Dark Quest 4 [Review]

Dark Quest remains one of my favorite co‑op dungeon crawlers on the Nintendo Switch. The series presents itself like a tabletop board game, where players move each character through dungeons based on chance and dice rolls. Combat is turn‑based and requires careful strategy to keep your party alive. Dark Quest 2 was my favorite entry, offering the best co‑op experience and overall design. Dark Quest 3 changed the formula significantly and removed co‑op entirely, which, in my opinion, hurt the experience. It also introduced a new map system where the dungeon is built as you play, with an evil wizard or dungeon master placing tiles in real time, giving it a procedurally generated feel. Dark Quest 4 blends the strengths of both 2 and 3, creating what feels like the ultimate version of the series—especially with co‑op returning. It also adds a Creator Mode, allowing players to design their own dungeons and quests to share online. For anyone who wants more content, this feature adds a huge amount of replayability and depth.

I will say, I am not the biggest fan of the lack of animations in this game compared to the second game. The characters move around the map as chess pieces, rather than the characters actually having a walking animation, and the same goes for fighting. The characters, just like a board game (and I understand this is the point of the game, which is to be a board game), are always stuck in one animation and don’t actually attack. In Dark Quest 2, all movement was animated. The game includes 10 playable characters, compared to the six available in earlier entries, giving players more options when building their party. Overall, Dark Quest 4 is a worthy continuation of the series and is available now on all current gaming platforms.