Though Baldur’s Gate 3 is on another level, there is a long history of solid Dungeons & Dragons video games. This year has been relatively quiet for new video game adaptations of the popular TTRPG, but we won’t round out 2025 without anything new. Gameloft’s rumored cozy Dungeons & Dragons game may not have a release date, but another upcoming D&D release certainly does. The virtual board game experience Demeo x Dungeons & Dragons: Battlemarked is almost here, and players will be able to check it out early during Steam Next Fest. I got a chance to play through the demo ahead of its release to offer up some first impressions on this latest virtual tabletop gaming experience.
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Demeo is a virtual reality RPG from Resolution Games. Released in 2021, this VR game was later ported to PS5 and Steam. It offers an immersive multiplayer virtual tabletop experience, using a card-based mechanic to help streamline the flow of turns. And now, Resolution Games has teamed up with Wizards of the Coast to offer a brand-new virtual RPG experience using the Dungeons & Dragons IP. Demeo x Dungeons & Dragons: Battlemarked will release on November 20th, but the Steam Next Fest demo for PC players goes live on October 13th. I played through the demo’s two scenarios to get a taste for this virtual board game, and it’s honestly the best VTT experience I’ve ever had. Plus, the game is your DM, so everyone can play a character.
A Generous Demo of a Beautifully Rendered DM-Free Virtual Tabletop Experience
Battlemarked isn’t quite a virtual tabletop, since you’re not loading in your own tabletop campaign. But it certainly has the feel of one, crafting a virtual board game environment that pays homage to the experience of setting up an in-game experience IRL. You play with beautifully rendered 3D minis of each pre-set character, exploring a map that looks like the best-made D&D stage from an actual play stream. And unlike D&D‘s Sigil VTT, the maps come pre-built, no DM design required.
Demeo x D&D: Battlemarked is fully animated, with voice acting for player characters and enemies. So as you move your mini around the board and engage with the environment, it comes to life. Area of effect spells have animated auras of poison or fire, while foes hidden behind closed doors are invisible until your character has true line of sight. In this way, playing Battlemarked is an immersive experience that beats any VTT-style game I’ve ever played. Rolling the giant dice through the gameplay area is just plain fun, and the fog of war adds immersion to your dungeon crawls.
One of the best things about Battlemarked, compared to running D&D in a traditional VTT format, is that the game DMs for you. Everyone can be a player character as the demo takes you through the two scenarios. The first one on offer will be pretty short for anyone familiar with this style of game, but the dungeon crawl will really test your skills. Combined, these two scenarios offer a good sampling of what the final product will likely have on offer. You get to see some of what the storytelling is like with our narrator and characters, along with an old-fashioned dungeon full of treasure chests, rats, and hidden foes.
In all, I’d say there’s just under an hour of play time in the demo, including the mandatory tutorial. I felt like I came away from it with a good sense of what the final product would have to offer from testing out four different characters and exploring two different maps. It can be played solo, with the option to control all four party members yourself, or in multiplayer with up to four friends. That said, the game certainly seems like it’d be most fun with a group, even if solo play is well-balanced and engaging.
Battlemarked Won’t Teach You to Play D&D, But It’s Still a Good Time
As someone who has played a lot of D&D, but never the original Demeo, the action economy definitely took me by surprise. Because the game feels so much like a tabletop game, you expect it to follow the general rules of D&D. However, it doesn’t. The card-based mechanics and damage die are much more in line with the Demeo playstyle, so your characters will take far more actions than you could ever fit in a typical D&D round of combat. It’s easy to pick up, but it’s definitely different compared to what I expected.
This isn’t necessarily a flaw, unless you were hoping to use Battlemarked to teach your friends to play D&D. It definitely took me by surprise and had a bit of a learning curve, as I kept thinking my characters should be done after one move and one action. However, you base your turn around the number of points each card costs, instead. In that way, it’s more board game with D&D flavor than a virtual tabletop, for sure.
You’ll see familiar D&D classes, locations, and lore, but altogether playing Battlemarked didn’t really feel like playing D&D. It felt like playing another, related tabletop game in a beautifully rendered 3D space. For all that, I could definitely see the game being a ton of fun to play with a group of friends in lieu of a D&D session when our DM doesn’t have time to prep.
If you’ve been curious about Battlemarked, the Steam Next Fest demo should definitely give you a good sense of what the game is like. It covers the basics, from 4 of the 6 available characters to various aspects of combat, exploration, and dice rolls. The demo will be available from October 13th through October 20th during Steam Next Fest, and is only available for PC. At launch, Demeo x Dungeons & Dragons: Battlemarked will be available on PC, PS5, and Meta Quest.
Will you be checking out Demeo x Dungeons & Dragons: Battlemarked during Steam Next Fest? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!
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Image courtesy of Focus Features.
