Things kick off in Chex Quest HD with quite the pickle.
There is just 1 problem — traditional weapons do not work on these creatures. Rather, players must use a variety of Zorchers and their handy dandy spoon to find these vile creatures from their sight. This absurd premise lies on the cheese thick, with a catchphrase button and quips around each turn.
But, strip all the goofiness away and you are left with a bland replica of Doom. Players will browse tight passageways, collect keys, pick up new Zorchers, locate dishes of fruits and vegetables to recover health, and make it to the end of each stage. There’s the occasional change that’ll make a pool of milk drain or perform some other endeavor, but everything is just so milquetoast. The landing zone, storage facility, laboratory, arboretum, and caverns just don’t take the whole snack-based assumption far enough and feel more like placeholders than intricately thought out levels.
The absence of gloss really hurts it well.
Zorching enemies simply doesn’t feel satisfying, and being on the receiving end of this damage does not actually have any impact. Stages are lacking in detail (outside of Chex Mix logos strewn about), and the HUD is a garish disaster that takes up much too much of this screen and has the Chex Mix brand front and centre.
The Flemoids just kind of scoot along too, lacking any serious amount of animation. There is also the occasional bug — we encountered times where the camera was downright jittery. Despite having HD in the title, this seems more like an upscale PlayStation 2 game than something released in 2020.
Completing the main game and rescue the day takes about an hour, but there are secrets in every single level which may be found and characters which may be unlocked with codes found on Chex Mix packs or on social networking channels such as Instagram.
The game also accounts for the amount of all Flemoids touched and things found, so completionists looking to genuinely master a match based on junk food can set out to do so. Just note that we have no achievements or leaderboards to talk of, which means you won’t be able to show your friends your Chex Quest HD prowess. A multiplayer mode is also available for up to four gamers.
For a match based on a bite combination, Chex Quest HD is actually one of a kind. However, as a FPS, it lacks the polish needed to be anything more than a Doom clone with a few silly trappings
