Puzzle Quest (PC) Review
Posted by Chris Evans on 02.07.2008
Ever wanted to mix puzzles and questing? Now is your chance!
Puzzle Quest combines puzzles and role playing and while at first glance it may be a mish-mash of genres, at further analysis it is a great combination of genres.
The fight sequences in the game take place in a puzzle format and the rest of the game is a stately RPG affair meaning there is plenty here to suit fans of both genres.
Puzzle Quest allows you to create a character from four different classes - Druid, Warrior, Knight or Wizard each of which have a different area of abilities in the fighting part of the game. The game itself places your ‘Hero’ into a fantasy world full of Cities, Caves, Outposts and much more all of which fit into a story taking you across the game world.
Gameplay
Your Hero takes quests, which can be story based or standard RPG quests, from the Castles. Completing these quests can reward you with special items, money, experience points and more. Items are used as in a standard RPG as equipment on your character providing bonuses in combat, experience points are used to train you Hero up in different areas needed in combat and money is used to upgrade your Citadel, buy items and learn rumours. All of this gives you some nice little things to fiddle around with as you play. Choosing the right combination of equipment and spells to fight effectively can be a balancing act, but once you find one that suits you right you will be happy to fight knowing you have the best combination to win.
Screenshots are from the PSP version
This may sound like traditional RPG stuff, and it is but it doesn’t require you to go into too much detail to figure things out, everything is pretty self explanatory. There is a story to the game, and while not great (the usual deal to go kill the evil wizard) it does provide the drive needed to explore the game world to the full. The game world itself is a set on a 2D map from which you select differing points to travel to and from taking away the chore of walking everywhere yourself. As you travel different paths between areas of the map a random enemy will appear which you will have to fight to pass.
Unfortunately this can soon get boring encountering needless enemies when you are travelling from place to place. This is where you come to appreciate the detailed world from games like Oblivion which allow you to actually explore the world and have freedom. Being constrained to set paths unlocked as you progress in the game takes away the element of freedom that at times is sorely needed to provide some adventure in Puzzle Quest.
A great feature of the game is your Heroes Citadel. This is accessible from any City that you have conquered and it provides a great deal more depth to the game. You are able to build different structures as you earn gold, these structures provide you with different abilities. Some let you learn spells from creatures you have defeated a certain number of times, others let you create new magical items from Runes you collect in the game world by defeating monsters or completing quests. When you want to do something within the Citadel you are presented with a mini-game derived from the main fighting puzzles.
Providing you with the ability to customise your character with items and spells beyond what you get from shops and quests is a great touch and gives that much more for you to look into and have fun with. However this feels limited, Puzzle Quests lacks the highly detailed creation areas of games like Lord of the Rings Online, everything is based on which monsters you have captured and Runes you have found. Though for those gamers not looking for an intense RPG environment this is brilliantly suited.
As mentioned before the fights and mini-games are based on the Bejewelled games, the simple game mechanic of moving items around a board to create killer combinations is further enhanced with the addition of the role-playing features from the main part of the game. There are different coloured gems which each have a different ‘element’ they are attached to. You match gems of certain colours up to provide you with the mana to perform your spells on the enemy or on yourself. Skulls are matched to damage the enemy, coins can add to your gold collection and stars give you more experience.
This is where you will be spending the majority of the game as you fight different monsters you find around the map and perform mini-games with different rules to the standard goal of depleting the enemy health bar to zero. While it is certainly addicting, and creating combinations is very fun it can get grating at times with the same look all the time. Having different spells and enemies to outwit do throw in some variety from time to time but if you don’t get along with this type of puzzle well then Puzzle Quest certainly won’t be the game for you.
Something that really grated on me is the fact that there is no penalty for losing a battle, you just go back and fight again and again until you win. However the possibility of getting an amazing combination will keep you involved, pull off a good move and the tables will be turned on the enemy, though if you miss these opportunities the AI will gladly take them.
Fun Factor
Despite my criticisms this is at times a very fun game to play. The writing can be humorous, though for the wrong reasons. Defeating an opponent with a magically lucky move is also very fun. Other parts can be boring however.
Graphics and Sound
The graphics and sound are basic as is to be expected from a semi-casual game. The colour palette on the world map is pretty bland at times, and sometimes everything gets too cluttered with monsters, cities and quest indicators. In the puzzle side of the game the colours are bright, but if you suffer from colour-blindness you may experience problems with some of the different gems. You can identify them by their logos, but more often than not it is the colours that you want to use to identify the and sometimes they can all blend together. The sound is poor, I found myself muting it and playing my own music as it got irritating after only a few hours gameplay.
Lasting Appeal
There is however lasting appeal in the game, the main quest is decently sized taking a good few hours to complete and the various other side quests add considerable depth. You can also take your hero in a random battle for added gameplay, and there is even a multiplayer mode.
The 411
Despite all the flaws this is a good game. It does nothing brilliantly, and not much that badly. If you like the puzzles then this will provide you with lots and lots of fun, if you don’t then this is definitely not the game for you. As you spend most of the time in the puzzle mode the limited depth of it may get to you, but the other factors of the game will keep you entertained. It must be noted that this can get pretty addictive with the urge to continue playing until that one monster is dead emerging at times. If you like puzzles and don’t mind some RPG elements thrown in for good measure then this really is going to be a great game for you.
Due to the addictiveness of the game and the good points of it, I will highly recommend it to any puzzle game fans out there.
Graphics
6.0
They do what they have to do, nothing special though
Gameplay
7.0
Gameplay is definately very sound
Sound
5.0
Poor sound, didn't like it
Lasting Appeal
8.0
Fair bit to do in the game, plenty of time to be wasted
