Review: Puzzle Quest - Challenge of the Warlords

Game: Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords by 1st Playable Productions

Premise: Believe or not, Puzzle Quest is a puzzle game. Don't worry; it catches a lot of people off guard. The game involves a fairly typical RPG structure of traveling around the world while leveling up and collecting items to defeat the Big Bad (in this case Bane, the God of Death), but instead of normal style battles with the player character on a field slashing and/or bludgeoning its enemy, a game similar to Bejeweled is played. Characters match up various gems to gain mana, gold, experience, or to deal damage. Additionally, PC"s and enemies are able to cast spells that can cause direct damage or manipulate the board in some way.

Graphics: Visuals are fairly mediocre, with the avatars of various characters and enemies looking like they received most of the artists’ attention while the rest was barely bothered with. Even with the avatars more really could have been done to distinguish one character from another, particularly with some of the bosses that look exactly like some regular monsters that appear throughout the game. "Oh so you’re the big bad undead king of the minotaurs? And you look just like every other lame skeletal cow so far. Scaaaaaaaaary.”

Sound: Character pictures were not the only thing recycled in this game. The same few tracks are used over and over again to the point where they tend to blend into the background noise of everything else happening in the room and become white noise. Honestly, players would be best advised to turn the volume on the DS all the way down and pop in a good CD.

The Good: Despite the mediocre graphics and repetitive music, the puzzle aspect of this game is well thought out and incredibly addictive. Bejeweled was bad enough by itself, but adding slightly more complex gameplay, a narrative, and in-game rewards makes it even harder to pull yourself away.

The Bad: The computer cheats. It sounds like an immature thing to say but in this case it is perfectly true. A player can spend two minutes looking for a good move only to come up with one that nets him a few gold or mana, while the computer can instantly make a move that lets it acquire copious amounts of mana and treasure while dealing huge amounts of damage to the player. Or the computer will know which move will trigger chain combos of gems that are not even on the screen yet. Stupid cheating computer.

Why You Should Play This Game: If you’re a fan of puzzle games this is definitely a game you will enjoy. Be forewarned though, like many other puzzle games it can cause fits of extreme rage. I can’t even begin to count how many times I have cursed at or flipped off my DS because of this game, and it has become so commonplace it is my first reflex when the computer makes a clever move.

Overall Rating: Three middle fingers up.