Ubisoft has given us the opportunity to take a preview look at their upcoming free to play loot-fest title, The Mighty Quest for Epic Loot, during its closed beta phase. The Mighty Quest for Epic Loot is a very interesting game that has two distinct game play mechanics: attack and defense. The Mighty Quest for Epic Loot combines the combat ideas of Diablo and Torchlight, with the tower defense game play of a game like Plants vs. Zombies, then sprinkles in a little city creation game play a la SimCity. While the game works on many different levels, one cannot escape the feeling that The Mighty Quest for Epic Loot is just missing something to really make this good game great.
The Mighty Quest for Epic Loot is set in the Kingdom of Opulencia, a kingdom so overrun with theft that the rich inhabitants used magic to lift all of their castles up into the sky for better defense. This has not quelled the constant conflict between each castle, however, nor has it stopped the inhabitants of Opulencia from continuing their quest for epic loot. You, as the player, get to choose one of three character classes to start your adventure. The three classes currently available are the Mage, the Knight, and the Archer. You are then given a castle in the Kingdom of Opulencia to use as a base of operations as you set out to invade the surrounding castles, plundering their riches.
The game play of The Mighty Quest for Epic Loot is set into two distinct elements: attack and defense. When you attack another castle, the game is played in the same way that a hack and slash title like Diablo or Torchlight is played. Using your mouse and keyboard, you invade the castle, decimating their defenses to reach the castle’s heart within a set time limit to receive an additional bonus. As you are killing the creatures that inhabit the castle, you will pick up loot that will help make your character stronger. You will also collect gold and life points, which helps you purchase upgrades for your own castle’s defense.
When you switch over to defense mode, you get an overview of what your castle currently looks like. Within your castle, you set up work areas that help upgrade your defenses and helps your character by creating more loot for their attack runs. You also get to assign and setup the traps and minions that will defend your castle from the other players who might invade it. The sections have set limits to how many creatures and traps can be set within them, so you will need to think strategically and build additional sections to your castle to get the most out of it. You will receive notifications when other players successfully raid your castle and just how much gold and life they were able to rob you of. You can even watch their replay to see exactly how they beat your defenses. This was a particularly neat feature, because I can see the behavior of my invaders and use that to try to stop the next batch.
Characters in The Mighty Quest for Epic Loot start off adventuring in their pajamas. As you find loot, your characters look will change to match the items that they are equipping. Raiding castles will also earn you experience points, that will be used to level up your characters. As characters reach higher levels, new talents and abilities become unlocked to use in your raids. These are assigned to the first four numbers keys, and to the mouse buttons, just like other games of this type.
The Mighty Quest for Epic Loot is feeling like a fairly solid contender for some of your free time in the future. The visual aesthetics of the game are very cartoonish and stylized, and work great for the quirky nature of how the story is presented. The Mighty Quest for Epic Loot does not take itself too seriously, as the name suggests, and sets the tone of the game off right away. One of the main drawbacks that I found during my time with the game was that the world never felt as “epic” as other games on the market, simply because most of the time you are raiding castles and not exploring the surrounding world. Compared to games like Diablo or Torchlight that are focused on the same type of loot grinding, The Mighty Quest for Epic Loot just feels empty and incomplete since you have no opportunity to explore larger areas outside of the level you are in. Still, The Mighty Quest for Epic Loot is shaping up to be an interesting game and worth your time, even if it is just to experience some of the humor injected into the title by the developers.
*This preview was of a game in closed beta status and not necessarily indicative of its final product
