The “possessed” video games: between cults, evocations and demon hunters
The “possessed” video games
The world of video games has always been populated by demons. No, we are not talking about new baseless accusations like the ones that are occasionally heard against the gaming world, but about the fact that there are countless video games in which the enemies are demonic beings from hell. On the other hand, the latter represent the incarnation of evil, therefore the perfect enemy to put against the fearless players.As often happens with the most classic themes used in narrative structures, such as good versus evil, with time countless variations are created, which in the long run upset the original concept at the base: you go to some great classics such as the Doom saga, the spectacular Devil May Cry or Diablo, up to two novelties both released in August and with a rather original concept, namely Cult of the Lamb and Soul Hackers 2. These, albeit in a different way, are based on the idea of fighting evil with evil. So here are six video games (we would have liked to list 666, but it would have been an encyclopedic work) that have demons and battles against them as their central theme.
Cult of the Lamb
Devolver Digital new title published by Devolver Digital was released last August 11 and in a week it sold more than one million copies. The reason for this success is partly due to the contrast of the elements present in the title, in fact the best way to describe Cult of the Lamb is "Animal Crossing meets the followers of Satan". In the game we will take on the role of a little lamb who is about to be sacrificed to evil, when a mysterious being called The One Who Waits saves his life in exchange for absolute loyalty. Thus our lamb, completely customizable in his appearance, will be called to build a cult from scratch, making converts and establishing dogmas and rituals.| , convincing our proselytes to work for the cause for three days in a row, or we can follow a sort of ascetic path where we will live in simplicity with the products of the earth. We can even turn our followers into cannibals, or, on the other hand, vegetarians. To the management component is also added a part of roguelike-style combat, to Hades or Returnal to make us understand, where, thanks to the powers provided to our lamb by the dark lord, we will have to fight other cults and subjugate the other evil deities to make ours thrive. Cult of the Lamb is a small indie gem that entertains thanks to beautiful mechanics and a sharp irony, which targets not only the typical systems of religions but of capitalist society in general.Soul Hackers 2
Atlus After the release of the acclaimed Persona 5, the role-playing games of Atlus have begun to leave their niche of fans and have spread more and more, as evidenced by the excellent sales of Shin Megami Tensei 5, last year's Switch game. On August 26, a new spin-off of Shin Megami Tensei's mother saga, called Soul Hackers 2, was released. This RPG maintains the classic turn-based combat system, with the particularity of being able to associate each of the party characters with a demonic creature that will grant special powers. The demons can be faced and convinced to join their team and, going forward, they can even merge with each other to create more powerful ones, a system that we could almost define a sort of Pokémon for adults in which instead of cute little creatures they will go to collecting demons and monsters drawn from different mythologies.The game's strong point is the story, with very mature themes and well-characterized characters, which cleverly mixes occultism and cyberpunk. In fact, the plot sees Aion, an extremely advanced AI, predicting the imminent end of the world due to a war between different factions of Devil Summoner, that is, humans able to create contracts with demonic entities and use their abilities. Aion gives life to two agents, called Ringo and Figue, giving them a sort of artificial human body and different powers, including that of Soul Hacking, so powerful that it can save a human being from death. Thanks to this power, Ringo will have to rescue some Devil Summoners considered fundamental to avoid the end of the world and guide them so that this terrible prediction does not come true. A beginning that actually hides many twists in a unique and fascinating setting.
Doom
Among the most famous destroyers of demons in the videogame world we cannot fail to mention the Doom Slayer, protagonist of the title that has practically made the shooter genre famous. In Doom, hell breaks loose first on Mars and then on Earth, invaded by terrible demonic creatures ready to exterminate all of humanity. The recent saga, composed of Doom (2016) and Doom Eternal (2020), has a very interesting approach to the events of the original game, since it inserts the events in some cosmic events of greater depth, which also involve beings that we could associate with the angels of heaven.The most intriguing thing about the two new Dooms is the fact that the Doom Slayer is seen as the greatest threat to the demonic armies and in both titles we will find several documents and legends about the terror that the demons feel in the face to what appears to be a mere human. Justified terror, in one of the best shooters of recent years in which slaughtering demons from hell has never been so fun.
Devil May Cry
In addition to the legendary Dante's Inferno (1986 ) for Commodore 64, other video games were inspired above all by the first canticle of the Comedy, such as Devil May Cry (2001) and Dante's Inferno della Ea (2011) Another famous saga based on demons and battles against the forces of evil is Devil May Cry, one of the most spectacular action titles ever made. In the game, we follow the deeds of Dante, a half demon who hunts creatures from a dimension that we could compare to hell. Dante's father, Sparda, sealed the demonic world many years ago so that it wouldn't subjugate the human one, but as the games teach us, there will always be someone eager to open the portal and Dante will be there to stop him.The protagonist of the saga, consisting of five games, is able to transform into a demon for a short time in order to increase his power, something common to other characters in the series such as Dante's brother, Vergil, with which our hero will clash several times, and the latter's son, Nero, also with demonic blood. Devil May Cry represents one of the highest points regarding action games, so much so that it has created a separate sub-genre that prefers complex and spectacular maneuvers and is undoubtedly the most "stylish" way to face the demons who came from Hell in a video game .
