Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords

"Some things will never change..."

You're about to die. It's the plain and simple truth; you're not going to make it out of this mess alive. Sure, you've got a sword and a few magical spells to sling, but those won't put a dent in the army of zombies that's currently surrounding you. You can practically feel their sunken, maggot-ridden eyes looking over you body. There's a suffocating stench of rotting flesh wafting through the evening breeze. They're going to descend upon you en masse and eat you alive. However, only one of them – a hulking 10-foot monstrosity with peeling skin and oozing wounds - steps forward. But instead of staggering forth and munching on your brains, it sets a little wooden table and beckons you to come have a battle of wits and luck. Your fate won't be determined by sword, but by a bunch of randomly placed jewels and trinkets.

Needless to say, the premise of Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords is absurd. Never mind hacking and slashing your way through the game's several enemies; every zombie, goblin, skeleton warrior, and giant rat in the realm of Etheria want to test your puzzle-solving skills before slaughtering you. The game tries to balance this out by presenting a fairly cliched story about a young knight/mage/whatever else trying to survive in a kingdom slowly being overrun by evil, but you'll find yourself skipping through the uninspired dialogue just to get started with whatever quest you've chosen. It's not like the selectable missions really matter, anyway; if you're just delivering letters or saving kidnapped refugees, you still inevitably find yourself under attack from whatever foe happens to rear its pixilated head onto the linear world map.

A brief enemy mug shot and the occasionally muffled sound effect later, and you'll be whisked away into the puzzle-laden battlefield. You'll find yourself barraged with gems of varying colors and shapes, as well as the occasional score multiplier and glowing skulls. The turn-based combat requires little more than lining up three of these little Bejeweled rejects, thus making them disappear and add more power to your arsenal. Depending on the colors of the blocks you've eliminated, you'll be able to use different spells to reduce your enemy's stats, take a chunk out of its health bar, or simply gain an extra turn if you happen to line up four or more objects. The closest you'll ever get to an all-out bloodbath is matching up the skulls; rack up enough of those, and even the mightiest warlords will be brought to their knees. Once you've learned how to balance out focusing on spells and direct attacks, you shouldn't have trouble crushing the opposition.

In fact, you'll probably get bored after a few minutes battle; the game does nothing to draw you into the setting or keep your attention. Since the combat revolves around a screen filled with gems and the characters' portraits, you'll never feel awed by the giant minotaur you're fighting, squint through the blinding flash from a sorcerer's staff, or see anyone exhibit any emotions outside of the crude dialogue boxes. Not even the puzzles are particularly interesting to look at; most of them look like a bunch of pixilated Skittles with different runs etched into them. Even if the skulls' glowing eyes and mouths make them seem more interesting, there's don't add anything to the bland layout. The game tries to capture the epic feel of an RPG via orchestrated music, but the flutes, drums, and other instruments sound scratchy and hallow. Considering the dynamic and eye-catching presentations in Planet Puzzle League and Meteos, it's obvious that Puzzle Quest does little justice to the DS's capabilities.

However, you'll probably be too angry at the unbalanced game mechanics to notice. Puzzle Quest's overemphasis on luck makes even the simplest of challenges into some truly tedious and unfair battles. Since the appearance of the gems and the occasional extra turn are randomized, you'll frequently find yourself with no other choice but to provide a simple move, but allow your opponent to execute devastating combo chains and brutal attacks. An enemy getting the occasional spare turn is one thing, but having it frequently lead to another four-gem extra move, a board-clearing skull assault, and several spell castings in a row means that you'll yourself battered and bruised long before you get the chance to counterattack. The game tries to even things out by letting you level up to increase your chances of more powerful attacks, but that won't matter much when you've faced the same ridiculously overpowered foe for the umpteenth time.

The game tries to distract you from its shortcomings with a wide variety of equipment options and extra sidequests. You'll be able to spend your hard-earned cash on clothes, weapons, and accessories that further alter your chances in battle. However, the majority of your funds will end up being invested into your growing Citadel. Not to be content with being an errand runner for the rest of their careers, your characters will be able to develop their own strongholds and further develop their influence in Etheria. Aside from laying siege to neighboring cities to add to your wealth, you'll be able to craft new weapons, research defeated monsters, and develop new spells for your next quest. While such things don't make up for the utterly bland gameplay, it'll leave something for completionists to savor over.

It was a good try. A little half-baked, but an interesting concept nevertheless. Puzzle Quest tries to blend two of the most different gaming genres into a solid game, but stumbles a bit on the execution. The story could have been decent, even if it was sidelined by an overabundance of tedious quests and battles. It's got the basic gameplay mechanics that make Bejeweled so addictive, but its overemphasis on random success and failure makes for some truly aggravating gameplay. The bland presentation and dull dialogue will leave seasoned DS owners craving for something more entertaining. But hey, at least it's more original than the countless hack n'slash RPGs out there. That's got to count for something.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 08/13/07