AdventureQuest 8-Bit: Dungeons & DoomKnights Reviews

I greatly enjoy the game

[table] [tr] [th][h1] My Playthrough [/h1][/th] [th][url=https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLTZKn1hLlcQPsU4cQrtxs7Qcb0YiOJndp] Youtube Playlist [/url][/th] [/tr] [tr] [td][h1]The Review[/h1][/td] [td]This is a nes zelda inspired game that was ported to PC. The problem is this really bad PC port. When you first start the game you would expect a settings option on the main menu. You would be wrong as you have to start a new save and then pause with the esc key as the start button on the controller does nothing and then you can change game setting. The hit detection on objects and enemies don't seem to work most of the time. Their are a few monsters that can summon other monsters that constantly lags the game. I also find that I sometimes get stuck on corners and thin pathways. The game does not even have credits, all it has is a website that you have to visit to see the actual credits! This game even crashed on me during one of the boss fights! The only positives I can think of are that the characters and monsters are well designed and the music is good. All in all this is not a good PC game and I would expect better from Artix Entertainment as they have been developing PC games for 21 years.[/td] [/tr] [/table]

The last thing I expected this morning was an Adventure Quest inspired by 8-bit Zelda and Simon's Quest, and for context, I have not touched anything from the developer in about 10 years (apparently it came out on NES a few years ago). I have some history with the series, I would play those games religiously back when Flash was around, many good laughs from just pure randomness in the narrative, and many nights of mindless grinding as well - as I understand you can still play them using their launcher, which I didn't even know was a thing until recently. I have this wonderful memory of finding some undead armor in the store and it wanted me to kill some things in the swamp, I don't remember exactly how long it took me but nobody else had it for like at least a month. That and I always loved running into new Zard species, the way it works, take a Zard, pick a random object like cheese, combine them, and you have a new enemy type. I want to emphasize that this is a very basic and faithful retro game, it's not very modern or complex, you will be smashing things with 1 button, occasionally using a power-up like deflection or dog launcher. It's very much like the original Zelda, with the exception of platforming sections that reminded me of the early Castlevania gameplay. At first, the game may seem somewhat linear, but after about 90 minutes you will realize it has a limited open world, with a metroid-like progression. The story can be completed in 6 to 7 hours, give or take, it's not a very difficult game, but you can occasionally get lost if you not paying attention, and sometimes it's just not clear what you should do. Essentially you have this small open-world and you have to collect 13 power-ups, if I am not mistaken all of them had a dedicated area and a boss associated with them, or most of them at least. Overall the gameplay can get pretty stale which is expected with a retro-themed game, even though you get a bunch of power-ups, most of them will not change how you approach the combat, I pretty much only used the deflection and healing. Aside from the main story, there are a bunch of hidden rooms for health/capacity upgrades, as well as chests that give some gold. The gold itself only has very limited purpose, and the game does not have that signature loot collection for which Adventure Quest is known. Obviously, the biggest thing here is the Adventure Quest jokes, and if you are a fan there are a lot of silly references which I enjoyed, however, I felt like a lot of the narrative was recycled from the other games, and it does not hit as hard without the flash animation. I did get some laughs out of the "bonus material", I love how the game comes with the manual book and the Pretendo Empower magazine. [h1] Pros: [/h1] (+) For the most part, I got this game for that Adventure Quest humor, and I got some laughs out of it, especially from the Manual and the Magazine. There are a lot of enjoyable references if you are familiar with the world, although the narrative felt too recycled, and it didn't bring much originality. (+) After the first 90 minutes, the game becomes more of a metroidvania which I liked, and it can be somewhat thought-provoking with backtracking and figuring out where to go. The main problem I have is that most of the secrets were not very exciting, and I wish finding secrets was more rewarding than just getting more health or capacity. (+) Other than that, I thought the game played decently and it had a good variety of biomes, as well as just recreating some of the familiar zones in 8-bit which I thought was hilarious. [h1] Feedback: [/h1] [u] Possible Improvements [/u] - you may want to put a checkpoint at the second pyramid before the double rocks, that is the only part of the game where I felt a bit frustrated with RNG on the insta kills. I felt like the hitbox for the destructible rocks was weird, sometimes you just can't hit them for some reason. You may want to highlight the dark caves and doors a bit better, maybe with a unique tile under them, I got stuck several times because I thought the path looked like a black background. The game was freezing for me after exiting the magazine pages, showing I was stuck in the pause, and could not click anything. The Start did not work for me on the controller by default, and it would not work consistently in the game menu. Adding achievements would probably improve the exploration aspect. [u] Some nitpick I have with overall experience [/u] - even though the game had a lot of hidden rooms and such, they were not rewarding because the gold had very niche purpose, and other secrets were health or capacity. Adventure Quest is known for loot, and you didn't give us much loot or different weapons if that makes sense, even if the game is simple, at least a few other melee weapons with unique range or speed would have improved it. I get it's a simple game and it's fine to keep bosses primitive, but even the last boss was pretty limited, so I wish you gave them at least one more attack to force you to move. [b] Overall Thoughts: 7/10 [/b] It's not bad or anything, just a hard sell at $18, I personally have so many good memories associated with the series, I still got some enjoyment out of the references, and hey no tokens! As a faithful retro game it was solid, but not super impressive at the same time, it got a little stale in my opinion. I am a little surprised that the developer didn't put much effort into promoting the Steam version*, I would think that $18 release would justify a bit more energy. Hopefully they will make this version more appealing for those returning players so they have a reason to get it again. [code]Niche, obscure and underrated games: http://store.steampowered.com/curator/31294838-Hidden-Gem-Discovery/ [/code]