DEMENTIUM II is a sequel to DEMENTIUM: THE WARD. It is a survival horror game for the Nintendo DS console, and played from the first-person perspective. In the game the player assumes the role of a patient at a mental hospital, who has been in a coma for five weeks after brain surgery. However, no sooner have you been transported to your cell than strange events begin to occur. The game was classified '15' for containing strong violence and moderate horror.

At '15', the BBFC's Guidelines state that 'violence may be strong but should not dwell on the infliction of pain or injury. The strongest gory images are unlikely to be acceptable', and that 'strong threat and menace are permitted'. Although a significant part of progressing through the game depends on the player finding clues and solving puzzles, there is a frequent requirement to fight and kill enemies in order to survive and move through to the game's conclusion. This results in the violence having a cumulatively strong impact over the duration of the gameplay as the player takes on these enemies with a range of weapons available including a shank (knife), pistol, flame thrower, nail gun and buzz saw. The enemies themselves are fantastical in appearance (for example skeletal figures with open chest cavities), behave in a manner reminiscent of 'zombies' and are not realistically human. Encounters with these figures see bullet impacts, blows with the club or 'cutting up' with the circular saw, containing no strong detail, and although there is some bloodshed in the first moments of such attacks, it is neither realistic nor sustained. These enemies merely disappear to register that they have been killed. In addition, because they vanish from view on being killed, there is also no opportunity to inflict post-mortem damage. Other obstacles that require fighting include larger 'boss' enemies of an equally fantastical nature.

The nature of the enemies faced by the player both reinforces the fantasy elements of the game and contributes a sense of moderate horror which is emphasised by the appearance of the environment in which the game is played: blood-soaked walls and floors around which bodies are strewn. However, the bloody images are lacking in strong realism.

Dementium II

Dementium II