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Should You Get...
DLC Quest
No. No you shouldn't. Okay, we're done here, let's close it up for the night and... Oh,
alright.
DLC Quest is a work of satire, as the opening screen is quick to tell you. Elements of the
game, such as music, animation, jumping, and pausing, are unlocked via an in-game shop
and are meant to parody the use of downloadable content in games. That's pretty much the crux
of the game. The whole game amounts to collecting coins which allow you to purchase upgrades
which change things about the game, allowing you to progress to the next area- and I mean,
singularly, the next area- and finish the game. That's it.
But I mean, come on, there's, there's platforming but not really. There's characters who...
don't do anything. There's a couple of jokes. One of them was funny, I think. The reference
to the infamous Oblivion Horse Armor was clever, as is it's unlikely purpose.
But to be honest, there's not much game in this game. It's actually kind of hard to find
a place to start criticizing it because it's all just so very generally inoffensive. Nothing
is really awful, but nothing at all is very good. The satire it was aiming for was a good
concept, and I'm willing to grant that, executed well, it might carry the game in spite of
the minimal content- but even the satirical element falls through. It's the kind of game
that might appear on flash sites like Newgrounds or Kongregate, not something that, I'm sorry
to say, belongs on Steam.
Oh yeah. There WAS a game on Newgrounds that had exactly the same exact concept. Except
it did it far better, was actually kind of fun, and had something intelligent to say,
enough at least that I remembered it this long after playing it. Upgrade Complete wasn't
parodying DLC practices, but rather the tendency of flash browser games to lean heavily on
upgrade systems and repetitive gameplay involving currency collection. In that game, as in DLC
Quest, as you collected currency, you could unlock more and newer features. However, unlike
DLC Quest, it went all out with it. There was a lot to do, there was meaningful and
satisfying gameplay, of the level you would expect of a flash browser game, and it was
actually pretty fun upgrading your game from a white screen with some text to a full-fledged
vertical shooter. And at the end, it actualy had a satirical element, poking fun at you
for spending all this time upgrading the game. It was a fun game and worth taking a look
at.
DLC Quest, in contrast, isn't worth your time, I'm sorry to say- and certainly not your three
dollars. Honestly, I don't think it was worth the seventy-five cents I paid for it. It's
basic idea, of gradually unlocking elements of the game, is a good one, with potential
for some interesting things, as Upgrade Complete demonstrates, but one it dramatically fails
to take advantage of or do anything really clever with. So I have to say No: You Should
Not Get DLC Quest.