I am an unbelievable skeptic when it comes to anything that begins with “i” or “An” and ends with “OS” and “droid.” Typically, these games amount to “download for 2 dollars here then go and spend four more dollars here” or “download for 4 dollars now then spend 2 dollars later.” Games built for smartphones are meant to try and drain your bank repeatedly, giving very little in what could even remotely be called gameplay in favor of asking you to keep opening your wallet to earn more and more perks.
So when I initially found out about Paradox Interactive’s Knights of Pen and Paper I was of course a bit on the fence. Luckily for me, after a bit of poking and prodding I was convinced to try this small gem of a game. Being available on Mac and PC also helped a tad.
Knights of Pen and Paper +1 Edition is essentially an RPG where you play as tabletop RPG players where they play through an RPG that eventually takes over the real world in Jumanji like fashion and you, the player, have to guide the players in order to beat great evil. Confusing? The game is very meta, and prides itself on its meta-ness. It is rife with pop culture references, especially ones from the 80’s and 90’s from Back to the Future to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The story may be a tad simplistic, but its true charm lies in the humor and pop culture.
Gameplay is both simple and complex. You start by selecting your class, and player (an archetype that would often serve the role of a “race” in other RPGs). Each player has a unique stat, such as a percentage boost to stats or a discount at various shops. This adds some level of strategy to it as you’ll tend to pick a player who best compliments the class you plan to give them.
As you begin to quests you’ll find stat boosting inventory items, and will be able to forge new weapons and armor at the costly Blacksmith. Additionally, you can manipulate stats and abilities for the entire party by making “real world” purchases… That is returning to your room and buying new furniture, pets, stats, and even Game Masters. It’s the combination of these mechanics that add an extra layer of depth to the game, and allows you to tweak and min/max to your hearts content.
Questing itself is relatively simple and nothing you haven’t seen before. In fact they’re clearly labeled, monster hunting, rescue, fetch quests and so on. What sets this a bit apart is you essentially take on the role of GM in these quests, and you can adjust the “difficulty” by adding or removing from a pool of monsters. Fighting more monsters tends to give you bigger bonuses, and get quests done quicker, however doing so means you risk overwhelming your own party. While there are moments the game wrestles control away from the player for scripted battles, they are few and far between, so the risks versus reward remains largely up to the player. Quests can also be done quickly, with storylines fed out in little tidbits at a time, making it perfect for on the go play if you’re waiting for the train or standing in line for a latte.
There are a few flaws. The storyline, though humorous, is nothing groundbreaking. PC and Mac users should also beware, while the game on iOS and Android has a $2.99 price tag the version on Steam is $10, so it’s entirely up to your budget. There are very real gold sinks in the game, such as the experience-based blacksmith, and the initial costs for a few items seems impossibly high. If your entire party parishes, it also requires gold. There is also a real money system in place – that’s not a reference to the meta-ness – the game allows you to pay cash for in-game gold. To the game’s credit however, the real money shop is pushed a bit out the way, you never get pop up reminders, and everything in game winds up being relatively affordable as you continue to progress. While I also never played the original, I’m told the +1 Edition has a ton of new content (it’s certainly kept me busy) and the Steam version even has a few extra goodies.
All in all, I would highly recommend Knights of Pen and Paper +1 Edition. It has loads of content to keep you going for quite awhile, and is surprisingly deep for a game built for smartphones while being just digestible enough it’s suitable for quick play sessions. If you’re browsing the Apple or Android stores for something to pick up, this is it.
