Pros: A new, innovative gameplay design that mixes puzzle and RPG style elements.
Cons: Storyline is almost non-existant; game is tedious, unexciting, no cinematics.
The Bottom Line: Puzzle Quest is labeled as an RPG / Puzzle combination, but it is balanced much heavier on the puzzle side, as 80% of the gameplay is placed into puzzle battling.
imprimis2's Full Review: Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords for PlaySt...
Puzzle Quest, which was released in November of 2007, promises a new and exciting marriage between die-hard puzzle gaming and the traditional role-playing experience. However, after the initial four to five hours are spent adjusting to the game's learning curve, many players may be left with something more to be desired.
[Primary Thoughts]
With a price tag of only $20.00, the investment seemed reasonable, especially considering the back of the product box stated, "over 150 quests await you in story mode." While this is a huge amount of questing to accomplish, the game ends up in one of two areas: an extremely well-crafted game, filled with many storyline and plot twists and turns....OR....a game that is lackluster at best, filled only with a few notable scenes. Unfortunately for us, this game falls into the second camp of a lackluster and overly tedious game, filled with quests that seem to have no tie-in to the overall storyline.
[Puzzle Quest's Gameplay and Storyline]
The core "meat and potatoes" portion of Puzzle Quest comes in its mix of RPG and puzzle elements. Essentially, players start out their game by creating a character of his or her own choosing---he can choose his race, his gender, and also create a name for himself / herself. Unfortunately, there is no ability to change clothing, and while the opportunity to upgrade weapons and armor does come a bit later on in the game, the player never sees any graphical representation of it. While this is not exactly the main focus of the game and is still unnecessary, it's the small touches that get left out frequently in Puzzle Quest, and end up giving it almost no personality whatsoever.
However, once players select their race, name, and gender, they are presented with an opportunity to go through a fairly in-depth tutorial that is tiered into different stages, so that players can understand how the puzzle-battle system works. The tutorial is crafted well, and once a player progresses past it, he should have little in the way of difficulty in learning how to manipulate the rudimentary aspects of the puzzle board.
As the player progresses, he will encounter enemies on the worldmap, which is the only map system used in the game. An overhead shot is used to represent the world, similar to what is used in games like Civilization. Enemies appear at random, and once a player comes in the direct path of one, a puzzle battle will ensue. Winning a battle will award the player experience points, gold, and an increase in what is called "cunning." If a player loses, he still collects experience, but he will not be awarded gold or any additional progress in the cunning skill. When it comes to "cunning," this skill refers to the player's ability to start first or go second in the match. The higher a player's cunning skill, the greater likelihood he will be the first person to start the battle.
At the beginning of the game, the player will start from his hometown, known as Bartonia. From there, he will hear from the queen about how hoardes of undead creatures are kidnapping ordinary citizens right inside the city. It is then up to him to travel to distant and far off lands in search of the meaning behind the disappearances. Along the way, he will encounter new friends and companions that can help aid him in his quests. However, he soon learns his own hometown is not the only place where creatures are disappearing. He also learns that elves and dragons are being whisked away, too. At the same time, it is up to the player to settle skirmishes that rage on the eastern side of the mountains between the different orc camps.
Each time a player makes progress to a new city on the map, he will earn new quests to unlock. While many of these quests are optional, some are important to the development of the main storyline, and these will be highighted in "red" in his list.
The ultimate fight between good and evil rages on, and our hero will go on for hours until he finds the person or people behind this nasty scheme.
[Mechanics of the Game]
The most complex part of Puzzle Quest is in its puzzle development, and how puzzles can influence his character's strength and magical abilities.
We will start with the main puzzle screen.
Main Puzzle Screen
At the start of battle, an 8 x 8 grid will fill with several types of icons. A player will notice red, green, blue, and yellow circles. These are known as "mana" orbs, and are banked in order to cast spells when needed. If a player manages to match three in any horizontal or vertical line, he will gain the amount of mana in that category. However, if a player gets 4 in a row, he will earn the mana PLUS a free turn. Get 5 in a row, and the player earns a free turn AND a wildcard, which can be substituted for any other many type on the board.
In addition to the mana orbs, there are also other items on the board, including Gold Stacks, Experience Stars, and Skulls.
Gold Stacks can be created in order to help a player amass more gold. Gold can then be used in your home city, or other cities, to purchase armor and new weapons. Gold can also be used to buy "rumors," which are fairly useless tips that give the player more information about the storyline. Rumors should not be purchased unless a player has an exceedingly large stack of gold.
Experience Stars are colored in purple, and help the player gain experience at the end of battle. The experience points earned in the puzzle-battle also go into the player's overall bank. Once they reach a predetermined amount of experience, players will "level up."
Skulls are the main thing players will want to search for on the board, as these cause damage to the enemy. Each skull, when lined up in a row of 3, 4, or 5, will cause one point of damage for each skull. However, there are also special "plus 5" Skulls, which will glow red in the middle of the playing field. These skulls are worth an extra 5 points of damage. It is possible to combine glowing skulls with regular skulls, and it is also possible to create a chain of all glowing "plus 5" skulls, thus causing massive damage.
