Gaming Trend

Gaming Trend Review

by Keith Schleicher

“You got chocolate in my peanut butter!”

“You got peanut butter in my chocolate!”

Some of you might remember the commercials with the previous lines in them.  Sometimes combining two things together can result in brilliance, like peanut butter cups.  Other times, it can result in utter disaster.

Combining two genres together in gaming can have the same effect.  While we’ve seen the first-person shooter combined with an RPG successfully, there are other genres you wouldn’t suspect combining.  When I heard of Puzzle Quest being a cross between an RPG and a puzzle game, I was pretty skeptical of the concept.  I was curious if seeing the game in action would change my mind.

Most of the game is played out on the game board which is filled with different colored jewels, skulls, and coin stacks.  On the left side is your character and spells, and on the right side is your opponent and his spells.  Each of the jewels has a little design on them.  The skulls look like skulls, but they aren’t the typical skull you’d see on the Jolly Roger.  The coin stacks look like something you’d see symbolizing money in another RPG game.  The pieces slide down the game board smoothly and rapidly, especially when making combos.

The developers could have made the game without any flourish and it would have played the same, but the developers have added a few extras to make the graphics a bit more appealing.  When creating combos, the jewels disappear with a sparkle of effects.  Text has a nice transparency to it.  The game does sometimes overdo it at times, making the pieces difficult to see until the effects have disappeared.

Your avatar and the creatures you face are represented with 2D artwork that is nicely detailed.  It isn’t out of the realm of possibility that you could find artwork similar to this in a fantasy trading card game like Magic: The Gathering.  These characters are also used in the conversation screen you have during the game.  However, the characters don’t move during the conversations or show any kind of emotion.

The world map is similar to what you’ve find in the Warlords or Heroes of Might and Magic strategy games.  The map contains areas that you move to, like castles and shrines.  If there is a quest objective to be performed there, it has some lighting effects coming from it.  Unfortunately, the overlay of the screen can make seeing the map and navigating it more difficult than it needs to be.

If you’ve heard the music at the Renaissance Fair, you have a pretty good idea of what the music during the game sounds like.  You have melodic flutes playing while questing on the map or speaking to others.  During battles the music intensifies and make with a drum driving the beat.  The music does get repetitive though, and it eventually isn’t very memorable.  The game wouldn’t play much different without it.

The game does have a few effects when creating combos.  When matching three skulls, you hear the buzz of lightning.  Other combos produce other sounds, but they aren’t all that impressive.  You are given a verbal indication if you are low on health, but there really isn’t any voice acting or any sounds coming from your enemies.

Controlling a game like Bejeweled is pretty easy.  All you do is select your square using the D-pad, hit X on the square, and then using the D-pad again to indicate which direction the icon should move.

Using the L and R buttons you can move to the left and the right side of the screen.  Here you can select the spells.  These do different things, such as removing all the purple icons and gaining all the experience from them.  Hitting Triangle brings up a short description of what the spell does.

Moving around the map is done with the D-pad and hitting X at a location.  Moving around is simple, but the overlay of your character profile and your quest screen occupies a large part of the screen making it difficult to see the areas of the map you are supposed to go to.

At the heart of the game, Puzzle Quest is an RPG.  You have statistics and an inventory.  You have items to carry and spells you can cast.  What differentiates most RPGs from each other is the battle, and the battle system in Puzzle Quest is unique.

When you start out, you start at a castle and learn about the game.  At the castle you get a little bit of dialogue to get familiar with your character and a little bit of training for combat.  You travel on the world map by placing your cursor on the area you want to go to.  If an exclamation point is over a map location, it means that quests are available.  A red exclamation point means that those quests available are a part of the main quest.  Large green exclamation points mean that the quests are side quests and aren’t required to progress the storyline.  At the cities you can also visit the bar to listen to rumors and shop for items.

