AdventureQuest: Analysis of 7/9/09 Release

Ah, I’m back. Sorry guys, I’ve been on sabbatical, and I neglected to tell you. However, I’m back! And what a week we have, with the arrival in AQ of.. The Aracknight!

Aracknight, Aracknight, Does.. Whatever an Aracknight Does (The Aracknight!)

About

This week, Zorbak once again beckons us to his corner of Lore. Seems the bees he’s been using to create his Ebil Honey have been mysteriously disappearing, and he needs you to find out what’s going on. Along the way, you meet Lavistra and Brontus, familiar faces from the Devourer Saga. They are hunting mutated bees, which are connected to Zorbak’s missing ones. After beating these, another player enters the game– The Aracknight, Giras! Following him, you find yourself in the Nightmare Realm, and find that Khandie and the Nightmare Queen have created these geo-mechanical monsters! However, you beat him and stop the buggy invasion. Yay!

Pros

This quest was very well done. Several mini-cutscenes, the return of Lavistra and Brontus, and some very nice rewards. The new Aracknight enemy was also animated very well, from the simple swordstroke he employs, to the large back-spikes that he is so skilled with. The rewards, a new armor and some powerful magic darkness weapons, were great as well. It’s good to have releases like this to balance out the major storyline releases. A minigame made an appearance as well, similar to the one in the Galvawk quest.

Cons

This quest had excellent rewards, but they seem too powerful for the difficulty of the quest. Only a handful of enemies were fought, and none of them were terribly hard to beat. It was also rather odd to see Khandie still in the Nightmare Realm, even after you freed her in a previous quest.

Final Grade of Release

Overall, a great week. It was good to see old friends return in a quest, and the quest itself was great, enriched by a good minigame and nice mini-cutscenes. So, with all this good stuff in mind, I give this release 8 Bottles of Ebil Honey, out of 10.