Let me get this out of the way, I love old school dungeon crawler games. Always have, always will. So, this review might come off a bit biased, but I Don’t care. I believe the more you love something, the more critical of it you’re going to be. So, trust me on this one. As I started up “Dark Quest 2”, the comic book-esque graphics caught my attention right away, this is my very first time playing any of the “dark quest” games, so I was in for a treat.
Dark quest 2 doesn’t really do anything new in terms of storytelling, the short intro you get is pretty standard and straightforward, a dark wizard is out to kill you, here are your heros, go forth and save the world, blah, blah, blah. The story isn’t what’s going to suck you into this world. It’s the gameplay, it’s engaging, difficult and begs to be experimented with.
You only start off with one character, I chose the warrior (generic, I know). From there on out, you unlock characters as you go, warrior, knight, dwarf, dark monk, wizard and archer. All different classes with different abilities that can make or a break a dungeon. The first couple of dungeons we’re fairly simple and easy to make it through.
It wasn’t until about 25% into the game that things really got hard. I was thrown off to be honest, it kicked my ass over and over until I got it. This is where the experimenting comes into play, will I need to use the warrior and knight to beat this level? Or will it be the dark monk and archer?
It’s moments like this that made Dark Quest 2 really stand out and shine to me, I love games that allow me to carve my own path and also carve my own demise. Which you will experience over and over, I died many times and wanted to throw my controller across the room many times, yet I kept coming back. The game was difficult, but never unfair.
I would love to tell you how the whole game was, but unfortunately, I came across a game breaking bug that did not allow me to finish the main campaign. This was disappointing for me, since I was very hooked. I hope by the time of the actual release, it’s something they figured out.
My only other gripe with Dark Quest 2 would be that I do wish they had a bit more diversity with the “looks” of the dungeons, they became a bit repetitive and stale after a while, the controls could also use some tweaking, I found myself becoming very confused over up, down, left and right when entering new rooms. Word of advice to anyone starting this game, if you’re inpatient like myself, change the movement setting to “light speed”, you wont regret it.
My final statements on Dark Quest 2. It’s a throwback to the old days of dungeon crawlers and Gauntlet, they took an old formula and added a fresh new coat of paint on it and for the better. I had fun, was challenged and overall impressed. This goes to show that you don’t need triple A status video game titles to create an exciting and fun experience.
~Miguel
*DFAT received a review code for the PS4 for this game. Purchase HERE.
