The Dink Network

Quest (The)

A Concentration/memory match game. From the COTPATD project.
July 3rd, 2021
v1.00
Score : 7.2 good
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yeoldetoast
Peasant They/Them Australia
LOOK UPON MY DEFORMED FACE! 
I had always passed over The Quest, as its name was just so impossibly boring and uninventive that I couldn't possibly imagine it could be worth playing. During my recent upgrade of Dink Solutions, I had to trawl through each and every walkthrough with a fine-toothed comb in order to make sure they were up to scratch. Upon examining the walkthrough for The Quest, I was treated to this little gem which convinced me otherwise:

[I'm not sure what the author of this D-Mod was thinking here. Inside the house is a black man. The talk sequence here features some racist jokes, which I find repulsive. This is simply not done and I hope the author will change this soon.]

In a world that condemns and vilifies individuals for indiscretions such as this long after they're committed, I knew I had to play it and give it a look-in. To my delight, I found The Quest to be a non-stop montage of highly unique puzzles interspersed with even more unique dialogue, as well as jokes that oscillate between puerile and witty, with a very heavy proto-Reddit/Bash.org sense of humour permeating the game's script. The stones with the Simpsons quotes and funny sounds had me beside myself and made me thankful I had bothered to play.

In the house containing the black man however, I was most disappointed to find out the script was attached to a bench rather than the black man himself, and small oversights like this are littered throughout. The puzzles, as unique as they are, unfortunately aren't scripted to be random. What this mean is that after one play-through, there is basically no replay value, and nothing further to be discovered, assuming you didn't miss the secret areas the first time around. Had the puzzles been generated randomly, they almost could have been released standalone, or as a script in another D-mod. The map screens are also incredibly bland for the most part, although the author addresses this with some fourth wall-breaking commentary late in the game.

The most interesting aspect of The Quest, at least for me, is that upon releasing Corporate Managerialism, at least one person accused me of ripping off the gameplay style. I had a look in my installed D-mod list to see if I had played it around the time of release, but noticed that I had never even installed it! The accusation is absolutely spot-on however, as the gameplay is uncannily identical, with weird puzzles and inappropriately difficult quizzes constituting the bulk of things, all topped off with that particular brand of Reddit nerd humour. On my part though, this imitation was purely coincidental, and no conscious effort was made to replicate The Quest. I imagine that whatever debilitating psychological illness that inspired Srednar to make The Quest must have also infected me, except for the overt racism bit.
March 28th, 2006
v1.00
Score : 8.3 good
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"The Quest" is a short but amusing dmod with some impressive technical acheivements but relatively crude map work.

Style: 8
This dmod relies heavily on its sense of humor, and in this case, that's a good thing. The events and dialogue are surprising in an amusing way; the dmod satirizes the RPG genre (which has been done before,) but it does so in a novel way. There is a lot of wordplay, (dink tries some pickup lines, plays the dozens, etc.) which, though probably not original, is quite well integrated into the game. On the downside, some of the humor is kind of bewildering; for instance, I couldn't figure out why Dink decides to regale Will Smith with jokes about black people.

The map is small and not very well decorated, but most sprites (trees, furniture, etc.) have been scripted to say something mildly witty when punched or interacted with. I found no bugs in the entire dmod, which is pretty impressive, even for a work this small.

Gameplay: 9
There's very little fighting in this game: just three screens worth at the end. All of the enemies are interesting, though nothing revolutionary. The last battle in particular seemed way too hard (I had to cheat to beat it,) but I missed one of the secret areas, so perhaps that explains the excessive difficulty.

Mostly, the challenge lies in a series of riddles and puzzles which Dink must solve. (I particularly liked the badger quest.) The riddles are multiple choice questions on mostly academic subjects. The second math riddle didn't really make sense, but the rest are generally ok. Srednar does seem to have an alarming preoccupation with Germany's role in WWII; there is a quiz focused on this subject.

The puzzles are well known (three card monte, etc.) but probably quite difficult to code. The bottom line is, you will probably find this game entertaining if you like puzzles and such.

Story: 8
The story is amusing, and it is presented in an amusing way, but it is kind of short.

Overall: 8.3
This is a fun dmod, and it won't take long to beat, so you should go play it.
March 30th, 2006
v1.00
Score : 8.5 good
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Kat
Peasant She/Her Canada
We can out-drink most Americans! 
The Quest
A DMod by Srednar

The Pros: Almost a cross between a quest and a romp. Lots of twist and turns in this dmod, quizes and questions, not to forget the "gold heart" test. The scenery was nice, but very simple and the remarks "Dink" made gave me a chuckle.Even the "narrator" was funny. Save bots a plenty (thank goodness) and all the usual "monster" made an appearance.

The Cons: Was there any magic? I might have missed it. Walked across most of the top of the houses. No weapons were needed in this dmod as it was more of a think dmod, than "hack and slash"

Overall: A very good first dmod from the author. I look forward to more of his dmods in the future. (But, oh what a headache I had from all those questions ).