Product Description

The Ultimate Construction Combat! A diabolical mechanical army devastates a kingdom as village after village falls under their wrath. Only a young, brave hero, Lock, is the Kingdom¿s last hope to survive the oncoming invasion. As a newly trained Archineer, Lock must utilize his skills to build customized towers, traps, walls, weapons, and other defenses in order preserve the precious source artifacts.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #6000 in Video Games
• Brand: THQ
• Model: 36178
• Released on: 2008-09-08
• ESRB Rating: Everyone
• Platform: Nintendo DS
• Dimensions: .62" h x 4.95" w x 5.73" l, .25 pounds

Features

• Build and battle in 100 different areas with varying terrains on the map
• In the Building Mode of gameplay you can utilize strategy to build structures, walls, weapons, and traps to protect the source artifacts
• In the Battle Mode, use the stylus to battle robotic invaders and launch special attacks moves to quickly eliminate enemies
• Multiplayer - Play with friends and battle against other kingdoms via Wi-Fi
• Flag Creator - Create and design a unique flag to represent your kingdom

Customer Reviews

tower defense with a twist
Lock's Quest is most similar to a "tower defense" type game, but with several interesting twists. It blends aspects of puzzle games, level or platform games, strategy, RPG, and adventure. I recommend it as a solid strategy title for the DS, though it's not quite as strong as a dedicated strategy game like Advanced Wars.

A typical tower defense type game (such as Tap Defense on the iPhone or the flash-based Desktop Tower Defense) consists of waves of incoming monsters of increasing strength whose goal is to reach your inner sanctum. Your job is to place towers in a defensive arrangement on the playfield to rain down destruction on your foes and prevent them from reaching the goal. The monsters typically do not fight back and cannot interact with the towers at all, other than to be killed by them -- they simply run as fast as they can to the exit. Strategy consists of making maximum use of the terrain (e.g. creating a maze to force monsters into a dangerous route), combining different tower types for maximum damage (e.g. a tower that slows down enemies + a tower that does damage over time), and efficiently managing your limited defensive budget. In many tower defense games, you keep facing stronger and stronger waves until you are ultimately overwhelmed, and the goal is to see how long you can last.

Lock's Quest takes this typical tower defense formula and builds on it with RPG and adventure elements. A good parallel is how Puzzle Quest built on Bejeweled. Each individual combat or level in Puzzle Quest is simply a mini-game of Bejeweled, but the RPG and adventure game that connects the individual battles makes the whole much greater than the parts. Similarly, each battle in Lock's Quest is just a tower defense puzzle, but the puzzles are connected with a larger storyline wherein Lock can acquire new skills, new tower types, and new quests.

Another extension to the tower defense format is that Lock exists as a character on the battlefield itself. Lock can run around the battlefield in real time, engaging in hand-to-hand combat, using special skills, and repairing damaged towers. Towers become damaged because the enemies no longer mindlessly run to the goal, but can now attack the towers or can engage Lock directly. The result is a nice blend of tower defense and real-time strategy in 5-minute chunks.

Overall, the game works and is my current favorite game across all platforms. But, it suffers from a number of gameplay imbalances and design flaws and thus doesn't rate 5 stars. Most levels are too easy, then you'll be blocked by a level that's too hard. The plot is linear (after 15 hours of play) with no way to bypass impossibly difficult missions. And even though each combat mission is unique, and even despite the fact that there are mini-games to break up the monotony, the game becomes repetitive, especially when you're stuck repeating a boss battle many times until you can just barely beat it. In terms of design flaws, the designers chose to use a pseudo-3D isometric viewpoint, which is aesthetically my least favorite. But more importantly, this choice means that it's difficult to manipulate short objects such as traps behind tall objects such as walls. It also means that sometimes you'll try to click on a wall to repair it, and Lock will start running the wrong way to try to get behind the wall instead. Neither frustration makes the game unplayable, but bird's eye view games don't suffer from these problems. Players accustomed to Final Fantasy Tactics or other isometric view squad combat games should have no serious difficulty.

Also, I didn't rate Lock's Quest 5 stars because it's not in the same league as other games that do merit 5 stars. If you want a strong RPG on the DS, start with Zelda: Phantom Hourglass or Rune Factory; Professor Layton is a superior puzzle title for DS; and Advanced Wars is a superior strategy series for DS.

That being said, Lock's Quest works quite well. Fans of tower defense games should definitely pick it up, and those looking for a new puzzle+strategy+adventure game on the DS will also enjoy it.

Another hit from 5th Cell
From PlayingWithMyWeiner.com:

From the folks that brought you Drawn To Life, 5th Cell, comes Lock's Quest, a strategy RPG which recently won IGN.com's Best of E3 Strategy Game award. Don't let the game's faint competition at E3 deter you, though - Lock's Quest is a solid strategy game with a colorful steampunk art style. More importantly it brings the building-type strategy RPG firmly to the DS. You have four different building materials to mine and work with, ala Starcraft or Warcraft, and an able commander in Lock himself. The DS stylus is an excellent building and drawing tool, allowing you to fashion fortresses and walls with ease.

Lock's Quest is a must-buy for RTS and fantasy fans, and a good rental for anyone who wants to try something a little different.

Great game just not much replay
Loved the game and the degisgn they put into it was great. Just after finishing the game even with the free range mode I found myself not really into it.