Mighty Quest for Epic Loot
So I am gonna do this review a little bit different. My friend, Scroll, said I should do a first impressions, mid game, and complete review of the game. That means 3 reviews in total for one game. I'm enjoying the game and gonna play it for awhile so I figured, why not. This means, the full review won't be completed until after I have hit end game content. I will still do a mechanics and game-play review but won't put my complete opinion of the full game until I get to the end of the current content. Let's get into the usual though.
Character Game-Play/MechanicsThe game works just like any dungeon crawler - you run through dungeons or castles that other people have built to get loot and gold. Who doesn't like loot and gold?
Each class has about 10 to 12 unique abilities but you can only use four at a time. As you level your character, you will gain more abilities up to level 10-12, and after that, the spells/abilities will become more powerful as you level. Right now, there are four classes you can play (one you have to buy for early access): Knight, Archer, Mage, and Runaway. Each one has a unique style of play, though I wouldn't say any of the classes are over powered compared to the other. They each have their advantages and disadvantages. However, when you first start playing, you can only use one of the four, so choose wisely. The Knight is your basic hack and slash melee character. He's really tanky and does minimum damage. You basically run in and hack your enemies to pieces. The Archer is the ranged physical damage character, if you couldn't tell by the name. He is extremely squishy and does a fair amount of damage. Because of his lack of sustain, the best way to play him is to kite your enemies around. The Mage is... well, a magic user. He is extremely squishy as well and does a lot of area of effect damage. Most of his spells have a good amount of distance so kiting is needed. Some of them even slow your target or remove them from combat for a small period of time. The Runaway is a mix of range and melee skills. I would consider her to be a bruiser. She can take some damage, but she's not as tanky as the Knight. Her damage output is lower than the Mage or Archer, but much higher than the Knight. Most of her skills have a stun or knock-back to them and can be combo'd together. |
Castle Game-Play/MechanicsI mentioned that you go through castles that other players have built to get loot and gold. You also have the ability to make your own castle that other players can attempt to conquer. This has recently been re-done because the past set up was fairly faulty and easily manipulated to make it nearly impossible for anyone to get through your castle.
Currently, you can have as many creatures in one area as you please as long as you have enough 'points' and 'life crystals' for all the creatures... but you have to be able to complete your castle before others can attempt to run through it. The game will time you as you complete your castle and your time will be what other people must beat to get the full prize of completing your castle. You'll gain access to additional rooms as you level up: the higher level you are, the more rooms and you attach to your castle. This allows you to hide your mines through out your castle. To get the full reward, players will have to 'destroy' your mines before completing your castle. |
First Impression
So far, I have played the Knight and Mage to level 8 and the Runaway to level 11. I haven't really come up to a challenge that I haven't been able to over come but I hope that changes in the future. I might have not completed the castles in the given time but I have eventually beaten them all.
I can already tell that the reward system for completing a castle needs some work. You can earn up to 3 stars for completing a castle. The first one is for just completing the castle. The second is for completing the castle faster than the owner has. The third is for destroying the mines that the owner has set up in the castle. Each star earned gives you more 'crowns' which effect your drop rate for loot and place you into 'leagues'. The main issue I see with this is the 'first star' requirements. I don't think just completing the castle should give you a star. If it were killing all the creatures in the castle instead, that would actually be a challenge.
Also, after completing a castle, you loot their chests that contain gold and life crystals. As long as the castle isn't under protection from being looted before you have completed it, you can take their riches, even if you haven't earned all three stars. This wasn't the case when the game was in closed beta. It was originally as long as you completed the castle in the time given, you can loot their chests. Now, that they have the star system in place, they could make it so that you have to earn all three stars to gain access to the castle's chests. This would make the stars actually matter in the game instead of just giving you crowns that slightly increase your drop rate.
Another thing I am noticing is players are just over loading one room full of creatures, thinking that all the creatures will attack the intruder all at once. This is not the case. An intruder can only 'aggro' or gain attention of up to 36 points of creatures. When building your castle, each trap and creature has a set point value. For example, a Cyclops has a point value of 6, a 'Count Snottingham' has a point value of 26, and a Bone Puppeteer has a point value of 3. If you put 2 Cyclops, a Count Snottingham, and a few Bone Puppeteers all in the same room, the Cyclops will run away from you as you take on the Count Snottingham and the Bone Puppeteers. I wouldn't say this is a flaw in the games mechanics, because it's doing exactly what it needs to: stopping people from using a defense that is impossible to overcome without knowing what you are in for. Although, this doesn't seem to stop people from attempting to put these kinds of defenses up, it is giving intruders an advantage over builders that are using these tactics. I would say the game needs a tutorial explaining this and an in-game hud reminding you while you are building your defenses.
