We’ve been excited to play the remaster of the original Dark Quest game, especially as it uses the game engine from the most recent entry in the series. The game was originally released in 2015 and saw a following grow. The obvious nods to the timeless fantasy board game Hero Quest cannot be ignored, and Dark Quest is a fantastic homage. Even the dungeon master looks a little like the evil warlock from the 90s classic.
The remaster adds a lot of new features, most notably, Steam Deck support, controller functionality, achievements, improved game mechanics, new items, and a revamp to the village screen that acts as a hub world. Furthermore, it has now been ported to consoles, with Dark Quest: Remastered available on Xbox, PlayStation 5, and Switch. The good news is that anyone who bought the game on Steam the first time around gets the remastered features as a free upgrade.
The game’s heroes consist of a barbarian, a dwarf, and a mage. Each one of Dark Quest‘s heroes has unique abilities and stats, and you’ll need all of them to survive the dungeons. You complete a dungeon by defeating the enemies in each room and making it to the exit with at least one hero still alive. It requires strategic thinking, as charging in will lead to certain death. If all your heroes lose all their hitpoints, the game is over, and you return to the village. There are also stars to find on each level, which adds some longevity, as they’re required to fully complete the dungeon.
The first few missions are quite straightforward to complete and act more as a steady introduction to the mechanics. By the fourth mission, the ante really starts to raise and you’ll have to start thinking about each move you make. Another factor that is important to think on ealry is how to spend the coins collected. Even if you fail to complete the dungeon, any coins collected can be spent in the various shops in the village. Some items can be used by multiple characters, while some, like the dwarf’s trap disarm kit, are just for that hero.
One of the best aspects of Dark Quest is how you may fail a dungeon, but then have amassed enough coins to purchase a critical piece of kit. Then, going back into the same dungeon and managing to get through it because your heroes are more powerful. It’s a great feeling, and although it does mean you’ll need to grind and lose a few times, it’s all part of the fun. As you grind for coins, you’ll also start to learn the dungeon layouts, which means you have more information to perfect the strategy needed.
We played through the first half of the dungeons and by then had built up enough equipment, spells, and buffs to be confident in dealing with most situations. We also started to look at selling some equipment and replacing it with different ones, as each hero can only carry a set amount of items. It made things more interesting, and as some dungeons have more traps or more of a certain enemey type, you start thinking about what is the best loadout for your team.
Graphically, Dark Quest is fairly basic but does look exactly as you would expect from a top-down homage to Hero Quest. The dugeons and enemies are clear, as are the inventory sections and character stats. While the later entries in the Dark Quest series have more flair to them, we like the more basic layout of the original, as it does feel a bit more like a board game, which is exactly the point of the game. Overall, if you like turn-based fantasy games, this is a really great homage to one of the classics. We thoroughly recommend Dark Quest.
