What Would You Do For a Million Dollars?
Million Dollar Quest kicks off with our protagonist enjoying her relaxing vacation, kicking back with the morning paper. Her relaxation doesn't last long though, as she soon spots an ad in the paper advertising a way to make one million dollars and it involves some sort of adventure. Understandably excited, she quickly shoots off an email to the address provided.
She gets a very prompt response and soon receives an airline ticket to Beijing to begin her quest. Despite her enthusiasm, as the one playing the game, I was still withholding my opinion.
The first "level" involved helping our leading lady pack for her journey. It started out as pretty standard fare for a hidden objects game. I was in her cluttered living room (why are all the characters in these games so unorganized?) and I had a list of items to find. I would hunt them down, click them, and move on. Just as I was beginning to think that this was going to be generic to the point of boredom, it started to shake things up.
Extra-Ordinary
The first tiny twist was when a bird flew in the an open window and stole a key I was looking for. While he was perched on the sill, I tried to click the key and take it from him, but he wasn't about to give it up. It then prompted me to distract him with something else and had me find and click a spoon. This drew him in a little closer. He was attracted to shiny objects! I proceeded to find a series of shiny objects, each time drawing him in a little closer until I was able to snatch the key away from him.
From then on, things really started to change up. In one level, instead of finding objects, I had to place objects where they belonged according to their outlines. This may sound easy, but due to the number of outlines all over the screen, it was pretty tricky to find any particular one. I also played a game of hangman at one point and helped a little boy put together a puzzle. The experience is all over the place in terms of gameplay, but I mean that as a compliment. It's almost like a "best of" version of computer games, where multiple types of gameplay are represented. If you often grow bored of repetitive mechanics, that shouldn't a problem here.
A Plot Within a Plot
One of the best surprises that I encountered was the reveal of another storyline. At first, you're given the impression that the entire adventure surrounds the quest for the million dollars, but you soon learn that it's a lot more personal when the main character's childhood comes into play. I don't want to spoil it for you, but it makes the experience much more engaging.
A Quest for Something More
Million Dollar Quest was a great surprise. At first I was turned off by its simple plot and generic gameplay, but it didn't take long for everything to get turned on its head. If you're looking for something special, this is it.
