TL;DR – Lock’s Quest is a charming (if unbalanced) hybrid strategy game that deftly juggles tower defence, frantic top-down quasi beat-em-up action and a JRPG-esque story. While not without flaws, the game constantly introduces new mechanics, abilities, enemies and plot twists that combine to produce an engrossing and engaging whole.
Quick Note: While I did play the original DS version back in the day, this review is based on my recent play-through of the remastered version which came out in 2017 for PC, PS4, Switch and Xbox One.
Before diving into what makes Lock’s Quest such an interesting game, I’d just like to give credit where credit is due for the fact that THQ Nordic had the sheer balls to consider it for a full fledged port. Not only did it only receive modest success upon it’s initial release for the Nintendo DS (with it’s 81% rating on Metacritic sadly converting to below 100,000 units sold worldwide according to VGChartz), but the entire game is designed with touch screen controls in mind and obviously these had to be entirely reworked for the game to be playable. Even once the controls were totally reworked, most of the game’s assets including character portraits, unit and turret sprites and the soundtrack then had to be rebuilt for platforms with considerably higher display resolutions and standards. Now it’s true that there were some cutbacks, including the loss of multiple levels and the game’s multiplayer mode. Yet almost a decade after the game’s initial release, THQ gave it a second shot and I’m personally grateful that they did.
The reason for my gratitude is simple, Lock’s Quest is a pretty unique game and it’s combination of tower defence and active offence make it an enjoyable experience. The game itself is split up into 74 days, each of which functions as a level although these levels are played across a smaller range of maps. The way it works is simple, the game will load up a new map and then you’ll be tasked with defending it for multiple in-game days with each day being represented by a time limit (generally 3 minutes but occasionally longer). Before a day starts, you get 2 or 3 minutes with which to setup your defences, which take the form of a variety of turrets, walls, traps and occasionally AI human defenders. Walls are critical as not only do they keep the bad guys at bay, but they also link up with turrets and give them a defensive bonus which vastly increases the amount of HP your connecting turrets have. Therefore a large amount of the game’s strategy involves juggling the offensive power of your turrets (and the types of enemies they can engage) while building enough walls to ensure these turrets don’t melt while you’re distracted.
And you will be distracted! Lock’s Quest starts off gently and initially seems pretty straight forward as you only have a handful of wall lengths, turrets and traps that can be used against a small amount of different enemy types. Alongside these defensive buildings, you also have the ability to attack enemies yourself and will soon be able to build up a power meter which can be unleashed in the form of powerful abilities. A significant part of the game is balancing the need to repair your structures, attack enemies yourself and keep an eye on your health. If you don’t repair your buildings, they’ll be destroyed and you’ll need to use a significant amount of your limited resources to rebuild them. If you don’t attack the enemies, you won’t build up your power meter and you’ll really struggle to churn through the enemy waves before they can build up a critical mass. If you don’t keep your eye on your health, well… I think you can guess why that’s an issue!
As Lock’s Quest progresses, juggling defence, offence and Lock’s mortality continues to become more complex as the game continually ramps up. Each new map consistently introduces new enemies, abilities, defensive structures and ways that you can attack. By the late game, you’ll have 4 different wall strengths (with different costs), multiple utility turrets that give certain buffs, multiple turret types with have different ranges which counter nearly a dozen different enemy types and a wide variety of attacks and abilities that Lock can use. Oh and did I mention that the game likes to mix things up even further with boss battles, or the occasional need to conduct an offensive mission (such as sallying forth to clear enemy camps while under attack or reach a certain part of the map to complete an objective)?
In spite of the ever developing complexity on paper however, I actually felt that Lock’s Quest was most challenging earlier on. As mentioned previously you only have a limited amount of currency, called source in the game, which means you can’t have too many turrets at once. Due to this you need to be quite careful with your positioning, as maps have plenty of obstacles that make forming a nice neat-and-tidy line tricky. In addition, most maps have multiple routes that the enemy can take and so you’ll often need to split your defences between multiple angles which further makes things difficult. Fortunately Lock is no slouch and can deal significant damage to enemies himself which helps you finesse this challenge. The reason the game’s balance is a bit wonky however is that initially his abilities are so limited that he often needs to venture forth and then retreat so that his health can regenerate. Due to this you’re very dependent on your turrets to provide you with some shelter and so you are constantly bouncing between attacking enemies and repairing turrets while you’re regenerating health. Around halfway through the game however Lock gains a health-steal attack which funnels health from the enemy to Lock for a period of time, and from this point onwards HP management becomes much, much easier even as the enemies you face continue to increase their health and damage output. Not only does the health-steal attack give you the ability to stay in the fight longer, but if you hit multiple enemies you’ll continue to steal health from each of them while building up your power meter. This not only enables you to use your powerful abilities more frequently, but while you’re using them you can’t be hurt and so you will regenerate your health… which then lets you continue to attack the enemies!
As such I found that I didn’t really die after a certain point and only enemy attack routes I failed to foresee caused me any trouble. Don’t worry, the game wasn’t a cakewalk and there were still some close calls but generally the difficulty actually decreases as the game goes on. Fortunately it’s around this point that the game’s plot really starts to pick up from a relatively slow start and there are multiple twists and turns that belie the humble beginnings that Lock (and his perennially cute sister Emi) find themselves in. I won’t spoil anything, but I’ll just say that some of the twists come out of nowhere and the whole thing is surprisingly engaging even if it does have that slightly twee vibe that is more associated with Japanese games. To give a basic idea of what I mean, Lock and Emi are orphans who live in a quaint, peaceful village that gets attacked by the evil robot army. Lock gradually becomes the ultimate Archineer (as the game calls those who can build defences) and realises that there’s a sinister backstory involving his family that ultimately culminates in him becoming a hero so that he can save his sister and the world. Again at a basic level it’s not particularly high brow, but it is a fun little adventure and it helps justify a few unique scenarios that give the game some memorable moments.
These memorable moments culminate in a great series of final levels that really pull the game together and provide a decent amount of challenge. My personal pro-tip for these is that you have enough resources to spam traps, so you should build a thicc wall of cannon turrets with a healthy dose of traps everywhere, while using the health-steal attack and alternating between the power that lets you repair everything and the standard lightning power. Just be careful as the true final boss hits like a freight train and can phase through your walls!
Finally once Lock’s Quest has wrapped up, you’re treated to a cute series of cutscenes that are slightly vague before being left back at the main menu. At this point you can either play-through it all again, or engage in the additional defence mode. Unfortunately the multiplayer aspect of the DS original didn’t get carried over, but fortunately the defence mode itself provides an extra bit of challenge to help bolster the game’s modest playtime. Essentially you are tasked with defending the city map that re-occurs at multiple points throughout the main campaign, but this time there is no respite! Instead you must fight wave-after-wave-after-wave of the enemy with every third wave including a boss. As always, resources are very limited and the meagre amount of incoming source means that losing turrets is a massive pain in the backside. Those seeking to achieve 100% completion will need to clear 10 waves, which includes 3 boss fights and as such this mode adds a dollop of extra content to what is otherwise a fairly short game. For context, clearing through the campaign took me around 9 hours on the normal difficulty setting.
In conclusion, Lock’s Quest is the epitome of short but sweet as the game contains a large amount of content and plenty of heart for a modest price tag. While there are issues with path finding (both yours and the enemies), some instances of slowdown and a plot that starts off slow the game is ultimately rewarding and has it’s own unique gameplay style. If you were one of the approximately 8 billion people who missed this game on it’s first release, then I would strongly recommend picking it up.
