Review: Lock's Quest

Mike Bantick
Saturday, 01 November 2008 09:40

Opinion and Analysis

Lock himself, along with a smattering of static Kingdom Force troops can also battle against the enemy.  Lock is especially effective as he garners special attacks and abilities as time goes on, though losing Lock in any battle ends the game.
Moving Lock around the map can be an exercise in frustration  Getting stuck behind objects, that due to the immoveable camera, are not easy to judge coupled with the slow moving display that navigates the larger battlefield will cause Lock to fail the task at hand from time to time.

But it is not such a bad idea to get used to failure.  Sometimes the hordes are just overwhelming, sometimes the set-up of defences is just obviously never going to work and sometimes Lock will get surrounded when being just that little too bold.

Variety comes in the form of new defences being built from the scraps of the fallen enemy – though the mini build game for this feature could have easily been dropped from the games final design. 

Other variety arrives in the alternate Siege style of game, launching turret shots at enemy attacking from a 2D side on view.

There are also occasional offensive missions that Lock must take on single handedly, rescuing townsfolk or similar.

Lock's Quest is a tough outing in hand-held strategy for a broad range of ages.  There will be times when you groan, especially when you may be four or five days into a set defensive structure that is obviously never going to get you across the line, requiring a reset of the map and, literally, back to square one.

The presentation and shallow learning curve belies a frantic real time strategic experience for any audience.

7 goo launchers out of 10.