I just spent 8 Red Mana to Shield Bash a Goblin Sorcerer for 62 damage and I loved it!
Yes, I'm talking Puzzle Quest 2 and since its release I've been having serious trouble putting the game down. Infinite Interactive have built on what was already great and made even better with the sequel which brings with it more of the same appealing mix of puzzles and role-playing elements.
Puzzles are leaner and work around strategy more than ever before. Gold coins and experience gems have been completely removed and replaced with purple mana- which like the other four colours is used for spells, a gauntlet shaped action piece which can be used for item abilities primarily and let’s not forget the skulls for direct damage. With now five types of mana available there is a wider range of spells at your disposal and more diversity in how you use them to create extremely destructive combination attacks.
Another change has been the reduction of character classes available; this has been streamlined down to Barbarian, Assassin, Templar and Sorcerer each bringing a unique play experience. I opted for the Meaty Templar who acts as a defensive character, but is certainly not incapable of dealing the damage when needed.
Anyone who has the syndrome I like to call Diablosys, which you are addicted to finding green and blue loot, crafting, quest givers everywhere and multi-level dungeons, will be happy to know that Puzzle Quest 2 features these all to the extreme. Sure the first game had a fair amount RPG elements but they have really improved the range here.
Skulls played a vital part in the past being your primary source of damage, in Puzzle Quest 2 I found that I rarely needed to match skulls, only doing so to prevent the enemy from making the match. Spells instead can be combined together to perform incredible hits. As a Templar I can change stance to raise my defence extremely high then perform an attack that uses a multiplication of my total armour. The result can vary but often hits between 40-60 damage. Matching skulls thus feels like a waste of time in comparison, however I'm sure classes like the Barbarian who specialize a certain way can make them look more attractive to match again.
There is a surprising number of mini-game types added, these all are slight variations of the "match three" theme and make you do things like matching a specific quota to pick a lock, matching treasure to determine the quality of your loot or matching damage blocks to bash down a door. These mini-games pop up frequently as you play and never feel too much of any one thing. If you've never played an Infinite Interactive game before then you may think the bejewelled like premise could get old fast. It does not.
I have one small issue to bring up and it’s the speed in you are forced to crawl after you finish a quest, you are unable to do anything until the XP / Gold earned and mission complete text comes up. It’s roughly 5-6 seconds each time, granted isn't much but the frequency in which you get these updates means the time soon racks up and gets tired fast.
The sequel to Puzzle Quest has done a fine job of improving what made the original great and adding more character progression and strategy that makes you want to keep playing long after the point where you would and probably should stop. Pick up the game on the DS or Xbox Live Arcade and come challenge me to an online Hero Battle. Oh yeah, did I forget to say? We can go head to head with our campaign characters.
Bring it on.
