Customer Reviews

Lock's Quest

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Lock's Quest is most similar to a "tower defense" type game, but with several interesting twists. It blends aspects of puzzle games, level or platform games, strategy, RPG, and adventure. I recommend it as a solid strategy title for the DS, though it's not quite as strong as a dedicated strategy game like Advanced Wars.

A typical tower defense type game (such as Tap Defense on the iPhone or the flash-based Desktop Tower Defense) consists of waves of incoming monsters of increasing strength whose goal is to reach your inner sanctum. Your job is to place towers in a defensive arrangement on the playfield to rain down destruction on your foes and prevent them from reaching the goal. The monsters typically do not fight back and cannot interact with the towers at all, other than to be killed by them -- they simply run as fast as they can to the exit. Strategy consists of making maximum use of the terrain (e.g. creating a maze to force monsters into a dangerous route), combining different tower types for maximum damage (e.g. a tower that slows down enemies + a tower that does damage over time), and efficiently managing your limited defensive budget. In many tower defense games, you keep facing stronger and stronger waves until you are ultimately overwhelmed, and the goal is to see how long you can last.

Lock's Quest takes this typical tower defense formula and builds on it with RPG and adventure elements. A good parallel is how Puzzle Quest built on Bejeweled. Each individual combat or level in Puzzle Quest is simply a mini-game of Bejeweled, but the RPG and adventure game that connects the individual battles makes the whole much greater than the parts. Similarly, each battle in Lock's Quest is just a tower defense puzzle, but the puzzles are connected with a larger storyline wherein Lock can acquire new skills, new tower types, and new quests.

Another extension to the tower defense format is that Lock exists as a character on the battlefield itself. Lock can run around the battlefield in real time, engaging in hand-to-hand combat, using special skills, and repairing damaged towers. Towers become damaged because the enemies no longer mindlessly run to the goal, but can now attack the towers or can engage Lock directly. The result is a nice blend of tower defense and real-time strategy in 5-minute chunks.

Overall, the game works and is my current favorite game across all platforms. But, it suffers from a number of gameplay imbalances and design flaws and thus doesn't rate 5 stars. Most levels are too easy, then you'll be blocked by a level that's too hard. The plot is linear (after 15 hours of play) with no way to bypass impossibly difficult missions. And even though each combat mission is unique, and even despite the fact that there are mini-games to break up the monotony, the game becomes repetitive, especially when you're stuck repeating a boss battle many times until you can just barely beat it. In terms of design flaws, the designers chose to use a pseudo-3D isometric viewpoint, which is aesthetically my least favorite. But more importantly, this choice means that it's difficult to manipulate short objects such as traps behind tall objects such as walls. It also means that sometimes you'll try to click on a wall to repair it, and Lock will start running the wrong way to try to get behind the wall instead. Neither frustration makes the game unplayable, but bird's eye view games don't suffer from these problems. Players accustomed to Final Fantasy Tactics or other isometric view squad combat games should have no serious difficulty.

Also, I didn't rate Lock's Quest 5 stars because it's not in the same league as other games that do merit 5 stars. If you want a strong RPG on the DS, start with Zelda: Phantom Hourglass or Rune Factory; Professor Layton is a superior puzzle title for DS; and Advanced Wars is a superior strategy series for DS.

That being said, Lock's Quest works quite well. Fans of tower defense games should definitely pick it up, and those looking for a new puzzle+strategy+adventure game on the DS will also enjoy it.

From PlayingWithMyWeiner.com:

From the folks that brought you Drawn To Life, 5th Cell, comes Lock's Quest, a strategy RPG which recently won IGN.com's Best of E3 Strategy Game award. Don't let the game's faint competition at E3 deter you, though - Lock's Quest is a solid strategy game with a colorful steampunk art style. More importantly it brings the building-type strategy RPG firmly to the DS. You have four different building materials to mine and work with, ala Starcraft or Warcraft, and an able commander in Lock himself. The DS stylus is an excellent building and drawing tool, allowing you to fashion fortresses and walls with ease.

Lock's Quest is a must-buy for RTS and fantasy fans, and a good rental for anyone who wants to try something a little different.

I really like this game. This game is full of different kids of weapons, robots and traps. It's challenging. It has 3-4 min battles. There are different super attacks and abilities. It is important to have a strategy of when to use super attacks. Whenever you encounter an enemy, an ability will appear, such as an ability called "Attack Buff". You click the numbers in order. At some different levels you get new enemies and new materials to build walls. The walls are made for defending against soldiers, knights and archers. Sometimes you have to fight a boss. This is a game that is not boring and you can play for pretty long time without getting bored.

