Castle raiding is the name of the game with The Mighty Quest for Epic Loot. You pick your character (you have four choices) in classic old school D&D flavor and you simply build from there. The gameplay in MQEL is pretty fast and furious. You simply raid castles that are numerically ranked (1, 2, etc.) with each containing its own combination of bad guys, trials and tribulations to get through (such as traps and whatnot).
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What’s neat about this game is that the castles come to you in two different categories: NPC and player made. The NPC castles are labeled in green and have a set amount of difficulty, reward and goals. One thing I learned by playing the NPC castles is that you shouldn’t go two levels above your character ranking. For example, if you want to raid a level 9 castle then you best be at least a level 8 to do so. Falling too far behind in castle rank versus character rank will create a lot of frustration, especially when you hit the boss levels. The boss levels in the NPC castle are a one-stop trip, meaning that if you die you have to restart the castle. That’s in comparison to the regular NPC levels which allow you to heal at the place you die and continue fighting from that very spot. That is a big difference and huge reason why you should really pay attention to the castle/character rankings. You could complain there isn’t enough flexibility to this ranking situation, but there are plenty of castles to raid while you’re trying to level up and get prepared for bigger and better things.
As for the player made castles, they’re as creative as the player making them. Some of them are simple with a few enemies (see mine for example) and you can just run through it without a hitch. Others, the higher ranking castles, really do put a challenge towards your gaming skills. For example, I played a level 9 castle made by a player and ran into a barrage of enemies towards the end of it. There had to be about 20-30 enemies in the small room with 7-10 voodoo enemies surrounding them. The voodoo enemies are especially fun to point out here because they bring the other enemies back to life as you’re killing them. It can be incredibly overwhelming at times with some of the player made levels, and going back to the NPC castles can act as a break from the sometimes impossible action.
Having said that, the player castles give you some unique goals to press your skills, outside of killing bunches of enemies. One of the goals is gaining stars through destroying gold wells inside the castle, breaking down doors and completing the task at hand in an appropriate amount of time. The other type of goal, one that I concentrated on the most when playing the gamer levels is how fast I could complete it. Each player castle has a timer attached to it showing you who has completed the game in a certain amount of time. It was my reoccurring theme and drive for playing gaming castles. I played more of these castles than NPC because of that reason.
Now, I haven’t mentioned this yet, so we better get through it now — this game is free to play from Ubisoft. The F2P games are notorious, at least by public opinion, for being money grabs. There’s enough evidence out there to show that even big name companies have fun charging out the ass for items in their F2P games. The only game I’ve seen to this point (outside of this one) that has convinced me that F2P games can certainly survive while not offending someone’s pocket book is Rumble Games’ KingsRoad, which is a lighter version of Diablo. Having said that, The Mighty Quest for Epic Loot didn’t bother me in terms of requesting my credit card. There were certainly things you could pick up to improve your life, but nothing particularly necessary. I pretty much played this game uninterrupted or bothered by the ‘money grabs’ that are typical of this gaming genre. Coins in the game were plentiful, castles could be replayed and there were plenty of opportunities to keep going without running into that wall of money requesting. This is only the second game I’ve experienced in a free-to-play system that didn’t feel like it was financially trapping my gaming groove.
So kudos to the Ubi folks in Montreal.
Shifting gears just slightly, obtaining items in the game, upgrading one’s character and expanding the gameplay experience in MQEL is actually pretty deep. You can change armor, weapons and do inventory upgrades through the coins you collect. You can gain better ways to fight in some upgrades, offering new, more powerful punches, swings and what not through this system. Again, this is incredibly deep and complicated for a free-to-play game. I was impressed by the system and it added more value to the overall gaming experience. There’s plenty of reason to love this portion of MQEL.
As for the presentation portion of this title, it’s nothing groundbreaking. MQEL’s style is simple with very cartoony models leading the way. There are moments of good shading, some great detail in enemy texture, but again nothing groundbreaking. The game has to be efficient, speedy and can’t be weighed down by graphical requirements — therefore it isn’t a surprise that the visuals are nothing special. What is special in terms of presentation is the smart-ass remarks that your character will continually spout. Funny voice-overs mixed with a cartoony feel makes for good presentation. Again, nothing groundbreaking, but enough for this type of game.
With all this said, is the game fun? It’s a fun title that is fast and furious. You’ve played this sort of game before somewhere along the way, so there’s nothing incredibly new about it. How it is presented and how it uses gamer-made castles makes it worth your time and money. The incredibly deep gameplay system with unique upgrades and different ways to mix/match your character also adds to the fun experience. The fact that it’s free initially does help the fun as well.
Anyway, onto the summary!
