Quest for Stoken is a skateboarding adventure game where you strive to accumulate points by defeating enemies that come along your way as you progress. The goal is to accumulate as much points as possible by defeating all villians or enemies that may come your way.
I had the opportunity to enjoy this game on my laptop and noticed a few things while playing. I will therefore be sharing my quest for stoken experience in this review.
Gameplay Experience
First and foremost, it takes a while took a while for the game to load initially. I believe for many veteran gamers, seeing the bar beneath the game logo clearly depicts the starting of the game. However, there are beginners who might really appreciate the word "LOADING" on top of the bar. That way, users can patiently wait for the game to commence.
Upon entering the game, there is a signal to press the space bar to start. This instruction is not entirely crystal clear to users since a clearer one would be Press Spacebar To Start. But it still gets the job done.
Once you start the game, you would notice your character, who is holding what appears to be a colorful sword on a skateboard roaming through the city. This character or hero has three lives or attempts to make significant progress and achieve a good score.
The health bar is a green bar at the top left corner of the screen while the number of lives remaining is represented by hive logos beneath the health bar.
Also, as you approach a platform, there is an instruction to press a key in order to cross it. The key for jumping in game is the space bar but the signage there might confuse users who might opt for the enter key or shift key instead. Clarity is therefore needed here as well.
As you progress through the game, you would realize some hidden instructions within the game. I think it is a great inclusion that adds some level of suspense within the game. However, those instructions that are an integral part of the gameplay must have a separate instruction manual or guide for all users who may access the game. Some of such hidden instructions are indicated below.
As you advance further into the game, you would come across certain villains who will attack you upon contact. You therefore have to kill them by swinging your sword at them. This is done by pressing the shift key while approaching them to make an impact.
You lose a life once you are defeated by the villains such as the birds shown above. Once you lose all three lives, a summary of your game including kills, coins collected, and total kills would be shown in the summary.
There are also some extra mystery features as you proceed through the game such as the qr code which I saw during gameplay. Upon first glance, I assumed it was some hidden site or price I could claim. So, I admired the mystery element in this. It was actually the skatehive discord community which I went ahead to join since I believe many relevant information would be passing through there.
Also, while fighting off various villains within the game, I realized that there was a recurring sticky keys problem. I tried activating the sticky keys in accessibility settings on my windows but that didn't solve my problem as it produced a beeping sound each time the shift key was pressed. This is therefore one flaw that could be looked at.
I actually admire the game and decided to play it quite a bit for some time. But there is still room for improvement.
Areas That Could Be Improved
Addition of a control center: A control center where users could customize their preferred commands for the game would be very useful. For instance, the sticky keys issue can be eliminated by assigning the fighting to a different key instead of the shift key. Also, it would enable users to set up controllers to enhance gameplay experience.
Intructions/Guidelines manual on gameplay: For first time gamers who have no idea what to do upon playing this game, an instruction manual is needed. There could be a page dedicated to this upon starting the game. That way, they can navigate the game smoothly without any hiccups.
Save key of feature: While playing the game, I noticed that there is no feature that allows users to save the game for the future. That way, they have a better opportunity to advance further and achieve a higher score at the appropriate time.
Addition of pause feature: The game has no designated pause feature that allows you to pause the game and attend to something else, halfway through the game. I found a way around this by selecting a different tab if I wanted to pause it for some time but I think the escape key for pause would be great.
Including a leaderboard: The addtion of a leaderboard in the game would make it more competitive and draw in more gamers as they see each other's high score and strive to beat it. I think it would make it much exciting.
Introducing skateboard sliding: I think an additional game feature that allows the player to simply slide freely while on the skateboard would be very nice. It may be included as a defense mechanism to help evade or crush into enemies. It would certainly increase the hero's abiilities and make it more exciting.
CONCLUSION
Quest for Stoken is a very simple game yet, could be very addictive. As I discovered more pathways into different cities, I realized it has quite a good interface for a 2D game. There are still many areas that can be improved which I look forward to witnessing in the near future.
Thank you for your attention.
Note: Unless otherwise stated, all screenshots are taken from the quest for stoken site.
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