Game Review: Heroine's Quest
2015-May-31, Sunday 11:01I'm not sure how generally useful or applicable this review will be, even beyond the normal subjectivity that is inherent in any kind of review, because Heroine's Quest is a direct homage to the old Hero's Quest / Quest for Glory series of games and those were foundational for me as a young child. I'm not sure why I took to them as well as I did, but their particular combination of point-and-click adventure and RPG gameplay drilled itself directly into my brain and lodged itself there for eternity, to the point where I downloaded a Pathfinder adaptation despite never having run Pathfinder, never having played Pathfinder, and, indeed, never having even read Pathfinder.
The games came out before RPG elements were cynically added to every game under the sun as a way to encourage grinding of arbitrary numbers and artificially extend play time--though after books like the excellent Lone Wolf and Fighting Fantasy series, which are basically novel versions of the adventure game/RPG hybrid--and one of the benefits of those elements is that because the games were designed to be completed with three classes, there are always multiple solutions to puzzles, which does a lot to reduce the frustration from adventure game logic. There are some puzzles that need specific items to solve, but generally even if you're playing a thief you can try smashing your way through if you can't find out the right lock to pick.

( Read more... )
The games came out before RPG elements were cynically added to every game under the sun as a way to encourage grinding of arbitrary numbers and artificially extend play time--though after books like the excellent Lone Wolf and Fighting Fantasy series, which are basically novel versions of the adventure game/RPG hybrid--and one of the benefits of those elements is that because the games were designed to be completed with three classes, there are always multiple solutions to puzzles, which does a lot to reduce the frustration from adventure game logic. There are some puzzles that need specific items to solve, but generally even if you're playing a thief you can try smashing your way through if you can't find out the right lock to pick.

Always wizards forever.
( Read more... )