Before I go to play more of this game, I would like to state that this game is definitely not pay-to-win. Anyone stating that, hasn't actually played the game, or has played it for 5 minutes and realized they can't play all the characters from the start. The characters (after your first one) cost 'bling' which is an in-game currency that can be bought with real money or can be earned through quests throughout the game.
My 'first-impressions' rating for this game is: 8/10
Definitely give this game a shot. Overall, I am excited for what this game has in-store for me. Once I have gotten further into the game, I will be back with another review.
I can already tell that the reward system for completing a castle needs some work. You can earn up to 3 stars for completing a castle. The first one is for just completing the castle. The second is for completing the castle faster than the owner has. The third is for destroying the mines that the owner has set up in the castle. Each star earned gives you more 'crowns' which effect your drop rate for loot and place you into 'leagues'. The main issue I see with this is the 'first star' requirements. I don't think just completing the castle should give you a star. If it were killing all the creatures in the castle instead, that would actually be a challenge.
Also, after completing a castle, you loot their chests that contain gold and life crystals. As long as the castle isn't under protection from being looted before you have completed it, you can take their riches, even if you haven't earned all three stars. This wasn't the case when the game was in closed beta. It was originally as long as you completed the castle in the time given, you can loot their chests. Now, that they have the star system in place, they could make it so that you have to earn all three stars to gain access to the castle's chests. This would make the stars actually matter in the game instead of just giving you crowns that slightly increase your drop rate.
Another thing I am noticing is players are just over loading one room full of creatures, thinking that all the creatures will attack the intruder all at once. This is not the case. An intruder can only 'aggro' or gain attention of up to 36 points of creatures. When building your castle, each trap and creature has a set point value. For example, a Cyclops has a point value of 6, a 'Count Snottingham' has a point value of 26, and a Bone Puppeteer has a point value of 3. If you put 2 Cyclops, a Count Snottingham, and a few Bone Puppeteers all in the same room, the Cyclops will run away from you as you take on the Count Snottingham and the Bone Puppeteers. I wouldn't say this is a flaw in the games mechanics, because it's doing exactly what it needs to: stopping people from using a defense that is impossible to overcome without knowing what you are in for. Although, this doesn't seem to stop people from attempting to put these kinds of defenses up, it is giving intruders an advantage over builders that are using these tactics. I would say the game needs a tutorial explaining this and an in-game hud reminding you while you are building your defenses.
Before I go to play more of this game, I would like to state that this game is definitely not pay-to-win. Anyone stating that, hasn't actually played the game, or has played it for 5 minutes and realized they can't play all the characters from the start. The characters (after your first one) cost 'bling' which is an in-game currency that can be bought with real money or can be earned through quests throughout the game.
My 'first-impressions' rating for this game is: 8/10
Definitely give this game a shot. Overall, I am excited for what this game has in-store for me. Once I have gotten further into the game, I will be back with another review.
A Little Further In...So I've gotten a little further into the game. Right now, my Knight and Archer are both level 15, while my Mage and Runaway are at level 11. I wanted to wait to write another part for this review until after I've hit level 20, but with the new patch coming in and the amount of stuff I have written down that I want to go over, I decided to jump on it now.
The challenge level after hitting level 11 increased dramatically. Before I was basically walking through castles. Now, I am running into some difficulty, which is good. There are still several problems I see after level 11, however. One problem is what I am calling 'High Risk but No Reward'. I am around 400+ crowns so I have a pretty decent record with my invasions... problem is, when I do invade, I am only winning about 1 to 5 crowns, but if I fail I lose about 40 crowns. I know that they have to put a cap on how quickly you can earn crowns but there's a difference between a gradual decrease and almost an immediate stop. For those who don't know, crowns are basically the 'ranking system' in Mighty Quest. The more crowns you have, the better 'league' you are placed in and more resources drop for you. These are both pretty good things, but they lead into my next issue. From what I've noticed, your 'league' placement doesn't really mean anything. Besides getting a reward when Mighty Quest does it's 'league placement update' everyday, it basically means nothing. Unlike most games that have a ranking system, this one has no benefits. It does nothing for the castles that appear for you to attack, nor change the level of invaders coming to your castle. Besides getting a little bit more gold/life crystals to drop for you during an invasion, crowns basically mean nothing. |
Alongside that, there is no diversity between the player castles. Players have all found the 'cheap tricks' for their castles and only use those. Not saying that they don't have an imagination, but this makes it so you basically are repeating the same actions over and over... and over... and over (repeat 'and over' 40 more times) again. It becomes mind numbing after the 5th spring board and fire trap set up. And even more mind numbing after running into your 9th room full of 9 Zekes.
