Review: Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords

One-liner description: Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords is a puzzle game with more than a few RPG elements tossed in. If you like a stiff challenge, I recommend you read further for the details.

The core gameplay of Puzzle Quest is similar to Bejeweled, among others. You have a puzzle board with different-colored orbs, skulls, stars and coins scattered around it. You align 3 or more items of the same type or color to eliminate them from the board. The gaps they create will be filled by another set of items immediately after. That’s it. Like other puzzle titles, the core gameplay is very simple. The underlying RPG elements are more complicated. When you’re done creating a character and selecting his class, you can play the game’s story. As an RPG, expect quests, character customization and plenty of fighting.

When you encounter an opponent during your quests, you’ll be taken to the puzzle board to duke it out. Note that the two of you will be sharing the same board, so be mindful of the moves you’ll be making as you take turns. Aligning similar orbs will add them to your mana pool. With enough mana, you can use your character’s abilities to aid you in combat. Aside from the orbs, there are other puzzle board icons as well: aligning skulls will deal direct damage to your opponent, stars will increase your experience, giving you more abilities, and coins will add to your gold, which you can use to buy weapons and armor.

There are two things that I don’t like about this game. First, the audio is limited. The music and sound effects that you’ll hear will begin to sound repetitive because there’s only a few of them. You’ll hear them so often it might even annoy you. The other thing is the difficulty level, which can be quite challenging even in normal mode. Fortunately, you can adjust it before you begin the game, so make sure to adjust levels accordingly.

Puzzle Quest’s simple premise is fun. It’s a turn-based version of Bejeweled that takes you on an adventure combined with a little RPG flavor to add some spice to it. If you’re into puzzle games or would like to try something different for a change, you may want to give Puzzle Quest a try.

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