I spent about an hour on Sunday poring over the selection of indie titles available over Xbox Live. It’s not an uncommon pastime for me, though very rarely do I find anything worth its weight in Microsoft points. Officially I went in there looking for Wizorb (which is a story for another day), but DLC Quest managed to catch my attention and I gave it the ol’ trial download. In an exciting twist, I found it plenty enjoyable and put down my points for the full game.
Before I start, the most important thing to note here is that the trial version of DLC Quest is roughly a third of the entire game’s content. Yeah, the full game is super-short; I completed it in less than half an hour. It only costs 80MSP though, which is roughly a little more than a dollar, and I feel that I’ve gotten more than my dollar’s worth out of the game.
DLC Quest is one big joke. It’s exactly the joke the title describes too; the game lampoons the video game industry’s current trend of selling you half of your game’s content separately from the game itself. Only you have to buy nearly all of this game via DLC (but the DLC is paid for with in-game currency, so it’s okay). At the beginning you character has no animation and can only move left. You’ll notice that there is no sound at all, and that you cannot pause. Each of these features must be bought as in-game DLC packs. Eventually you move on to other, more standard DLC items, like horse armor, a top hat, and a costume pack for the NPCs.
The basic gameplay consists of exploring the map and collecting coins with which you can buy the DLC packs you require to progress further. It’s kind of like a tiny little Metroidvania that plays out on two huge maps. You obtain a sword, but it’s really just a glorified hedge clipper. You can use it to whack the NPCs around, but the only thing you need it for is to remove bushes that block your way.
As I stated before, it took me less than half an hour to completely finish the game, and that includes collecting all the funky little in-game “awardments.” They’re the indie game stand-in for achievements, if you hadn’t guessed.
While the gameplay doesn’t give you anything new or really noteworthy, the important thing to note is that DLC Quest knows that it’s a big joke and plays to that as much as it can. The short conversations between the nameless hero and the NPC range from clever to snarky, and are almost always funny. There are even a couple little twists thrown in towards the end, and the final boss encounter will subvert all your expectations. The graphics are simple and charming, the way pixel graphics ought to be, and while the music isn’t exactly memorable, it’s enough to keep you bopping along for the short ride.
The thing I want to praise DLC Quest for most is it’s control scheme. Yes, it’s just running and jumping, but it’s running and jumping done right. I swear most of these indie platformer developers have no idea how a video game character should move. DLC Quest’s hero moves breezily along, whereas the heroes of most of the other indie platformers I’ve played (Endless Princess, Aurelia, Castle of Pixel Skulls, etc.) are either way too fast or move like they’re made of wood. Not that it’s a problem inherent to indie games mind you, as plenty of regular games suffer from awful controls. I guess the point is that if you character is going to be spending most of his/her time running and jumping, it’s not a bad idea for them to have the same feel as Mario.
Anyway, DLC Quest is a winner. If you’ve got half an hour to kill and 80 Microsoft points languishing in your account, there are worse ways to spend them.