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CNET editors' rating:
4.0
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Excellent
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Product summary
Lock's Quest's intuitive build mode and frantic, engaging battles are great for an action strategy game on the go.
Specifications: ESRB: Everyone ; Genre: Strategy ; Elements: Action - adventure , Strategy / tactics / wargame - real time ; See full specs
Price range: $18.99 - $29.99
Gamespot editors' review
- Reviewed on: 09/26/2008
- Released on: 09/08/2008
The Internet is chock-full of flash-based games in which you build a fortress and then protect it from invading armies, zombies, or cows. In Lock's Quest, developer 5th Cell has taken the addictive qualities of those games and deepened the experience with strategy and role-playing elements. The result is an exciting and engaging genre-blending game packed with action.
The world of Lock's Quest revolves around source, a mysterious resource that is used by archineers to build defenses and by the evil Lord Agony to fuel clockwork minions. When these minions show up in Lock's peaceful little town, the talented young archineer teams up with an injured soldier to protect the villagers until they can be evacuated. During the siege, Lock loses track of his sister, Emi. With the town lost to the clockworks, Lock sets off on a quest to find his sister and uses his archineer skills to help out where he can. The story is slow to start, but it's generally entertaining and contains a few unexpected twists that will keep you playing.
Each stage is split into two phases: building and battling. During the building phase you're given a couple of minutes to assess the layout of the land and build and repair defenses. Dragging, dropping, and arranging pieces on the map is easy, and the organized interface is responsive, which is good, considering that you'll usually be building in a hurry. Building complex fortresses in less than two minutes is simple for the most part, but there are times when the isometric view makes building difficult. Objects and environments become transparent when you try to place items near them, but on some maps, it's still hard to tell if a piece is flush with the scenery. It's frustrating to be in the heat of battle and find out that the wall you thought was impenetrable has a gap big enough for enemies to waltz through.
Building flaws are just some of the many things that need to be attended to during the hectic battle mode. In addition to repairing fortresses, you'll need to take care of your mission objectives--which can be anything from rescuing hostages to defeating selected enemy encampments--and fight off some of the clockworks in hand-to-hand combat. To engage a clockwork, you simply tap it with the stylus and watch Lock pummel away, and that works about 80 percent of the time. When the screen gets crowded, it gets harder to select the enemy or object you want. In later levels you will build massive fortresses as you fight off hundreds of enemies. Battles are intense and chaotic as you scramble around the map repairing defenses, fighting enemies, and collecting source. Nearly every action has a quick minigame associated with it. Whether it's grinding gears to execute a finishing move or ratcheting levers to repair a broken turret, the battles keep you engaged as you furiously scribble all over the screen.
In most stages, you'll have to go through at least three consecutive build-and-battle phases. A steady stream of new traps and defenses (which you have to assemble with collected scrap from the battlefield) and a wide variety of mission objectives keep the battles fresh. Sometimes you need to defeat every enemy on the map, and other times you have to survive until the timer runs out. The constantly changing objectives keep you on your toes and give Lock's Quest an addictive, "just one more" appeal.
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Lock's Quest (DS):
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