Adventure Quest

Today, as I’m well ahead of schedule on my “update-once-a-week plan,” I’ve decided to write a quick review for the “other stuff I like.” In this case, an online game, and not even one you have to buy. That’s right, this is a free game.

The game is called Adventure Quest (I‘ve put a link in here, but if Google puts an AQ banner at the top of the page, please click there instead). AQ is a role playing game. You are an adventurer in the land of Lore, operating out of the town of Battleon. Your mission is to go out and kill the rampaging hoards of monsters. Sounds simple, doesn’t it?

Actually, the gameplay is pretty simple, but it’s addictive. You can spend hours a day fighting the weird monsters, doing quests, and just having fun. You can become a vampire, werewolf, or werepyre. You can train as a fighter, mage, ninja, rogue, dragon slayer, or vampire slayer (with more classes coming soon). You can take part in wars and special events. You can collect rare armors, weapons, spells, and pets. There is quite a lot to do.

Unfortunately, not everything in Adventure Quest is perfect. There is no PvP, and there never will be, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, since PvP often equals “experienced player kill newbies for fun.” Also, since the game is free, and server space costs an arm and a leg, there are only a limited number of free slots. New players can bypass this, because when you make a new account you get a certain number of free logins. Once those are used up, it can take hours to get in, unless you become a guardian.

Guardians are players who have paid a one-time donation (currently $14.95) to help support the game. In exchange, they can log on anytime. In addition, they can fully access the game. Guardians can fully level up in all classes (non-guardians can only go halfway). Guardians can get special temporary items to help them during battle. Guardians get special permanent items when the sign up, like the Ultra Guardian Plate and the Guardian Sword (which can be upgraded to the mighty Blade of Awe by collecting chests). All in all, guardianship is well worth the price if you like RPGs.

Besides the game, Adventure Quest also has very good forums. It has, what I have been told, are very nice RPG forums (I don’t use them much myself). The main forums are full of interesting people, like the thief Magicdog, the joking Grand Councilor Skyboy, or the deranged mod Vephoma. Just be sure to read the rules before posting, because quite a lot of people will jump down your throat if you spam, flame, ask questions in the GGD forum (hint: try the Questions and Answers forum instead), or complain about the server cap. Oh yeah, and never, ever, ask someone to make you a guardian.

I give Adventure Quest 4.5 yo-yos.



Note 10/06/06: I stopped playing this game several months ago. Also this page is by now hopelessly out of date about the games features. To the people who leave comments: I don't work for AQ or know anyone who does, so I can't help you with the game.