Dark Quest 1 & 2

Dark Quest 1 & 2 bundle is definitely worth the price: for just under $10 you get two games, that are basically turn based hybrids of Diablo and Darkest Dungeon (minus the Darkest Dungeon diffculty). I loved it, especially the second one which improves the visuals and gameplay so much: it's in isometric 3D with the looks of the classic Cadaver game. Combat gets more difficult later in the game and turns into a little puzzle, figuring out which enemy to attack first with which character for maximum efficiency - just like Darkest Dungeon. It's an independent little gem offering quite a lot.

Though the dialog shows the grammatical acuity of a 6 YO, it doesn't matter - these games are good fun. The first game is more simplistic fun, whilst the second introduces a few new layers of depth and complexity, like party selection. I went with Dwarf, Knight, Dark Monk, which seemed to me a dominant mix (its weakness is lack of ranged attacks)...so much so that I never really gave the other classes a chance. In Dark Quest 2, you can cheat a lil, in that you can replay each level, and that particular level gets harder every time you FINISH it. Finish being the operative word. You can replay a level, and get the blue, upgrade pots, and quit - keeping the pots. I did this to fully upgrade Dwarf and Dark Monk, and then moved on to be able to finish enough quests to get Knight. Repeat. Good, cheap fun. Buy them. Took Wizard in only mission allowing 4 party members, and worked out first try. And, by that time, I had enough pots to max his powerful offensive output.

There's not much to say, just that it's simple, easy to learn, fair difficulty (it doesn't have that trolling difficulty that many indie developers love), and it's very reminiscent of Gauntlet (the classic). Anyway, three characters available in DQ1 (in DQ 2 there are more characters, but the ones I'm going to mention play similarly in both): Barbarian, Dwarf and Wizard. The barbarian has more HP, the dwarf has the ability to detect traps and disarm them, he can also move more spaces on the board, and the wizard specializes in what you already imagined: Magic! =D "Are there bugs?" I didn't see any in both games. Maybe I'm lucky? I don't know. Don't pay attention to the negative comments, if you like dungeon crawlers, this pack should be in your collection, so buy it and I'm sure you'll have a lot of fun!

Dark Quest 1 serves really to get one acquainted with the game and how to play. Dark Quest 2 is superior in every way (save one - cannot split the party). It's a fun game with enjoyable music themes and it's easy to learn how to play. The frustration is, if you do not pick the correct party member to recruit at the very start, there is no chance to win the game. I picked the archer as my first recruit, for her ranged ability, her ability to detect traps and mend, but this is an impossible choice for the following reasons - you get your 3rd character (the dwarf) via a mission and then you cannot recruit your next character until completing X amount of missions. The problem is, at mission X-1, no matter which mission you decide to take, it requires a spellcaster with the ability to hit several enemies at once. Otherwise, there are just too many enemies, all with 70% hit chance and ability to do 3 damage per hit. One would have to be extremely, extremely lucky to even put up a decent battle in such a scenario. Since there is no 'retreat from dungeon' option, this battle has to be won or your characters die and have to be resurrected. After resurrection, entering the same dungeon a second time means the enemies are 'toughened up' and you've lost the gold to perform the resurrections, so the odds just worsen. I played on normal difficulty. So, I like the fact that one should pick a specific party with specific skill sets to advance through a dungeon successfully, but then let us go back and recruit any party member from mission 2 onward.

For 5$ on a discount-day these are perfectly acceptable and entertaining, the visuals are good, the controls are simple, but here is a list of flaws you might consider: The 1st game is simplytoo easy, and unfortunately does not allow replay of levels, also does not keep track of 0-3 stars level chievements (and I think on one level one of the stars is missing). The replay-value is also low giving no variety on characters, and the equipment/abilities being very limited. Some variety on at least the quest-briefings would have been welcomed. And the ending is very abrupt. The second game is much more polished, but it seems the Tavern's sleep-option simply doesn't work as you always start fully healed. And unfortunately while you can re-run dungeons, you can not do this with the first (Introduction, aka. tutorial) dungeon, and even worse you are allowed to abandone dungeons which means they'll not get harder, while you can continuously become stronger. So, the game is easily abusable. Finaly, for both games the texts lack polish. Maybe the developers are not native in english. I hope that, else I'd have to assume lack of care. Still, you could spend your money worse, at least if this comes at 50% discount.