After the Sun disappears causing you to crash your airship, you must adventure through an unknown land to defeat enemies, rescue the princess and retrieve the sun in 2Zombies isometric action-rpg, Quest Hunter
Starting out in the burning ruins of your airship, you quickly realise the wreckage has crushed a miser’s abode and he’s more than happy to tell you what to do next in order to get you to build him a new one. It’s this reconstruction which serves as your starter quests which will get you accustomed with Quest Hunter’s basic mechanics and actions.
Quest Hunter’s narrative has obviously been written with sarcasm and humour in mind as most characters have something funny to say and responses are written in such a way to get a rise from the player. Many of these conversations have multiple branching dialogue options which affect the outcome of your encounter. Early on a homeless man asks for coins, there were options to give one or ten coins so it’s important to consider your response as whilst the answer might be funny at the time it might not give you the outcome you really wanted later in the quest.
Heading off with a spade as a weapon and a wooden board as a shield, players uncover new materials, gain experience and meet new quest givers in order to progress the story. The loop of “Get Quest, Collect Item, Get Reward” is the main draw of Quest Hunter and can be quite additive with a “Just One More” style that eats away your spare time. Quests can be tracked in the inventory and are fairly short although many are split into multiple smaller parts and can be completed in a few minutes. Larger dungeon expeditions can take around 30 to 45 mins to complete fully and explore every part of the map.
Quest completion usually rewards key materials in order to progress your character although sometimes also unlocks new features at your main camp. Your initial quest to build the Old Miser’s new home, for example, rewards you with a Carpenter back at camp who can craft certain artifacts for you as well as serve as a shop where you can buy and sell items in your inventory.
Main hub areas such as the camp have a few hidden and locked off areas which require you to collect silver or gold keys to unlock or puzzles to resolve in order to gain access. These usually house another quest requirement or reward. Early on you will also find areas you simply cannot open since you have no keys so for those looking for uncovering all of Quest Hunter’s Secrets, some backtracking will be required. Dungeon areas are randomly generated so whilst you may have completed most of the main map locations, players can always revisit the area for a new challenge alone or with friends to keep things interesting whilst grinding for the next set of required materials to level up.
As players inevitably level up from both defeating the enemies across each level or completing the quests on offer each character can be customised. There are four statistics on offer for Health, Damage, Armour and Shield Armour in addition to a number of skills held behind level requirements. On levelling up, characters receive 3 points to distribute amongst their stats. If they have the appropriate resources and have reached the specified level, they can also invest in the offensive and defensive skills on offer. Once a skill is unlocked it can also be further improved by again investing the next level to resources in it for an improved variant.
After the initial crash site area Quest Hunter ramps up the difficulty quite quickly and it’s not until players start to invest in or find improved equipment it starts to take a breather. Expect to die a lot in the early game, even in multiplayer this didn’t quite even the odds. Usable loot is difficult to come across and players shouldn’t expect Diablo levels of weapon or armour drops since this is not how Quest Hunter is set up. Apart from some dungeon chests, the blacksmith will be your main focus for upgrades or new items.
Quest Hunter allows up to four players to play locally or online in both the main story campaign in addition to PvE clash arenas which are unlocked after your character reaches level 5. Online mode however restricts players to one per location so there is no mix of couch and online play. 2Zombies have been kind enough to also include cross-platform play between Xbox, PC and Nintendo Switch players. Multiplayer participants keep their loot and experience but only the host retains unlocked story progress.
Quest Hunter’s key challenge is that it simply doesn’t have enough depth in its single-player RPG components and after the first few hours the repetition sets in, multiplayer extends that time somewhat but whilst its accessibility is a major bonus early on, its simplicity makes it difficult to differentiate your character from any other and high-level play into your ability to kite difficult opponents whilst waiting for your offensive skills to recharge.
Quest Hunter offers family-friendly questing with a humorous script and easy to understand progression mechanics; it can easily burn away the hours as it’s extremely accessible whilst never really being too stressful but only those most invested will stay for the long haul.
Quest Hunter is available now on Xbox One, PC and Nintendo Switch.
