Puzzle Quest 2 (Review)

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Currently on the Xbox 360 (as a Live Arcade game) and Nintendo DS platforms.

Soccer moms and fantasy nerds collide in this epic coupling of puzzle and role-playing. It's really surprising to me that there hasn't been a successful game like this before. There have been many RPGs incorporating puzzle elements (Lufia, Wild Arms, Xenosaga), but little to no puzzle games adding RPG elements. Both genres have been around for about as long as gaming itself, and this particular series of games brings two proven examples of both genres together: the "Bejeweled" style match-three puzzle game and the western/D&D fantasy RPG, i.e. Diablo, Baldur's Gate, etc.

The basic premise is that the "gems" represent mana you may use for spells unique to your character class. In addition to gems, in the first game, there are also purple stars that give extra experience and gold. In the sequel, the stars are replaced with purple mana, the gold is gone, and in its place are gauntlet-shaped pieces, which add to your action points, which allows you use of the weapon/shield/item in your right or left hand. Both games have skull gems on the board, which deal direct damage to the opponent when matched, the damage dealt depending on the Strength stat. Matching four of any gem gives the player an extra turn, matching five gives an extra turn and a wildcard, and a chain of 5 matches results in a "Heroic Effort", which yields 100 extra experience, a free turn and a wildcard.

I liked the idea and enjoyed the first Puzzle Quest. The character art and overworld map of the first game was reminiscent of Fire Emblem or a Japanese style RPG. In this game, there was quite a bit of traversing the countryside (the static world map, that is) and grinding battle after battle, building up and upgrading an extensive amount of extras such as your mounts, captured monsters, upgrading your castle, taking over towns and kingdoms, forging better weapons, finding runes for better weapons, etc...and most all of these had puzzle minigames involved to accomplish your goal.

Puzzle Quest 2 is quite different. It's more RPG without being any less puzzle, if that makes any sense. Maybe you could say it's now less of a puzzle game with RPG elements, more of an RPG with a puzzle battle system. All of your major actions involve a puzzle game still, but there is actually a world you can see and explore in this game. It is a bit of a more Western dungeon crawler type game, with the majority of the action taking place near a cursed town, your base of operations. You travel with a point and click interface, similar to a computer game, and travel from room to room. In the original game, you could only see your tiny character move along a giant map, passing over several cities in seconds. It's quite different in that.

Instead of your equipment giving passive bonuses as with the previous game, you now actually use your weapons in separate actions. For example, at the moment I have a rapier that uses 7 action points and deals 12 damage, with a critical chance for 24. This actually speeds up the game somewhat, as the last game could be very slow-going as neither side could deal damage for quite a while if there were no skulls available or mana that the particular class needed.

Puzzle Quest 2 is a bit of a darker game. The music in comparison to the first sounds less like an epic orchestra piece and more like a subdued, eerie stroll through dark ruins, much like the Diablo soundtrack. This game has a few other notable similarities to Diablo, such as numerous waypoints/portals, the naming system of equipment and the sheer amount of loot you'll come across, there's even a loot minigame (which is very fun, I might add).

Unfortunately, there are less character classes in this game (so far), these being Assassin, Barbarian, Sorcerer and Templar. Anyone that knows me at all could guess that I play a templar. Part of my decision to play the female knight was due to how the other characters' art wasn't as nice-looking. Truthfully, I did miss the more anime-ish art from the first game, but now that I'm further in, I can appreciate the unique ghastliness that the western style allows for monsters.

If you like puzzle games, or even have a passing interest in them, I'd suggest you give the game a try. Both this game and the original allow one on one competitive multiplayer. If you fear that the game may be too difficult and you'll miss an important move, not to worry, as if you leave your cursor idle for a bit, the game will suggest a move for you, which always points out a four or five gem match if there is such available. The suggested move will not always be the best one, however, as the computer isn't paying attention to how you might be setting the opponent up for what they want to do, and the computer also will not take into account what mana you want in order to cast that spell that would turn the game around. In some cases, even a four match and an extra turn isn't as good of an idea as matching a simple set of 3 so you can cast something important the next turn.

That's the basic overview. It's an unusual mix of games, but it works. Battle systems have been wackier.

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(the following is largely opinion on difficulty, though based on some factual observations)

My only real problem with this game is how easy it is. I wouldn't normally factor in difficulty so much in a review or coverage of a game, but at almost level 40, I have only died once and against an optional boss that I wasn't leveled or equipped enough to fight yet.

In the original Puzzle Quest, I had many fights where I wasn't sure if I was winning or not, and often lost, with the game showing an actual count of wins/losses, whereas this sequel doesn't. Just a guess, I think my Puzzle Quest 1 record was something like, 150 wins/30 losses. Even though I won a majority of the battles, a challenge was always present, and one false move or one lucky drop for the opponent could put me in deep trouble.

In Puzzle Quest 2, I feel none of this danger. I deal lots of damage and take none. The enemies rarely have any dangerous skills, and if they do, the AI fails to properly utilize them, often not playing dirty at all. In the original game, enabling "Hard" mode increased experience gains by 25%, but the "Hard" mode in this sequel doesn't appear to give any bonus or even make the AI much smarter, that I've noticed, except possibly better on not missing proper moves or something very subtle.

I feel like I could ignore half of the game's features available to make my character stronger and still beat everything. I hope that this is a passing issue and that the difficulty decreases steeply, and soon, otherwise I may get bored with it.

I suppose I could look to the player vs player aspect of the game for a challenge, and I will do this soon. I have heard that the Assassin class is the strongest. We shall see. Difficulty of the AI would not be an issue online against real opponents. This could unfortunately be a case like a fighting game. Robust as the single player may be in this game, the real enjoyment may actually come from the competition?