Puzzle Quest 2 | Review (XBox 360)

If you’re anything like me then you’re going to gloss right over this review simply because it has the word ‘puzzle’ in it. I can’t say I would blame you entirely either because to me puzzle games are exactly like waffles. OK, well maybe they’re not really like waffles at all except to say they get boring about as fast as waffles get cold.

But I urge you to read this review because Puzzle Quest 2 is unlike anything you’ve played before (unless of course you’ve played the first Puzzle Quest in which case, fuck off, nobody asked you). Seriously though – Puzzle Quest 2 is like a waffle that never gets cold.

Puzzle Quest 2 is quite literally just what it’s name implies. It’s a quest full of puzzles. Awesome puzzles that fuse RPG elements with turn based puzzle combat.

Starting off you’ll create a character choosing from an assassin, barbarian, sorcerer, or templar. They each have their own benefit and starting abilities.

The questing portion of the game consists of moving a cursor on-screen to direct your character from point to point. Speaking with NPCs will unlock new quests for you to complete or in the case of having already completed their quests deliver you a reward.

The rewards will usually be in the form or weapons, armor, potions or gold. You can equip the armor and weapons or assign potions to quick use slots – all of which will aide you during your battles.

If you’ve ever played Bejeweled or a similar gem matching puzzle game then you already understand the core game play mechanic present here.

Essentially you want to line up three gems of the same color that drop down from the top of the screen and fill the board. Every time you match three gems going horizontally or vertically you’ll clear the gems and new gems will fall in their place to keep the screen full. If you’re really savvy you can string together combos that give you all sorts of bonuses. If you match 4 or more gems in a single move you will earn a second turn.

Both you and your opponent will take turns matching gems. Matching colored gems will add that color to a reserve pool that will allow you to unleash your special abilities that can either do damage, protect, or otherwise hinder your opponents progress. So for example, one ability may call for 3 units of red and 5 units of blue. Matching those colored gems will fill up your red or blue reserves and once you have enough of those color you can use said abilities.

Also on the board are gauntlet and skull gems. Matching skull gems will allow you to deal an instant three points of damage to your opponent while matching gauntlet gems accumulates reserve towards using your weapons in hand for an attack against your opponent – the damage being offset by your opponents unique defenses.

To win the puzzle you need to deplete your opponents hit points. Doing so will yield some experience points towards leveling up, occasional treasure, and materials that you can use to upgrade your equipment.

Leveling up will let you increase your attributes as well as open up new skills to use in combat. You can also use the gold you find to buy new equipment to help you on your quest. What it really amounts to is a great deal of customization for your character.

The story itself is solid enough to hold your interest and during the course of the adventure you’ll travel to many unique locations and fight a plethora of fantastic monsters – some of which prove to be a really major challenge.

Thankfully Puzzle Quest 2 is quite forgiving when you lose a battle and will place you right back where you were before you died.

Once you complete the main single player adventure you can face off against friends both online and locally using your single player characters that you’ve built up.

All in all Puzzle Quest 2 is a game that everyone should experience. It’s fast paced puzzle based combat is both fun and addicting and while the story may not be a true RPG epic it’s enough to hold you attention and will keep you busy for a good length of time.