I highly recommend this game.

Note: I haven't played multiplayer, so I can't comment on that aspect of the game.

Lock's Quest is one of those games that doesn't look like it's going to be particularly amazing, but when you begin playing it's hard to put down. Everything from the story, graphics, gameplay, and music helps draw you in to this game.

Plot: You (Lock) start off in a small, peaceful village living with your grandfather and your sister Emi. After your town is attacked by robot-like enemies known as Clockworks you are forced to flee for your life. Unfortunatley, Emi is lost in the escape. You learn that Archineers are defending the kingdom against the forces of Lord Agony who is using the Clockwork army as his loyal minions. You train as an Archineer to serve the kingdom, and your adventure begins. There are a few twists that keep things interesting, and the dialogue is actually pretty good.

Graphics: Visually speaking, Lock's Quest is appealing to the eyes. The colors are cartoon-esque which gives the game a light-hearted feel, but there's more than enough detail to the game world to keep things looking crisp.

Music: Lock's Quest has music to match the graphic style. Nothing is too serious, so everything remains light-hearted and fun. Still, the music tenses up when the mood requires it. Nothing is amazing here, but it's appropriate for the setting and style of the game.

Gameplay: The Key to this "Lock" is the Stylus. You use it for pretty much every command in this game, and it works flawlessly. As far as game flow, you are given an objective(s) (protect certain targets, capture certain targets), and then you are granted a period of time to set up your defenses. Source (earned primarily through killing enemies) is the material used to build your fortifications, with each structure requiring a certain amount to build. Turrets are built for firing at enemies, walls are cheaper to build and add defense bonuses to your turrets, traps cause side effects to enemies that set them off, and helpers offer special benefits to your turrets/walls. You can place any combination of these structures on the field as long as you have enough source. Most maps have several rounds to play through, so you need to keep your structures alive as long as possible so that you don't waste source (between rounds you can spend source to repair damaged structures). Also, traps only last for the round that you build them in (fortunately, they're cheap). You unlock structures as you progress through the game, and you are able to build with sturdier material (wood, stone, then metal). While you're fortifications are doing the bulk of your work for you, Lock can fight enemies as well with a variety of attacks that are triggered with different uses of the stylus (making circles in a given direction to poison enemies, tapping numbers in ascending order for extra damage, etc.) He also has super powers building up as you attack enemies that can effect the entire board. Fortunately, Lock can also repair structures mid-battle at the expense of source, so if your walls are crumbling before your eyes there is still hope!

Overall, Lock's Quest is a great game for RTS and Tower Defense fans. You can make different fortifications each time you play, so there's replay value after you've beaten the single-player campaign. Although I haven't played the multiplayer yet, I'm sure it will also add plenty of extra play to an already amazing game.

I bought this for my son as a reward for getting school work done. He loved it!

Lock's Quest won a best of E3 award which looked promising. The day it came out I grabbed it, and its awesome. The instructions took a while, but most good RPG style DS games do.
Story is awesome, innocent but exciting. Gameplay is all about creativity, almost oposite of a hack n slash. Simple yet fun to play.
Good Game

Father: I enjoy playing this game too. Good use of the DS's platform. It changes up the different missions but reuses the strategy of building. It's not just another battle game of running around shooting things. You have to figure out how to apply the given building blocks, traps and helpers. Worth buying. It challenges my son in a constructive way. We'll be looking forward to more games this company puts out.

Son: This game is really cool. But it is hard for me to learn about it. I was looking forward to playing this game after seeing the commercial.

I bought this for my 8 yr old son, who loves the Professor Layton games. It is similar in that there are challenges to solve, but it doesn't have quite the same appeal. A good buy for your DS money, but not the best in class.

Got this for my 13 year old step-daughter, she loves it. She gets bored with games that are too easy and easily frustrated with games she can't figure out, so it is hard to find in between! This was perfect. Great game and very good value for the price!

This game is from the makers of Drawn to Life which I liked a lot so I figured I would buy it. You play Lock who helps defeat evil characters called clockworks. It's a fun game, good for kids or adults. You get to defend a village, fight in castles and more. Makes good use of the two DS screens. I have only been playing it a day but it seems cool and I can see why it won an award at E3.