Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords (Xbox 360)

GameSpot editors' review

• CNET editors' rating: 4.5 stars Outstanding
  Detailed editors' rating
  Overall score: 9.0 (4.5 stars)

• Reviewed by:
  Ryan Davis
• Reviewed on: 10/11/2007
• Released on: 10/10/2007
• Originally published on GameSpot: Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords (Xbox 360) Review

Originally released earlier this year on the PlayStation Portable and Nintendo DS, Puzzle Quest was a revelation. By taking some of the most compelling properties of role-playing and puzzle games, Infinite Interactive created something that was more than the sum of its parts. It's both an RPG that can be played in short bursts, as well as a puzzle game that begs to be played in long stretches. Puzzle Quest is now available on Xbox Live Arcade, and in addition to enhancing the graphics to look sharp on a big HDTV, online play has been added to the mix, making the competitive multiplayer that much more accessible. For 1200 points ($15), you're getting a superior version of a really great game.

At the start it seems like RPG business as usual. There's a nicely painted overworld map dotted with castles, villages, and enemy strongholds that you'll travel about, taking on quests and fighting the random monsters that block your path from one location to the next. You'll get new weapons, armor, equipment, and spells; new characters will join your party; and once you establish your own personal citadel, you'll be able to capture creatures and use them as mounts, craft new items out of special runes found out in the world, and eventually lay siege on opposing cities.

What makes Puzzle Quest so interesting is how it uses a familiar puzzle game format to perform these actions. The gameplay is most analogous to Bejeweled. If Puzzle Quest were just Bejeweled, it would probably get tedious quickly, but by applying several standard RPG combat conventions to the formula, it becomes something much more strategic. Standard, one-on-one combat is the most common game you'll play, and it's also the deepest. You and your opponent, each using the same board, will take turns moving pieces, trying to whittle down each other's reserve of hit points. Attacks are performed by lining up skull-shaped pieces, though you've also got several spells that you can use for both offensive and defensive purposes. The spells you'll start off with, as well as the spells you'll earn as you gain experience levels, are largely dictated by which profession you choose at the start of the game.

Spells can require up to four different types of color-coded mana to use, and you charge up your mana reserves by clearing out red, blue, yellow, and green pieces from the board. The back-and-forth dynamic demands that you think several steps ahead any time you move a piece, since you want to avoid setting up your opponent with favorable piece positions at the end of your turn. In addition to the mana and skull pieces, there are gold coins and purple experience-point pieces that can earn you extra postgame bonuses, as well as wild-card multipliers, which can make the mana pieces you clear worth much more.

Setting up rows or columns of four or five pieces is critical during combat as it gives you an extra turn, and any time you can buy is useful. Even just a few hours into the game, the enemies you'll face in Puzzle Quest can be downright merciless, and there are times when it seems as though the computer is stacking the odds in its own favor. Still, even when you lose a fight, you earn a small amount of coin and XP, and the only punishment is that you have to fight that enemy over again. Other tasks, such as training a mount, learning a spell, and crafting items all require you to play through modified versions of the standard combat gameplay that change the rules slightly, but scratch a similar itch.

Continue reading

Compare prices for Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords

This product is currently not in stock at any of our online merchants.

Email me when this product is available

Recent user reviews

• Average user rating: 0 stars Not yet available
  Back to product review
• My rating: 0 stars Write review

• Showing 1 of 1 user review

• 5.0 stars

  "Too addictive for its own good"

  by MAK1981 on October 23, 2007

• See 1 user review Write review