The Unexpected Quest is an upcoming RTS style game developed by Rionix. The Unexpected Quest had been released on PC but is now coming to the Nintendo Store, releasing on January 23rd, 2021. The Unexpected Quest is an RTS-like, time and resource management game in the vein of The Settlers or Warcraft. Gameplay consists of the player controlling a small group of workers and soldiers as they strive to clear 8 story chapters, collecting resources, and building buildings along the way. Settings are very simplistic but not uncommon for Switch games, not offering much more besides volume sliders. Controls are easy and intuitive (just click on things and stuff will happen automatically). Some of the sensitivity controls make it seem like it was designed to be used with a mouse that can achieve a higher DPI rather than the small Switch joystick. I found that I struggled sometimes moving the joystick fast enough to kill an enemy or properly multitask with even a relatively small host of characters that I had to micromanage. The HUD is also simple and easy to understand. The inventory is clearly laid out and all items and buildings have appropriate descriptions. The text can be a bit small sometimes and there doesn’t appear to be a setting to change this. The green color on the options menu is not as obvious as I would like, and I was confused about what selection I was making many times.
Clicking Simulator
The first thing that I noticed when booting up a new game of The Unexpected Quest was seeing only 8 chapters. Surely, I thought, these were just the prologue and the game would open up as I cleared each chapter. I found, after a few hours, that I had been sorely mistaken. The game ended as abruptly as I feared. The chapters themselves, individually, are a mixed bag. Some chapters are more frustrating and time consuming than others but the first few are basically glorified tutorial levels. The maps do get bigger and less linear, which I appreciated. However, the façade of an open-ended game is betrayed by rather simple objectives.
Objectives are straight forward with barely enough room for any flexibility or varied gameplay decisions. Most of the choices in gameplay come from how individual players may want to approach an objective. You could spend the first 5 minutes just constantly farming resources until you can unleash a giant army of soldiers at every enemy in your path or build every building in a mile radius. Even so, most maps and encounters will be more favorable to one strategy or another. With only a small handful of unique combat and support units to unlock, players might fall into a bit of rhythm. Build houses, buy more workers, buy some soldiers, don’t forget to get enough gold for a mage, etc. Players will definitely find the ideal way to beat most of the encounters in the game.
Gameplay is also incredibly straight forward and simple; click on objects and your units will collect/do the task needed. Resource management is incredibly intuitive, only three resources need to be tracked: gold, food, and wood. The method for getting all three resources is also pretty intuitive: click on the floating pumpkin or bundles of wood and your food and wood numbers go up. Combat is pretty one dimensional. Again, the gameplay is simple since it’s a lot of just clicking on things. Click on a monster, your soldier will automatically attack it until either your soldier or the monster is dead. Quests scattered throughout the levels actually make me want to explore the map. Obviously the most ideal way to play is to just stock up on soldiers and rush to the end but the quests and their rewards opening up ways or giving me a healthy boost in resources to buy or build more advanced units and buildings give me a reason to want to complete them. On some chapters, it feels like you’re handicapping yourself by not doing the quests since they’re such a valuable source of gold.
An Homage to Better Games
The presentation of The Unexpected Quest is a bit of a mixed bag. The graphics are not actually that bad for a handheld game and the frame rate holds up rather well, something that a lot of AAA big budget Switch games struggle with immensely. The graphics are definitely more stylistic than cutting edge but there is a sort of charm to the art style. They remind me of games like World of Warcraft, which makes sense since World of Warcraft is just the MMO version of Warcraft, which The Unexpected Quest seems to be an homage to. The fantasy setting and aesthetic is preserved in this art style and it’s definitely one of my favorite parts of the game. However, everything else in the actual presentation of the game leaves much to be desired. Voice acting is kind of bad in like a hilarious way, a lot of grunts and low gibberish. The first time I turned up the volume to listen to the story I laughed at what I assumed was dialogue but turned out to be just a soldier and a worker grunting at each other about monsters that were up ahead. The story of the game isn’t bad, it’s basically irrelevant. The story functioned as a way to get from chapter to chapter. It is a working and basic storyline but it’s the least interesting part of the game and I found it hard to even care about the cutscenes.
Verdict
The Unexpected Quest is clearly a game made by and for people who want to take a trip back down memory lane, to games like Warcraft and The Settlers both in terms of graphics and art style as well as the general gameplay loop of resource management. Gameplay is simplistic and intuitive, but this also limits the creative potential of the player. There isn’t a lot of room to experiment with new ways to play. Once you find a strategy that works well, generally that is how you’ll approach all the chapters, making the gameplay stale within a few chapters. The game is also incredibly short, only having 8 chapters, which will take maybe one day’s worth of dedicated play to complete. Achievements are there for the completionists, but given that they don’t actually award anything besides filling up a menu card, I found them pretty meaningless.
If you are looking for a game that will remind you of old RTS classics, The Unexpected Quest may just be the game for you. For a low-price tag and the better part of an afternoon, nostalgia hungry fans can try to relive their childhood gaming memories. However, for most other players not as familiar with this genre, The Unexpected Quest doesn’t really offer anything substantial to warrant its asking price beyond pure curiosity.
Check Out The Unexpected Quest Trailer:
The Unexpected Quest will release for Nintendo Switch via the eShop on January 23, 2021. You can pre-order it now for the discounted price of $12.75.
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My name is Matt Tran and I have been playing video games since I could remember holding a controller. I've always been a hardcore gamer growing up, from the hectic MW2 and Halo 3 lobbies, my many journeys through several Halo clans and my current exploits with my Destiny 2 clan. I love shooters and RPGs and overanalyzing every component of every game I've played, from weapon stats to ideal perks. When I have time to play other games, I currently play Genshin Impact and Star Wars Squadrons.
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