The Dink Network

Dink's holidays are interrupted when he comes across the remains of a brutal raiding party. He agrees to help the sole surviving woman complete her journey to the Monastery.

*Best download of october 2002*

*Best D-Mod of 2002*

Pilgrim's Quest is an excellent D-Mod, and ranks up there with the other Epics, like Stone of Balance, Prophecy of the Ancients, and Friends Beyond 3.

What's Good?

Graphics: Egad. Simply tons of new, really good quality graphics, from new enemies, to whole new lands...

Innovations: Dink sailing in his boat is quite fun, and the Throwing Star is a good addition to Dink's arsenal. Six different stats also liven things up a bit. I also liked the secondary uses for Acid Rain, and all of the spells were quite original and good.

Balance: After playing Stone of Balance, which I had resorted to cheating my way through, I was afraid I would have to do the same with Pilgrim's Quest. And after the first hour or so of playing, I was sure of it... but Pilgrim's Quest is actually pretty balanced. If you don't take care and level-up your character, you can get in some impossible situations (such as being screen-locked with Rabbits, when you have no chance of damaging them, let alone killing them). Enemies usually leave behind gold, so it wasn't that tedious to kill them in pursuit of leveling up. While some enemies will be way too difficult to kill when you first encounter them (Rabbits, those Chameleon dinosaur things), you'll eventually be able to decimate them without nary a scratch.

Basic Layout: One part of Stone of Balance that I hated was as soon as you got familiar with a land, you moved onto another chapter, and your familiarity was useless. Pilgrim's Quest softens that blow quite a bit... there are three rather large 'chapters'. So during your first couple hours of play, you can still go back to the first town, and find even more secrets.

Secrets: You're rewarded greatly with exploring... though some of the 'secrets' are almost a requirement in order to complete the stat quests.

What's Bad?

Note: the following are more nitpicks than anything... there really isn't any huge flaws in Pilgrim's Quest, but there are a few minor things that I didn't like.

Riddles: The riddles seemed much more difficult than the ones from Stone of Balance... in SOB, I just thought for a few seconds and got the answer. Not so with Pilgrim's Quest. I did resort to asking other people and scanning the board for solutions to most of them... my mind just wasn't understanding the hints.

The Stat Quests: Most of the quests are quite good and original... but there are more than a few irritating stat/level up quests, where the sole goal is to have a certain value for a stat. Also, true to the original game, you can only allocate one stat per level up, so you'll probably use it on the stats that matter the most (strength/defense/magic) and ignore the others, and pay for it when you're trying to scavenge for other stat boosts.

The Perspective: The new graphics are really good... but for some reason they just don't look exactly right... especially the buildings. Its probably because the camera angle Simon rendered the graphics at isn't the same exact camera angle used in the original game. This doesn't have too many bad effects, but it is noticeable. Also related to the perspective is the Frigate's graphics... it feels like the depth dot is completely messed up when you change directions.

Unwarranted Deaths: Simon fixed this in the v1.10 patch.

Story: The story is pretty good, with some really unexpected twists and turns... though there were a few times where I questioned what I was doing. For example, I never understood what was up with the Fairy Nuff guy... apparently Dink insulted him, but I couldn't recall that ever happening. In fact, I didn't know what I was doing for most of the Land of Punz (snow).

The Ending: After you beat Pilgrim's Quest, it is a bit of a let down... there simply isn't a good ending that rewards you for your hours of playtime.

Overall: If you have the means to download all 38 MB of Pilgrim's Quest, do so. You won't regret it.