Driftmoon Review

The RPGCodex has published a scoreless review for Instant Kingdoms' top-down indie RPG Driftmoon, which concludes with a recommendation despite many points cited as negatives during the round-up. Here's a snip:
So if not combat and character development, what does the game really has to offer? Pixel hunts, for one. The game locations are filled with items you can interact with, hidden treasures and secrets. Crafting ingredients, gold, attribute increasing bonuses... There is a tonne of stuff for those with the obsessive compulsive hoarding habit.

Besides hunting for material, you also obtain a wealth of information. Despite the tongue-in-cheek approach of the game, it is by no means a joke. The in-game lore is well fleshed out, with monster encyclopaedias, small stories and item descriptions.

The real meat of the game is the adventure. Almost every character has something to say; even most of the sentient enemies can be heard grumbling about their miserable duty. Quite surprisingly, the myriad of different followers you recruit on your journeys are quite reactive to the things that happen around them. Sometimes the wealth of one-liners even gets tiresome. Overall the dialogue is well written, even if a bit too simplistic. There are dialogue trees, and occasional choices that lead to a different outcome.

Apart from sending you in the harm's way, the quests in the game also makes you flex your brain muscle by solving puzzles. The game has several different kinds of traditional puzzles, ranging from physic-related ones to mazes and riddles. None of the puzzles are too difficult or frustrating, seeming to be aimed for a less experienced adventurer. Each puzzle is a little bit different from the previous one, which helps to keep the game fresh and interesting.

The game even manages to poke fun at the abundance of puzzles in its locales. It was particularly memorably when it made you solve a tiny maze puzzle... only to follow it up with a three times bigger version right away.