Indie Game Review: DLC Quest

“DLC Quest” is a stereotpyical gaming tale. A random baddie takes a random princess and you, the random unknown “hero,” will undergo the task of getting the princess back. During your journey, you must obtain  coins scattered throughout the small, open-world environment in order to purchase DLC. The DLC varies from simple things such as moving back and forth to more important things like double jumps and using weapons.

Playing through “DLC Quest” was hilarious because the whole game is one giant parody of how absurd certain DLC has become in the video game industry.

At one part in the game,  a character was blocking my path and would not let me through unless I gave him a super special pre-order bonus because he “had” to have it.

There are other comedic points throughout the game poking fun at games in general. When I tried chatting with one of the NPC’s, they literally told me they have no purpose other than simply being there as an NPC.

You will explore the unidentified world in a two dimensional platformer fashion. Though it is a platformer, do not expect any deep or challenging gameplay. Since the game is meant to be a parody, there are not any real enemies in the game. There is not much to do with the platforming, but the controls felt solid when I needed to jump (when I purchased the DLC to do so of course).

The in-game achievements — or awardments — add some extra replay to “DLC Quest,” though they hardly do anything to kill one’s time. Even with completing the game’s story, exploring every part of the small world and getting all of the in-game achievements, it took me less than two hours to 100 percent the game. After fully completing the game, I never felt the urge to go back and play through again.

With an 8-bit style, the game has nice bright colors and ran smoothly. However, the bland backgrounds hardly added anything to the game. With merely two different areas to explore, the only difference between the stages is the transition from day to night.

Verdict

DLC Quest’s” biggest selling point is its journey even though it is an incredibley short one. The game’s statement about the absurdity of certain DLC in the gaming industry is well spoken and provided some great laughs along the way. Though the game is not addicting in terms of gameplay and the visuals are not anything stunning, it is a one dollar game (or 80 Microsoft Points), and one dollar of value is exactly what you are going to get. For one dollar and only requiring a mere 12 megabytes of memory to download, I would recommend playing through “DLC Quest” at least once for its humor.

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Score: 6.5/10