Warhammer Quest Review: …and the Bad

Title: Warhammer Quest
Publisher: Rodeo Games Ltd.
Platform: iOS (iPhone 4+ & iPad 2+)
Release Date: Out Now
Price: $4.99 (£2.99/€4.49)

High Points

• Simple but fun dungeon-crawling gameplay.
• Slick presentation captures the Warhammer feel.
• Well-written campaign storylines.

Low Points:

• Questionable longevity due to potentially repetitive gameplay.
• Limited character options.
• Shameful money-grabbing DLC.

Quickfire Adventures

[Contd. from Warhammer Quest Review: The Good…]

To this point, I had been pleased with my game experience – Warhammer Quest was a turn-based game with its roots in classics like Diablo, Gauntlet and Wizardry.

It wasn’t trying to do too much, but everything it did do was executed with panache. I have played for several hours and, aside from some concerns about the potential tread-mill gameplay (I’m hoping there will be a little innovation and variety at some point) I was developing an affection and respect for Warhammer Quest.

Then it tried to take my money.

Picking Pockets

Visiting the Adventurer’s Guild to replace Kull the Red (my marauder who had died in an embarrassing incident involving accidentally sending him alone into a dungeon full of spiders), I saw that a Dwarf Trollslayer was available for recruitment. One of these ferocious and terminally suicidal Dwarf fanatics would be the perfect replacement and I eagerly selected the greyed-out character.

Suddenly, my device was “connecting to the App Store” and moments later it is demanding $2.99 (£1.99) to unlock an in-game character!

Browsing the other options on the store, as well as the Dwarf TrollSlayer, Archmage and Warrior Priest characters for $2.99, I was disappointed to discover the usual idiot traps of assorted in-game currency packs (60,000 Gold for $29.99/£20.99). There was also a Skaven storyline expansion pack, The Hidden Threat, for $4.99.

Hopes Crushed

I was angry and disappointed. As a paying customer, I felt aggrieved that I was being deprived basic game content for the simple purpose of attempting to prise more money from me. It is even less excusable than in a free-to-play title.

I had no real issue with the expansion pack – it doesn’t seem that unreasonable to have the option to extend the life and depth of the game with a new region of content (Reikland) after I’d had my fill of exploring the Stirland region. By then I would know whether I enjoyed the game enough to continue, but trying to charge me for a basic character is just insulting – it’s just a set of statistics and a few pixels which should be included in the initial purchase.

Flawed Judgement

To summarise; there is a lot to like about Warhammer Quest and the developers have done a great job of creating a polished, accessible and engaging game, but the purity of their good work is tainted by the unjustifiable attempt to extract more money from me than is reasonable.

I will continue to play – and hopefully enjoy – the Warhammer Quest content I have paid for, but the absence of character options and unnecessary greed worked into the game design will continue to leave a bitter taste in my mouth and likely prevent me, on principle, from purchasing the expansion pack.

Taking everything into consideration, I think Warhammer Quest deserves a GameSkinny rating of 7 out of 10. I might have gone higher, but for the throttled content.