I am pretty sure that most people who are familiar with a today’s games know about the practice of downloadable content. However, in case someone is not, I will try and provide a quick explanation Basically, DLC, as it is often abbreviated as, is additional content that can be purchased for a game that is added after the game is released. While this sounds like it would be a good thing, there are many ways that the practice has been misused by various companies such as making pointless additions that are only there as an excuse for players to spend money. Oftentimes companies use a “free to play” model where the game is designed around spending real world money in order to gain an advantage in the main game. Other instances are where content is removed from the final game to be sold as DLC, even going as far as to make customers pay for content that is already on the disc.

Needless to say, there are a lot of shady business practices that have not been received well by the community, and some view it as a practice that is hurting the game industry, myself included. DLC Quest is a game made with the sole purpose of mocking this practice in what is supposed to be a cautionary tale about what games could become if this practice continues to get out of hand. Thankfully there is no actual downloadable content and everything is purchased with in game money, but it does get the point across very well. DLC Quest definitely does a good job at mocking the practice by making things like animation, audio, and being able to go left DLC, as well as mocking the way that companies describe these as some type of revolutionary feature. However, the main problem with DLC Quest is that it does not really focus much more than on that joke and does not really expand much on it. In addition, the gameplay is rather basic, but the game is still an interesting one regardless.

DLC Quest starts out in quite a hilarious manner where Princess Macguffin (yes that is her actual in game name) is kidnapped by the badguy (also an actual in game name) and you need to rescue her. This plotline is mocked even further by having arrows that point out what these things are in one word and emphasize how stupid this plot device has become. Of course, this is not the real conflict of the game. The real conflict is that you need to keep collecting in game money to buy the DLC, so that you can get your abilities that should be standard for games. In a gameplay sense however, you are not doing anything different than what you are doing with a normal game so it is kind of a missed opportunity.

In general, there are a lot of missed opportunities when it comes to mocking DLC or other shady industry practices. Their only way of making fun of other practices is through puns with a different literal meaning than what their real life meaning is. Some examples being that you have to make your weapon stronger through literally grinding it on a stone, and that you get past the winter storm by purchasing a season pass. While these are pretty clever on their own, they do not demonstrate the real problem with these practices and merely reference them.

There is also another aspect of this game that is a missed opportunity. In most games with micro-transactions, it is technically still possible to beat the game without DLC, but the catch is that it is infinitely more tedious. It would have been much more interesting if the game design mimicked this by technically allowing the player to beat the game without any DLC. There was an example early on where it seemed like the game would take that approach where you needed to get a sword by grinding it against a stone 10,000 times. It is possible to do this manually without the DLC but nothing happens if you do so, and it is even possible to get stuck with an unwinnable game if you choose to buy a specific DLC out of the current sequence and end up with not enough money to buy the DLC pack you need to advance.

The main problem with this game as a satire is that there is very little subtlety and it is clear that the game is heavily exaggerated. A more smartly planned out satire would be a game that would actually be likely to happen, and would have to be something that is not too far off from where we currently are instead of using the slippery slope fallacy to assume that game will eventually be like this. Any alleged greedy company out there will see something like this and be clear that they are not going to go far enough to make a game like this played straight, but it would have sent a message if it turned into something with a more surprising twist to it.

That itself is another problem with DLC Quest; the joke wears off rather quickly, and the game does not change things up enough. Every joke in the game is either that a normal game standard is DLC, or making fun of common video game tropes that have already been mocked to death. This is not exactly a complex satire by any means, hell I could have easily come up with everything written here without thinking too much about it. There are no surprises when it comes to DLC Quest and what you see is basically what you get. That does not mean it is not entertaining to see how things progress but it could have been more interesting.

In terms of presentational values, the graphics are done in an 8-bit style retro appearance like every other indie RPG out there. The music is also made up of 8-bit chiptunes, again just like every other indie satire. In general, there is not much to say about presentation.

Gameplay wise, DLC Quest is very simplistic yet is still enjoyable to play. The best way to describe it would be like a metroidvania game except more linear. The main process seems to be based on collecting coins to buy a DLC pack, which contain your added abilities most of the time. There are also other added things that you can get, that either are needed to advance the game or that just make useless cosmetic changes, which is probably intentional. You get all of these by looking for coins that are hidden around the area, so the game is essentially a collectathon.

There are two campaigns in the game, the first of it being the original DLC Quest and the other being a new campaign titled Live Freemium or Die. The first quest is really short and can be beaten in under an hour. There are also no ways to die in the first quest so there is not much in terms of depth. However it is still kind of fun in a way just due to the sense of accomplishment being provided. The second quest is an improvement seeing as how it may last close to about two hours, as well as more elements of challenge and exploration; IE there are platforming elements that can be kind of tricky. The game is still pretty linear but it is an improvement from the first quest. Overall there is really not much to say about the gameplay of DLC Quest. Chances are that if it was not for the attempt at satire and there was no humor, this game would be incredibly dull.

DLC Quest makes a decent attempt at satirizing the game industry’s DLC practices, but it does so in a rather predictable fashion. It was very funny at first but wore off quickly to only becoming mildly amusing later on. It would have been much more preferable to see something that I myself would not have thought of or have been able to come up with. Also this is not very important, but I am also kind of tired of games just adding quest to the end of a name and thinking that it makes a suitable title. Even in parodies it has gotten old.

Despite this, DLC Quest is worth playing seeing as how it was fun. Even if most of the fun was from the amusing plot, the gameplay was still satisfying in its own way despite not being necessarily deep. DLC Quest is about $3.00 on Steam and that is definitely a fair price given the amount of content in addition to it being an interesting game in general. It may not have used its full potential, but that is not enough to undermine what it did accomplish and it would be worth checking it out for what it does have to offer.

Further Thoughts

So, looking at this review over a decade later, that bit about it being “too hyperbolic” aged very poorly. It really speaks to the state of the video game industry that some actual practices were WORSE than what DLC Quest predicted. Something like loot boxes, for instance, that seeks to prey on people with gambling addictions, is worse than anything DLC Quest portrayed, because in the latter, you at least get what you paid for the first time! Or the notion that gamers need to be comfortable “not owning” their games.

Yeah, shit got fucked. Anyway, apparently the Dev mad a spiritual sequel called “Loot Box Quest” in 2017, and not much since then…

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This review was originally posted to GameFAQs on July 7th of 2014 and has since been re-edited with enhanced presentation.

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