Addiction of Galactic Proportions
Puzzle Quest: Galactrix improves the scale, the scope and a bit of the tedium of its fantasy sibling.
Published: June 28, 2009
It's all but impossible to write a review of Puzzle Quest: Galactrix without at least mention Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords. The melding of RPG elements and Bejewled match-three-or-more gameplay wasn't just good, it was digital crack, and tweaked in such a way that anyone could play the game without ever really losing, making it incredibly casual-friendly. It was also ridiculously, unabashedly fraught with AI that would go on impossible chains of matches and unleash spells and attacks that could end a battle in seconds -- sometimes after 20-some minutes of diligently whittling away at the enemy.
But it was fun -- insanely so -- and as a result, it was one of the best games we'd ever dropped into our PSP (a PS3 version was finally released a while back, but by then we'd grown a bit weary of fantasy-themed gem-sliding). Puzzle Quest: Galactrix plays like the original on steroids. The playing field is now made up of hexagonal pieces that, when matched with three of a given color, dole out resources, restore shields or health, and generally work just as the original's vertically falling pieces did. The twist here is that replacement pieces slide onto the field in the direction that the match was made, so there's quite a bit more strategy in how things are moved around, and, to an extent, far less of the seemingly impossible strings of matches that the AI seemed to get at juuuust the right moment.
That's not to say the game is devoid of bullshit moments. You'll come across enemies that can simply ignore your shields and cut into your hull, or that have ridiculous amounts of firepower. Because the game never actually ends when you lose, these issues are mitigated -- if only a little -- and you're free to run around and level up before trying again, just as was the case in the first game. Still, it presents an unfair challenge for those not already weaned on the unforgiving nature of the first game, and I can absolutely see how it would turn off newcomers that don't have the luxury of seeing how many parts of the game have been tweaked for the better.
One of the biggest areas of improvement this time around, though, is that this more varied gameplay is harnessed in different mini-game-style ways. Hacking a gate to allow yourself to get to another galaxy? Just match up a pre-set chain of colors. Want to buy something or make your own items? Satisfy the requirements for raw materials and you're set. No, it's not wildly different from the main combat-based challenges, but it does create the illusion that there's more depth to just matching things up horizontally, vertically and, now, diagonally.
Whereas the original Puzzle Quest stuck to classes to sort of break up the experience and funnel upgrades down a fairly set path (great for welcoming newcomers without completely overwhelming them), Galactrix is far, far more open-ended about things. You can pick your character's sex and name and some background info... and that's it. The tradeoff for having less control at the beginning is in having near-absolute freedom to build up your ships (which is where the real upgrades and advancement comes in) with specialized crew (yes, you now have multiple followers that can help out), weapons, ship upgrades and more. You can still grind for raw resources, gain experience and explore freely, but the things you can do with all those numbers and colors is now more varied.
But it was fun -- insanely so -- and as a result, it was one of the best games we'd ever dropped into our PSP (a PS3 version was finally released a while back, but by then we'd grown a bit weary of fantasy-themed gem-sliding). Puzzle Quest: Galactrix plays like the original on steroids. The playing field is now made up of hexagonal pieces that, when matched with three of a given color, dole out resources, restore shields or health, and generally work just as the original's vertically falling pieces did. The twist here is that replacement pieces slide onto the field in the direction that the match was made, so there's quite a bit more strategy in how things are moved around, and, to an extent, far less of the seemingly impossible strings of matches that the AI seemed to get at juuuust the right moment.
That's not to say the game is devoid of bullshit moments. You'll come across enemies that can simply ignore your shields and cut into your hull, or that have ridiculous amounts of firepower. Because the game never actually ends when you lose, these issues are mitigated -- if only a little -- and you're free to run around and level up before trying again, just as was the case in the first game. Still, it presents an unfair challenge for those not already weaned on the unforgiving nature of the first game, and I can absolutely see how it would turn off newcomers that don't have the luxury of seeing how many parts of the game have been tweaked for the better.
One of the biggest areas of improvement this time around, though, is that this more varied gameplay is harnessed in different mini-game-style ways. Hacking a gate to allow yourself to get to another galaxy? Just match up a pre-set chain of colors. Want to buy something or make your own items? Satisfy the requirements for raw materials and you're set. No, it's not wildly different from the main combat-based challenges, but it does create the illusion that there's more depth to just matching things up horizontally, vertically and, now, diagonally.
Whereas the original Puzzle Quest stuck to classes to sort of break up the experience and funnel upgrades down a fairly set path (great for welcoming newcomers without completely overwhelming them), Galactrix is far, far more open-ended about things. You can pick your character's sex and name and some background info... and that's it. The tradeoff for having less control at the beginning is in having near-absolute freedom to build up your ships (which is where the real upgrades and advancement comes in) with specialized crew (yes, you now have multiple followers that can help out), weapons, ship upgrades and more. You can still grind for raw resources, gain experience and explore freely, but the things you can do with all those numbers and colors is now more varied.
