Dementium: The Ward

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Wake in an abandoned hospital with no memory, and fight your way down.

Platforms: PC, PlayStation, Switch
Stores: Steam
Price: Paid
Rated: Very Positive on Steam (87% of 287 reviews); 4.3 of 5 from 220 ratings on the PlayStation Store; Metacritic 72 for the 2007 DS original
Players: 1
Made by: Atooi (original by Renegade Kid)
Released: 2007

Get it on Steam PlayStation Store (PS4 and PS5)Nintendo eShop

What frightens You wake with no memory in a derelict, blood-smeared hospital at night and fight your way down its dark wards by flashlight against grotesque creatures, with only a nightstick at first, while notes suggest you may be a killer.
Content: gore, violence, blood.

Dementium: The Ward is a first-person survival horror shooter first made by Renegade Kid for the Nintendo DS in 2007 and remastered by Atooi. As William Redmoor, waking with amnesia in a derelict hospital full of creatures, you fight and search your way down floor by floor to find the exit.

About Dementium: The Ward

Dementium: The Ward was the first game by Renegade Kid, released on the Nintendo DS in October 2007 and, according to its makers' history, first pitched as a Silent Hill game for the DS. After the studio closed, Jools Watsham's studio Atooi took over the game and remastered it for Nintendo Switch in 2023, PlayStation 4 and 5 in 2024 and PC on Steam in October 2025.

You play William Redmoor, who wakes in a medical ward with no memory. The hospital is abandoned, blood-smeared and crawling with creatures. Starting with only a flashlight and a nightstick, you make your way down from the seventh floor, finding a revolver and other weapons as you go, solving puzzles and fighting what lives in the wards. Newspaper clippings and staff notes suggest the police think Redmoor murdered his wife, and visions of a little girl and a man in black who calls himself the Doctor follow him.

The fear is the classic kind: dark corridors lit by a single beam, rooms where something waits, and gore. The PC remaster supports up to 4K and offers retro 240p and CRT display modes for those who want it to look as it once did on a small screen.

It suits players who like first-person horror shooters such as Doom 3 and the older Silent Hill games, and anyone curious about one of the DS's best-known horror games.

How to play Dementium: The Ward

Explore the hospital floor by floor in first person, using your flashlight to see.
Fight the creatures with the nightstick at first, then the revolver and other weapons you find.
Read the newspaper clippings and staff notes to piece together who you are.
Solve the puzzles that open the way to the next floor.
Find the exit and escape the hospital.

Screenshots

Firing a rifle down a dark, mouldy hospital corridor at fleshy worm creatures with rings of teeth crawling over blood on the tiles

Holding a nightstick on a rain-swept metal walkway beside a brick wall at night

Tips

Light up each room before you walk in; most creatures wait in the dark.
Save your bullets for the tougher creatures and use the nightstick on the small ones.
Try the retro display mode once if you want to see how it looked on the DS.