Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords - Retrospective

I LOVE THIS GAME!

I was first introduced to Puzzle Quest a year ago during my time working on The Spiderwick Chronicles at Vivendi Games. Some of us would play it on the testing consoles during lunch and breaks. I'd never seen anything like it before, but I was intrigued. I got the game as soon as I could spare the money from my paycheck.

Puzzle Quest is amazingly addictive, just like its forefather Bejeweled, but Puzzle Quest takes it to the next level and adds an amazing level of strategy to the game. The game really shines when you're low on life, planning every move several turns in advance, trying to prevent your opponent from matching those last few skulls it needs to kill you while simultaneously trying to gain enough mana to turn the tables.

Puzzle Quest is also a blast to play against friends. Unlike Pokemon, you can scale yourself to the level of your opponent, making combat less of a math problem and more of a fair measure of skill and strategy. My only regret is getting the DS version, which has no online play capabilities save for wi-fi battles against people in the same room as you. If I want to play against my friends from the comfort of my own home, I'm going to have to install the PC version and play through the game all over again. Not that that would be a bad thing.

Puzzle Quest is probably one of the most enjoyable games I've played in a long time. But it relies critically upon the backbone of the core bejeweled-like gameplay. If for some reason you can't stand match-3 puzzle games or RPGs, there's a chance you won't like Puzzle Quest. But for the rest of you who want something addictive that you can play for 10 minutes or 5 hours, Puzzle Quest is an absolute must own for any system you have.

The Good:

• Amazingly addictive core match-3 puzzle gameplay.
• Multiple classes and spells add high replay value even after completing the game.
• Monster capture, spell research, and item forging puzzles add fun modifications to the main gameplay paradigm.
• Memorable characters and dialog make the story worth continuing.

The Bad:

• Level cap of 50 is too easy to reach before the end of the game, but experience uselessly continues to increase. Why not a more logical cap of 99 or 100?
• If you set up your skills and equipment correctly, the enemies offer no challenge to completely annihilate. Not even the final boss is much of a challenge.

Defining Moment:

• Buying the game for my mom, and discovering that she plays it even more than I do.

Burning Question:

• Why the $#@^! is there an entire western continent that you never explore? What's the point?

Progress for November 29, 2008 - Puzzle Quest - COMPLETED!

This ending really caught me off guard. I had sensed that the game was reaching a climax when they spoke of Lord Bane, the God of Death, and I was hoping I was reaching an end point; I was starting to think the game was unbalanced since I'd already reached the level cap a considerable time before the end. If it didn't end here, I would have been really peeved.

Lord Bane does not disappoint as a final boss. He forced me to completely change my combat strategy. I decided to give up trying to use my spells and went purely for physical damage. I spent the last 20,000 gold on boosting my battle skill to level 66 and focused on matching skulls more than anything else. I only used Deathbringer when I could afford to miss a turn; Lord Bane's resistances were 20% in all areas. But I killed him in only the second attempt, which I owe mostly to my absurdly high battle skill.

Anywho. Expect a retrospective soon. Ta ta!

I am not alone

Apparently backlog syndrome is not a practice reserved for myself. Many other gamers come across the same problem, so much so that Tom Endo of The Escapist has written an article on the matter analyzing the current state of the gaming industry. What do you think? Do games these days defy you to finish them as part of a flaw in their own design? Let me know.

To Do: Finish Any Game

Progress for November 19, 2008 - Puzzle Quest

Deathbringer is fucking amazing! I've been able to deal upwards of 250 damage over the course of two attacks as long as I get my mana high enough. Some battles don't take longer than a few minutes. The only problem is if I run into an enemy with a high fire resistance I need to fight them the old-fashioned way.

I've also been using Sense Blood a lot. It's an excellent way to get an obscene amount of EXP in a couple of battles. I rushed through the 40's like nothing; I'm at level 49 now and only 3000 EXP away from the level cap of 50.

I expect my strategies will start to change when I reach the cap. I'll be more focused on gaining gold in order to build my skills at my citadel than gaining experience in the battles.

In fact, I think I'll start doing that now. one level won't make that much of a difference.

Besides, I'm still about 10 hours further in the game than my mom.

Progress for November 9, 2008 - Puzzle Quest

I have a competitor. You'll never guess who.

My mom.

I got her the PC version for her birthday, and she is completely addicted. She's only a few quests behind me. I beat Gruulkar about 4 tonight, and my mom just went up against him at about 8.
I'm still at a lower level than her, only 34. She's maxed out at level 50 already. So I suppose it's an accomplishment that I've gotten further than her at a lower level, but it's still a little embarassing. I can't even compete against her head-to-head since we're on different platforms, so the only real way I can dominate her is to beat the game before she does.

Still Alive...and Dead

You're probably wondering why I haven't posted anything in the last month. Have I not been playing any games? There is one game I've been playing for about 6 hours a day every day: Webcardz. But this doesn't really count because it's actually my job. For the last 2 and a half months, I've been doing QC Testing for SnapTV Games. While I do enjoy the money it provides, it's been wreaking havoc on the time I have for games.


Even though it's not on my list, you can expect a video review once I beat it.