Warhammer Quest IOS is LIVE tonight

toucharcade.com/2013/05/29/ta-plays-warh...wesome-strategy-rpg/

"Tonight's the big night: Rodeo Games's and Games Workshop's Warhammer Quest is coming to iPhone and iPad tonight. It'll launch as a Universal app priced at $4.99, which is a rad price for a game that can consume your life if you let it."

Maybe a date line thing, but I'm downloading it aas I type! It is huge.

I really like Hunters, but 3 IAPs on day 1 at $5 each? I'm thinking...

I'm quite proud of my ability to avoid IAP. Well see if the game justifies the need to but more. As an example though, I've played heaps of Ace Patrol for free and still to convined I need to spend a penny. Here's hoping there is a fair amount of quest in the original purchase!

Bought and downloaded. There are 3 extra characters at 2.99 each and one quest area (Skaven) at 4.99.

I've only just started the tutorial so I can't really comment much yet, but the graphics are slick, and my first impression is that it is definitely Hunters - Fantasy Edition.

I agree the DLC prices are high, $0.99 characters and a $2.99 Skaven module would seem more reasonable. I think there should be some distinction between DLC and IAP, yes, you do buy both in app, but there's a difference between buying more game and buying game currency (and yes, you can buy gold in Warhammer Quest though I can't see why you'd really want to).

But expansions were part of the original board game. How much were character packs? And then there were the skaven and orc expansions. Board gamers routinely throw down $25-$40 for expansions all the time. I think apps pricing has really gotten to us. If this were a 3DS game, nobody would complain about paying $40 for it.

Thankfully, Tom Chick's review has saved me from buying an iThing. There are few things I dislike more than opaque game mechanics.

I wouldn't base anything on Chick's review — it's a huge swing-and-miss. I pretty much disagree with every word.

Then again, take that for what it's worth. I never agree with the guy.

I get where Chick is coming from and I do agree that a board game port needs a certain degree of transparency. That said, I almost wish that they had not called this Warhammer Quest nor used the logo. It isn't a direct port of the board game. It's a video game based on the board game, and the expectations should be aligned with that that design goal. If you go in expecting it to be JUST LIKE playing Warhammer Quest on the table with stupid fucking images of dice rolling and whatnot, you'll likely be disappointed. But it's a video game, and a really well done one at that.

I do think there should be an option, like in Blood Bowl on PC, to have an onscreen log that shows what is actually going on under the hood for those so interested.

The game is outstanding, there is not a better dungeoncrawl on IOS. But there are some peculiarities that will hopefully be addressed in updates.

I haven't gotten to play yet as my wife took the iPad with her on a 10-day trip to Pittsburgh. Which coincidentally has left me playing Blood Bowl on the ol' Xbox 360. I never look at the dice log when playing Blood Bowl. Why? If I fail a catch roll does it matter if it was because I rolled a 2 or a 1? A fail is a fail. Blood Bowl does a good job of showing you how much harder/easier different passes but the modifiers on dodge rolls and pick ups get lost. But I can understand where Chick is coming from, I can't remember how good Blood Bowl's tutorial/rulebook is because the rules are ingrained on my brain. But I can imagine it would be nice to know in Warhammer Quest how hits/damage are worked out. Also I've read some people say the pips in Hunters would be great to see how many actions each guy has left and a better Wounds tracker.

Jason Lutes wrote: Thankfully, Tom Chick's review has saved me from buying an iThing. There are few things I dislike more than opaque game mechanics.

"Imagine moving all your armies into a territory in Axis & Allies. You just move them. I’ll let you know whether they won or lost. Don’t worry about the whys and wherefores. I’ll handle all that for you. You just admire the little tanks."

"The reason I should know these things is because without them, without mechanics informing my decisions, without telling me the rules of the game and therefore why things happen, this is just a black box adventure generator. And a superficial one at that, despite clots of text popping up from time to time. This is a simple game about walking down halls in which not much happens. It’s not even beer and pretzels. It’s Diet Pepsi and old pita bread."

Fucking spot on.

Of course, I understand that without the "streamlining" Rodeo would lose a huge market of casual videogamers, who don't give a shit about stats and mechanics, and just want to tap-tap-tap their way through the dungeon. (I find it a bit baffling that even here on F:AT, the majority of folks seem to fall into this category, but whatever.) But they, at least, should have had the basic decency to include a hardcore boardgamer option, even if it wouldn't have won them too many extra customers.

EDIT: Just to be clear, I don't want "stupid fucking images of dice rolling and whatnot". I just want to see every fucking bit of information that I would see in the boardgame. I don't think that's too much to ask.

Elder Sign: Omens is a great example of an excellent port. It doesn't show you rolling dice and cards, hell, it doesn't even mention dice or cards at all in the rules section. It still feels exactly the same as playing the physical game, because it shows all the same information, only in a different, more videogame-y way.