The Quest Review

The Holy Grail is one of the most sought-after supernatural relics in history. People have fought and died on quests to find the mystic cup. Nazis have shriveled up and turned to dust after drinking from counterfeit grails (a consequence of choosing... poorly). According to The Quest by Guerilla Tea Games, the Holy Grail is simply God's favorite tea mug. No more, no less. Though once God takes a direct interest something, it becomes "special" by association.

Either way, The Quest is a puzzle game that tells the story of a knight named Steve who's been chosen to retrieve God's mug. Turn out the Lord accidentally dropped it from the heavens. Somebody has butterfingers. Steve's mission takes him across many cube-shaped worlds made of shifting plates. The Quest is actually heavily influenced by the Rubik's Cube toy: Sir Steve must collect the star in each level (the more quickly, the better), which involves turning bits of the playing field around - a la the classic 80s plaything.

Steve can walk and he can travel across all sorts of terrain. Problem is, he can't switch between terrain on the fly, which is why the player needs to turn the block around and around. That way, they can deliver the star directly to Steve. But sometimes even cleverly manipulating the terrain isn't enough to deposit the star at Steve's shoes. He often needs to take a walk to get his jewel, which means ascending and descending across land, mountains, and sea.

This is where the ships, balloons, and toboggans that are scattered across most of the game's levels come into use. Steve can use balloons to transition between the sea and the mountains. He can use ships to transition between land and sea. And he can use toboggans to transition between land and the mountains. In other words, successfully collecting a star usually involves manipulating the cube/level so that Steve is aligned properly with the objects that let him reach his goal. Later levels contain multiple objects and roadblocks, making Steve's quest more complicated as a consequence.

The Quest isn't much to look at. The simple graphics are functional, however, which is all that really can be asked out of a puzzle game. The Quest is most concerned about providing a tricky but enjoyable gameplay experience, which it delivers. It's an original idea built on top of a classic puzzle idea that's still well-loved today. There are tons of levels to get through, and once those are tucked away there's always the challenge of getting through them as quickly as possible for a three-star score.

The Quest is worth a try even for folks that are lukewarm on Rubik's Cube. Just be warned that there's no way to cheat through the game. That is to say, there's no way to peel colored stickers and re-apply them in uniform groups while no-one is watching.