There are so many match 3 puzzle games out there, and each one tries to add some sort of schtick to make it stand out from the rest. While the simplicity of a match 3 game makes it appealing to casual puzzle fans, most lack any kind of real strategy other than “don’t miss the big combos”. Players rely mostly on the luck of how the board plays out. This fact makes puzzle games boring for the more hardcore demographic. Puzzle Quest 2 breaks this mold entirely, adding depth and strategy unlike any puzzle game I have ever played.
The game first puts you in the role of your choosing. You can pick an Assassin, Barbarian, Sorcerer, or Templar. Each one has a book of unlockable spells and skills that you can unleash on your foes, as well as a unique set of weapons in which to smite them. There is a bit of a story that you will be following by talking to citizens of the village you are in. If you have ever played any kind of Role Playing Game, whether video game or table-top, you will find the story rather cliche. Yet that really doesn’t matter, because simply having some sort of goal in mind makes this so much more interesting than just progressing from one board to another.
You choose your path, the creatures you fight, the treasure you loot, the rooms you search and you can skip any of the side missions if you just want to complete the story. But since the story is secondary to the puzzle games, you will probably want to take on every mission you can.
Movement of your character is basically picking the route you will take. The game defaults your character to move along story lines, but as stated before, you can choose alternate routes if you want. It’s not free form movement, so you will not get lost; there is always an icon pointing you in the direction you should go, and when you delve into dungeons, you can access a map and warp points. This makes it easy for puzzle fans to get around, yet also adds an exploration element for adventure and strategy fans.
As you progress, you will want to travel back to town to upgrade your weapons and buy new items. There are a lot of items you can buy, however you get the best items by beating enemies, so you will save your money for upgrades. The upgrade system is pretty straight forward, as the menu basically tells you what you can and cannot upgrade. Upgrading weapons up your damage, while upgrading shields up your defense. Some upgrades may also add special features to your items, such as an improved critical hit chance.
What’s amazing is that all this has a big effect on your battles. The battle system has many elements to it. There are three types of items on the puzzle board: colored gems, gauntlets, and skulls. Gems are color coded to different types of Mana. Red is an attack Mana, yellow is a defensive Mana, etc. As you match the gems, you gain Mana in that color’s category. This allows you to cast spells and use special abilities. Gauntlets are action points. To use weapons, shields and items, you must collect a set number of action points by matching 3 or more gauntlets. Skulls are direct attacks. Matching three or more skulls causes damage to your opponent based on your strength. If you get four or five in a row, you get another turn. Balancing your mana, action points, and skull attacks are what battles are all about.
Each creature you face also has special qualities just like you. They may have special defensive qualities such as magic resistance. Opponents will also have access to special spells and weapons. It really mixes up the game play with each battle, and there are a good amount of creatures to fight from orcs and ogres to ghosts and liches.
Each Spell causes an effect based on the board or to the board. For example, Pummel causes one point of damage for every two red gems on the board, but doesn’t otherwise change the layout of the puzzle. Enrage, however, causes several red gems to appear on the board in random places. If you are lucky enough to get four in a row from your spells, you get another turn. Other spells cause your opponent to lose turns, or eliminates gems from the board. You can only equip up to four different spells out of you spell book for each battle, so picking the right spells is a very important strategy. Stringing together spells and combos, then finishing off with a blow from your weapon of choice is the way to victory in battle.
As you progress through the game, you will gain experience points. When you collect a certain amount of experience, you will level up. You can increase your Strength, Agility, Intelligence, Stamina, or Morale. You can see the benefits of leveling up a category before choosing.
If Puzzle Quest 2 was just about the battles, the game would still be pretty cool, but there are so many varieties that they put into this game. When you come to a locked door, you can either pick the lock or bash it down. Either way, there is a puzzle you must solve to successfully pick the lock or knocking it off its hinges. These puzzles require you to eliminate certain types of gems, such as door gems, in a certain amount of turns. To learn new spells, there is a cool mini game where you have to eliminate ALL the gems on the board. There is no turn limit, but you have to plan your moves well because if there is even a single gem left when all your valid moves are exhausted, you fail.
The game is pretty forgiving. If you do fail, you can just try the puzzle again. It also auto-saves after each battle, so if you want to just complete a quick puzzle, you don’t have to find a save point. You even get a little bit of experience when you lose. With no turn time limit and no punishment for losing, the challenge of the game is minimal. The only thing really at stake in a battle is lost time in the real world. Some battles can last over 15 minutes later in the game, so it can be a bummer to lose, but all in all it’s not that big a deal. It keeps the game a low stress affair, which is kind of nice.
There are also local and online modes so you can challenge others with the character you create. You can also just jump right into a battle and skip the story entirely if you wish.
Puzzle Quest 2 has a little something for everyone. If there is one downside, it’s that it can get pretty brutal towards the end, but everyone should want a challenge, right? I recommend this game for anyone that has ever enjoyed a match 3 game as well as for fantasy lovers of all kinds.
Puzzle Quest 2 is rated E10+ for Everyone 10 year+ and is available now on the Xbox Live Arcade for 1200 MS Points and on the Nintendo DS for $29.99.
A review code was provided but did not affect the outcome of this review. This was a review of the XBLA version.
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