Speak about a pivot. Darkish Quest and Darkish Quest 2 felt like traditional old-school board video games come to life. In case you performed the Hero Quest board recreation and Darkish Quest in fast succession, you’d be forgiven for pondering the latter was a port or tie-in. However Darkish Quest 3 has scrapped a lot of Darkish Quest and a couple of. As a reference level, Hero Quest has been tossed out and changed with Hand of Destiny, with a pinch of Slay the Spire. That is as near a tough reset as a recreation sequence will get.
The place the unique Darkish Quests would offer you a fellowship and encourage you to stage up and equip them over more and more troublesome dungeons, Darkish Quest allows you to kind an affinity along with your characters after which kills them, again and again. You’re going to spend thirty minutes along with your 4 heroes earlier than they die a hideous loss of life. ‘Darkish’ Quest certainly.
That’s as a result of Darkish Quest 3 may be very a lot the roguelike. It’s a pivot from the extra conventional RPG of the primary two video games, however it’s actually a trendy pivot. We aren’t starved of roguelikes on the Xbox.
Every run of Darkish Quest 3 has you choosing 4 heroes, earlier than selecting a few well being boosts and upgrades. You then’re unceremoniously pushed by the door and into the roguelike. You received’t be again.
Very like Hand of Destiny, your quest or journey is represented by a deck of playing cards with one card revealed from it at a time. Your crew resolves these playing cards, and so they’re as more likely to be optimistic as they’re adverse. Occasions problem your characters to make a ability roll towards certainly one of your stats (there’s a wholesome dose of D&D within the character sheets of your barbarians and wizards); a low roll will possible punish your crew, whereas a excessive roll would possibly hand you an merchandise or improve. With the cardboard resolved, you progress onto the following and the following, till the area is finished and you may transfer onwards.
Typically, these playing cards are fight, and it’s right here the place Darkish Quest 3 reverts to kind. An isometric enviornment pops into existence along with your characters plonked down on it, whereas enemies are positioned on the perimeters. Your assaults and skills are represented as a hand of playing cards, and also you select from them to carry out your one motion per flip. A primary assault can be utilized infinitely, whereas extra highly effective playing cards are used as soon as earlier than disappearing until the following battle. Flame Wizards carpet the world in AoE harm, Barbarians hit single targets for enormous harm, whereas Shamans summon bears and switch into timber. Such as you do.
Fight might sound sophisticated and fiddly at first. Darkish Quest 3 isn’t notably involved in tutorialising itself, the playing cards take some time to study, and the isometric view signifies that making a path so that you can transfer is awkward. Do I press up or left to go this manner? We’d forgotten how counter-intuitive isometric controls could be.
As time goes on, issues turn into extra acquainted, however frustrations stack on high of one another. There’s no clear flip order, which blows our thoughts. It’s so normal in turn-based technique video games that we are able to’t think about creating one with out it. Not solely do you not know who’s attacking subsequent, however the order is totally random. An archer is simply as more likely to go first as they’re final. It strips away a lot technique that we’d taken without any consideration: who do you assault, if the following attacker could possibly be anybody?
Motion is one thing else that Darkish Quest 3 utterly flips on its head. You’re in all probability anticipating to maneuver a sure variety of squares per flip, maybe attacking the again of a unit for enormous harm. However no. There’s no restrict to how far you possibly can transfer in your flip. If there’s a ranger caught within the farthest nook of the map, any unit can run up and stick a knife of their intestine.
We’re nonetheless wrapping our head round it. What’s the purpose in an isometric grid in the event you can transfer anyplace and assault something? Wouldn’t it have been less complicated and higher to have a Darkest Dungeon type presentation, with one crew on one facet and the opposite on the opposite? The grid turns into irrelevant. Any enemy can assault you, and you may assault any enemy.
The grid solely turns into an element when it will get in your means. You possibly can’t transfer by your personal characters, however you equally can’t select the place your characters begin. Typically, that signifies that heroes can’t assault something in any respect, as the opposite characters block their path. It’s worse when enemies get the primary flip: since you didn’t select the place to begin, a Minotaur or different sodding nice enemy will transfer subsequent to your crew and unleash an assault that hits all of you. Typically the Minotaur could have a double-attack, hitting your crew twice. When your well being pool is persistent, your crew could be worn out earlier than you even made a single transfer.
Once more, you get used to those quirks. However then you definately attain the third of fight’s irritating levels. Enjoying the identical fight state of affairs for the 20th time will get repetitive, and there’s no approach to automate any of it. You’re taking part in long-winded, gradual and protracted battles repeatedly, and Darkish Quest 3 shrugs and says it’s a part of the sport. However we turned resentful of that fight deja vu.
The turn-based fight just isn’t Darkish Quest 3’s robust level, which is outstanding principally as a result of Darkish Quest has spent three video games refining it. We reached some extent when turning a card over and revealing fight – notably ambush fight the place there’s no reward for surviving – pushed out a protracted, unhappy sigh.
We’re being harsh on Darkish Quest 3 as a result of the opposite playing cards, and far of the remainder of the sport, could be fairly rattling satisfying. It’s a Jeckyl and Hyde recreation, with fight being the Hyde.
Climbing the development ladder, each within the quick time period and long run, feels so naggingly addictive. Within the quick time period, it’s a race of upgrading your characters swiftly sufficient that you simply outlevel your enemies. Which may imply spending improve factors on new playing cards on your deck, upgrading these playing cards or bettering the baseline stats of the characters. Every character just isn’t solely wildly completely different from the others, however they’ve a number of completely different specialities you could double-down on. We might decide a wizard so it might wipe the board with an electrical energy assault within the early recreation, earlier than counting on the Shaman to create beasts to absorb harm within the late recreation. However there are lots of of different choices within the playbook, and it’s right here the place Darkish Quest 3 sings.
The long-term development is simply as addictive, however barely much less beneficiant in how a lot it provides out. You acquire gems very not often as you play, and these gems can unlock everlasting advantages in every area. They vary from extra rerolls in a given space, all the way in which to a totally new character on your subsequent playthrough. However the level is that these are persistent upgrades that you’ll profit from on each run. Abruptly, you will have a greater probability of getting additional.
Usually, every run will snag you on or two of those everlasting boosts, and it’s simply sufficient to make you surprise what the following playthrough may be like. Will I lastly get previous the Labyrinth area with that improve? It’s a thought that may nibble away at you after every recreation.
Nonetheless, Darkish Quest 3 might have completed with being a tad extra beneficiant. While you full a forty-five minute run and all you’ve received to indicate for it’s an additional well being potion in a single particular area, it may well really feel as skimpy as a Barbarian’s loincloth. Bear in mind that you’re trudging by some patience-sapping fight, usually precisely the identical on every run. It signifies that the query of whether or not one other run is price it turns into extra sophisticated.
Darkish Quest 3 shouldn’t work. It’s constructed on the shoddiest foundations doable, with turn-based fight that breaks all the foundations, however not in a great way. It’s a technique recreation that has had a tactical lobotomy, eradicating something that resembles planning, synergy or cleverness. The blood-red cherry on the highest is that it’s repetitive.
So, why can we maintain coming again to play Darkish Quest 3? Blame a incredible improve system, and the temptation of taking part in another time. We might hate-play the fight, simply in order that we might snag a greater spell or new character as a reward. We are able to’t recall a recreation that will anger us as a lot because it addicted us, so congratulations Darkish Quest 3. It’s a questionable award, however it’s yours.
