stone is Atari’s next offering in the popular Dungeons & Dragons Universe. There have been plenty of D&D games in the recent past, like Dungeons and Dragons Heroes and Baldur’s Gate Dark Alliance, but Demon Stone promises to be different, offering a variety of improvements and new features.

The game takes place in the mythical land of Faerun. Long ago two warring demon generals, Ygorl and Sereka, were imprisoned by a powerful wizard. The demon generals remained trapped within magical gem, called a demon stone, for many years, and would have remained there forever if it were not for the unfortunate events that followed. Ygorl used his mind control to call upon and manipulate three unwitting heroes to free him. The trio broke the gem, and the demon lords were freed! Upon their release, the demons continue their ancient war. So powerful are the demons that if their war is allowed to continue, all of Faerun is in danger. Realizing the urgency of what they’d just done, the three heroes set out to recapture them. To do so they must seek out the Wizard who imprisoned them, and find another demon stone. In the meantime, the demons war rages on, and they are amassing dark armies to sweep over all of Faerun!

The game’s storyline is written by none other than R.A. Salvatore, a New York Times best selling D&D author. The game’s developer is Stormfront Studios, developers of the excellent title from EA, The Two Towers. The game will share a lot of similarities to The Two Towers, but mixed into the D&D universe. The combination of R.A. Salvatore’s storytelling and Stormfront’s game development should result in a great experience.

You’ll control the party of three heroes as they seek to capture the escaped demons. Ranek is a warrior, with great strength and powerful melee abilities. Zhai is a rogue, with great stealth and cunning. Illius is a great sorcerer, able to summon powerful spells. Since this is a D&D game you’ll run into all sorts of foes from D&D lore, such as Bugbears, Trolls, Slaads, Yuan-Ti, and many more! You’ll also visit a variety of familiar locations throughout your adventure.

The game is a single player campaign where you can switch control between your three fighters on the fly. This will be very important throughout the game since each character has distinct strengths and weaknesses that come into play not only during combat but also when trying to solve puzzles. For example, you may need to use Ranek’s great strength to punch through walls that stand in your way. Combat will be action packed and intense, and you’ll fight up to 15 enemies on screen at a time! Demon Stone will use a combo system similar to Two Towers, where you hit button combinations at the right time to unleash powerful attacks. Each character will also have super attacks, and you can even perform team super attacks.

The games RPG elements will come into play at the end of a stage where you’re allowed to purchase upgrades. The game will feature an auto-upgrade option for gamers who aren’t familiar with RPGs, but also leaves it open for you to customize however you’d like. Aside from new abilities, you’ll also come across hordes of items and equipment that can be used to further enhance your characters.

The game features some great vocal talents, like Patrick Stewart and Michael Clarke Duncan. The game also promises to provide a cinematic experience, with a large number of beautiful cinematics. The graphic quality and design of the game is beautiful… maybe even breathtaking. Look closer at some of the screenshots to see what I mean! Needless to say, the quality here is very high.

Forgotten Realms: Demon Stone looks like it has a lot to offer. It will be available on the PS2 in September and on the Xbox later in November. From the looks of it, the game is shaping up to be a quality action/RPG that fans of the Forgotten Realms games will love!