Gaming Trend

Gaming Trend Review

by Chris Miller

One of the challenges in reviewing games is being able to judge games on their own merit and not on the track record of the developers, the previous games in the series, or personal genre preference.  Sometimes this is easy, and sometimes this is incredibly difficult.  Puzzle Quest:  Galactrix (PQ: G) falls in the latter category.

I make no bones about being an unabashed fanboy of the original Puzzle Quest:  Challenge of the Warlords.  It’s a brilliant mix of strategy, RPG, and casual gaming that is the very definition of synergizing to become far more than the sum of its individual parts.  I liked it so much, in fact, that I ended up purchasing it for 3 different systems (360, DS, and PC), along with the 360 expansion pack.  I’ve spent more hours than I care to consider hucking jewels, spells, and skulls at monsters.

When Galactrix was first announced, I was skeptical.  It sounded like they were simply shooting for Puzzle Quest with a sci-fi coat of paint, which I wasn’t too excited about.  When the demo hit, however, I was hooked all over again.  The mechanics felt fresh and new, and this new iteration opened up a whole new universe (no pun intended) of possibilities. 

On the surface, Galactrix looks great.   It’s more of the stat-building, gem-matching goodness that we’ve come to know and love.  So why, then, am I writing this review with far less enthusiasm than I was hoping for?  Why have I come away from PQ:G feeling very unsatisfied?  Why can’t I help but see this game as a regression rather than a progression for the series?  Let’s dig a little deeper and find out.

The graphics on PQ: G do a serviceable job, but certainly won’t knock your socks off.  Then again, this is a casual game at heart and designed to be played on all sorts of systems, so you can’t really criticize it for not taking advantage of the latest and greatest hardware.   It’s worth noting that the game scales very well to lower-end systems.

You take control of a fresh-out-of-the-academy MRI (a large intergalactic corporation) agent who is initially tasked with completing some menial security and peacekeeping tasks, but soon gets caught up in a massive galactic conspiracy.  It’s all pretty cliché sci-fi fare, and the story is told through static character portraits and text bubbles.  While the potential for an intriguing story is there, the amateurish writing really hamstrings the proceedings.  I found myself not really knowing – or caring – why I was performing the various tasks, and would simply follow the glowing planet cues to reach the next available mission.

Similar to the original PQ game, you travel along an overworld map (this time in a ship instead of on a mount), which is littered with different galaxies.   Double-clicking to enter these galaxies will zoom in to display all the individual planets, space stations, and asteroids; each of which can provide a different task for you to complete or distribute mission objectives.   It feels much like the galactic travel in Mass Effect, but on a smaller scale.   Most screens are laid over background images that look like stock NASA photography.  Not a bad thing – given the setting – but not terribly impressive either.

When you enter any specific activities (i.e. combat, mining, haggling, hacking, etc.), the scene shifts to the combat screen.  They did a great job at making this screen easy to navigate and understand.  There are a few particle and lighting effects as you match gems or fire off your weapons, but nothing any more interesting than your standard game of Bejeweled.  Whether that is a good or bad thing is up to you, but I was hoping they might include a bit more eye candy.  

PQ: G uses a pretty standard battery of sci-fi effects.  Lasers, rockets, airlocks, electric shocks, etc.  Most of them became very repetitive very quickly, and I spent most of my time with the sound down and my iPod on.   Once I heard the robotic voice say “Begin Hacking Attempt” for the hundredth time, I was frantically searching for the button that would short circuit her.  There is no voice over work for the story segments, outside of the occasional 30 second cutscene.  Considering how weak the writing and storytelling is overall, I don’t really view this as a bad thing.

The music is pretty standard fare as well, and will quickly fade into the background.  I did notice that many of the pieces seemed to be influenced by music from other sci-fi games or movies.  Two tracks in particular sounded like they could have been ripped right out of Serenity and Starcraft.

I had no complaints with any of the controls in PQ: G.  The overworld map was quick and responsive, the gem matching worked just like every other match-3 title that has come before, information was easy to find in the menus, and I never found myself struggling with any aspect of the control layout.  Probably the only minor gripe is the incredibly slow movement of the ships on the overworld map.  You could get up and make a sandwich in the time it took for your ship to travel along the designated route, stopping at each individual galaxy to reposition itself.  This is a pretty minor gripe, though.

At the thousand-foot level, PQ: G looks like the exact same thing we’ve seen before.  You travel to galaxies, get assigned quests, tasks, and battles, then complete them using a match-3 battle grid.  It’s a simple idea that worked to perfection in the original PQ game, but doesn’t fare quite as well here.

In order to keep with the sci-fi theme, the battles now take place in a circular grid rather than a standard square.  The main tweak to this new system is that gravity doesn’t work the same in space.  So instead of gems falling only from the top to bottom, they can now travel in any direction.  For example, if you match 3 gems by moving one from the bottom to the top, the new gems will also fill in from that direction.  It’s actually a very cool new twist on the standard formula, although it takes a while to get the hang of (let’s face it, we’ve all been programmed to play match-3 games a certain way).  Once you get used to how the gems move, however, it seems to really open up the combat boards and allow for much greater flexibility.

All the actions in game revolve around this circular battle grid, which leads to my first issue with PQ: G.   I think the developers made a poor judgment in thinking that since players enjoyed the gem-matching combat so much in the original game, that they would also enjoy a huge range of variations on this same theme to accomplish other tasks.  So in addition to the regular and frequent battles, we also have timed Leap Gate puzzles, mining puzzles that require matching a specific number of particular gems, crafting puzzles, haggling puzzles, and rumor puzzles.  While most of these were present in the original game, they were few and far enough between to provide a fun distraction without taking away from the real meat of the game.  In PQ: G, these variations are near constant, and none of them are nearly as fun as simply lining up against an enemy and trying to beat them down in gem combat. 

