20160704:
It's Independence Day and having hit a good chunk of backlog (mostly food and beer posts), as well as not having played video games in a while (excluding Heroes of the Storm), I take a dive into my Steam game library and begin exploring. To start it all off, I randomly picked a game that was already downloaded on my laptop: 1Quest.
Setup: I decided to play with all the defaults for the first and second run (Male Human Warrior),** though I also changed the difficulty to normal.
While it took a couple of minutes to acclimate myself to the game, my familiarity with the RPG elements began to pull me into the game. In particular, it took me back to the times when I played hack-in-slash MUDs in middle school and parts of college.
However, unlike the hack-in-slash MUDs, which were moderately challenging,* 1Quest is actually quite difficult.
The first reason for the game's difficulty is based on the mob aggro. Enemies in this game will pursue/attack the player character on sight. This makes running nearly impossible. In contrast, most mobs in a MUD only attacked after first being attacked.
Unfortunately, the second reason for the game's difficulty lies in it's interface. Clicking on the map will cause the character to move. While this is slightly more convenient than using the arrow keys during noncombat situations, accidentally doing so during combat situations is often devastatingly inconvenient (unless I'm missing something when it comes to movement). [Investigating, I would conclude that there's no advantage to clicking. I did, however, discover, that diagonal movements can be made by using the numpad (or by clicking)]
On a related note, opening loot will also take up a turn. So remember not to do so until out of combat.
My second run was much better than the first and I played around with leveling up various stats manually, but I may have diversified too much.
Tip List from First Run:
- Leveling of skills, classes, etc is automatic by default, but can be customized.
- Save yellow (energy) potions for combat. When out of combat, use the rest feature (shortcut: Num 5)
- Sometimes triggering multiple enemies can't be helped. But in many cases, pulling the ones that have been triggered back to a safer area is better than engaging and triggering more.
- Items have a colored border based on the rarity (or as a proxy for rarity the number of modifications). Thus far I've seen three mods (purple), two mods (blue), and one mod (green).
- Dropped hearts will disappear after some number of rounds. As such, the player can carefully choose when to pick them up in order to maximize their healing potential.
- Both movement and attacks can be made diagonally.
Tip List from Second Run:
- Diversifying classes a little can be useful.
- There's a separate section for leveling magic. The healing (requires Holy element) is good (out of combat, healing uses energy and then rest to regain energy). Caveat: using the spell will use exhaustion, which means the maximum energy level will be lowered.
- For levels with the description "Finding the Altar of X or the Alter of Y," X and Y are related to elements of magic which can be increased manually for 1000 XP. Once the player picks up one of the orbs, the other will disappear.
- Removing an armor that helps satisfy a prerequisite will render a skill/spell unusable until the prerequisite has been fulfilled again.
- For rarity, after purple is yellow.
Warrior Specific:
- The warrior can charge diagonally.
- The warrior, by default, specs into the axe weapon class. Thus equipping axe weapons will be best (unless the user chooses to spec elsewhere, which doesn't cost much at first).
Steam: 81 minutes (first run), 2.7 hrs (second run)
*Gaining experience was either a grind or a group effort. Death often happened by surprise or when an expected group effort success becomes a failure. Overall, progress was always being made.
**I later read in two of the Steam reviews that the Warrior class is weak compared to the Mage/Priest class.
Thoughts:
Pros:
+ A lot of character customization - develop your character however you want
+ Character sheets, etc. for a strong RPG experience
Neutral:
~ Roguelike
Cons:
- Mobs are overly aggressive
- As far as I know, traps lack counterplay
- No tutorial/help (with the interface and overall level system; the skills and options lack transparency)
Recommendation:
If it were not for drafting this blog post, I would have been discouraged after my first run of 1.4 hours and stopped playing the game altogether. Wanting to add and clarify some of the game's failures, I ended up making a second run which was more positive and lasted longer (2.7 hours), but the final experience was still mixed.
Overall, the game has lots of potential for players who are willing to put some time into the game and learn its intricacies. However, any player who enjoys a more casual experience may be put off by the complexity. With that being said, I jumped right into Normal difficulty, and may have benefited from first playing the game on Easy.
