Horror games nowadays just aren't scary. It's either that or I am just so desensitized from my constant Friday The 13th marathons that it takes a whole lot to frighten me. Sure we have our Resident Evils and our Silent Hills, but horror games nowadays are just like today's horror movies, full of cheap thrills. So what can game developers do to raise the bar and frighten the living hell out of gamers? How about having one of the horror's most talented writer/directors, Clive Barker, write a game for you?

In Barker's Demonik, you play as Volwrath, a Demonik who has been summoned to wreak hell upon the enemies of the one who did the summoning. To truly understand Volwrath's rage, imagine yourself as a cross between a goat and a Predator then tell me you wouldn't want to run to the nearest living thing and kill it. That's Volly in a nutshell.

As Volwrath you will be armed with a nice library of abilities, ranging from lightning strikes to plague infliction. His two main abilities are the Demon Hand; a Star Wars Force Choke meets a Psi-Ops Telekinesis Grab, and Possession, self explanatory. The Demon Hand works the Next-Gen physics beautifully as anything and everything in game can be manipulated. Feel like throwing around crates and barrels? Go ahead. Want to drop someone in some acid, be my guest. The power you may end up having the most fun with, and use the most, will be Possession.

Demonik's Possession engine reminds me a lot of the PC title Messiah. In Messiah you played as a little cherub who could take over bodies. Demonik offers up similar possession goodness. You can either beat around as Volwrath the ugly demon, or take over any NPC in the area. The cool thing about this is that you can take over say security guards and as said guard attack any threats in the area. Now if you do this around some "civilian" NPC, you can hop into a said character and watch the guards mow each other down.

Throughout the course of the game, you'll get to upgrade all eight of Volwrath's powers. It's not certain if all eight will be available right off the bat or if you will have to earn them. Either way, each power will have three upgrade levels and you will be able to upgrade any power you want.

Demonik looks to be promising with a neat little development twist. As Clive Barker helps to develop the game, he is simultaneously preparing a feature film for 2006 and a joint video game / movie release.

It is still very early to get a huge jones over Next-Gen games due to the fact that a lot of the footage is no where near complete, our hopes can only soar with the fact that this game, and other Next-Gen games, will turn out to be exactly what we all dream.