Dark Quest: First Impressions of a Fun but Flawed Dungeon Crawler
Dark Quest is a strategy RPG where you crawl through dungeons and look for treasure. Fans of RPGs and dungeon crawlers should be familiar with this kind of gameplay. There have been four games in the Dark Quest series, and a remastered version of the first Dark Quest game is being released tomorrow. So, what does the first Dark Quest have to separate itself from the pack of strategy games and dungeon crawlers?
About Dark Quest
Developed by Brain Seal Ltd, Dark Quest is a dungeon crawler where you control three warriors: a wizard, a barbarian, and a dwarf. The story starts as soon as you leave the main menu, with no tutorial or introductory cutscene. You simply receive a letter telling you that evil is afoot, then you’re thrust into the dungeon to rid it of monsters. As such, you learn how to play the game by playing the game.
Even though you have a party of three characters, you can only move one person at a time, and you can only move each character a certain number of spaces per turn. Fans of games with grid-based battle systems such as Shining Force and Fire Emblem will feel right at home here. However, when you aren’t fighting monsters and you just want to get to the door to exit the dungeon, it can get annoying to have to move each of your party members individually. An automatic exit option after you defeat the boss and loot all remaining treasure would be helpful.
Between forays into dungeons, you can stock up on items, equipment, and spells with the loot you’ve gathered. You will need all that stuff, since this game doesn’t have experience points, and you don’t level up. As such, you need to build up your characters through spells and equipment. You also might want to visit the inn between adventures so you can go into battle with an extra health point.
A Sharp Difficulty Curve
Since you don’t level up, you’ll do a lot of dying. While I finished the introductory dungeon with no problem, the first regular dungeon had me dying, and dying, and dying. Let me remind you that this is the first regular dungeon in the game. If you’re not properly stocked with equipment, spells, and items, you’re pretty much doomed unless you get lucky with the monsters. There are also random incidents when you might either gain or lose a health point, and you might get lucky there.
So how do you earn enough money to buy those essential items? You loot dungeons for gold. Fortunately, even when your party dies, you can still keep the gold you looted after a failed run. This means that if you keep trying, you’ll eventually find enough gold to buy items and spells. Still, it may take a while to build up the stock you need.
This can get quite frustrating, especially since you need a stock just to get through the first dungeon (unless you’re lucky). If you don’t like repeating the same levels over and over, this game might not be for you, especially since the first dungeon doesn’t have much to look at besides bones, tables, the occasional skeleton, and a pair of gargoyles you need to move in order to get through a door.
Does It Get Better Later?
While I have only begun playing Dark Quest, I did play Dark Quest 4 a little while back. That game had similar issues, but it was more engaging than Dark Quest. Still, I’ll keep playing Dark Quest and work on stocking up those items. Maybe it gets better as you advance through the game. Dark Quest can be purchased on Steam for $4.99.
