Lock's Quest

Rating Everyone Genre puzzle Publisher THQ

From the creators of Drawn to Life, Lock’s Quest is a refreshing strategy game for the Nintendo DS.  The game follows the life of the young Archineer Lock as he battles the Clockwork army led by the evil Lord Agony.  While Lock’s Quest is a strategy game it is easier to think of it more as, Tower Defense with a build and combat phase.  The single player campaign is fairly linear consisting of 100 days of in game time.  The missions that Lock usually encounters are to protect objectives against waves of clockwork soldiers for a certain time period, thereby ending one day of game time.

Protection missions include a build and a combat phase.  Building usually consists of repairing structures and placing four types of objects on the map: walls, cannons, traps and helpers.  This phase has a certain time limit and costs Source, the game’s building material.  In the combat phase, also timed, Lock must defend the object using what he built.  Walls slow the enemy as they have to tear them down.  Cannons, which can be attached to walls, will attack the advancing enemy.  Traps can be laid on the ground and apply status effects if an enemy walks over them.  Helpers assist Lock in his tasks, which usually consist fixing failing structures/cannons which can be repaired faster using a rhythm mini game called “ratcheting.”  Lock’s other job is to attack the enemy using his special abilities.  This will usually yield him Source or Scrap, which can be used to discover new cannons, traps and helpers.

Protecting objectives are not the only type found in Lock‘s Quest.  One mission involved using a cannon to defend against the waves of Clockwork enemies.  Here there isn’t a build phase, but you are allowed to purchase power ups and other upgrades.  There are also times where you must beat boss robots, which are much physically stronger than normal enemies.  I can attest to this as I watched one boss robot tear through my three wall and cannon defense as though it were made of paper.  There is also a multiplayer mode where you and a friend build separate defenses and then spend Source to send clockwork robots at your opponent’s defenses.  Just sit back and see who can last the longest.

I had some expectations with Lock’s Quest that didn’t deliver.  The creators used an isometric view with a mix of sprites and 3D buildings.  While artfully done, it was hard at times to get Lock around objects in the course of battle. Walls or obstacles don’t become transparent when you run up against them and with no way to rotate the camera it can be hard to find Lock if he gets stuck behind an object while moving him.  While controlling Lock in combat and using his special abilities is fun, there is no way to upgrade Lock.  I think this feature would have improved the normal game as well as the multiplayer mode.  But, Lock’s Quest is still a fun game with diverse mission objectives, amusing story and plenty to play and explore with.  Add a friend for more fun.