A 2020 HD remake of 1996's Chex Quest somehow feels even weirder a concept than the original pack-in. The transition to polygonal assets leaves the whole thing feeling kinda cheap, and sheds a lot of the naive innocence that the original exuded. That being said, it is interesting to see the levels reimagined with the allowance of layered verticality – an impossibility of the DOOM engine. The most fun I had with this was seeing how nearly 30-year-old levels had been tweaked and translated into a new engine while still trying to capture the spirit of the original. Unfortunately, only the first level and Arboretum really feel evocative of their predecessors. The other levels are just sorta generic industrial space venues, which, is pretty appropriate to the originals, but they don't feel like particularly great callbacks.
The levels aren't the only thing that suffered from the shift to 3D, though. The movement kinda feels like ass, with very little feedback and an awful acceleration lag when trying to sprint. The weapons, too, have little-to-no feedback and straight-up don't function like they should. The shotgun has no spread, the rocket launcher feels like there's no splash damage, and the plasma rifle's projectiles are incredibly slow. It's charming that they retain their original sound effects, but their referential inclusion spurs little more than a "huh, that's neat!" after first noticing.
Surprisingly, the best part of this game is the writing. They've really leaned into the corniness of this game's very existence, with Captain Fred Chexter slinging cheeseball one-liner after cheeseball one-liner. I think this gets the closest to capturing the spirit of the original, but it's a bright spot awash in a sea of mediocrity.
The levels aren't the only thing that suffered from the shift to 3D, though. The movement kinda feels like ass, with very little feedback and an awful acceleration lag when trying to sprint. The weapons, too, have little-to-no feedback and straight-up don't function like they should. The shotgun has no spread, the rocket launcher feels like there's no splash damage, and the plasma rifle's projectiles are incredibly slow. It's charming that they retain their original sound effects, but their referential inclusion spurs little more than a "huh, that's neat!" after first noticing.
Surprisingly, the best part of this game is the writing. They've really leaned into the corniness of this game's very existence, with Captain Fred Chexter slinging cheeseball one-liner after cheeseball one-liner. I think this gets the closest to capturing the spirit of the original, but it's a bright spot awash in a sea of mediocrity.
Looks budget, controls pretty slowly, but eh its a fun enough time. Short as hell, but the multiple playable characters is a decent enough excuse for replayability I suppose.
Doom but with cereal
Its alright
Its alright
doom wad remade without doom movement
If you want a family friendly doom game this is it. It's also the perfect game for people who grown up with Chex quest. Respect for Chex for not making you pay for the playable characters they have the cods on the there website . And this game is so charming it's just like a doom game so it's really good game a well give this 4/5 stars
CHEX QUEST LOOKED GREAT ORIGINALLY (in my opinion) HOW'D THEY MAKE IT WORSE
It wasn't very good but it was $0.18 and I bought it with gold coins, so I'm not gonna complain.
It was $0.18. I couldn’t resist. This is a crappy fps game with a terrible frame rate and a severe lack of originality. That being said it’s completely serviceable. Not gonna lie it’s kinda fun despite being objectively bad.
Not only objectively worse than the original in every way, but completely terrible in it's own right.
If I go to your birthday party and the only snack you have is Chex Mix I'm kicking you out of the party.
I played it, it was chex quest.
not fun
I was psyched to see this re-released on Steam (with Mac support no less), but I think it's a pretty good example of why not every old game needs an "HD" remake. Maybe it's just because I was a kid, but this seemed more fun when it looked like trash. Somehow I also don't remember Fred Chexter's quips being so aggressively annoying.
Mr. Waffle got a remake
Gotta play again on a monitor I can actually see on. May be more worth replaying the original but it'd be a pain to set up
BAD BAD I DO NOT LIKE IT.
I want to start a new cola hate kind of cult, but against this cereal brand just because of this game. I want to go to the streets of new york and pour this sugary delight down the drains, so the rats can feast. That's what this cereal deserves, to be eaten by infested rats.
Was it so hard to not remake an already derivitive and dull doom clone? Why did they do this? Was it a tax write off? Did this spike the sale in Chex cereal? Why waste the money on this? If they really wanted in on this retro shooter craze, they could've just remastered the old version.
As protest I am just conclude this review by doing what this game does: repeat myself but in a more incoherent way.
