Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords Comments by Tom Bramwell

Great game, lost many a hours already.

Yup and available for a bargain 14.99 on play.

tempting .... so tempting...

"giant rats"

sold!

It's a great game. I dislike match-3 games generally, but this adds enough to the forumla to make it a lot of fun.

Unless the developer is lying, by the way, the AI doesn't actually cheat. It just genuinely gets lucky sometimes, the same as you do.

buy it buy it buy it buy it.

you'll get hooked and spend hours on it and for 14.99 it's a great purchase.

It is indeed utterly brilliant.

I wholeheartedly agree with this review.

It's a great game despite the little flaws. Plus for £15 it's great value for money!

That sounds completely shit. I just can't take any more Bejeweled-based games.

The score will please a legion of forumites.

I've heard the PSP version has loading times, too.

1st Earth Defence Force 2017 and now this......... D3P seem to be in favour at the moment

Gamestation don't seem to stock the PSP version, only the DS one, anybody know why that is?

This game is stupidly addictive, an absolute must buy

Game of the year. I hope this does really well, it totally deserves to.

FWIW, the guy who wrote the AI explains how it works, and how it doesn't cheat, here:

http://www.infinite-interactive.com/Infi...

Looks fun. Puzzle game with narrative/mythological context. Me like.

Has anyone run into the aforementioned bug on the psp version?

Heroes of Might & Magic meets Zoo Keeper?

There's actually a demo out for this game on the PC. For some reason, I've never seen them actually sell the game for PC anywhere.. but still, it's worth a try:

http://www.gamedaily.com/canvases/gd/_a/...

(Hope the link works)

Does sounds good. Anyone know how long it takes to play through?

From all I've heard, it's pretty massive.


I was wondering about that too, mkreku - I couldn't find any info on any plans to release a PC version, yet there's a demo. Neat idea, but a bit peculiar. :)

You make your own luck. Pressure the AI enough and you start getting the luck.

Play has it here:

http://www.play.com/Games/PSP/PROD/3-/93...

Slightly more addictive than crack, this. And so much to do! Collecting runes, making items out of them, capturing mounts, training mounts, building a stronghold, chasing after side-quests...fabness incarnate. Much fun to be had in combining different skill and equipment loadouts, too. Personally I favour the fire magic - firewalker's staff - enrage - burning skulls path to puzzle-y dominion.

ManicMiner

You also have to try and predict what's going to fall. The AI will almost always go for a wildcard because mana is needed. I've seen the AI go for a completely random move as you described, giving up a seemingly better move but it doesn't gain anything.

I think the AI is trying to predict what's going to fall. Think about it :p

a
a
b
a
s
s
p
s

If you had that arrangement, the better move looks like to just take the skulls. If you take the a, and then 2 b's come along, then a skull, you make extra mana AND do damage. Sometimes just taking the skulls doesn't guarantee the best move. Always take wildcards though. Computer eats them whenever they show up unless there's a 4 (in which case it's usually that).

The runs of luck the AI has on occasion do sting a bit, but you get the pleasure of having them yourself often enough. But they sting, they sting to the point where you do want to believe they are cheating. I don't believe they are, as they will often choose a 3 over skulls and get naff-all from it. So I think it really is just random numbers creating the illusion of cheating.

I don't think the AI cheats. More likely it occasionally weights gaining a particular colour mana over doing a couple of points of damage in order to get closer to casting a spell.

And the number of times I've had lucky drops turn one of my own lackluster moves into a dazzling cascade of gushing mana, flashing skulls, shimmering experience points, and a big "Heroic Effort!" sign...well, it's happened by accident a lot more than by design, put it that way.

Not that I'm rubbish, or anything. No. That would be mad.

I think it's simply that the AI doesn't always choose the obvious best move, and sometimes that happens to turn out better. On hard, it generally does seem to do what you'd think of as right, but on easy and normal it makes poor moves more often. Only that sometimes goes in its favour.

Does multi-player need one cartridge per player? I reckon both myself & the girlfriend would love this.

D3P sure is in my favour. But whereas Earth Defense Force is so bad it's good, Puzzle Quest is polished, higly entertaining and way too addictive. Best play of this year already - sorry Guitar Hero.

I'm not sure what to think on the cheating AI issue. I've certainly seen some fairly hefty combos against me, but then I've never actually been wholly responsible for any of my Heroic Effort bonuses. I've never even tried to plan beyond comboing 2 chains together.