At the upper left of the screen, players will see an HP gauge with numerical headings. As damage is received, these numbers will decrease.
There are four mana pools next to a player's character portrait also, so a player can keep track of how many points of mana he has.
[Magical Abilities]
Another important aspect of the battle system is the use of magic. As the game progresses, a player will learn new spells to use in combat. Different spells have varying effects on the gameboard. There are too many to mention here, so keep an eye out for these and their potential effects. Some magic spells affect only the player, other spells affect the player AND the enemy, some affect ONLY the enemy, and there are other rare spells that affect the board. One particular spell is known as "Wake the Dead" that allows a player to turn regular skulls on the board into glowing "plus 5" skulls.
Different spells require different amounts of magic, and the amount will be displayed below the name of the spell listing. All spells are located on the left-hand side of the main puzzle screen.
It should be said that the game relies fairly heavily on magical spells in certain battles, and as the game progresses, enemies' spells will become stronger.
A player may carry up to 6 different spells at one time. In addition, after leveling up at certain areas, players will learn new spells. Also, players can choose to "capture" an enemy instead of fight it, if they have already defeated that particular enemy 3 times. The player must then play a special solo-game where he must remove orbs and stars from the board as in a normal game. If a player can successfully clear the board of all jewels, he can effectively train that enemy as a mount, which he can use to ride around the gameboard, sometimes avoiding certain enemy confrontations.
[Worldmap Options]
Once a player goes to his home city, there are several options available to him. The "Your Citadel" option allows you to upgrade your own castle, where you can train your captured mounts, and upgrade your character's statistics by paying gold. Mage Towers can be built to learn spells from enemies, and Forges can be constructed to create special Rune items that are found by defeating elemental creatures in many locations on the worldmap.
"Get Quests" is self-explanatory, as it allows a player to view his current incomplete quests. New quests can also come up in the same city more than one time. Be sure to pay attention to the exclamation points hovering over each camp, town, or fortress.
"Tavern" is where a player can learn rumors about the area, or particular figures of importance from that particular place. Rumors should be used sparingly, as they cost gold, and frequently have no effect on the storyline.
"Shop" allows players to purchase new armor and weapons for their character. Weapons and armor have their own level requirements as well, so a player cannot simply go in and buy the strongest item at the start of a game. Each weapon is also equipped with special magical powers that can help sway a player's odds of winning if used in the right combination with other items.
"Hero Inventory" is where a player will go to equip new items, change the spells that he will be using in later battles, and also to swap out his special "companions." Defeated enemies can be viewed here as well, complete with a win-loss track record.
"Siege!" is a particularly interesting feature, but it is not easy to accomplish. If a city interests a player, he can attempt to overtake it by selecting "Siege!" and then engaging in a puzzle-battle with a city. These battles are often hard and take some time for an outcome to be decided. If a player is fortunate enough to defeat a city, the next time he goes through that particular city, he will earn gold from its residents. Note, however, that all cities have a 50% chance of rebeling against you, and taking rulership over again.
[Overall Thoughts]
While Puzzle quest was an intriguing game at first, complete with its amazingly deep customization of weapons, magic, and skills, the game grew tedious in a hurry, especially toward the end of the main storyline. Although many players will flock to the idea of a Bejeweled - Final Fantasy combination, this game is far from there. The game certainly leans more on Bejeweled than Final Fantasy, and although there are is a lot to explore, the game, as a whole, feels dry and uninspired.
For a game like Puzzle Quest, there is a huge amount of potential for a more dramatic and engaging storyline. Instead, we get character bubbles with no voiceovers, and even the cinematic scenes that do feature voiceovers are completely devoid of animation. Instead, we have overly simplistic, and at times, shoddy graphical designs. Without delving into the main storyline too much, it suffices to say that there hardly is one.
Overcliched use of good vs. evil make the storyline laughable at best, and the quests that revolve around the development of the plot (what few there are) are overly lengthy and most just require a player to backtrack over old locations to find important items. And, along the way, the player will stumble into enemies that are holding onto those key items. We never see any real animations--we never see the skull of Sartek fall out of an enemy's clutches---instead, we get a tiny-font screen that tells us "you now have the Skull of Sartek. You can return to City X and give it to Character X." So then you make your trip back, without fanfare, and deliver the items.
What I would have liked to see in this game is a complete overhaul of its storyline. If we are to garner a truly great RPG and Puzzle combination game, we must remember not to overlook the roots of all great role-playing games. An absolutely stunning and wonderful creation of puzzle and RPG elements, although not technically considered an RPG, is Bioshock. It's fun to be able to break into a vending machine and THEN have to solve the puzzle to get your item.
This game is balanced at about 80% puzzle, 20% RPG. Why not make it 60% RPG, 40% puzzle? The mood, atmosphere, and character development needs to take the center stage, while the puzzles take a smaller role. That's not to say we should get rid of them altogether, but an effective RPG / Puzzle combination has to have a little excitement in it, and sadly, Puzzle Quest provides none.
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