Now, my brain goes, "How can these issues be 'fixed'?" Let's start with the ranking system. They can easily make it so that the castles that appear on your screen for invasion are only in your league or around the number of crowns you have. This will make the 'league' that you're in matter and somewhat fix the 'High Risk but No Reward' issue, because when facing someone with the same amount of crowns as you the gain/loss ratio for crowns is much more balanced. To make crowns even more useful, make it so that you gain access to buy-able gear the more crowns you have. This will make it so that crowns are more important instead of just... being there. Everyone likes to 'meta-game' - it's just a natural thing that happens when you have an online game that pits players together. Problem is, that players are going to use the same tricks over and over again, because they work. So how can you fix that? Make it so that when a player dies to a popularly used trap, you gain a lower amount of crowns compared to if a player dies to something that isn't used a lot. So that means if you are one of the many players that have 9 Zekes in one room and someone dies to it in your castle, you will gain little to no crowns for that invasion. This will force players to have diversity in their castles. This also means there needs to be something in the HUD, when building your castle, that tells you how frequently used the items within other players castles are. |
Despite the issues I am seeing, the game is incredibly fun. I am still excited to play this game and experience it's end game content. I'll write another section for this review after hitting level 20ish.
A Little Further In... Rating: 7.5/10
A Little Further In... Rating: 7.5/10
Over the Horizon
As you all may have noticed from my posts on my blog, I've gotten a lot further in the game. Currently, my Archer is my main character at level 25. My Knight is level 15 and my Mage and Runaway are level 11. After the patch, my thoughts about Zekes have subsided a little. I am happy that they can't do critical damage anymore. It really made their damage too much when they could. Now I think they are really balanced minions. Still annoyed with the fire trap and spring board combination. Early on, it is way too strong and even at higher levels it is overly used. Kind of bored going through the same set up over and over again, each being slightly different. Being this high in levels, the set up has become a mass pit of fire traps, a line of spring boards in a narrow hallway, jelly walls at the entrance of the hallway, which is surrounded by ballistas. Every once in awhile someone will put corrosive traps in between the spring boards or just around the area in general. I truly believe having a 'popularity' system that diminishes the amount of crowns you gain from killing someone with a popular trap would really force people to be more diverse. I know there isn't that many traps in the game but it would force people to use more than that combination.
Now that we have gone over what I went over in the last part of my review and how the patch effected it, let's go on.
The game changed when I hit around level 20. Even though there are still a crap load of spring board/fire trap set ups, people are starting to slowly be more creative. Mainly just to improve their spring board/fire trap set up, but at least its something! I'm still trying to find a good set up for my castle. So far, every time I set up my castle, someone speeds right through it without using any potions. I've used set ups I personally hate (read above to see what I mean) to set ups that I think are fun and challenging. I just don't seem to be getting anywhere when it comes to killing invaders in my castle. And the prices for upgrading things is really ridiculous at this point. I know that you can't just give players better traps and minions and such, but right now, I don't see any way to getting more gold to improve upon my castle, unless people stop invading my castle... or mines produced more gold. I want people to invade but the loss is too drastic. Most of the time, I have my shield up because I want to be able to improve on my set up, but it just doesn't seem to be enough. You would think with all the invasions I do, I would have more resources, which leads me to my next topic. Why is it that even at high levels, the gain in resources and crowns is so little compared to the loss? I mean, if I beat a castle, I usually get like 4 to 10 crowns, but if I lose to one, I lose 30+ crowns. (For those who don't know what crowns are, it is basically Mighty Quest's ranking system.) I shouldn't have to try to invade a castle that is 3 levels higher than myself to get a gain in crowns compared to the loss. It basically deters players from playing after they get a high amount of crowns and sucks the fun out of the game. I want to go invade but I don't want to risk almost everything I have for a extremely small gain. It's just not worth it. |
I'm going to continue playing the game, even though the stakes are extremely too high. I am enjoying playing the game, just not seeing where the game is actually going to progress in any manor in the future. It seems the game is stuck where it's at if it doesn't add any more creative castle content. There aren't enough traps and minions for castle makers to be creative with their set ups. So it forces them to use the spring board/fire trap set up because they don't really have anything else. So besides being a 'High Risk but No Reward' problem, there is a huge lack of creative options.
I'll be back once my Archer hits the highest level in the game, which shouldn't be long.
Over the Horizon Rating: 7/10
I'll be back once my Archer hits the highest level in the game, which shouldn't be long.
Over the Horizon Rating: 7/10