Review #271: Puzzle Quest - Challenge of the Warlords

 You cheating sunuvagun!

 Ah, I still remember playing Puzzle Quest back in the day, the game was the bees knees! I'd play it every morning before going to highschool. Back then, the game kind of became a big deal, enough to warrant a direct sequel and a galactic spin-off. But I have changed, my tastes have changed, and the console as well, since I actually played the PC version back in the day.

 The game is an atypical 'match-three-to-score' puzzle game, atypical since it actually marries the tried and true formula with... RPG elements. And it works. You've got experience points, spells, mounts, quests, towns, a storyline... the game's got it all! So how does it work? Well, there's four types of items on the board: Purple asterisks, that grant bonus experience points, colored orbs, that translate into different mana pools, skulls, that deal damage and gold that grants bonus gold. You and your opponent take turns trying to deplete the other's HP, either by matching skulls or gathering mana in order to unleash one of many different spells. Matching more than 3 items will grant you bonus turns.

 In order to play, first you have to create a character out of four different classes, which differ on which spells you'll earn as you level up. Stat growth is done manually by the player, so your class won't affect that. Afterwards, you can take your character against other players or battle the CPU(Either a random opponent or pick him yourself) or... challenge Quest Mode. Quest Mode has you traversing over an overworld, doing sidequests, earning sidekicks, capturing monsters(Which can then be used to research skills from them), singeing towns and finally defeating Baal. It's rather lengthy, I clocked over 18 hours on this mode alone. Needless to say, there's quite a lot to do.

 One thing to keep in mind, that annoyed me to no end, is that the CPU cheats. The developers denied these claims, but anyone who has played this game can tell you otherwise. It's like they know what's coming above, and many a times, after you make your move, stuff will just fall into place for them to pull epic combos. It's frustrating and annoying, luckily you can turn down the difficulty at any time, and I suggest you do, unless you want to be subjected to the game's cheating shenanigans. Also, the game can get a bit boring near the end game, when enemies start having over two hundred hp points, and battles turn eternal, not to mention the 'random encounters' that pop up around the map and that you need to deal with in order to go to other towns. It can be a bit of a bore. And don't be surprised if you come around a few graphical glitches, but be glad that they are mostly harmless, the PSP version is downright broken. The PC version is probably the way to go, it also received a few patches, like adding cooldowns to all the spells, but the DS version is just fine.

 Puzzle Quest is a fun, addictive game if a bit frustrating at times. And hey, at the end of the day, it's a much better alternative than 'modern' puzzle games like Candy Crush and it's ilk, this game has no microtransactions, for one, and as annoying as the AI can get, it's not like it's trying to make you part with your money!
 7.0 out of 10