Game Review – Puzzle Quest Warlords

NAME: Puzzle Quest Warlords
VERSION: 1.0.4
COMPANY: Infinite Interactive/THQ
PLATFORM: JAVA
GENRE: RPG
SIZE: 513 KB
TEST PHONE: K800i
RATING: 8/10
DEMO:

Welcome to the Puzzle Quest Warriors game review. This review is for the JAVA based mobile phone version of the game. You can get it for all the other consoles and PC? platforms by the time you read this review.

This is an interesting game, as it part RPG and part matching colors games. It reminded us of a game called Archon released way back in the 80’s except that it was a chess game then a shoot’em up when pieces met. In puzzle quest it’s an RPG and when characters meet they have a matching colours game.

Game play is initially simple until you realise that you need to learn about the other combat moves like casting spells and mana collection into order to proceed and complete the game. Additionally you will need to learn about activating or tuning runes and learning new and different spells. All these tasks are done via the matching colored gems game. Once you get the drift of the game mechanics it all becomes quite easy to remember.

You can pick from 8 different characters with differing attributes, warrior classes and even male and female avatars. This is quite unusual in a mobile game. Each character has a different ‘featured ability’ but it largely becomes irrelevant by the time you reach the maximum level of 20 since by then you should have virtually all the spells and runes at your disposal. Even after your character reaches level 20 you can still upgrade your abilities!

The RPG or adventure part of the game is pretty much fixed, meaning you get the same quest regardless of character, however the puzzle part of the game is quite random. That said the AI can defintiely tell when you’re on a winning streak because your opponent can get ‘suddenly’ VERY lucky with the matches – so we reckon its biased! This is good because it makes the game far more interesting to play.

Gameplay is done very well and simple to control even on the test k800i which has the fatal flaw of dodgy joystick and poor ergonomics. We’d play the game on a Nokia or Samsung any day!

In game sound and music is typical mobile phone MIDI ‘middle age’ theme and boring.

Graphics are 2D but are done very well. They are usually static except for the various effects when using spells of when you’ve collected the required minimum of 3 matching puzzle pieces. The animated effects are quite effective and also well done.

Conclusion: This is a great game however it takes a little while to bet into. Due to this it won’t attract a huge following but anyone who does get it and learns the ropes will be rewarded. It is that it is different to any other RPG style game and more a matching colors game than out right quest RPG.

Check out our game help section for game hints.