Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords is an enormously important game – arguably, you could trace the lineage of so many puzzle blend RPGs back to Puzzle Quest (Puzzle & Dragons, for example). The game itself, released way back in 2007 on the PSP and Nintendo DS by the same guy behind the Warlords series (an Aussie, Steve Fawkner!) was a major success that has led to the game being released on just about every other platform since. It’s unfortunate that the sequels and spinoffs of Puzzle Quest have failed to amount to much, but that’s not to take away from the impact of this first release. And now the game – and series – is back and rebooted courtesy of the Immortal Edition.
Puzzle Quest: Immortal Edition is Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords. It has all the material from the original game and expansions, as well as an extra character class and a small additional campaign, but otherwise it’s the same art, same narrative, and same gameplay loop where you’ll start out as a humble level 1 fighter before venturing out, fighting increasingly difficult enemies, levelling up, meeting companions, and eventually build yourself a castle and empire.
If you’ve somehow never played a version of Puzzle Quest before, then be aware that this loop is incredibly moreish. In combat, you’ll play a match-3 game, like Bejewelled or its million clones, and the shapes you match will either do damage to the enemy directly, or give you mana, that can then be used to cast spells and use abilities. As you level up, you’ll do more damage and collect more mana, and you’ll start to accumulate equipment that further supports your abilities. Of course, your enemies also start to develop more potent skills, have more hit points, and do more damage themselves…
It’s almost staggering just how expansive this game is, with so many abilities, equipment items, and customisation options. Get hooked into its systems and you can spend dozens of hours without even realising it. The main story moves along at a snappy enough pace, which is just as well because its narrative isn’t anything to write home about. However, the central match-3 action is so good that this won’t matter, especially when you’re constantly being thrown new types of enemies to deal with.
Puzzle Quest has remained as compelling and entertaining as it was at first release, but for returning players, there’s quite a bit to be disappointed about. The art hasn’t been updated, for one thing. Puzzle Quest was never a great looker, but 18 years after its original release, those cheap sprites and world map are really difficult to look at on the better screens that we now have. More significant than the aesthetics, however, is the “cheating” AI. This has been a complaint about Puzzle Quest with just about every release I’ve seen of it, but the game’s AI clearly has an advantage when it makes a match and new gems drop from the top of the screen. Far, far too often, they just happen to be conveniently exactly what the AI needs, and it will frequently score combos of three, four, or even more on its turn from falling gems. Meanwhile, you’ll be very lucky to get a combo of two or three on your turn. More often, you’ll drop down gems that give the AI exactly what it needs for its next turn.
Every time you bring this up, the Puzzle Quest faithful will insist that it’s a “skill issue,” but it seems nonsense to me to claim it’s not a feature of the game when it quite blatantly is. It’s not an insurmountable obstacle, but it will occasionally cause frustration and means that enemies that are higher than your character’s level are going to be almost impossible to defeat. In theory, skillful play would allow you to carefully manipulate the board to deny the enemy the mana they need to fuel their abilities while powering yours but… the reality is that no matter how carefully you plan out your moves, the enemy’s always going to be one turn away from a cascade of mana that gives them everything they need and there’s nothing you can do about it.
If you can put up with that – and, again, it can be very frustrating – Puzzle Quest still has that charm that made it so hard to put down all those years ago. It’s also nice to have something in this genre that isn’t weighed down with all the mobile game contrivances that have taken over the puzzle/RPG hybrid in the years since. It’s unfortunate that it’s such a no-frills release (they couldn’t even put multiplayer in the thing!), and that this is the dictionary definition of a game that has “aged poorly,” but who knows? Perhaps Puzzle Quest really is back this time around, and the development team can use the momentum to finally deliver a second game that moves past the mistakes of previous efforts and builds on the heritage and prestige of the original.
