IOS Review #106: Five Card Quest

Title: Five Card Quest
Developer: Rocketcat Games
Platforms: IOS Universal
Price: $2.99
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Between Mage Gauntlet and Wayward Souls, Rocketcat Games is well established as a developer that can develop a challenging quality RPG/roguelike experience on mobile. Now with Five Card Quest, they tackle the turn-based game and deliver a challenging tactical dungeon crawler

In Five Card Quest, you select a duo of warriors from a selection of classes, from the powerful support Priest to the dagger-wielding Rogue, and traverse room-by-room through dangerous dungeons. You might find a healing fountain or a merchant or another warrior to add to your party, but more often, you'll find enemies blocking your path to the exit.

Combat in Five Cars Quest is an interesting blend of card game and lane-based strategy, reminiscent of Zachtronics' Ironclad Tactics (however less complex). Your party is one side of the screen, enemies on the other, spread out across three lanes. Each turn you have five skills to use from, a mix of random abilities from each of your warrior's pool of skills, and with each action, your enemies move down the lane, closing in until they're within striking distance.

The combination of random abilities and staggered enemy approach gives Five Card Quest's combat a unique feel and allows various strategy and tactics. Abilities don't just inflict damage; they let your characters swap lanes, freeze an enemy's movement or knock it back to its side of the screen. Some attacks may take three turns to charge up, forcing you to consider how long it will take certain enemies to close the distance to strike. Other attacks do lane-based damage or injury the front-most foe.

You never know what attacks and abilities you'll have at hand during your turn, resulting in tense and desperate strategy as you use whatever's available to postpone incoming attacks, heal and prepare blocks and parries, switch characters across lanes, and so on. Five Card Quest pulls no punches, and a careless strategy will only get you killed more quickly.

Your enemies are just as varied, ranging from shielded brutes to archers and spellcasters. Each area has its own array of enemies, enemies that can stun and poison, among other actions. Friend and foe alike are brought to life on a bright angular art style, giving Five Card Quest a unique aesthetic.

Five Card Quest is available on iPhone and iPad.