I've seen the AI pass on 3 skulls, and get an unforeseeable 4 for the extra turn, but I've also seen it pass the skulls and get nothing but the 3 mana it was after.

I'm tempted to say it's fair tbh (but then I still find myself swearing at my DS when hit with a huge combo by a high level opponent).

Actually, I think it's more likely that it cheats when it suggests your next move - the number of times that would set up a killer move for the AI is just silly.

Puzzle games!

Great game, but have nearly destroyed my PSP on occasions in mad angry frustration because the AI does seem hideously lucky at times

This is a stunner of a game.

One thing aside that wasn't mentioned: The game saves your progress constantly too, so if you have a crash/battery death, you'll lose only that battles work. Unless you're not in a battle, then you'll lose squat. :)

And re: AI cheating: yeah, it doesn't.
OK, it's annoying when it flicks a bog standard 3 red mana chain and smacks you over the head with 40 damage from the massive chain that ensues, but I've equally done the same. With the use of 1 spell (stun) and a LOT of luck I've done over 100hp damage to an opponant before it got it's first turn. The luck is geniune.

MMUK: I've seen the AI pass up 3 skulls to hit 3 reds and get a good combo, but then I've seen it pass up 3 skulls to get 3 coins. Why? Becuase of the layout of the board. If the top of the board had 2 flaming skulls at the top and a coin drop below would let more stuff drop into the board, then sometimes the AI will risk it, in the hoppe it gets the 2 flaming skulls (plus third skull) instead of the 3 normal ones. Or those 3 skulls could be an almost complete 4 or 5 chain. Seriously, try it yourself. Instead of grabbing the obvious moves it can pay off to hope that a what falls down from above is EXACTLY what you need. I've had more 5 chains fall on me than I've actually constructed I reckon, just relying on the luck factor. :)

There's also apaprently a sequel on way.

For the love of Mike, release this on PC already!

Somebody lock Valve and Infinitive Interactive in a room together until they agree to put it out over Steam. I can't imagine the discussion will boil down to much more than agreeing who gets to dive into the big pile of money first.

Get this sorted, pronto!

An absolute classic game - one of those times when a game just seems to come out of nowhere and is brilliant.
Best DS game so far this year, and certainly contender for game of the year - yes, really.

Brilliant game, pity that the full version is not available for pc.

Should I *really* buy a DS? Haven't had a console/handheld since the original GB :o

Sold. /orders

Out of stock on Play. Tsk. Do I spunk my £15 worth of points on Game and get it for £5 or just wait?

This game is ridiculously good. The only reason I've managed to stop playing (level 15ish) is that I have a 4-week holiday in South Africa coming up and am sure this will make the flights fly by!

Just ordered from Play. A puzzler with RPG elements sounds quite heavenly.

Heroes of Might & Magic meets Zoo Keeper?

Pretty much a spot on description there.

But it's better than either...

I found wizard to be easiest, but least strategic, as I just blast everything with fireball (lvl 27, hasn't a clue what that means.)

Class game in all respects, got to say. Shouldn't it be a 9 or something?

/scores are for virgos
[edited for hidden character]

"The other surprising thing about Puzzle Quest's approach is that you can ride around on a giant rat."

I love this site. I really do.

The game was finished on the PC a few months ago, no idea why they haven't released it. Shame. I have the DS version though, and it rocks!

The AI definitely cheats, I seen it pass up on a 4 or 5 chain (which gives an extra move) to take a 3 chain, which then magically gives it an extra go (hitting the low percentage extra go chance from it's mastery or battle skills), then take the 4 or 5 chain because it knew it would get an extra go from the 3 chain.

At which point my knight just hits my 'Stun' spell then move, then Stun cycle and proceeds to kill the cheating AI :)

Apart from the Ai thing, theres something else I don't really appreciate. Everytime I start the game, I get the same matrix. It counts three vertical skulls on the left and an L-form of Red Mana in the upper right corner. When pulling one of the vertical Reds to make a horizontal line, it provides me a combo with an explosive skull.

Someone else noticed that? I tend to quit the first session and see what the next one will be, although I have the feeling there aren't that many different matrixes at all.

I'm addicted, its got its flaws, but still very good :)

Play out of stock. Arg. Wanteee.

DS or PSP version - which would you recommend?

"but reportedly suffers from a trifling bug that renders your quest companions' skills useless" - is this throughout the game or at one particular point. not a very helpful comment eurogamer a bit mor clarification would help. IGN didnt mention this flaw in the psps version (yes i know its ign but i was looking for more info)