Puzzle Quest IN SPAAAACE

[Eakin]

So has anybody else picked this up yet? I went for the PC or the DS version and am having a few problems with slowdown but am otherwise pretty happy with it so far. A little bit too much of the hacking minigame for my taste though.

Fans of the original PQ; what do you think so far, and do you prefer this one to the original or vise versa?

[Dairun Cates]

So has anybody else picked this up yet? I went for the PC or the DS version and am having a few problems with slowdown but am otherwise pretty happy with it so far. A little bit too much of the hacking minigame for my taste though.

Fans of the original PQ; what do you think so far, and do you prefer this one to the original or vise versa?

There's Space Puzzle Quest?

[Eakin]

Oh, yeah, probably should have been clearer that I'm talking about Puzzle Quest: Galactrix which just launched on Tuesday

[Icewalker]

Is there a demo? I'd play a demo. Probably wouldn't buy it though, that's how I felt on the first one.

[Eakin]

There is a demo.
http://www.playpuzzlequestgalactrix.com/

[Icewalker]

That's just a simulator of the fights. Is there a demo of the game?

[Eakin]

Sorry, that's all I got.

[Drascin]

Well, I picked it because I loved the original to bits. Also, because my mother would have killed me if I didn't - she's freaking addicted to Puzzle Quest :smalltongue:.

I'm not sure whether I like this one or the original more. On the one hand, the puzzle in this one is cooler, with the subjective gravity thing. On the other, I usually prefer fantasy settings and the hacking is so very damned annoying. So I'm split.

[late for dinner]

I am waiting for it to come out on xbox live arcade...but I cant wait. I love the first one.

[Player_Zero]

I heard it isn't nearly as good as Puzzle Quest... And Puzzle Quest was damn annoying if you ask me. Two player Bejeweled: bad idea. Shoulda' just made it so that the computer never touched the board...

[Eakin]

I heard it isn't nearly as good as Puzzle Quest... And Puzzle Quest was damn annoying if you ask me. Two player Bejeweled: bad idea. Shoulda' just made it so that the computer never touched the board...
Actually they kinda did... but the results aren't so good. They shifted a lot of the focus away from the vs. battles and have a lot more single player minigames (especially hacking) which I think are not as compelling. Mostly because they are so luck based.

[hanzo66]

As much as I enjoyed Puzzle Quest, the damn AI cheats like crazy. My main focus in each battle wasn't so much "Beat the Enemy" so much as "Survive and Hope to God that the Game Won't Screw Me Over"...


Which it then proceeds to do by getting ridiculous combos when I'm lucky to get two or three.

Then again, I played the PSP version. Might be some difference, but I heard that all versions had pretty cheap AI.

[Enlong]

Well, the PSP version had a bug where the support system simply doesn't work.


But yeah, the game is wicked hard and cheats like crazy, I admit that. But it's so satisfying when you win. It gets easier to win when you craft some items and get some good spells, too. I, for one, absolutely adore Fireball. I am so glad I chose Wizard.

[Drascin]

Oh, come on, people. Yeah, it cheats, and extremely unashamedly so (even more in Galactrix, even), but it's the only way it can keep up - because once you got over level 20, it was pretty easy to win despite being gimped by extreme "luck" on its part.

Basically, I don't think I lost more than a dozen times, tops, in the time span between Dugog and Bane. Both of those did cave my head in dozens of times each, but well, they're bosses. That's what they're supposed to do :smalltongue:

[banjo1985]

Hmm, this might actually encourage me to get the original Puzzle Quest for my DS, as it'll probably be cheaper with the new one out. I played a demo and it seemed like good fun, though it was almost all luck rather than skill.

[Enlong]

Oh, come on, people. Yeah, it cheats, and extremely unashamedly so (even more in Galactrix, even), but it's the only way it can keep up - because once you got over level 20, it was pretty easy to win despite being gimped by extreme "luck" on its part.

Basically, I don't think I lost more than a dozen times, tops, in the time span between Dugog and Bane. Both of those did cave my head in dozens of times each, but well, they're bosses. That's what they're supposed to do :smalltongue:


Well, yeah. I know that, but I'm at that point where I'm strong enough to mop up almost any enemy (except Bane, I expect) and have fun despite the cheatin'.

One quick thing. Do you have to get Drong before getting the Ribs of Sartek if you want the funny scene after Bane?

