The Quest

Fluent said:

Haha, word! For tablets you can get a wireless keyboard, but it essentially looks like one of those keyboards from a Blackberry, just that it's wireless.

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I mean, you can still find phones with physical keyboards, it's just that you have to go out of your way to find them. I know that makes phones bulky and raises the price, but I don't care

Ivanwah said:

I mean, you can still find phones with physical keyboards, it's just that you have to go out of your way to find them. I know that makes phones bulky and raises the price, but I don't care

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I miss those too. Even with a 5 to 6" screen, my thumbs are too phat for touch type.

Ivanwah said:

I mean, you can still find phones with physical keyboards, it's just that you have to go out of your way to find them. I know that makes phones bulky and raises the price, but I don't care

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That was why I loved the Motorola Droid 4 ... sure the phone was sluggish and a bit thick and heavy ... but I loved the option of using the touch screen OR the physical keyboard. I cracked my screen doing mountain trail runs up in utah a few years ago, couldn't justify that much money to replace it ...

The Quest was one of the games I played and completed during the summer after picking it up via the last Steam sale. Some brief impressions:

This was reasonably a satisfying change of pace and is quite compelling early on as far as exploration and character building goes. I had a good deal of fun with some of the silly quest choices as the writing can be both quirky, light-hearted and whimsical. For an example of some of the silly writing, check the attached image! It seemed like every third quest involved a tryst or betrayed lover of some kind!

Combat wise, it's cheerfully done with loud over the top sound effects, but there was a degree of repetition towards the end as wands became extremely powerful and once the most efficient means of taking out tougher monsters is found, the challenge waned considerably. I tried to play a melee character yet the damage wasn't really cutting it mid-game and I ended up being quite the jack of all trades in the end, which isn't my style of play normally.

To be honest, despite the purely cosmetic nods, I think it's a bit of a mischaracterisation to compare the game to Morrowind, as the game's heritage is much more overtly tied with Might & Magic IV-VI, especially in general atmospheric tone, graphical feel and the simple combat mechanics. The interface also in particular made me think of Mandate of Heaven as did the main musical theme in the Quest, which put me immediately back into that MM4-6 head-space.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUpFBrG79Hg (First track especially - great soundtrack!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTfHWCQiFcA (main theme plays from around 0:34 onwards)

Play time: 39 hours. (Main quest+Islands of Fire & Ice expansion) Finished at level 22; albeit with a fair few side-quests remaining.

The expansion content is meaty and I would argue has significant narrative improvements over the main quest in pacing and in the general weaving of clues and quest content. There's even a final secret dungeon (treasure island) that is far more challenging than the rest of the game, including some nods to classic Bard's Tale (teleporter puzzles, no mini-map sections) and other classic dungeon crawlers.

Pros:
- Old school MM4-6 feelings well captured (intended or not!)
- Single character, turn based, simple approachable combat, tile based movement
- Lush world to explore, many quests to stay busy with.
- The pleasure of seeing the mini-map (i.e Wizard's Eye!) reveal terrain features from a previously uncovered state is great!
- Areas require strategic planning; enemies can overwhelm you in groups.
- A map that you can edit with your own notes (very handy!)
- Some unique quest choices and slightly unpredictable outcomes (can fail a quest)

Cons:
- Mildly repetitive; bit grindy at times.
- Overly fast diminishing challenge
- Limited Soundtrack (though using classic RPG soundtracks in the background works well…)
- Some areas are a little empty feeling (many buildings locked out)
- Not quite enough interactivity in dungeons (more riddles/puzzles would have been nice)
- Wands possibly require more balancing (wand recharge was overkill)

All in all, I had a fun sojourn with this little game and would recommend a look for someone after a lighter mid period Might & Magic type experience.

Cool review, but in no way is it a mischaracterization to call this a turn-based Morrowind. The developers said it themselves in this interview.

MBU
Obviously we’re primarily here to speak about The Quest. Can you please introduce the title for those yet to play it?

REDSHIFT
It’s basically Morrowind combined with old school dungeon crawlers like Eye of The Beholder or Black Crypt from the Amiga. Morrowind was the inspiration for Stewe and Black Crypt for Sylon. A lot of people talk about how the game reminds them of Daggerfall and Might & Magic, but those titles were not really influential, apart from Daggerfall’s obvious relation to Morrowind and the Might & Magic series being classic dungeon crawlers.

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Anywho, although the game is not really *too* easy, it does lean toward the easier side of things. I would have liked to have seen more difficulty options, perhaps some risk/reward saving options and indeed, more overall balancing. For the record, you can die in the game, but the resources overall are very plentiful in the long run, including as Pessimeister mentioned, wands, potions (especially if you use Alchemy), scrolls, etc. Wands are especially powerful if you learn the spell to recharge them yourself.

Lots of good things in the game as well, and I look forward to future games by this developer (Redshift). The Quest is easily one of the best RPGs on Android and a very fun game to play on PC as well.

With all due respect, developers can say what they want about what they intended or were inspired by design wise, but I know what I played man, and it simply doesn't connote Morrowind to me. Intention obviously does not equate to the actual experience or end result in game design.
I recall disagreeing with you on a similar topic with Antharion as well. But that's all cool. We all see the connecting jig-saw parts of games differently.

The game outright "samples" many things directly from Morrowind, from the obvious Mark/Recall spells, the way Fame and Outfit work, having many of the same skills (Heavy Armor, Light Armor, Repair, Appraise (Mercantile), etc.. There are also less obvious nods to Morrowind, such as the way the skill system is presented, the Alchemy system with varying degrees of mortar & pestles, use of Repair hammers to repair gear, a very similar training system, Touch spells and even a Feather spell. Rather than having an Enchant skill there is a spell via Environmental Magic that does the same thing, etc.

To me, it's the closest thing to a turn-based Morrowind that you can play right now, with the caveat that it takes place on a much smaller scale and overall scope. The world is more of a guided open-world but that is a design decision to please old-school RPG fans and remove hard level scaling. AntharioN is actually kind of similar other than the obvious differences in graphical style, party-based vs. single character, etc.