NO LIKEY IS SHIT
I want to start a new cola hate kind of cult, but against this cereal brand just because of this game. I want to go to the streets of new york and pour this sugary delight down the drains, so the rats can feast. That's what this cereal deserves, to be eaten by infested rats.
Was it so hard to not remake an already derivitive and dull doom clone? Why did they do this? Was it a tax write off? Did this spike the sale in Chex cereal? Why waste the money on this? If they really wanted in on this retro shooter craze, they could've just remastered the old version.
As protest I am just conclude this review by doing what this game does: repeat myself but in a more incoherent way.
NO LIKEY IS SHIT
An actually good DOOM clone. Its free you have no excuse this time.
man this sucked, original looks so much better.
It's actually kind of shocking and embarrassing how badly this game runs on Switch. If you really want to play this, play it ANYWHERE ELSE
Four stars because Marceleine the Vampire Queen is a chex warrior in it. Otherwise fairly meh, though a comfy remake of a real classic.
Completed with all secrets discovered. The original Chex Quest was a promotional DOOM conversion, a novel approach at the time, and here we have a modern Unreal Engine remake. While short and with only quite basic gameplay, especially in a modern context, there's still some enjoyment to be gained from a playthrough and clearly there will be some nostalgic charm for those who played the original. It's worth noting that the Switch version isn't a particularly great port, with frequent frame rate drops and a fairly 'janky' feeling overall.
It's just... not good? I mean it's Chex Quest on UE4 what'd you expect? At least some of the jokes are funny.
it's worse doom
turned a terrible, yet funny promotional hack into something horrible and devoid of charm.
Doom but Cereal but in 3D
Before I begin my review let me put into perspective the price of the game.
It's Free.
Like, not even "price of a cereal box" free like it's predecessor, but "the few cents on your electric/internet bill from downloading and playing it" free.
That said, you get what you paid for.
--Story--
Copied over from the original game, the mining planet Bazoik has come under attack by inter-dimensional creatures known as Flemoids. They cannot be harmed, only sent back to their home reality. One character (out of 6 this time) must go the planet and rescue the inhabitants.
If you're expecting Kubrik or even Wiseau levels of story-telling, you are expecting too much. The rest of the story is told through logs found in the secret rooms of the 5 levels, and the epilogues for the 6 new characters.
--Gameplay--
It's an FPS, much like it's Doom Engine counterpart. In fact, most the elements have carried over entirely, including levels, pickups, and weapons (who share the same hotkeys from the original game as well) What is new is the revamp taking advantage of newer conventions, such as true 3d maps, brief cinematics (locked at 30 frames for some mysterious reason), and talking protagonists. And do they TALK. Every phase of action has a bit of speech that can be annoying (plenty of times when they talk over top themselves) bordering on condescending (I think how colored keys work is self-explanitory.) One thing that isn't well conveyed are the prompts for pickups. Get an ammo box? no prompt. New Weapon? Don't know what it's called, but the character likes it. minor health bonus "GET A CAN OF SLIME REPELLENT" "I DIDN'T THINK I COULD GET ANY STRONGER" says Fred Chexter for every other can. 2 other things the game could have benefited from displaying is total munitions - something missing from the original game, but would have been a large help here. Chex Squadron lacks Doomguy's ability to quickly swap new weapons, making it a chore to find which one has any ammo left. Lastly, the game lacks a minimap. This can be confusing for the more labyrinth-like areas in levels 3 and 5. To quote NACL-95 upon finding a secret "This isn't on the map... is what I'd say if they gave me one!"
All that said, it's not too difficult a game. You can finish the 5 levels within 45 minutes, maybe hour-and-a-half if you hunt for secrets. This is also made easier by simplistic enemy AI. Rather than inheriting that of Doom's creatures, these were made from the ground up. I often found Flemoids staring into walls rather than trying to attack me.
There is minor replayability with the addition of 5 new characters (unlockable with codes distributed by General Mills), but the only benefits are different takes on the same dialogue, having some characters receive only partial benefits from health/armor pickups, and a unique epilogue FMV.
--Graphics--
This game uses Unreal Engine 4, and while it shows with the stock lighting and occlusion effects, the rest of the models seem to not take advantage of PBR capabilities, with smooth clay-like materials and simplistic geometry.
