There is something immediately nostalgic about Demeo x Dungeons and Dragons: Battlemarked. Before you even take your first action, the game quietly signals what it wants to be. The battlefield sits on a detailed tabletop, and if you tilt the camera and look beyond the dungeon walls, you can see the rest of the room around it. There is a couch over on the side and a bookshelf covering one wall, plus someone’s guitar leaning in the corner. It feels like one of your friends cleared some space in their living room for a full miniature setup and invited you over for a game night.
If you have ever played Dungeons and Dragons with painted miniatures spread across a dining room table or rented out a college conference room once a week for a campaign, Battlemarked nails that flavor. It’s available for the PC on the Steam platform, for the PlayStation 5 and also for virtual reality through Meta Quest.
At its core, Battlemarked is a collection of standalone tactical encounters grouped into modules. Each module functions like a compact Dungeons and Dragons campaign. There is usually a mystery, someone withholding the truth, an unseen antagonist manipulating events and, eventually, a climactic confrontation where you set things right. Expect at least one boss battle and countless smaller encounters along the way.
The structure is straightforward in a classic Dungeons and Dragons way. You investigate. You fight. You move on to the next map. But because the battles are wrapped in light role-playing and narrative framing, it feels cohesive rather than disconnected.
On certain maps you can move your miniatures around freely, approaching NPCs to trigger conversations. Some of them offer side quests or clues about hidden threats. Others simply add atmosphere, like a bartender in the first module who offers strange drinks with bizarre temporary effects. These moments are small, but they help sell the illusion that this is more than just a string of fights.
The fully voiced narrator does a solid job of setting scenes and giving personality to NPCs. It is not quite a Baldur’s Gate 3 level performance, but it is close enough to carry the tone and keep things engaging.
Battlemarked does not strictly follow Dungeons and Dragons rules. Instead, it borrows the flavor and streamlines everything for fast, tactical miniatures combat. Each hero generally has two action points per turn, which can be spent on movement, standard attacks or special cards. Most basic attacks are performed by physically moving your miniature into an enemy, reinforcing that tabletop feel.
The real power, however, lies in the cards, as they define your whole strategy. Each card provides something powerful like special abilities, spells or situational effects that separate your party from the enemies. A sorcerer’s fireball card can devastate a clustered group. An oil pot card, which costs zero action points, can coat an area in oil. Follow that up with a fire spell, and the flames will spread across everyone standing in it. You could also use a card to place an acid barrel where the enemies will be charging forward and then have another character detonate it later in the battle.
Those synergies are where Battlemarked shines. Combining abilities across characters to engineer the perfect chain reaction feels deeply satisfying. The combat is at its best when you are thinking several turns ahead, lining up environmental triggers and coordinating abilities.
In practice, ranged characters often feel more powerful. Many maps include environmental hazards that reward distance and positioning. Being able to trigger a fire barrel with an arrow before enemies disperse can swing a fight instantly. Melee heroes can still be effective, but they often feel less flexible in the early phases of combat. My melee fighters often either stood at choke points to keep enemies away from my ranged heroes or went right for bosses, especially if winning the scenario depended on taking a specific enemy out. So, each hero could find a place in the team.
That said, the character selection is somewhat limited, with six heroes available. The fighter and paladin occupy similar roles, with the fighter generally feeling slightly stronger in direct combat. The bard fits the expected archetype but can feel underpowered. Critical failures sometimes turn attempted debuffs into enemy buffs, which is mechanically amusing but tactically painful when you need a bard to debuff or stun enemies. The thief excels at stealth-based backstabs and can contribute with thrown daggers. The ranger stands out thanks to regenerating ranged attacks that return every round. And the sorcerer is arguably overpowered not only because of powerful cards like fireball, but because of the sheer variety of options available. None of that is game-breaking, but some characters clearly have more tactical flexibility than others, which matters in a game that is all about tactics.
The strangest design decision, however, is clearly the loot system. In most Dungeons and Dragons titles, treasure means gear, permanent upgrades or equipment that defines your character’s growth. In Battlemarked, loot almost exclusively means more cards. While this reinforces the importance of the card system, it can feel shallow over time. Cards are powerful, but they are temporary. You might find one that boosts your damage for three turns, but once it’s used, it’s gone unless you find it again in another pile of loot.
There are no permanent swords, enchanted armor pieces or lasting stat boosts discovered in chests, although you do get awarded better weapons at key points in some campaigns. But as far as loot goes, it’s always cards and gold. And that gold? You can only use it in the store to buy more cards. All of that works mechanically, but it lacks the long-term satisfaction of building a character through gear.
Some encounters are also frustrating because they lean heavily into overwhelming numbers. It’s not uncommon to be outnumbered ten to one. While the smart use of cards and synergies can turn the tide, victory can feel dependent on drawing the right combinations of cards at the right time. This is compounded by the fact that there are no difficulty settings, which can make certain battles really frustrating. At times, it evokes the feeling of a middle school dungeon master gleefully throwing too many enemies at the party just to see what happens. You can still win, but it demands careful planning and a bit of luck.
Despite its quirks, Battlemarked is genuinely fun. It captures the tactile joy of miniature combat and wraps it in just enough story to feel like a proper campaign. The card-based system creates meaningful synergies and tactical depth, even if your long-term progression feels thin. You can also play Battlemarked with up to three friends, with each person controlling one of the four player characters. And there is a virtual reality version as well, although I didn’t get to test either of those modes as part of this review. The VR side looks really cool, however, if you have the gear.
For players who love tabletop-inspired combat and the aesthetics of painted miniatures battling across your dining room table, Battlemarked delivers that fantasy beautifully. It may not follow Dungeons and Dragons rules to the letter, and it may occasionally overwhelm you with enemies, but when the oil ignites, the fireball lands and your party survives against impossible odds, it absolutely feels like a legendary game night.