There’s a certain dread booting up the sequel to a favorite game, knowing that despite the “bigger and better” hype there’s a good chance it’s not going to rekindle the affection of that first love. And, sure enough, this doesn’t rouse enough sparks for more than a goodnight hug at the door.
It’s not a train wreck and some fans of the original will get their money’s worth. But newbies and match-three fans not slavishly devoted to this particular franchise will do well to wait for the inevitable price cut, which may come sooner than later.
The primer for those who are new to Puzzle Quest: It takes a huge number of match-three playfields and wraps them in an RPG setting, where each field is the equivalent of combat against an enemy, overcoming an obstacle such as a lock to be picked, or other challenge. Matching three skulls inflicts damage on your nemesis, and three gems builds up mana for a large range of spells offensive and defensive capabilities. Solving challenges such as knocking down a door might require completing the puzzle in a certain number of moves or matching a specified number of certain gems. You can also obtain weapons, treasure and other items to aid your quest.
In PQ2 you start by choosing from four character classes whose differing strengths and weaknesses significantly affect how you “fight.” The game does a reasonably good job at the beginning of not assuming everyone is familiar with the Puzzle Quest world, explaining the difference between classes and walking the player through a practice combat round where the enemy doesn’t attack.
Prevailing in battles allows you to progress a step in the almost entirely linear storyline, although as with the original there are plenty of optional side quests. Separate modes also offer minigames and single combat matches to build skills and inventory. Several skill levels are offered, making replay with different characters a legit possibility. All told, it’s a lot of content that takes a lot of time to fully complete.
If your interest holds out.
PQ2 has several additions and a few major subtractions from the original Puzzle Quest. The major addition is various character/equipment/spell enhancements that diversify “combat.” In addition to the jewels and skulls of the original playfield there are “glove” gems allowing use of weapons to inflict damage in battle. They function much like attack spells, which suits me since I tended to go heavy on spells rather than gem matching to do damage whenever possible (mana doesn’t carry over from battle to battle, so why not). The depth of spell and weapon combinations (and figuring out which are the best for your character and against certain foes) is massive. Likewise, the map is an enormous collection of dungeons with a plethora of creatures to interact and fight with. As best I can tell there’s hundreds of quests to complete, with scores and scores of weapons, spells, creatures and the like.
As with the original you can buy and learn to make items, build structures allowing you to master skills or do things such as imprison capture creatures that can teach you new spells, capture towns that will pay tributes, One small tweak that’s a huge improvement is illegal moves no longer result in a damage-inflicting penalty – every such instance was accidental rather than deliberate after my first 10 minutes with the original.
The biggest minus is a serious lack of narrative and plot. The overall storyline is a throwaway effort and a huge chunk of the original’s RPG-laced dialect and options are missing. The programmers apparently felt players would be familiar with the first installment of PQ and they’d want to jump right into the combat of PQ2 without excess verbiage. But whereas the original laced the first few encounters heavily with a narrative that set up the story, then set the player onto paths where they had to make early decisions about what allegiances to take, here it’s all about linear “respond to this crisis” quests.
The other major factor that – literally – makes this game a real drag is a slow and difficult user interface. Instead of moving around on a reasonably large overhead map you navigate locations screen-by-screen, each of which takes a few seconds to load. You’ll spend a lot of time walking long distances to get messages that send you right back to where you were, which is exasperating. This improves somewhat when you acquire mounts that allow quick transitions between cities, but such tedious action still takes up far too much of your time.
Also, ever hear the phrase “perfect game for tiny fingers” offered as praise? Here it’s a major curse. The icons for everything from selecting actions to interacting with characters are incredibly small and not very responsive. I seldom managed to achieve the action I wanted on the first try. Thankfully it never plagued me seriously during combat, but it reeks of a development process where playability was taking a back seat to the mentality of More Bells And Whistles.
Finally, for those wondering about the multiplayer option offered on other platforms, it’s nowhere to be found here. Those who’ve tried it says it’s a big omission and I’ll take their word for it.
PQ2 is a lot like a conventional RPG that mistakes non-stop hacking-and-slashing of extra-difficult creatures for depth. I can’t imagine preserving all the way through this sequel, but fans of the original who can’t get enough of these match-three battles in short spurts might find this a more worthy companion.
Mark Sabbatini
Puzzle Quest 2 by Namco Networks America
$9.99
Category: Puzzle/RPG
Language: English
Rated 12+ for the following: Infrequent/Mild Alcohol, Tobacco, or Drug Use or References; Infrequent/Mild Cartoon or Fantasy Violence
Requires: iOS 3.1.3 or later
574 MB
