The Dink Network

Quest (The)

A Concentration/memory match game. From the COTPATD project.
Description
A small Dmod for Dink Smallwood, where Dink has to fight his way through puzzles and puns to complete his final Quest.
Released:March 26th, 2006
File Size:2.27 MB
Downloads:301
Release Notes:v1.00
Play:Play this D-Mod right now in your web browser! (More Info)
 
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.
TopicPostsPosterLast Post
The Quest17SrednarNovember 18th 2007, 11:04 PM
changing the hearts back to red10lanceNovember 15th 2007, 02:32 AM
The Quest---10 badgers13lanceOctober 30th 2007, 08:03 PM