Of particular nuisance are the Leap Gates.  In order to travel from one galaxy to another, you will need to “hack” the Leap Gate in a timed puzzle.  These range from fairly easy to incredibly difficult, and completing them is the only possible way to travel around and explore the map.  These gates are so numerous that there were some nights when I would do nothing but complete Leap Gate after Leap Gate after Leap Gate, and would rarely get around to completing an actual battle or quest mission.  In addition, the Leap Gate puzzles have a major fundamental flaw.  They require you to match a specific number of gems in order within a time limit (usually anywhere from 60 to 180 seconds).  However, creating these matches will inevitably cause other gems to cascade and match as well.  So while you may have the exact gems lined up to complete the puzzle, the last 10-15 seconds will be spent watching useless cascades rain down as the precious time ticks off the clock.  You then fail the attempt and have to do it all over again.

The Leap Gates might not be as problematic if you received some sort of reward for completing them.  Unfortunately, there’s no real reward except opening up a new travel route.  Therefore, in the hours and hours you spend completing these infuriating puzzles, you are not gaining any additional XP or cash to help build your character.  It completely eliminates the carrot from the stick that makes us want to keep playing.  (Side note:  It's worth mentioning that the PC version of PQ: G can be easily modded, and the developers have gone on record stating they welcome any changes that make the game more enjoyable to players.  As of this writing, you can find mods that stop the countdown timer during cascades, change all the Leap Gates to only one match, or add infinite time to the puzzles.  My score for this category does not reflect the use of these mods, and I'm judging based on the off-the-shelf version.  While they will probably help some folks enjoy the game more, I feel the mods really serve to make the Leap Gate puzzles just tedious instead of frustrating and tedious.)

Combat itself fares a bit better, but it still seems to fall short of being truly enjoyable.   You begin combat with both shield points and hull points.  Shield points can be quickly regenerated during battle by either matching blue gems or using certain abilities.  Hull points are basically your HP, and once they’re gone, you lose.  You damage your opponent by matching mines, which come in 1, 3, 5, or 10 point variations.   In addition to causing damage with mines, you can equip your ship with a number of special attacks and abilities such as lasers that cause damage based on a specific color of gems, repair bots that can heal your Hull Points, or even fields that affect the gravity and cause the gems to fall in unexpected directions.  On paper, the separate shield and Hull Points system is a good one, but I found it to be immensely frustrating.  Spending 10-15 minutes whittling down your opponent's shield, only to have them regenerate the entire thing within 1 or 2 turns made me want to throw my hands up and quit.  The quickly regenerating shields also cause many battles to last interminably long as you do damage, regen shields, do damage again, regen sheilds again, rinse, repeat.

Since there are no set characters classes or abilities in PQ; G, you really have open ended flexibility to create and equip your character however you would like.  It’s nice to be able to swap out certain abilities or equipment when you know you’re going up against an opponent that uses a particular attack, and customizing your ship is vital in order to succeed.  You will also gain the ability to craft or win larger and more powerful ships, which will allow you to either evade slower enemies or equip additional or more powerful items.

“Cheating” computer AI was a major point of contention with the original PQ game, and the developers made it very clear that there was nothing fishy going on.  At the risk of sounding whiny, even though I know the computer doesn’t cheat, I'm pretty sure there's an AI behind the curtain laughing maniacly at my feeble human attempts to defeat it.  After playing for a few hours you will become pretty skillful at reading the combat board and planning one move ahead, but there is still a certain amount of luck involved in winning.  Also, since PQ: G is far more open ended than it’s predecessor, it’s pretty easy to stumble upon battles that you are woefully underlevelled and unprepared for – even in the course of the main story. 

PQ: G also incorporates a base economic system, in which you gain specific resources (either through mining or combat) and can trade them throughout the galaxy.  It’s a cool touch that will have completists searching for the best trade routes for maximum profit.  There are also factions which will either love or loathe you based upon your actions.  If you piss off the wrong group, even simply traveling from one galaxy to another becomes a sketchy prospect involving multiple random battles.  Unfortunately, the faction system came across rather unbalanced, since the slightest negative action seemed to infuriate a specific group, who would then immediately attack you on sight.  Beating them would only increase their negative attention, and getting back in their good graces could be incredibly difficult.

PQ: G is a big game that will keep most players busy for a long, long time.  Whether that time is fun or not is going to dependent on the individual.  There is also a multiplayer aspect, but without any sort of matchmaking service, it’s tough to find anyone to play against.  I know I’ve sounded pretty negative about PQ: G, and I think it is going to be a very polarizing game.  There will be one camp that absolutely loves the added challenges and the new battle system, and another that find the endless Leap Gates and uninspired storyline to be too much to overcome.  I probably fall somewhere in the middle.  I don’t think PQ: G is a bad game by any means, but I have a hard time recommending it.  Maybe the charm of gem-matching-combat has simply worn thin, but I can’t help but feel they could have done a better job balancing and improving this game.  The bottom line is that I feel like I should be liking it a lot more than I am. I keep finding myself alternating between frustrated and bored - a combination I never thought I'd see from a Puzzle Quest game.  

Gaming Trend Score

70

1. Graphics: 71
2. Audio: 67
3. Controls: 90
4. Gameplay: 61
5. Value/Replay: 69
6. OVERALL:70