[d12]

I've played a friend's copy of the PC version of Galactrix for..I dunno, a few hours, and I've found it to be a remarkably aggravating experience. The new board layout is an interesting experiment but I just can't seem to intuit just what's going to happen if I make certain moves and about a quarter of the time I can't even be sure I remember the rules for the way the new gems drop in correctly. Not that it really seems to matter anyway, since after my little move the AI frequently pulls off stunning combinations which reassure me that the fight will soon be over anyway. In the limited experience I have I would venture that the AI cheats even harder than in the first PQ--as in it doesn't even seem to try to pretend it's maintaining a semblance of fair play most of the time. After I got a couple of psi abilities I found myself gleefully selecting the 'skip combat' button just to avoid another round of irritating-as-hell butt-ramming. And that's the hallmark of a great puzzle game, right? An intense desire on the part of the player to avoid doing puzzles.

And the jump gate hacking can just f**k right off. If the RNG isn't running some manner of "don't spawn gems colors needed for this sequence" subroutine the game seems to suddenly find itself in love with giving you absolutely epic gem combos which take forever to scroll onto the screen, flicker to indicate the match, and leisurely scroll a fresh batch of gems in to be auto-annihilated. Oh, and did I mention you're still on the clock while this is happening? Better start praying the game accidentally gets a match that corresponds to the current color you need. And while I'm on the subject, when I'm in a situation where I need to match blue then green, why not have a simultaneous matching of blue and green gems count for both? When I found out that isn't the case I was stunned. Super-lame.

I love the first Puzzle Quest game and was eagerly waiting to see what the new one would be like. I'm pretty seriously disappointed at this point. I had heard a few things that made me a bit apprehensive prior to release, and early play didn't do anything to relieve that apprehension. At first I thought I might blithely saunter into the game forums and say I might pick it up used and they would be damn grateful for the privilege (I dunno, just to pointlessly prod the used-game-market fires I read about developers complaining about now and then on game sites), but after playing a bit longer I determined it wasn't even worth a used buy. I've heard the DS version (which I was planning to get) has additional problems with registering your selections on the touch screen correctly, which I'm sure would be absolutely smashing combined with the "lose 5 hp" penalty the game uses when you try an invalid move (they have carried that over right?). So yeah, big time pass on this one if you ask me. The worst part is it really could have been a great game, but they seem to have replaced the development team with feces-flinging monkeys halfway through the process.

Yeah, I played it more in a desperate attempt to find something I liked about the game just earlier today and the ranting is still fresh. :smalltongue: All I got out of that session was the desire to play the first Puzzle Quest a bit, and to play Galactic Civilizations 2 a bit, two games which did puzzles and space respectively and did them much better.

[Icewalker]

Well, I played the demo of the first one and got the impression that, as much as the computer may cheat or be ridiculous, it's really easy to make a game-breaking cycle and just get ridiculously powerful. I mean, in the demo, once I managed to conquer a location, I just walked back and forth gathering its income until I had basically everything one can get with money. Then conquered all the other cities.

[Myatar_Panwar]

I tried the demo (there is one, downloaded it like a month ago and too lazy to go find it now) and meh. Though I'm not of a traditional si-fi junkie, so that may be why.

But man, I loved and still love the original. Nothing is better than creating a whole bunch of skulls, then just obliterating my opponent by destroying MANY of said skulls in the same round. I played the Barbarian(or whatever that class was called, warrior?).

[Enlong]

I tried the demo (there is one, downloaded it like a month ago and too lazy to go find it now) and meh. Though I'm not of a traditional si-fi junkie, so that may be why.

But man, I loved and still love the original. Nothing is better than creating a whole bunch of skulls, then just obliterating my opponent by destroying MANY of said skulls in the same round. I played the Barbarian(or whatever that class was called, warrior?).

I'm playing a Wizard, and I can do that fun style myself. Two words, my friend: Flaming Skulls.

Oh, and Arboleths are total bull. 10% resist to all elements AND they heal whenever I cast a spell?

[Iskandar]

Hope this isn't too much of a necro...

played it and...

I'm underwhelmed.

Ok, this is going to be kinda long, but:

First PQ was cool and a delightful game I still play now and again. This sequel, however, is falling into the "play once and forget it" category.

My first main complaint is why did they drop the different classes that you could choose from? That was a main part of the first game, and is conspicuous in its absence here. That means there is no incentive to play this game again. No different abilities to try out, no strengths and weaknesses unique to your class.

