Using a book or book series as the foundation for your game’s premise is not uncommon; it gives the developers or creators a chance to bring the universe to life through a digital medium. Some of the world’s most famous series or authors such as Harry Potter and H.P. Lovecraft have had their work adapted to video games, while other series such as The Witcher or Metro have found larger audiences thanks to their video game adaptations. Popular children’s book Beast Quest is no stranger to having its own game – albeit a mobile title – with its universe augmenting the imagination of millions of whippersnappers. Now, thanks to Maximum Games and Melbourne-based developer Torus Games, Beast Quest can now be experienced on consoles and PC for the first time. When reviewing a game such as Beast Quest it’s important to consider the audience that it’s intended for, which in Beast Quest’s case is the younger generation of gamers. However, no matter what age a game is aimed at there are still standards that need to be upheld, and while Beast Quest does an adequate job of bringing Adam Blade’s (the nom de plume of a collective of writers who collaborate on the series) fantasy adventure to a new medium, there are a raft of issues that hinder its adaptation.
How to save a dragon?
Primarily it is imperative that we are all on the same page: Beast Quest is a kids game, it’s not a sprawling open-world adventure game that will see you sink countless hours into. As such, expectations have been tempered as it would unfair to judge it as an adult game
Beast Quest sees the player take control of Tom, a young boy who has been chosen to save the Kingdom of Avantia from the dark wizard Malvel, who has put a curse on the normally peaceful beasts of Avantia, turning them from friend to foe. As such the beasts are causing mayhem in the towns and villages across the kingdom, so with the help of his companions Elenna and Silver, Tom must free the beasts from the curse. The narrative is based upon the four of the first six books in the 114-book series, and if you’ve read the books then you know how the story plays out. For the most part the story is a mirror image of the source material, however there have been a few minor adjustments made in order to keep the game flowing or minor concessions to budget restrictions. For instance, one major omission is Tom’s beloved steed Storm, however traversing Avantia isn’t difficult without your stallion, thankfully.
“Look a penny. Shotgun!”
As you would expect, the gameplay is fairly simple. You move from one area to the next, fighting different enemies before taking on one of the beasts in a three-round showdown. In each of the four areas there is a village or settlement where you can interact with the locals and take on side quests and bounty missions as well buy items from the local trader. Disappointingly, the side quests are just a bunch of fetch quests, which after the first few become rather laborious to complete.
The most unique aspect about Beast Quest’s gameplay is the combat. Instead of being able to move around at your leisure, the combat sequences happen inside a battle arena where you can attack from one of three positions – left, centre and right. It’s set up almost like a turn-based system, with up to three opponents standing in fixed positions from which they only move when they attack. Tom can use his light or heavy attack to deal damage to the enemy opposite him, or can charge the light and heavy attacks to hit all the enemies at once. Furthermore, there are a number of skills and abilities that Tom can unlock by using skill points. These abilities allow Tom to utilise natural elements such as fire, ice and wind to deal further damage, and Tom can call upon rescued beasts for help as well as Elenna and Silver. To protect himself Tom can either use his shield to block or can dodge and create a counter opportunity. Once you’ve mastered the combat mechanics (which won’t take long) the battles become rather easy and repetitive; even more so when you unlock a couple of abilities.
Who’s going down first?
One element of the gameplay that brings the experience down is the platforming sections, mostly due to the poor jumping mechanics which feature a slight delay between pushing the button and Tom jumping. Even though I felt like I timed each jump correctly, there were still numerous times where I fell to my death. Eventually, you’ll get used to the timing but I shouldn’t have to adjust due to a poor game mechanic.
The shortcomings of the game’s budget are most noticeable in its production values, with the visuals in particular looking rather dated. In fact, you’d be hard-pressed to find a game from the PS3/360 era that Beast Quest looks better than. But as they say, looks aren’t everything, and I doubt that the intended audience are going to pull out their digital pitchforks and lambast Torus Games into submission. However, as the game is running on Unity I feel like a bit more polish could have gone into the game’s aesthetics, with textures looking fairly rough and character models looking rather bland. I got the occasional glitch in my playthrough, which was to be expected. One in particular made the majority of the environment disappear while fighting Ferno. Furthermore, the voice-acting is adequate enough for what it is, but Tom’s incessant awful one-liners after combat or opening a loot chest eventually become unbearable. Performance-wise the game is passable, but there were several times where the game ran like a three-legged dog on its deathbed.
Don’t look so happy to see me
Final Thoughts
In order to discern whether Beast Quest is an ample enough video game adaptation I wondered whether this is something I would’ve played in my junior years, but the answer is about as varied as $2 bag of mixed lollies that I would’ve bought during the same time period (we’re talking 15-20 years ago). If you’re a fan of the book series and have been craving a video game take, then I’m sure you’ll find Beast Quest (the game) to be somewhat of a catharsis. For kids, there’s enough here to send them off on their first RPG adventure, but I don’t think the $69 admission has been justified. To be honest, I’d wait for a price drop before sending them off to Avantia.
Reviewed on PS4 Pro/ Review code supplied by publisher
- Torus Games
- Maximum Games
- PS4 / Xbox One / PC
- March 13, 2018
