Released: March 5, 2009

Developer/Publisher: Redshift/Chillingo

Verdict: Buy It ($5.99) if you dig all things old school

Pros: Vast world, endless time sink into RPG goodness

Cons: True to old school in graphics, gameplay and control scheme

So, there comes a time in every game reviewer’s life where he or she must face the dilemma: to finish, or not to finish. Yes, this only makes sense if the game actually has a start and a finish, or a finite number of levels. With this definition of “finishing” a game, I most definitely did not.

The Quest is a massive game. There’s supposedly FIFTY hours of gameplay in this thing. FIFTY. HOURS. The sheer number of game features could stun a reasonably sized monkey:

• A main story line full of magic, intrigue, quests and dialogue
• dozens of side missions/quests
• five races that can be customized with a variety of skills and characteristics
• a deep magical and alchemical system
• readable books, pickable locks, repairable items
• differing relationships and dialogue based on race, gender, fame, and clothing
• a fantasy card mini game at the inns
• the game has it’s own freaking MANUAL, fer pete’s sake!

I’m sorry, but this is starting to sound like a Fable II review. I am speaking of an IPHONE GAME. You know, that little device you keep in your pocket? Plays casual puzzle games while you’re in line at the store?

This is not a casual, play-at-the-dentist’s-office game. This is not a game your intrepid reviewer could realistically finish in the short time allotted to an iPHone game review. So, some basic impressions:

If you really liked old school RPGs, like Ultima and Might & Magic, you will DIG this game. It’s exactly like those, down to graphics and soundtrack. I, personally, never played those, being stuck in a computer-less cave called my the poverty of college at the time these were released. Let’s just say that I do not have an acquired taste for the graphical style and control scheme they seem to all use. Nor the overly florid lettering, or melodramatic plots. This game has ALL of these things, and, as such, is a pretty quality homage to the RPGs of yore.

The game begins with an epic story, full of kings and heroes. True to form, you are then asked to create a character, choosing race, class, gender, skills, subskills, etc. Honestly, I never know how to create this kind of character. The game can be played in portrait or landscape mode. I prefer the landscape mode, as it makes mroe sense to my brain. You can customize the screen as well, putting the controls to the left or right. In the new update (released 3/9/09) that updated the control system, which I didn’t really have a problem with, besides the fact that it’s a bit old school, and not a full 360? analog stick feel. The arrows were easy to touch, and if you hold on any one of them, your point of view moved as if you were running along. The new virtual control system, which is supposed to emulate more of an analog stick, or swiping feel to it seemed a bit off, as most non-physical button schemes do to me. There’s no tactile feedback to know when I’m off or on a particular button, and I tend to make mistakes when not looking at the controls. Luckily, in this style of game, quick response time isn’t that necessary. I turned the old style controls back on, and then found that even without the virtual controls, I could swipe my way around the map. WAY better, and works with my iPhone enabled brain.

The game and I got off on the wrong foot. I went in expecting my had to be held, to be given an easier RPG that matched the typical games I’ve played on the iPhone: easy to pick up, easy to learn, easy to play. This is not any of those things. It’s challenging, intense and, dare I say, HARD.

Bottom line, after playing this game for a fair amount of time, I’m gonna say it’s worth it. Once I started winning my battles, and figured out how to get around the world via the map and other directional cues, I started to get into the spirit of the thing. If you need the latest graphics and twitch gameplay, this game may not fit stay on your iPhone or iPod Touch very long. If your taste runs to a classic style of gaming, however, don’t hesitate to grab this one up right now.

Here are screenies right from my (very new school) iPhone: