Dementium: The Ward

In Dementium: The Ward, the player takes the role of William, a man with amnesia, and has to venture through a hospital's rooms and hallways in order to find the exit and escape the establishment. The game uses a first-person view. In order to advance in the game, the player has to resolve puzzles and defeat monsters. At the beginning, William only has access to a nightstick that he can use to defend himself against enemies in addition to a flashlight. As the game progresses, he finds more weapons, such as a revolver.[7] The console's touch screen is used to move the character's vision, to change weapons and to interact with some nearby elements. It also displays the health bar and can show a map or the player's inventory.[8]

Dementium tells the tale of a man, William Redmoor, who has an operation on his brain. The Doctor realized that the mind of William is in danger, so he made nightmare dreams where William must fight back to the end and get out of his dreams. As the Doctor calls it, this is the first phase. Throughout the game, the constant mention of a man who murdered his wife and daughter is brought up. It was believed by the staff that William was the murderer. A news report towards the end of the game says that a man was found standing over the dead body of his wife with a gun in his hand. After a brief struggle police shot and wounded the man. His daughter was found alive.

Dementium and Dementium Remastered received "mixed or average reviews" according to the review aggregation website Metacritic.[9][10]

Craig Harris of IGN said that the visuals were "outstanding: the lighting effects and texture work in Dementium: The Ward are pretty special when you consider the Nintendo DS' capabilities." He also noted "the flashlight effect might not match what other developers have done on more powerful systems" but "it's a believable technique that's pulled off better than anything seen on same-level hardware."[7] Pete Sellers of Deeko was more positive, commenting on the DS version's many pros and few cons in a parody of The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe: "Visually, Dementium's divine and every facet is designed / To create a sense of ambience that offers frights galore. ... / If you've the guts to enduring gaming in which you do lots of playing / All the while softly praying, preying on some churlish horde, / Go out and buy this game now quickly! Preying on churlish horde / Within Dementium: The Ward!"[30] The DS version was criticized most prominently for its short length and lack of replayability; but also for its save system, and that most of the in-game enemies respawn on revisit, leaving a player short on items and ammunition and discouraging exploration.

In Japan, where the DS version was ported and published by Interchannel-Holon on June 26, 2008, Famitsu gave it a score of two eights, one six, and one eight, for a total of 30 out of 40.[15] On September 22, 2008, the Japanese Association of Psychiatric Hospitals published a protest against the DS version,[31] asking it to be taken off the shelves because "the game uses the tradition of psychiatry in name but uses imagery of attacking patients".[32]

The DS version sold more than 100,000 copies worldwide.[33]

Prior to E3 2009, Renegade Kid released a teaser trailer announcing the development of Dementium II for the Nintendo DS. The game was released on May 4, 2010.

After finally gaining publishing rights to the series in September 2014,[1] Renegade Kid announced a third installment in development and to be released after re-releasing the first two games on the Nintendo 3DS.[6]

• Renegade Kid website
• Dementium: The Ward at MobyGames