1Quest (PC) (2014)
Relevant Links:
1Quest (Steam Store Page)
1Quest (PC) (MetaCritic.com)
It's Independence Day and having hit a good chunk of backlog (mostly food and beer posts), as well as not having played video games in a while (excluding Heroes of the Storm), I take a dive into my Steam game library and begin exploring. To start it all off, I randomly picked a game that was already downloaded on my laptop: 1Quest.
Setup: I decided to play with all the defaults for the first and second run (Male Human Warrior),** though I also changed the difficulty to normal.
 |
| There are two tabs for this sheet, one for combat and another for magic. The first half of the magic tab shows types of magic and the second half shows elements of magic. |
However, unlike the hack-in-slash MUDs, which were moderately challenging,* 1Quest is actually quite difficult.
The first reason for the game's difficulty is based on the mob aggro. Enemies in this game will pursue/attack the player character on sight. This makes running nearly impossible. In contrast, most mobs in a MUD only attacked after first being attacked.
 |
| Don't choose the Warrior class... |
On a related note, opening loot will also take up a turn. So remember not to do so until out of combat.
My second run was much better than the first and I played around with leveling up various stats manually, but I may have diversified too much.
 |
| Each class has level prerequisites. In addition, auto-leveling of a class or its corresponding stats (str, dex, int, con, close combat, ranged combat, etc.) can be toggled on/off from this sheet. |
- Leveling of skills, classes, etc is automatic by default, but can be customized.
- Save yellow (energy) potions for combat. When out of combat, use the rest feature (shortcut: Num 5)
- Sometimes triggering multiple enemies can't be helped. But in many cases, pulling the ones that have been triggered back to a safer area is better than engaging and triggering more.
- Items have a colored border based on the rarity (or as a proxy for rarity the number of modifications). Thus far I've seen three mods (purple), two mods (blue), and one mod (green).
- Dropped hearts will disappear after some number of rounds. As such, the player can carefully choose when to pick them up in order to maximize their healing potential.
- Both movement and attacks can be made diagonally.
 |
| Like movement, the warrior can charge diagonally. But the class's attack options are still limited. |
- Diversifying classes a little can be useful.
- There's a separate section for leveling magic. The healing (requires Holy element) is good (out of combat, healing uses energy and then rest to regain energy). Caveat: using the spell will use exhaustion, which means the maximum energy level will be lowered.
- For levels with the description "Finding the Altar of X or the Alter of Y," X and Y are related to elements of magic which can be increased manually for 1000 XP. Once the player picks up one of the orbs, the other will disappear.
- Removing an armor that helps satisfy a prerequisite will render a skill/spell unusable until the prerequisite has been fulfilled again.
- For rarity, after purple is yellow.
 |
| Many item slots and large storage capacity |
- The warrior can charge diagonally.
- The warrior, by default, specs into the axe weapon class. Thus equipping axe weapons will be best (unless the user chooses to spec elsewhere, which doesn't cost much at first).
Steam: 81 minutes (first run), 2.7 hrs (second run)
*Gaining experience was either a grind or a group effort. Death often happened by surprise or when an expected group effort success becomes a failure. Overall, progress was always being made.
**I later read in two of the Steam reviews that the Warrior class is weak compared to the Mage/Priest class.
 |
| Line of Sight; Fog of War. |
Pros:
+ A lot of character customization - develop your character however you want
+ Character sheets, etc. for a strong RPG experience
Neutral:
~ Roguelike
Cons:
- Mobs are overly aggressive
- As far as I know, traps lack counterplay
- No tutorial/help (with the interface and overall level system; the skills and options lack transparency)
 |
| Death awaits... |
If it were not for drafting this blog post, I would have been discouraged after my first run of 1.4 hours and stopped playing the game altogether. Wanting to add and clarify some of the game's failures, I ended up making a second run which was more positive and lasted longer (2.7 hours), but the final experience was still mixed.
Overall, the game has lots of potential for players who are willing to put some time into the game and learn its intricacies. However, any player who enjoys a more casual experience may be put off by the complexity. With that being said, I jumped right into Normal difficulty, and may have benefited from first playing the game on Easy.
 |
| The Holy magic element can be found in the currently selected level. |
Relevant Links:
1Quest (Steam Store Page)
1Quest (PC) (MetaCritic.com)
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