Od Studios -- Puzzle Quest
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Puzzle Quest -- by sector24, 2007-04-12 |
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Developer: 1st Playable
ESRB Rating: Everyone
Genre: Puzzle RPG
Platform: DS, PC, PSP
Publisher: D3
Release Date: 3/20/2007
What is Puzzle Quest?
Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords is a combination of RPG and match 3 puzzle game. Make no mistake though, this is a full length RPG. It's just that the combat is resolved using a puzzle system. It is similar to Bejeweled in scope; you have a grid and on each player's turn they swap the positions of two gems to create a group of 3 or more. When you make a match, those gems disappear and more gems fall from the top of the screen to replace them. There are 7 different gems, four colors which represent mana that your character uses to cast spells, skulls that deal damage to your opponent when matched, purple gems that give you experience and gold pieces that give you money to use after the battle is over. However, the strategy is more complex than in Bejeweled. You and your opponent take turns making matches on the same game board, so you need to consider what moves you are leaving for your opponent after your turn is over. You may elect to cast a spell instead of making a move on the game board, but first you will have to build up enough of the correct colored mana. Spells vary greatly, from dealing damage to your opponent, to changing the color of the gems, to removing gems from the board, etc. When the game board gets difficult, casting a spell can be a powerful defensive move because it forces your opponent to make another move on the board.
What does this game do well?
The puzzle game alone is fun, but it is made better by the variety of spells that you and your opponent can choose, on top of the special bonuses that you can use in the form of equipment. For instance, a regular old leather helmet reduces the damage you take by 1 if you are hit for 2 or more points of damage. But other magical items have a big effect, such as giving you 50% more experience when you win a battle, allowing you to start the match with a sizable mana pool, and more. Even more interesting is the ability to take gold and experience from combat and use it in the other half of the game. If you're trying to save up for a powerful item, you can continually match gold coins while trying to defeat your opponent to supplement your treasury.
The RPG part of the game is semi-turn based. You have a citadel that pays you a monthly stipend, and from there you can buy items in the shop, listen to rumors at the tavern, or undertake quests. The early quests are simple, usually you have to travel to another area and sometimes fight a monster at the destination or on the way. However, later in the game some quests require you to make hard choices, and other quests are repeatable if you want to gain more experience and gold.
There's much more to do in the game. From your citadel, you can build a dungeon and capture monsters on the game board. In order to capture a monster, you must fight it three times normally, and then the fourth time you have to complete a puzzle in order to successfully capture it. Each monster has their own unique puzzle and some of them are quite challenging to figure out. If you buy a forge, you can craft items from runes. Many locations on the map allow you to search for a new rune, and if you defeat the runekeeper then you can use that rune when forging an item. You must combine a base rune, a power rune, and a modifier rune, and the game determines the difficulty based on what runes you choose. The game introduces a new game piece, the anvil, and you have to match a certain number of anvils to successfully create the item. Forging an item does not eliminate the rune, so you can continue to upgrade your equipment as you discover new runes.
You can build a siege tower in order to take over enemy citadels. Just travel to a citadel on the campaign map and select siege. Citadels are typically difficult opponents, and will provide your first early challenge of the game. Defeating a citadel means that they will pay you a monthly stipend which greatly increases your treasury. You can also research spells from monsters that you have captured. Spell research requires you to match a preset number of colored mana and scrolls in order to succeed. Scrolls are only created by matching 4 or 5 of a kind, so there is a bit of planning involved in spell research. Very Hard spells can be quite difficult to research, and generally provide the greatest challenge the game has to offer. Finally, you can capture a mount using the dungeon and train it up to level 50. Mounts grant you a stat bonus, an extra spell, and the ability to avoid combat on the game board. Successfully leveling up your mount requires you to play a timed game in which you have to make your move in a certain number of seconds, or lose your turn and take 5 damage. The lowest the game will go is 3 seconds, and those fights are quite frustrating because you barely have time to see the board let alone make a good move. This is all optional of course, you can complete the game without building any of these buildings. If all you want is a quick fix, you can also take your character and just play a single combat outside the RPG aspect of the game. You even get to keep the experience and gold that you earn.
What could this game have done better?
The first thing you'll notice after playing for awhile is that there are no negative repercussions to anything that happens in the game. If you lose to a monster, there's no penalty at all. You even get to keep the experience and gold you earned during the fight and you can try again. Forging items and spell research do not cost money, so if you fail you can just try again until you succeed. The challenge is somewhat lessened by the fact that there's no fear of losing anything important.
It won't be until 10-20 hours into the game that you realize the game was only balanced for very low level play. Players can build a Temple, which allows you to purchase stat upgrades up to 255 of each stat. Each character class also has one or two spells that completely trivialize the puzzle aspect of the game. Druids can cause the opponent to miss their turn indefinitely, wizards and warriors with enough fire mastery can kill opponents in a single move. Gold is free from your citadels every month, so it's just a matter of time before you have the stats you need to pull off ridiculous combinations of spellcasting and board manipulation. Late in the game the computer tries to compensate with spell resistance, a flat chance that your spell fails and you lose your turn, but it's only effective at annoying you, not preventing you from one shot kills and crazy combos. Multiplayer is particularly fruitless unless you both agree to use level 1 unmodified characters.
If you move a piece that doesn't result in a match, you are slapped with an illegal move penalty, take 5 damage and lose your turn. Considering how easy the game is in every other aspect, I find this to be quite out of place. The only time you get hit with the illegal move penalty is when your stylus slips or you are trying to train your mount and make a move in under 3 seconds (in which case you'd get hit with the time penalty anyway). Rarely if ever do you legitimately attempt to make an illegal move, and to penalize you for an involuntary muscle spasm or careless mistake seems odd in an otherwise forgiving game.
The one thing that keeps me from recommending the game is the fact that it crashes on rare occasions. This would be begrudgingly tolerated if it were just on the PC version, but it also crashes on the DS and PSP. Fortunately it saves your progress after every action you take, so the crash only causes you to lose whatever combat you're currently in, but I've also had problems with the game saving properly. I've had to do spell research over because the game failed to save, an there have been some graphical glitches and other minor things which denote a general lack of polish. Crashes are rare, maybe once every 10 hours of play, but if you're in the middle of a difficult fight it's very frustrating.
Should I buy this game?
Overall, I'm really impressed with the game. Initially I wasn't expecting there to be so much RPG content so I feel this is a great combination of two genres and provides hours of satisfying gameplay. The fact that you can build omnipotent characters just means that it is up to the player to decide whether they want to abuse the game or not. Nothing is stopping you from abstaining from the Temple or not using certain spells, and each player can choose to be challenged or not based on how they want to play. However, this game requires a good deal of patience because you can be frustrated by game crashes and minor glitches. Also, if you don't like Bejeweled, then there's really nothing for you here.
I would be more inclined to recommend this for the PC because of the major advantage that you can download a patch somewhere down the road that fixes the crashing (hopefully). The portable versions both have their advantages and disadvantages. The PSP has better graphics and more viewable area, while the DS has the significant advantage of playing with the stylus. However, the crashes on the portable versions will never be fixed, so that's something you're going to have to accept.
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(4.00, 4 votes)