I can't fault the game for this, though. This is in line with translating the cartoony appeal of the original game into a 3d space. it would be to its determent if it pushed higher-fidelity technologies that were unnecessary.
That said, there were some noticeable issues with the models in the game, with visible clipping and minor skin weight issues on the collar of the Armored Flemoid. There was also one bug where, after a mine cart segment, my character's arms would disappear.
--Sound--
Many of the sound effects from the original are reused here, adding a layer of familiarity. The music has also been redone, in it's simplistic glory. Apart from some balancing issues and the aformentioned chatty player characters (who also have a dedicated taunt button), i have no notable issues with it.
--Conclusion--
Chex Quest HD is a free game. It would be fair to say its competition is the original Chex Quest and other free games, the latter category putting up against the likes of countless browser-based games, indie passion projects and popular F2P titles. However, I cannot say I feel poorer for playing through this title. I think I got exactly what I paid for with it.
It's Free.
Like, not even "price of a cereal box" free like it's predecessor, but "the few cents on your electric/internet bill from downloading and playing it" free.
That said, you get what you paid for.
--Story--
Copied over from the original game, the mining planet Bazoik has come under attack by inter-dimensional creatures known as Flemoids. They cannot be harmed, only sent back to their home reality. One character (out of 6 this time) must go the planet and rescue the inhabitants.
If you're expecting Kubrik or even Wiseau levels of story-telling, you are expecting too much. The rest of the story is told through logs found in the secret rooms of the 5 levels, and the epilogues for the 6 new characters.
--Gameplay--
It's an FPS, much like it's Doom Engine counterpart. In fact, most the elements have carried over entirely, including levels, pickups, and weapons (who share the same hotkeys from the original game as well) What is new is the revamp taking advantage of newer conventions, such as true 3d maps, brief cinematics (locked at 30 frames for some mysterious reason), and talking protagonists. And do they TALK. Every phase of action has a bit of speech that can be annoying (plenty of times when they talk over top themselves) bordering on condescending (I think how colored keys work is self-explanitory.) One thing that isn't well conveyed are the prompts for pickups. Get an ammo box? no prompt. New Weapon? Don't know what it's called, but the character likes it. minor health bonus "GET A CAN OF SLIME REPELLENT" "I DIDN'T THINK I COULD GET ANY STRONGER" says Fred Chexter for every other can. 2 other things the game could have benefited from displaying is total munitions - something missing from the original game, but would have been a large help here. Chex Squadron lacks Doomguy's ability to quickly swap new weapons, making it a chore to find which one has any ammo left. Lastly, the game lacks a minimap. This can be confusing for the more labyrinth-like areas in levels 3 and 5. To quote NACL-95 upon finding a secret "This isn't on the map... is what I'd say if they gave me one!"
All that said, it's not too difficult a game. You can finish the 5 levels within 45 minutes, maybe hour-and-a-half if you hunt for secrets. This is also made easier by simplistic enemy AI. Rather than inheriting that of Doom's creatures, these were made from the ground up. I often found Flemoids staring into walls rather than trying to attack me.
There is minor replayability with the addition of 5 new characters (unlockable with codes distributed by General Mills), but the only benefits are different takes on the same dialogue, having some characters receive only partial benefits from health/armor pickups, and a unique epilogue FMV.
--Graphics--
This game uses Unreal Engine 4, and while it shows with the stock lighting and occlusion effects, the rest of the models seem to not take advantage of PBR capabilities, with smooth clay-like materials and simplistic geometry.
I can't fault the game for this, though. This is in line with translating the cartoony appeal of the original game into a 3d space. it would be to its determent if it pushed higher-fidelity technologies that were unnecessary.
That said, there were some noticeable issues with the models in the game, with visible clipping and minor skin weight issues on the collar of the Armored Flemoid. There was also one bug where, after a mine cart segment, my character's arms would disappear.
--Sound--
Many of the sound effects from the original are reused here, adding a layer of familiarity. The music has also been redone, in it's simplistic glory. Apart from some balancing issues and the aformentioned chatty player characters (who also have a dedicated taunt button), i have no notable issues with it.
--Conclusion--
Chex Quest HD is a free game. It would be fair to say its competition is the original Chex Quest and other free games, the latter category putting up against the likes of countless browser-based games, indie passion projects and popular F2P titles. However, I cannot say I feel poorer for playing through this title. I think I got exactly what I paid for with it.