1Quest

A quite nice dungeon crawler/explorer, overall.. even if the "turn-based" hashtag definitely doesn't apply xD The game consists basically of consecutive dungeon areas filled with the usual RPG things: chests, weapons, potions, and of course tons of monsters! So, you're gonna play mostly an action RPG - on one side everyone, included your main character, can do only an action at a time, but on the other side there are no turns - you can for instance hold the A shortcut to keep on attacking and so on.. it's just "one move/action at a time" for everyone xD The game has a lot of customization aspects - in fact, apart from choosing between easy and normal at the beginning, you'll have to choose for every single campaign ('cos yeah, if you die it's all to start over xD) a race and a job, like humans, orcs, elves, dwarfs and for your character you'll also have to choose between warrior, mage, rogue, priest.. just to start with, 'cos you'll unlock many other things going through the caves :P The game features also an awesome key rebinding window, which allows you to choose your favourite keys (by default they are quite crappy, not allowing movement with WASD keys and employing a mix of point n' click and directional keys/keyboard) for everything - autoattack, autoexplore (if there are no monsters on the visible field, you'll automatically move to the neares point of interest in the map), but also all the keys for what concerns potions, resting, looting, and of course action and movement! Well, the game lacks a tutorial at all, and the story is nice for a small indie game, nothing else.. so the HUGE amount of information (you'll also have a log on the upper left side of the screen telling you basically everything which happens in each turn in a text-based way) you're given can be a little bit puzzling - hitting the default S key for instance will bring you on screen around 20 voices that you can improve with experience points - from the usual strength, dexterity etc. skills to basically everything your character will be capable of: weapon proficiency, throw, dodge, shield, armor, resistance.. that can be quite confusing as I said, since in absence of a tutorial you'll have to rely only on in-game small descriptions, often not extremely clear. Resistance will "increase mental and physical resistance", while dodge will "increase defense" and so on. But really, the game never gets difficult so you're not forced to learn all these things in order to properly enjoy it. Visuals and audio overall are very retro-looking, and the soundtrack is quite monotonous. For what concerns graphics, as I said, it's all you see in the screenshots.. it's great, but there's a free version on Kongregate and there are no substantial differences. It's quite a Flash game, which weighs 70 megabytes to be more precise, and so you're given a really fast but also "poor" of details game. It's still good in my opinion, given its price and the lack of bugs during the gameplay. Though, the indie/Flash-based quality of the game comes out under every aspect, and probably this can me one of the major issues determining your positive or negative experience with this game. It's clear that it's an indie action game with no enormous claims - the backstory is quite light, you've got seven in-game days to save the kingdom and so on, as you can imagine; everything's similar to many other Flash dungeon crawlers I played throughout the years, from the armor/magic/weapon system to the way in which you and the enemies move and process any action. The game features also an endless mode, which can add some challenge if you get into the game's mood or.. if you've been playing these games on Kongregate before xD The basic mechanism never changes, but rather improves - going deeper in the levels and in the dungeons, you'll unlock new classes and new weapons and of course, upgrade your stats. It's nice that you can customize your character giving him or her more than a single path - magic and archery can work well together, and at the same time you can also choose where to put your experience points becoming a tank rather than an offensive mage or a stealthy ranger. Of course, everything's realized in just 70 mb of space and thus is very minimalized - customization is the core of this game, although you can't expect to play it for 50 hours since after having tried some builds the game gets repetitive and as I said, its only object is to kill monsters, gain experience and loot, improve your character and get to the end of the dungeon. The story and other RPG elements are really reduced to their minimum, apart from what concerns of course the character building thing. The lack of a tutorial here is really something bad, but you'll get eventually everything out by yourself - just take into account that you'll need some time, but if you're into these games I don't see why this small indie dungeon crawler will disappoint you :P Yeah, even if rebinded the controls still can be a little be frustrating and so on, but I'd never say that this game is made just for mobile phones. Of course it doesn't make a wise use of a PC environment being so minimal, but on the other side it's completely enjoyable as it is. All in all, as I said, random levels, 7 days to get to the boss' castle, lots of customization options but also lots of repetitive things. You'll get used to the level up system pretty fast even without a tutorial, and you'll be building your favourite characters in a few levels and then keep on upgrading both items, spells, weapons and stats. If you like a casual/indie roguelike dungeon crawler, with little space for story, graphics and audio and everything relying on a fast gameplay, you'll have surely some fun by playing this title. Not an extremely positive review of course, but given its small price I'd go for it. Don't forget as soon as possible to hit Esc and customize every key though! :) Oh, there's an AWESOME game called The Enchanted Cave 2 (on Steam too, not only on free Flash websites!) that's definitely better than this one, but reminded me of this one.. check it out too if you like, it's been around for many years I think :P Lots of similar mechanics :) But that one costs too much here, while the small price of 1Quest makes it a must-have for those who like indie dungeon crawlers, just be aware that it can be a little bit repetitive even if you're into the genre, but not as chaotic as it may seem in the first 10 minutes, trust me :P