RPG on the go?  Sure.  But how does it stack up against PC games ~

Avery Abernethy, 23 January 2018

The Quest is a light RPG which is playable on your phone, tablet or PC. The game has a single person viewpoint and you cannot gain party members or henchmen. This design choice will drive most characters to develop both fighting and magic skills. The graphics are state of the art 1990s and reminded me of Might and Magic 6 which was released back in 1998.

You start out as a first level character with the seemingly impossible mission of finding out what has happened to the Governor of a large province. Of course, the Governor is far away and inaccessible to your starting character. Your character then solves a bunch of quests, kills a bunch of monsters in the wilderness and gains levels which allow you to become more powerful.

The Quest started its life as a tablet PC game. It was adapted into a game playable on smart phones. Even later there was a relatively straight port to the PC. I bought it on sale for $4.99 instead of its going price of $9.99.

The game world has a variety of opponents from various types of humans to traditional sword and sorcery monsters.

Following the conventions of 1990s RPGs, stronger versions of the same opponent are differentiated by having a slightly different color and a different name. Pretty much every opponent in the game has multiple levels distinguished by a different color and name.

The quests are pretty normal. There are a few delivery quests. There are find the item quests. There are kill a monster quests and there are clean out an entire dungeon quests. There was nothing remarkable about the quest structure. Some of the quests, especially the main quest line had extended dialogue that was conveyed through written dialogue.

I restarted the game three times because I’m a perfectionist with RPG games and I also solved every single quest and explored every single hex of the map. A normal person would get 20-25 hours of game time out of this. The game did not crash or fail at any point. The controls and sounds were reasonable. The background music was turned off within a couple of hours, but this is almost always what I do.

For a PC game, The Quest is unremarkable. Might and Magic 6 has a lot more depth, game play, and story line and can be purchased from www.gog.com for $9.99. If this review interests you and you have not played Might and Magic 6, Icewind Dale, Balders Gate, and some of the better Gold Box D&D games I strongly urge you to go play those first. Those games are better and can be purchased DRM free from www.gog.com at the same or a lower price. If you have played all of the “classics” and want to scratch that old-school RPG itch, The Quest is a reasonable buy when it is on sale.

If you have played all of the “classics” and want to scratch that old-school RPG itch, The Quest is a reasonable buy when it is on sale.

However, if you want to play an old-school RPG on your phone The Quest might well be a good purchase.

If you decide to take the plunge and buy “The Quest” I have some suggestions for character development.   A battle-mage of some sort is the way to go. For this reason I would choose the following six skills: light weapon, heavy armor, block, attack magic, alchemy and environmental magic. Both alchemy and environmental magic can be used as a money pump. When your alchemy skill gets high enough that you can brew potions which permanently raise your basic stats your money troubles are forever over.

Stuff you pick up in encounters and in the wilderness can be turned into potions or enchanted items. Environmental magic allows you to enchant things which in-turn allows you to custom design magic items. You can build a set of alchemy boosting gear, a set of environmental magic gear to allow you to build better items, and a set of regular gear you use to boost your combat and defense. In my final play through I had an alchemy outfit, an environmental magic outfit, and a normal combat outfit to make me harder to hit and give combat bonuses. Specializing in light armor makes building different suits for different purposes possible with your encumbrance.

Avery Abernethy is a Professor of Marketing at Auburn University.

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