Adventure Quest is one of the most addictive games we've played in a long time. The only drawback is that the free version of the animated game has only a certain amount of places available to play, so time after time you'll come to a dead end. Thankfully, the 'full' Guardian version, which costs a mere $14.95 (around £8.45), gives you more towns to explore, special areas, dozens of extra quests, over 30 special unique, rare and powerful items, and full access to the Guardian Tower!

Those familiar with turn-based role-playing games (RPG) you be right at home with Adventure Quest, as combat revolves around each character(s) taking it in turns to fight until one is the victor. Adventure Quest does not pretend to compete with large online RPGs like World of Warcraft because it's in a different league altogether. Think of it more as a game to play during lunch time, or whenever you can grab 15 minutes between evening TV programmes. All you need to play is a computer running Internet Explorer or Firefox and Flash version 7.0 or above.

The game is not just about mindless battles. Granted, you start off needing to go into the combat arena to increase your skills and increase your level status. But after a while you will start to travel and take on quests, which normally result in you achieving either gold or a special items. The most sort after prize is the Blade of Awe, a special weapon that lets you kick some serious ass.

At first you start off with little money or equipment, and taking on quests requires a bit of forward planning. Luckily you can visit local shops to buy spells, weapons and armour. Each item has a description to show you what benefit you will gain from getting a particular item and, of course, if your level and gold account are up to scratch. Another nice touch is the ability to mix potions together to get free items or bonuses, and the way you can pop into the local inn to rest after a hard day's work.

You can also buy a pet to help you during battle. Some of the pets you can purchase at the beginning are rubbish but will definitely make you laugh. For example, our first few pets were a pet rock, penguin and then a bunny rabbit! Stick with it and you'll soon have a Gizzard, a pet dragon that increases in power each time you 'Level-Up'.

Picking a certain character class allows you to specialise in certain fields. For instance, the Mage lets you perform magic, Fighter allows you to be fluent in combat, and Vampireslayer provides you with a skills for killing vampires. There's also Ninja and a Rogue classes (thieves). Coming soon are Dracomancer, Paladin, Pirate and Ranger. In order to progress in the class you need to complete quests, which mainly involve combat. You can either go out and hunt for quests or other characters will offer you them.

The combat in Adventure Quest is turned based. This is more fun than you think, mainly helped by the humour that is injected into the characters that you face and the cool Manga-style graphics. Before you perform your first strike you can check out your opponent's statistics to see what they are resistant to, allowing you to select your armour and weapons to maximise damage and gain the most defence for your own character. Attacks can be done using weapons or spells. Occasionally you even have the ability to morph into other characters during battle.

Character and locations vary enough to maintain your interest. One minute you could be fighting in a dungeon and the next on sandy deserts. And because the developers are constantly updating the game, new quests and locations will become available as and when, which increases its lasting appeal considerably. Everytime your character gains a level you receive 5 stat points and access to more monsters, meaning that you can encounter different monsters depending on your character's level. There is a tricky part though. To increase any of your stats you need to defeat a trainer and pay gold for increasing your attributes which are Strenght, Dexterity, Endurance, Intellect, Charisma and Luck. The assortment of equipment is limited to armour, weapons and shields.

If you are one of those people who like stunning effects and realistic graphic engines then this game is not for you. Everything in this game looks simple. Yet the graphics are a mixture of beautiful art and flash animation. The advantage of such games is that you don't need an expensive PC to play. Graphics and animations are reasonable, but it's worth remembering that the whole game runs in Flash (Macromedia's software program used for animating still images in Web pages). The sound effects are limited but fit the purpose for this type of game - just don't expect an amazing soundtrack or orchestra-driven theme. The gameplay makes up for any graphics or audio shortcomings.

The only niggles we could find is that occasionally the game slows down if there are lots of enemies on screen. Having said that, this can be improved if you don't have any other Windows applications running at the same time. Another criticism is that the game's combat can get repetitive once your character starts to get advanced, and if you're looking for hardcore statistics you'll need to go elsewhere. There's no multiple-player option either, so you can't play against human opponents. And although you play it online there is no possibility to interact with other players. [8]

BIOS, Nov 01, 05 | Print | Send | Comments (0) | Posted In Game