Run TavernQuest tasks you with running a text adventure game for a supposedly very stupid player named Steve. It reminds me of the “uncooperative” branches of games like ICEY or The Stanley Parable where the player deliberately refuses to do what the game wants until the game has a comedic nervous breakdown and kicks you out. Even though TavernQuest is different in that you’re supposed to be the game rather than the player, it ends up working out pretty much the same way since you’re in control of how hard the experience railroads Steve. You can force him on to the main path by refusing to engage with dumber commands and making any detours quickly hit a dead end, or you can let him go down pointless rabbit holes instead of engaging with the main quest. The level of control here is closer to a very long Choose Your Own Adventure book than to being an RPG dungeon master, but it’s pretty good at anticipating what you might want to do.
Act 1
TavernQuest gets off to a strong start. Steve begins in a simple tavern and is supposed to quickly leave by starting a quest to kill rats in the basement and then finding a secret passage there. He’s eager to do anything else, of course, and you can spend quite a while in this first room depending on how long you’re willing to let him keep wandering off. There are two more chapters after that, but they don’t change much about the gameplay. You can’t get as off topic in them as you can in the tavern, but there’s still a good amount of room to do stupid stuff.
The Middle
After chapter 3, Steve will win the game for the first time and things start to get weird. Without spoiling too much, you start a New Game+ at this point, but the gameplay doesn’t really change at all. Steve’s second playthrough is largely a retread without any particularly funny jokes or interesting detours until near the end. It’s not the worst gameplay in the world by any means, but it’s a big step down from the first run. Quite a few of the jokes go on for at least twice as long as they should have, and it’s only made more frustrating by how the game seems to know that it’s dragged things out too much by giving you options to tell it to shut up. Bits about Steve making minor spelling mistakes and the game being too verbose in particular greatly outstay their welcome.
Ending
Things eventually pick back up in the last third of the game when everything gets properly weird. There are many fewer opportunities to get off topic here, but the story is more original and has some genuinely interesting moments. A lot of players likely won’t reach this part since the worst pieces of the second playthrough can be reached inside the refund window, but it’s definitely worth sticking it out to see the ending. I do wish it had more meaningful choices here, though.
Conclusion
TavernQuest is a great idea that mostly delivers on its promise. It’s about as freeform as it possibly could be while still being a visual novel in the background, and at its best it gives you the opportunity to build some very funny dead ends. This would probably be a lock for my top 10 games of the year if the middle third was at the same level of the rest of the game, but unfortunately it’s by far the weakest part. As it is, TavernQuest is a solid experience and I’d love to play a slightly more fleshed out sequel.
Rating: 80%
Time to beat: 3 hours, but I mostly played with the sound off and skipped most of the voice acting. Probably a few more hours if you listen to everything.
Price: $13
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