The storyline isn’t all that different from your typical RPG game.  The quests usually involve going to a specific area and defeating an enemy there, or you might have to deliver an object to a particular person.  They aren’t anything different from what you’ve seen before, but it does help make the game feel cohesive while fighting enemies on a big jewel board.

If you’ve ever played Bejeweled, then you basically know the gist of combat in Puzzle Quest.  A grid with jewels filling the screen represents your battlefield.  The player with the highest Cunning skill goes first.  You take turns matching three or more jewels on the screen.  When you match three jewels you gain mana for spells.  Match three skulls and you cause damage to your opponent.  Purple jewels give you extra experience.  Three coin stacks in a row get you more gold.

Bonuses are available when you match four or five of the same jewels together.  When four jewels match you get an extra turn.  Matching five gives you an extra turn and creates a Wild Card on the board.  The extra turns can mean the difference between coming out ahead or losing.

When you gain a level you can allocate points to different areas.  Mastery areas increase the amount of mana you get for each group and also increase the chance of you gaining a Wild Card or extra turn.  Battle increases your damage when connecting skulls.  Morale increases your hero’s base life points when starting a battle.  Increasing the levels different areas costs a different amount of points.  You get four with every level increase, so you need to be careful where you allocate your points.

While most of the game consists of matching gems, spells play a large part of the game as well.  You start out with one spell, and as you gain levels you also gain spells.  Some spells attack your opponent, while others help defend you against attacks.  Each of the four classes that you choose in the game has their own specialties, so each one needs different kinds of mana.  Your opponent has different spells, so you have to be careful of what their spells can do to you.

Equipment plays a part into combat as well.  The hero can have one helm, one piece of armor, a weapon, and one miscellaneous item.  The equipment can add to your resistances and skills.  These items are constant, while spells only endure for a specific amount of time.

As if there wasn’t enough for you to look at, you can also own a citadel.  Here you can research spells, create a dungeon to keep captured enemies, a stable to train mounts, build a vault to store our gold, or build a siege workshop that lets you siege other cities that can provide you with extra income.

With the game, you really need to plan your moves, because you don’t want to create a move that will give your opponent an advantage.  The game is a bit frustrating at times because it feels like the computer gets some lucky breaks.  However, the developer has stated on a forum that he didn’t program anything like that into the game because he is lazy.  Even with the frustration factor, the game is addicting where you want to constantly play it.  Also, the load times are fast, making the game quick to play in short bursts.

There is one bug in the game that did make it into retail.  Companions are available that can assist you in battle in different ways.  However, the companions don’t have any effect on the battle at all.  It isn’t a deal-breaker though, as it doesn’t make that much of a difference.  It would have been good to have this functionality work though.

When you start the game, four different classes are available to play as in the main quest.  While changing the character doesn’t change the storyline, the game definitely plays very differently depending on the class you choose.  This makes it worthwhile trying the different classes to see which one suits your needs better.  Since you can also build up your characters differently, there are numerous ways to play the game.

Puzzle Quest also lets you play a few ways besides going through the main quest.  You can play multiplayer in Ad Hoc mode against another person.  It would have been nice to play this game online against others, as the graphics are very conducive to that.  While it’s better than nothing, Internet play is sorely missed.  At least you can do an Instant Action battle or choose an opponent to battle in the single player menu when you are really pressed for time.

When I first heard of Puzzle Quest, I thought that it was going to be a complete disaster merging an RPG with what a puzzle game reminiscent of Bejeweled.  I have to admit I was wrong, and Puzzle Quest is the game that will replace Lumines to satisfy my quick puzzle game craving.  The RPG elements help deepen the experience and make you want to move forward in the story.  If you are interested in either genre, then you would be doing yourself a huge favor by tracking this game down.  It sounds like it is getting scarce, so if you can find a copy, don’t hesitate to pick this up.

Gaming Trend Score

82

1. Graphics: 78
2. Audio: 68
3. Controls: 86
4. Gameplay: 88
5. Value/Replay: 85
6. OVERALL:82