Also, the mini-games this time around just don't work well. Leapgate hacking? Way too random. Either a breeze if the gems are where they need to be or impossible if they aren't. Plus, after a while, it gets repetitive and old. After all, there is at least 100 links between systems, each needing hacking.

Mining? Maybe I'm missing something here, but also way too random and nearly impossible, most of the time, to actually achieve 100% and get the bonus minerals.

Crafting? Actually, this one isn't so bad, at least the mini-game isn't. However, the acquiring of the plans is very vague. Still not sure how it works. I'm at the end of the game and I've only have a few ship modules and one ship I can craft. And it is pointless as far as I can see. You can easily buy most everything you want anyway.

Haggling? Again, the mini-game isn't so bad. However, if you switch screens between buying and selling, and then back again, your bonus goes poof. Brilliant.

And now my biggest complaint. Rumors. This one is simply a mess. 50 different moons to track down. No way to keep track of where you have been. I mean, at least the asteroids turn (slightly) darker when they've been mined. The moons after you visit them? Not so much. Lord help you if you lose track of where you've been. Heck, you don't even have a simple count of how many you've found.

The rumors themselves tell the backstory of the game. Unfortunately, they are kept in the order you find them. Which means what appears to be a specifically ordered story turns into a jumbled mess. And the minigame itself is just boring and fairly pointless. Survive x amount of turns without matching 3 biohazard symbols.

As for the story... well they tried. And it was engaging at first, but I'm beginning to get lost now. Be nice if the game kept a log of your past conversations, just in case you'd like to re-read something or refresh your memory.

Also, more of a minor quibble, but I hit the level cap way too easily. Halfway through the game and I'm maxed out. Not there seems to be a point in leveling. Your enemies level right along side you, and your skills really don't make a lot of difference anyway. This is where lack of different classes REALLY hurts.

Not to say I hate the game. Ship combat is cool. There are a lot of different ships and ship modules to try out. And the hexagonal combat grid is a neat twist on the original.

If the first game hadn't existed, I would rate this game a bit higher. Compared to the first PQ, however, this is a pale shadow, a poor imitation. A nice effort, but not close enough.

Eh, I've rambled on enough.

[Graymayre]

I've been playing it, so far, I'm underwhelmed. It isn't bad, just lopsided and under-produced compared to the first PQ.



I'm playing a Wizard, and I can do that fun style myself. Two words, my friend: Flaming Skulls.


It may be too late, but I suggest getting the powers
-Hand of power
-Fireball

and equipment:
-Firewalker staff.

The key is to use hand of power twice, and fireball a bunch of close proximity skulls while you have a high amount of red mana. The ending result is that each skull deals around 15-25 damage. Just one of my many broken PQ characters. :smallsmile:

I also have a paladin that uses
-vigil (everytime you match 4 or 5 of a kind you gain 3 mana in each reserve)
-Promotion (change selected block type into morale stars)
-Knight lord (double amount of morale stars on the field).

Basically, I keep getting 4 and 5 of a kind matches, which give me mana, which lets me do it again. By simply continuing this, I keep matching skulls and defeating my enemies. I wish I could get the haste spell (4 damage everytime you match 4 or 5 of a kind). That would make my character golden.

[Myatar_Panwar]

Probably my favorite thing to do in the first PQ was forging stuff. It is crazy hard and can be very frustrating, but god I loved it.

I think right now my warrior has something which gives like a +7 damage on a skull line up, and a bonus to red at the start of each combat. It is awesome.

Do they have a similar mechanic in PQ Galactrix?

[Iskandar]

You can't craft your own stuff, not as much. You do get the ability to craft stuff you've faced in battle to a degree. Ships and weapons, including some of the uber powerful end boss type stuff right at the end of the game and afterwards. (much like the first, you can keep playing even though the game has officially ended)

Of course, crafting that stuff requires a ridiculous amont of raw materials and hunting down the rarer stuff fromm the masses of (unlabeled) asteroids can be a pain.

Not to mention the crafting mini game gets stupid hard quickly when trying to craft anything much larger than basic weapons, much less ships.

I finished the game in one of the second largest class of ships. Probably could have gone down a size or two without much problem really. Story was a little hard to follow in spots, a little cliche in others but really not that bad. Choice of two ending at the end, which was the only story choice you got to make all game. Little replay value beyond that, really.

They tried hard with this game, but came up a bit short, especially compared to the original. If they tightened a few things up in a patch or expansion....

Oh well, I finished it nonetheless.

Not one of the best, but not horrible either.