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 303 reviews); 4.3 of 5 from 221 ratings on the PlayStation Store; Metacritic 72 from 48 critics for the 2007 DS original
Length: about 4 hours
Players: 1
Made by: Atooi (original by Renegade Kid)
Released: 2007

On PlayStation: one of the PlayStation horror games.

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, blood, violence, drug use.

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.

Here's the catch that makes it tense. You can hold the flashlight or a weapon, never both. So you walk into a dark room with the light up, hear something, and have to choose. Nintendo Life's reviewer found the enemies themselves fairly simple, mostly rushing at you, and called the floors a bit samey, which is why the map matters. The newer versions mark the save rooms on it.

It's short. Plan on three or four hours for a first run. On PC you get support up to 4K plus retro 240p and CRT scan-line modes, if you'd like it to look the way it did on a DS screen, and it plays with a controller.

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

Flashlight view down a dark hospital ward of iron beds, with a bloodied body on the tiled floor

Firing a rifle down a mouldy hospital corridor at four worm-like creatures with rings of teeth crawling over bloody tiles

A gaunt, bloody creature with its ribcage torn open walks toward the player on a rainy metal walkway at night

A bloated, stitched boss with a toothed mouth for a head, holding a syringe and a cleaver, in a dark hospital corridor

Shooting a pistol at a bloody, spiked flesh creature in a grimy concrete corridor lined with barred windows

A flashlight lights a bloodied corpse on a gurney in a morgue lined with body drawers

Holding a nightstick on a rain-swept metal walkway beside a brick wall and a chain-link fence at night

Tips

Light up each room before you walk in. Most creatures wait in the dark, and you can't swing or shoot while the flashlight is out.
Save your bullets for the tougher creatures and use the nightstick on the small ones.
Open the map often. The floors look alike, and the map shows where the save rooms are.
Try the retro display mode once if you want to see how it looked on the DS.

Questions

What platforms is Dementium: The Ward on?

PC on Steam, PlayStation 4 and 5, and Nintendo Switch. It began on the Nintendo DS in 2007.

Who made Dementium: The Ward?

Renegade Kid made the original for the DS; Atooi, Jools Watsham's studio, made the remasters.

Is Dementium: The Ward survival horror or a shooter?

Both: it is a first-person shooter set in a monster-filled hospital, usually described as survival horror.

How long is Dementium: The Ward?

About four hours for the main story, by HowLongToBeat's count. Nintendo Life finished it in three or four.

Is Dementium: The Ward the same game as the DS original?

It's the same story and hospital, rebuilt for one screen with modern twin-stick controls instead of the DS stylus. The PC version adds 4K support and retro display modes.