Puzzle Quest 2

Puzzle Quest is a game that swallows its players whole and then digests them slowly, only pooing them out again as a soft sludge several months down the line. That could be the most disgusting game description I’ve ever given. It’s certainly up there amongst the top three, anyway but it’s the only way I can think to convey to you just how consuming this ‘match three’ gem swapper is. The heady combo of RPG dungeon crawler with Bejeweled-style puzzler is incredibly appealing to many gamers.

The original game, Challenge of the Warlords was a massive success. The follow up, Galactrix, worked hard to introduce new elements but strayed too far from the solid and transparent simplicity of the original, losing a lot of fans in the process. This true sequel to the original gives you all of the elements gamers love about Challenge of the Warlords with precisely enough tweaks to keep things interesting.

Rather than playing on a board layout you now choose a character and control them more directly as they work their way through towns and dungeons, battling monsters, finding treasure chests, buying and customising items from shops and equipping weapons, armour and accessories to suit your play style. It sounds just like a proper RPG but it’s all very pared down, essentially there to give a little bit of colour to what is, at its heart, one gem swapping battle after another. It does a great job of keeping things interesting and it’s certainly more elaborate than the first game. In fear of losing the more casual gamer, developer Infinite Interactive have overdone it with the helpful hints, pointing out just about everything on screen in every single room you enter.

The core  mechanics of the match three gameplay are almost the same as in the original title but new spells, more balanced AI and the removal of the XP and gold gems from play make everything a bit tighter. Somehow the rules feel a little more opaque than before, though. It doesn’t take long for an old hand to pick up the nuances but I suspect newcomers will struggle more than they would have to get used to the last game’s rules.

Puzzle Quest 2 has one priceless quality that the original game also featured. It’s the “Just one more battle” element.  Even when your eyes can’t focus and your brain stalls on every move, you just can’t put the damn thing down. You’ll fall prey to it again every day and be playing it for months, like a slowly digesting poo in a big game monster.