Over the weekend, I spotted, for the first time, a copy of Puzzle Quest. Now I've heard of this game in a few internet locations, and the price was only AU$20, so it was an easy purchase.
For those who don't know, Puzzle Quest is a mix of several things. A simple, competetive puzzle game similar to Tetris Attack (Aka Panel de Pon or Pokemon Puzzle League), with strategy elements, wrapped up in a fantasy storyline with much of the customisation expected of any RPG.
On the first day, I spent around 9-10 hours playing the game. with a large number of hours the following day also. I soon realised that playing the game left me with no sense of time, something I am far too vulnerable to. Since then, I believe my 'new purchase' interest in playing the game has subsided, but I'm still wary of the times I play. For one thing, I remind myself that I can spend the same time late at night playing Team Fortress 2 online.
As for the game itself, the gameplay is reasonably solid. However I do sometimes wonder if the AI can see gems that are still off the board, and the hint icon that comes up after a 10 seconds seems to think setting up damage blocks for the next turn, which happens to be the computer's, is a good idea.
The production values are extremely low, but it is, I believe, meant to be a budget game anyway, though there are times I wish the game had more informative indicators, particulary for things like the exact amount of damage you dealt an opponent, rather than just how much damage an attack could have inflicted. And it would have been nice to know what difference the choice of class made before I selected it. Sure, they give you a vague idea, but that's not the same as knowing.
Given that there is a story, there is also writing. So far, I have found the writing to be low-quality. There IS a glint of humour, in character interactions, that seems to be nice, but the dialogue is blandly generic fantasy fodder otherwise.
The single looped song, that for some reason has to restart every time you enter most screens, does get tiresome after a while, and the fact that sound effects don't always decide to exist, leaves the sound side of things a bit lacking. I'll have to try turning sound off and putting on a decent playlist in the background.
Today I played F.E.A.R. and I would just like to say, it seems highly unreasonable for a shotgun, even at close range, to turn a man into cloud of blood. Chunks with a large blood splatter, yes. But completely disintegrating the body into a cloud of blood, no. Should blood even be able to form a cload that hangs around for a good few seconds? I'm doubtful. Not that I should be surprised that a horror FPS uses over-the-top violence.
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