Puzzle Quest : Challenge of the Warlords by: Infinite Interactive
I have played this title on the PC, Nintendo DS and Nintendo Wii. It is also available on PSP, XBox Live Arcade, PS2, PS3, and mobile phones. My best experience was with the PC. The action moves much faster and everything is much easier to see. I enjoy Puzzle Quest because there is just enough variety in the mixture of genre play to keep my attention and not get bored. It is considered a Puzzle/RPG/Strategy game with a storyline you can skip if you like. King of casual play, you can play a few minutes or a few hours. Even during combat with opponents in the game you can pause and pick up the phone and come back when you are ready. It offers multiplayer options wirelessly if on the DS or PSP, online if you are on the PC. Consoles have two player competition included. In all platforms it allows you to play in single player story mode vs. the computer or you can play others in multiplayer mode. Matches take around 10-15 minutes.
On the puzzle side, think of the match-3 Bejeweled but with a lot more options. For the role player, you can play as a mage, knight, druid, or warrior and each class will offer different skills and skill points to use as you see fit. Most players put their points in one one or two things to master it well. You’ll also be able to equip your character with better armor and weapons as you level. For strategy you can purchase buildings for your citadel that allow you to capture enemies as mounts and also to learn their attacks. You’ll also be able to craft your own weapons and attach runes to all of your equipment. As you progress through story mode you’ll unlock NPC’s who travel with you and do opening attacks depending on what kind of opponent you are facing. As you progress across the map you will encounter cities. When your citadel is fully equiped you can attack these cities and if you win then each time you ride through town they will give you a monetary tribute. Revolts will happen from time to time so you’ll have to keep them in check.
There are 50 levels of play and two endings, one if you choose the good side and one if you choose the evil path. Also the developers have just released a patch available on XBox Live Arcade that will give you more classes to try, 50 more levels and more zones on the southern portion of the map. It will eventually be available for PC players to access online.
The developers are in the process of creating not a sequel but a similar game with a science fiction theme as it’s next release. It’s called Puzzle Quest : Galactrix and instead of the box grid it will be a hex-style grid. It will have the ability to play online with 2-4 players. Attacks can be made not only from horizontal or vertical but also from the direction of the ship and also gravity will have a factor in how the pieces fall. They wanted to try a science fiction mode to give the player more options by switching ships instead of being locked into a single class for play. It should be released sometime later this year (2008).
