Puzzle Quest is an engrossing new RPG/puzzle hybrid that is now available for Xbox Live Arcade, but is it a complete experience? Find out in our full review.
Puzzle Quest is a unique, quirky title that will suck in the role-playing fans out there, as well as the puzzle fans. If you are both, all the better because the PQ does a pretty decent job of smashing them both together into one fantastic “peanut butter and jelly situation” to quote Cliff Bleszinski. The game originally found its way on handheld systems, and now one of the best handheld titles out there can be played on Xbox Live Arcade as well.
The story is a bit elementary in comparison to a lot of role-playing titles out there, but definitely something new for a puzzle game. You are part of the guard of the kingdom, and you realize that the crazy tales your grandfather spoke of in the past are actually true, that there are all kinds of enchanted beasts out there to fight, and you fight them with a puzzle game.
You can create your own hero, although you are fairly limited. You can give the hero a name, and profession, being able to pick from Druid, Knight, Warrior, and Wizard. The game has a Lord of the rings/medieval feel to it. RPG elements, story goes as you complete puzzle challenges. You navigate via a world map, going to certain points that will have jobs for you to do. Quests sometimes might not have to do with the puzzle elements at all, but rather fetching items.
The bulk of the game of course is the puzzle portion of the title, and depending on how you play during your turn, you will either build up power, gain money, experience, or attach the opposing force. You have a board that has many different colored gems correlate with a magic power, or mana. So for example, if you clear enough red and yellow, mana is open for you to use against your opponent. The main objective is to always kill off your opponent though, by lining up at least three skulls in a row to inflict damage. You also can line up coins, and experience points, and the game lets you get a second turn if you line up four of a kind. An interesting twist is that if there are no more moves on the board, the grid resets and your mana drains as well. Once you are done with a match, you gain experience that you can divide amongst various attributes.
While this is what the game is all about, there are a lot of inconsistencies with the challenge. There has been numerous times where I will go up against a lesser enemy, say a giant spider, and then go against a more key enemy, and the giant spider was the harder of the two. You can shop for more spells, items, and armor that makes you stronger against attacks and gives you an advantage, but the inconsistency is still there. Through all of that though it is important to note that this game while surprisingly accessible at first is not for everybody, and will only cater to the hardcore gamers out there. You need to think ahead in advance of the opposing forces move a lot of the times, and the computer almost unfairly will set you up for a whooping every match further into the game. As you progress there are many side-quests you can do as well that adds on to the overall value, and there are of course perks for completing addition side-quests as well. There are more people that will join you in your quest, and as you go along you can build up your Citadel allowing you to craft new abilities and more.
While it feels almost tacked on, you can play against others over Xbox Live. The Xbox Live play allows for your basic Ranked and Player matches, allowing you to also keep control of how long the player’s turn is. The biggest satisfaction you get out of this is the ability to use a character that you have been leveling up yourself. While it sounds fantastic, it can be a bit troublesome if the person you go up against has a higher level than you, or vice versa. The matchmaking does a pretty decent job balancing it out though.
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8.4
Puzzle Quest gives XBLA users one of the best PSP and Nintendo DS games, and with some extra Xbox 360 flavor, feels right at home on your Xbox 360. The game is somewhat quirky with a bit of puzzle and role-playing flavor mixed in with a linear story, but it breathes life into Live Arcade. It is the second highest priced game of all time (Lumines Live! at 1600 points was the highest) at 1200 points, or fifteen dollars but that is a pretty decent bargain considering lesser versions of the game on handhelds go for twenty or more.
