Quest Hunter Review: Role-Playing, Torches, and Shovels

From Assassin's Creed to Diablo, action RPGs have succeeded in mixing the character-building we love from role-playing with the real-time combat we crave from action-adventure. Keeping the ability to freely roam while skipping the drudgery of menus and turn-based combat has made this a widespread subgenre. So it's no wonder we're seeing popular titles convert from traditional platforms like PC and consoles to mobile. Quest Hunter is one of these games, and it’s an easily understandable and fun experience you can play for hours.

Developed by indie game studio 2 Zombie Games, creators of the popular titles Color Journey and Dead Route, Quest Hunter is an isometric RPG initially released in 2017. The game has since made its way to multiple platforms, including Steam, Xbox, Switch, and now mobile devices. With

so many ways to play, I was excited to see how the game fared on iOS.

Set in a fantasy world where my airship had crashed in a mysterious and hostile land, my goal was to explore and find out why the sun vanished. The opening cinematic highlighted the uniqueness of the art. Playing this game felt like being in a cartoon. The armor design fits the unconventional style of the game. For most of my play-through, I was wearing an oversized cooking pot on my head to protect against foes. The music provided added appeal, with various tunes ranging from enchanting flutes to ominous orchestral to get me into the adventure.

I started at a forest campsite, Quest Hunter's central area. Here I was introduced to several quirky characters. I liked that I was given interactive options to respond. Although the actual plot points were fixed, different options produced different responses from the NPCs. But even with this refreshing interactivity, I soon realized the story itself served as a simple backdrop for the main spectacle of Quest Hunter: raiding dungeons and grabbing loot!

The gameplay consisted of helping characters find items, people, and treasure. These characters, in turn, helped build up my character by offering services such as crafting and blacksmithing. With the sun vanishing, a big part of the game was collecting torches to light my way and to keep enemies at bay. In the opening tutorial, I was introduced to one of Quest Hunter's most unique methods of loot collection: the shovel. With this handy tool, I was able to find items in hidden areas and dig them up. This treasure hunting mechanic added to the game's quirky charm. However, I still collected the vast majority of my loot in more traditional dungeons.

Most quests eventually led to a dungeon with many enemies and monsters to face. These dungeons were crucial in both character and story progression. They’re also total loot piñatas. I found myself consistently running out of room in my backpack to store all the loot that dropped in the dungeons. What's worse is that enemies automatically dropped items after they were defeated, which I automatically picked up by touching. I even ended up accidentally grabbing things I had already collected and tried to toss out, which was pretty annoying.

Like many RPGs, leveling up and building skills are essential in Quest Hunter. The endless grind for loot is ultimately meant to be a grind for a stronger and better character. I really appreciated how Quest Hunter simplified the character progression path as compared to many RPGs. There aren't any complex skill trees to be found here, and I mainly focused on four stats: health, attack, armor, and shield. The combat system itself was equally uncomplicated. Initially, I had two options: attack and block. This was a nice reprieve from being bombarded with a book’s worth of tutorials at the start of the game.

If I have any criticism about Quest Hunter’s stripped-down approach to combat, it’s that when playing on my iPhone touch screen, it felt like I was button mashing my way through enemies. It was redundant tapping my right thumb repeatedly to swing my sword against enemies. But your experience may differ if you choose to play with a controller.

Quest Hunter also features online and offline co-op modes built for up to four players. Although I wasn’t able to try out co-op for myself, I couldn’t shake the

feeling that the space in these dungeons felt a bit...empty? It made me wonder

if the spaces were left intentionally sparse to better hold multiple players.

Nevertheless, Quest Hunter gave me an enjoyable single-player experience.

2 Zombie Games really packs a lot into their mobile adventure. Between the variety of quests, puzzles, randomly generated dungeons, and boss battles, I easily got lost in the fun yet simple world of Quest Hunter.

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SCORE: 4 STARS OUT OF 5[/b]

PLAY IF YOU LIKE:

● Diablo and similar action RPGs. If hacking and slashing dungeon crawlers is what you crave, give this title a spin.

● Cartoony art styles. If you're really into games with colorful artwork, such as Jet Grind Radio and Portal Knights, you might get a kick out of how Quest Hunter presents itself.